Ever thought of reptiles as pets? Egyptian man raises crocodiles, snakes with his children

CAIRO – 12 May 2021: Some families like to raise pets at home, like cats, dogs and birds, after many studies shown many benefits on the children’s social skills.

However, Mohamed Nady is a young man who has gone a little far when choosing his pets. Crocodiles, desert snakes and white mice are mostly the first thing you might see when you enter Nady’s apartment in Assiut.

At Nady’s place, it is normal to find the Nile crocodile wandering between rooms, and on the furniture, while the children are playing with the snakes.

Nady, the owner of the domestic reptile garden, explained how lizards and snakes became part of his life.

Among the reptiles that might receive you at the door step is the desert monitor, which is a species of monitor lizards that is found living throughout North Africa and Central and South Asia.

Also one can find the Boidae, commonly known as boas or boids, in Nady’s house. With its length reaching 2 meters and a half, the boas are a family of nonvenomous snakes primarily found in the Americas, as well as Africa, Europe, Asia, and some Pacific Islands. It changes its skin as it increases in size, reaching 6 meters long.

“I also raise desert and agricultural snakes that do not possess poisonous glands, but among them, there are some that try to defend themselves by making a frightening hiss to terrorize their enemy, and they resort to biting sometimes to defend themselves from enemies,” he added.

Although breeding reptiles was Nady’s thing, it was not for others surrounding him.  

“I was criticized by people close to me for keeping reptiles at home,” Nady said, adding that his wife used to be scared from them in the beginning, “but then she got used to them and helps me to take care of them.”

“Snakes love to live freely without restrictions, and my son Islam loves to play with them and wished he could show one of the non-poisonous snakes to his friends at school,” he said.

On his attachment to reptiles, Nady said that people usually consider reptiles as predators; however, for me they “are part of my life.”