My whole family and I see my reptiles as pets, in that we love watching them do their thing, and whenever any one of them comes down ill, we do all that we can to care for them. We also understand each of their needs and what they will tolerate.
For instance, my bearded dragon had a hard life. I got him as an adult from a guy that was keeping him in a 20 gallon tank along with a much larger adult dragon, at least one or two dragons of his size (roughly 16"
, and two small monitors (ackies, I think)! That was horrible, and he was my first experience with lizards, so I didn't realize how bad that was. So anyways, over the past 4 years he's been in my care, we've come to understand a few things about him. He is very suceptible to parasitic infections, especially if he is put under stress. He also has damage to his kidney/liver. He has had it since I got him due to poor diet and husbandry, and my stupidity when I first got him didn't help much either. Because of this he has a lot of little quirks, such as pickiness to the point of anorexia (which in his old age I sometimes have to correct with a few feedings of babyfood/pedialyte mixture). We're also aware that he is slowly dying, but he is a little trooper and somehow he seems to show improvement from his conditions everyday. He's definately a special needs reptile, but I've found that offering him good husbandry and lots of choices has helped him a lot.
My uromastyx was a rescue. I got her a little over two years ago, and she is overweight, and has burn scars. Despite all that she was put through at her past home, she has only had one run-in with parasites, and that was an infection of pinworms that we had to deal with. She surprised even my vet when she lived through it, because she is such an old lizard (I assume from what I have learned of her previous owners, that she was imported as an adult sometime in the early 90's or late 80's). She's a tough little lizard, and she used to have this weird thing. She would only poop outside of her cage. It took two years to break her of this, but now she is content to poop in her cage, and she seems less tolerant of handling now, which to me is a sign that she is healthier.
My Leopard gecko I got from a reliable source over a year ago, and he has been healthy every since. Nothing much to say about this except that he doesn't tolerate being handled, and he is fun to watch hunting in his 70 gallon palace.
My dad's russian tortoise is still a baby. We got him from LLLreptile and are very pleased with him. He's healthy as an ox, eats like crazy every day, and he doesn't like being touched, at all. Which is a sign that he is healthy. When we have to pick him up, he sucks himself into his shell and hisses loudly. He's a great little guy. He also changed my father's perception of reptilian pets. When we got him he had the idea in his head that we would be able to let the tortoise out and play with him, but now he realizes that tortoises like to be left alone. We're building his big indoor enclosure now, and this summer we're going to construct an outdoor enclosure for him that will have all sorts of delicious foods for him to eat.
My baby ball python is my latest pet. He is afraid of people for obvious reasons, but doesn't attempt to bite. He eats like a mad man (F/T mice), and we're planning on building or buying him a cage of roughly 3'x1.5'x1.5' to live out his life when he gets larger.
So I'm a herp keeper in that I understand that reptiles don't like to be pet and held, but I know which reptiles are better at being handled (like the bearded dragon). I'm a pet owner because I know my pets like any person knows their cat or dog. I know all of their little quirks. I know what they do in the morning, afternoon, and night. I know what they like, dislike, etc. and I know how to keep them healthy, even with reptiles like my bearded dragon that has so much going against him.
