Our collection centres on large-bodied iguanids — species that deserve thoughtful keepers and proper planning. Alongside them, we keep and produce a curated group of other lizards.
Every animal we place comes with its hatch record, pictures of parents, feeding history, and direct contact with us for as long as you keep it.
Outside the iguanids, we keep a small group of lizards we genuinely couldn't resist — Patagonian rock lizards from cold high-altitude valleys, prehensile-tailed bush anoles from South American canopies, and the jewelled lacertids of the western Mediterranean.
They each ask something different of a keeper. Cool nights, deep forage, vertical space. We work with them because they're worth the effort, and because variety, kept properly, sharpens the rest of the room.
Precise temperatures. Gradual dawn and dusk. Room to choose.
Throughout our facility, EVO Microclimate Systems and Arcadia’s LumenIZE lighting help us build environments around the daily and seasonal needs of the animals in our care.
A carefully planned climate starts with controlled heating. We use EVO Microclimate Systems throughout the facility to manage temperatures around each species’ needs, supporting warmer days, cooler nights and planned seasonal changes.
Clear touchscreen readings put temperatures and channel settings in view, helping us check conditions during our daily keeper routine.
The day starts gently here. Arcadia’s LumenIZE ProT5 UV-B and JungleDawn LED systems gradually build light at dawn and fade it at dusk, giving our animals a consistent daily rhythm.
We use these systems throughout the facility, with app-controlled schedules that let us adapt day length through the seasons to each species’ annual keeper schedule.
We check UV-B with a meter at animal-back height beneath the T5 tubes, and adjust the fitting height to reach each species’ recommended UVI range. The lit area is optional, with shaded refuges always within reach.
Product images: Microclimate and Arcadia Reptile. EVO Connected equipment is shown as a product illustration; display readings are manufacturer examples.
We have invested in a high-quality Vinno ultrasound machine — a professional-grade diagnostic tool more commonly found in veterinary clinics than private reptile collections. Ultrasound imaging (USG) gives us a non-invasive window into reproductive status, organ health, and overall condition that simply cannot be obtained any other way.
Our primary use is reproductive monitoring — tracking follicle development as females move into breeding condition at the start of each season. Visualising this in real time lets us time pairings accurately, anticipate ovulation, and manage the health of our breeding females with a precision guesswork cannot match.
Beyond reproduction, we carry out cardiovascular scans and soft-tissue assessments where clinically indicated — investigating a concern, monitoring a recovering animal, or as part of a thorough health check on a high-value specimen.
Producing a useful ultrasound image of a reptile takes real expertise — knowing where to position the probe, how to angle the transducer for each species and body region, and how to interpret what appears on screen. It takes considerable practice and hands-on experience. Over the years we have accumulated exactly that, and our images consistently provide clear, diagnostically useful information across a wide range of species.
Developed in-house, our Ultrasound Reproductive Staging Rubric analyses scan images and assigns each animal to one of six defined stages — taking the subjectivity out of interpretation and providing a consistent, evidence-based assessment of exactly where a female is in her cycle.
Every scan is stored online against a timestamped timeline for each individual animal. Images are never lost, and we can compare scans across seasons, breeding cycles, or health events.
Watching follicle development progress from Stage 1 through to Stage 6 across a season provides insights a single isolated scan cannot offer. For long-term breeding projects, this longitudinal record becomes an increasingly valuable resource with each passing year.
Want to know if your female is developing follicles, confirm a post-ovulatory status, check egg counts before laying, or simply get a clearer picture of what is happening inside your animal? Bring her to us — we can help. Each scan includes interpretation through our AI staging platform and a record stored to your animal's digital timeline.
Accurately determining the sex of a reptile is one of the most fundamental challenges in herpetoculture. For many species — particularly small lizards, hatchlings, and juveniles — conventional methods such as visual inspection, probing, or popping are unreliable, stressful, or simply impossible. Even experienced keepers can make mistakes, and with high-value animals or carefully planned breeding projects, a misidentified sex can mean lost seasons and wasted effort.
We are in the process of setting up a professional molecular DNA sexing service that removes all of that uncertainty entirely — providing a definitive, laboratory-grade result from nothing more than a small sample of sloughed skin.
The process is straightforward for the animal and for the keeper. All that is required is a small piece of naturally shed skin — no invasive procedures, no stress, no handling beyond what is normal. This shed skin contains sufficient cellular material for us to extract and quantify DNA, which is then analysed using quantitative PCR (qPCR) to detect the presence or absence of sex-specific genetic sequences.
The result is a precise, highly accurate determination of the animal's sex at the molecular level — the same methodology used in research and clinical diagnostic laboratories worldwide.
The sample collection process is entirely non-invasive and can be carried out by the keeper at home, with the shed skin simply sent to us for processing. This makes the service accessible to anyone, regardless of experience level or the species they keep.
From shed skin sample to confirmed sex result
From a small piece of naturally sloughed skin to a laboratory-grade result.
We have invested in two of the most respected instruments available for molecular diagnostic work, ensuring that every result we produce meets the highest possible standard of accuracy and reliability.
Quantifies and verifies DNA purity from shed skin before analysis. No recalibration required.
Detects sex-specific genetic sequences with diagnostic-grade precision. Cloud data management via BR.io.
Together, these two instruments form a professional molecular biology pipeline that is more commonly found in a university research laboratory or clinical diagnostic facility than a private reptile collection — and that is precisely the point. When the sex of your animal matters, the answer should come from equipment and methodology you can trust completely.
Many of the species we work with — and that our clients keep — are simply impossible to sex reliably by conventional means. Hatchling and juvenile lizards of countless species show no external sexual dimorphism whatsoever. Even in adults, subtle species require experienced eyes and often still leave room for doubt. For rare species, high-value breeding animals, and anyone building a serious collection or project, that doubt is not acceptable. DNA sexing eliminates it.
The service is also invaluable for:
Molecular sexing solves problems that conventional methods cannot.
We will offer DNA sexing as a service to any keeper, breeder, or researcher who requires it. All that is needed is a sample of clean, recently shed skin — we handle everything from DNA extraction through to result reporting. If you would like to be kept informed of when this service launches, or have a specific enquiry about a species, please get in touch with us.
