Design mockup. The photographs are real: they were taken by Miles of Exotics, 1780 N Church Rd, Liberty, Missouri, and published on their own Instagram. Everything written around them belongs to an invented shop — the name Warm Side, the phone number, the street address, the list of animals in stock, and every price, care figure and running cost.
Sorted by how long it lives, longest first.
Every other shop sorts by price. The number that actually decides whether this goes well is the one further down, and it is the number nobody says out loud at the till.
Green tree python, coiled on its branch. Photograph by Miles of Exotics, Liberty.
Feeders live and frozen, isopod and springtail cultures, UVB, thermostats, cork, and about forty enclosures built up on the floor so you can see one running before you buy one.
Mon to Sat, 10 to 6. Shut Sunday. 123 Main St, Liberty, Missouri.
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Out over the driftwood on the shop floor. Photograph by Miles of Exotics, Liberty.
Russian tortoise
Testudo horsfieldii$180
50years, and that is a conservative figure. This animal is in somebody's will.
Not a beginner animal, whatever the internet says. It wants to dig, it wants to be outdoors half the year, and a tank is the wrong shape for it. If you have a yard and a plan for the winter, it is one of the best animals we sell. If you have an apartment, it is not.
Adult size
8 inshell length
Enclosure
4 × 2 ftminimum, floor space not height
Warm end
95°Fbasking, under a halogen flood
UVB
Yesreplaced yearly even if lit
Running cost
$14 / mopower plus greens
Ball python
Python regius$120 – $400
30years. Buy one at twenty-two and you will be forty-five when it is still refusing dinner.
The best first snake there is, and the one that will worry you most, because a healthy ball python will go off food for two months in the winter and look perfectly fine doing it. Weigh it monthly. If the weight holds, nothing is wrong.
Adult size
4 ft
Enclosure
4 × 2 ft
Warm end
88°Fcool end 78, and both measured
UVB
Optionalhelps, not required
Running cost
$11 / moone rat a fortnight, plus power
Corn snake
Pantherophis guttatus$70 – $250
20years, and it eats every single week for all of them.
If you want a snake that behaves like the books say snakes behave, this is it. Eats reliably, handles well, and escapes through a gap you would swear was too small, which is the one thing to take seriously. Clips on the lid, every time, including the time you are only gone a minute.
Adult size
4.5 ft
Enclosure
4 × 2 ft
Warm end
85°F
UVB
Optional
Running cost
$8 / mo
Crested gecko
Correlophus ciliatus$60 – $300
18years, on a diet that comes out of a packet and costs nine dollars a month.
The one animal here that does not need a heat lamp in a normal Missouri house, and the one we recommend most often to somebody who works long hours. It is nocturnal, it wants height rather than floor, and it will drop its tail once and never grow it back, which is normal and not an injury.
Adult size
8 in
Enclosure
18 × 18 × 24tall, not wide
Warm end
72–78°Froom temperature, usually
UVB
Lowa 5% tube is plenty
Running cost
$9 / mo
Leopard gecko
Eublepharis macularius$50 – $200
15years, and about half of the ones we see come in on sand, which is the thing to fix.
Tolerant, slow, easy to handle, and the animal most often kept badly because it survives being kept badly for years before it stops. Solid substrate, a hide on both ends, and a thermostat that is not the heat mat's own dial.
Adult size
9 in
Enclosure
36 × 18 in
Warm end
92°Fbelly heat, thermostat controlled
UVB
Low
Running cost
$12 / molive insects, dusted
A red bearded dragon, photographed by Miles of Exotics in Liberty. The prices and figures on this page are not theirs.
Bearded dragon
Pogona vitticeps$90 – $350
12years, and the shortest life on this page is also the most expensive one to run.
The most affectionate reptile we stock and the one people underestimate the cost of. It needs a big enclosure, a strong UVB tube replaced every twelve months, and live insects daily while it is growing. Do not buy the kit in the box. It is too small before the animal is a year old.
Adult size
22 in
Enclosure
4 × 2 × 2 ftfrom the start, not later
Warm end
105°Fbasking surface, measured with a gun
UVB
Yes, strongT5 10%, replaced yearly
Running cost
$32 / mothe highest here, by a distance
See one running before you buy one.
A gecko in a planted enclosure.A lamp on, the planting in, the animal settled.A young green tree python in the planting.
Photographs by Miles of Exotics, 1780 N Church Rd, Liberty, Missouri, from their own Instagram. They are not the invented shop this page describes, and none of the prices, hours or care figures here are theirs.
We would rather sell you nothing today than the wrong thing today.
Come and ask. Bring a photo of the room, tell us the budget, and say honestly how many hours a week this is getting. Half the people who walk in leave with a different animal than the one they came for and almost none of them come back unhappy.
