Evolution Reptiles - Kidlington, Oxford

100% Captive Bred Reptiles, Oxford, UK

Reptile care is an art form, there are so many opinion on so many aspects of reptile keeping. Half of the skill is filtering out the dangerous or out dated advice /technique from the good information. Learning through experience is key and we at Evolution Reptiles are very experienced; Pete the boss has been keeping and breeding reptiles since 1992 and Andy has been keeping reptiles since 1997.

We have seen huge improvements over the years, heard all of the stories (the good and the bad! ) and now feel that the standard of reptile keeping is making a huge leap. There is more research being done all of time in many different areas, and the information is easier to get hold of than ever.

We know more about UV lighting and the effects it has on the animals, and the UV lights are improving at an impressive rate. And we have the technology in store to see if your UV light is still performing at the correct intensity.

Data logging thermometers have been used in the wild to study temperatures where the animals actually are - under bushes, down burrows or right up in the forest canopy.

Digital thermostats can now be used to offer different temperatures at different times of day.

We are also now using bugs to do the cleaning for us in Bio-active terrariums. This is a relatively new area but represents the next level in reptile care, recreation of the animals natural environment. The use of live plants, deep bio-active substrates, automatic sprayers and fog systems (for rainforest recreation) and specialist lighting allow us to provide a terrarium with a gradient in humidity, temperature and UV. Your reptile will thrive - not just survive.

And that is what we at Evolution Reptiles are aiming for - a higher standard of welfare.

Whether you are looking for your first reptile or looking at growing your collection we can help.
We have great relationships with specialist exotic vets, we speak about what animals and what issues they have seen and look into how we can avoid this issue again.

I have been involved in discussions with DEFRA in London about how the Pet Shop Licencing act can be used to improve welfare. The two main areas for concern is the sale of animals online (they are living creatures not products, a little respect please! ) and education.

We have never sold animals online - You can't click on link and have a snake delivered to you from our website, and really why would you want that?

Isn't it more fun coming to choose your animal, seeing it in a beautiful decorated vivarium and speaking to my passionate, enthusiastic and knowledgeable team?

When we get a species in that we haven't seen for a while we all get really excited and enthusiastic - you should have seen us when we finally managed to find some beautiful Pancake Tortoises!

And as for education, we are constantly talking to vets, breeders (proper ones) and product manufacturers, as well as reading articles and books and then discussing it as a team. We make sure we understand it properly so that we can share it with you, our lovely customers. If you have heard of or read about something interesting that would help raise the standard of care for any species of reptile, amphibian or invertebrate please come and tell us about it - the more eyes looking for improvement the better. We are all on the same team.

Why do we stock the products and brands that we do?

It is simple we believe in them - we haven't done deals with anyone who dictates what we can stock. We stock what we use in store and in our own collections on our own reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. We test everything; how can we sell something if we don't know how to use it - all the ins and outs - and we appreciate your feed back too.

Pete and The Evolution Reptiles team