How “Helpful” are our Reptiles and Invertebrates?

Our isopods (woodlice) are the ultimate cleaners. They eat everything that you put into their closure and in return create some healthy soil filled with nutrients. We often pop these guys into our reptile and invert enclosures to help with cleaning. We have a mixture of orange coloured isopods and black and white isopods (affectionately named dairy cow isopods) which you may be able to see hard at work when you visit our bug house.

These guys get a solid 10/10 for helpfulness when it comes to cleaning our enclosures.

Our wonderful spectacled caiman pair have nabbed themsleves a 9/10 for their helpfulness with cleaning. These guys are quite shy individuals and will stay hidden in the pool, often submerged in the water for the entire time we are in the enclosure cleaning. Not only do they stay out of the way, but they will also poop in the water, leaving most of the cleaning up to the job of our huge pool filter system. So usually, we only pop into their enclosure to clean the windows and plants and get rid of spiderwebs.

Our knobtail geckos live in our reptile kitchen. They are a pair of cute, small species of ground gecko and have secured an 8/10 on the helpfulness scale. These guys will usually be asleep in a hide during the day and always poop in the same corner at the front of their enclosure. So there is no hunting needed and the clean up is quick.

Our blood pythons have scored a 7/10 on the helpfulness scale. Despite their large size and huffy attitude, these guys will only poop every 2-4 weeks. This means we don’t have to spend too much time cleaning out their enclosure each day. However, when they shed their skin, it ends up everywhere and wrapped around all of the plants which can take a while to clear up.

Our Argus monitor uses his best good boy impression to lure you into a false sense of security then randomly decides to remember that he is indeed a monitor lizard and that chaos is not optional. Even when being a good boy he likes to come up to the door to try and jump out, making cleans take a little longer than they need to be. When he engages his monitor brain he tries to add his teeth into the mix and will aim for hands and fingers. However, he does tend to poop in the same few spots in the sand which can make cleaning his enclosure fairly easy.

He has earned himself a 6/10 on the helpfulness scale.

We have several groups of stick insects and they have collectively earned a 5/10 on the helpfulness scale. Our stick insects will happily sit in tubs or on the walls of their enclosure while we clean or change their bramble, earning them points. However, babies are tiny and we have hundreds of stick insects. Babies are kings of hide and seek and blend so well into their food that it can take us keepers a while changing their food as we have to check every single branch 3-4 times over to make sure we haven’t missed anyone. Lots of stick insects also equals lots of poop so they can be quite messy.

Our aldabra tortoises are gentle giants but almost every morning our keepers are having to lift at least one 70kg tortoise out of the water bowl to change the water. Once you get them out of the water bowl, the race is on to get it cleaned and filled before one of them sits in the spot the water bowl goes into. If they get there before us keepers do, we have to lift them again to get them out of the way. When doing cleans in the enclosure, they like to investigate the tools, often almost knocking over buckets or moving to sit on top of the pool plughole and in the way of sweeping.

They got themselves a 4/10 because they delay cleaning with their nosiness and are super heavy to shift.

Our Savu Island python likes to keep everyone on their toes. This particular individual lives in the reptile kitchen and is out for blood. Cleaning her enclosure is an ordeal and you can’t be deterred by her sassy rage. You have to be quicker than quick because she will follow you and aim for hands, fingers and faces. Even getting her out of her enclosure requires the use of a snake hook and she does not like to make that easy either.

She gets a 3/10 on the helpfulness scale. Despite her sass, all the keepers enjoy working with her.

Sling is a term used for baby tarantulas. Despite these guys being cute, they teleport. No, honestly, they straight up “poof” into a different location. These little guys run so fast and do several laps of their enclosure any time you open the door, spray them or simply lift their enclosure. You have to be on it when working with these because you really can blink and miss where they have ended up.

2/10 on the helpfulness scale because no one appreciates a mini heart attack.

Our Cuban crocodiles are rockstars with their training. Until its winter. Once the cooler months hit, they stop being interested in food and won’t come to their training area to be shut in. So, us keepers can’t get in the enclosure to clean regularly, like we would in the summer. Luckily, they rarely poop on land. But it does mean that people visiting have to look through muddy windows or we have get our curator, Markus, down to the crocodile enclosure to do any important maintenance.

These guys get a 1/10 for the inconvenience of being both huge and chompy.

Calzone lives with several other tortoises, all of which are chill and just enjoy living their tortoise lives. Calzone, on the other hand, wakes up and chooses violence every day towards any visitors in the enclosure, recently delivering a bite to both Beth (Deputy Head of Reptiles and Inverts) and WWP’s gardener, Vanessa. If he can’t manage to bite you, he will be following you around at some speed, chasing you and headbutting your feet. He is always in the way and you have to pick him up and move him when he won’t leave you alone. Calzone has earned himself a -3/10 for being both unhelpful and very rude considering he is a small tortoise.