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July 3, 2025 55 mins

Obesity is one of the most common reptile welfare issues, with around 20% of reptiles estimated to be fat or obese. And it's not just a problem for pet reptiles – it's an issue that affects all captive-animal taxa.

In this podcast, we speak with specialist exotics vet, Tariq Abou-Zahr about why reptiles become obese, which species are the fattest, and what keepers, stores and vets can do to address the issue.

It should be noted that reptile obesity is a relatively small problem when compared with other pet taxa, but we believe that if we act now we can prevent the reptile obesity problem from becoming worse.

 

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Responsible Reptile Keeping is a worldwide membership organisation that promotes good reptile welfare and responsible keeping, and we challenge the stories broadcast by anti-reptile-keeping campaigners. If you’d like to support our work, please consider becoming a member and sharing our content as widely as possible.

 

Find out more:

https://responsiblereptilekeeping.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ResponsibleReptileKeeping/

https://www.instagram.com/responsiblereptilekeeping/

https://responsiblereptilekeeping.substack.com/

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