Reptile Encounters Scotland

Name: Reptile Encounters Scotland
Address: 4 first Avenue Stevenson, Stevenston, KA203LR, GB
Telephone: +441294442415

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Reptile Encounters Scotland

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Reptile Encounters Scotland, Party Entertainment Service, 4 first Avenue Stevenson, Stevenston.

🦎 Hands-on reptile & invertebrate encounters
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 For kids, families & adults
🎉 Parties • Private sessions • Group visits
📍 Stevenston, North Ayrshire
👉 Book online via our website

29/05/2026

🦎 Feature Friday: Meet Chocolate! 🍫💚

After Lorna gave Chocolate a shout-out on our last post, we thought it was only fair that he got his very own Feature Friday! 😊

Chocolate is one of our African Fat Tailed Geckos and is always a favourite with visitors to the sanctuary. With his gentle nature and curious personality, he's fantastic at helping people build confidence around reptiles and discover just how fascinating these animals really are.

Native to the dry regions of West Africa, African Fat Tailed Geckos get their name from the thick tail they use to store fat reserves. They're closely related to Leopard Geckos but are often considered a little calmer and more laid back in temperament.

One of the most rewarding parts of what we do is watching visitors meet animals like Chocolate and seeing any nerves quickly turn into curiosity, confidence and excitement. Whether it's their first time meeting a reptile or they're already a reptile enthusiast, Chocolate always seems to make a lasting impression! 🦎💚

💡 Fun Fact Friday: Unlike many lizards, African Fat Tailed Geckos have movable eyelids and can blink!

Have you met Chocolate during one of our encounters?

⬇️ Let us know in the comments, and if you've got a favourite gecko species we'd love to hear that too!

📍 Stevenston, North Ayrshire
🦎 Educational Reptile Encounters
💚 Family-Run Animal Sanctuary
📅 Pre-booking Essential

24/05/2026

🦎 We've Been a Little Quiet... 💚

If you've noticed we've been a bit quieter than usual on social media recently, firstly thank you for sticking around with us 😊

The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind behind the scenes. Between changes to work patterns, a spell of illness, looking after our amazing animals, and all of the day-to-day tasks involved in running a small family sanctuary, social media unfortunately had to take a back seat for a little while.

The good news is that throughout it all, the animals have continued to receive the very best care, we've welcomed visitors through our doors, carried out educational sessions, and continued working hard behind the scenes to grow and improve Reptile Encounters Scotland for the future 🦎🐍🕷️

As many of you know, we're a small family-run sanctuary and every bit of support means the world to us. Whether you've visited us, shared a post, left a review, recommended us to a friend, or simply followed our journey, thank you 💚

We're now looking forward to getting back into sharing more of our animals, educational content, behind-the-scenes updates, fun facts, and of course plenty of photos and videos of our incredible reptile ambassadors!

To help us get back into the swing of things, tell us below:

👇 Which animal would you like to see featured next?

🐍 Snake
🦎 Lizard
🕷️ Tarantula
🐢 Tortoise
🪳 Invertebrate

Thank you all for your continued support of our little sanctuary.

The Reptile Encounters Scotland team 💚

📍 Stevenston, North Ayrshire
🦎 Educational Reptile Encounters
🏡 Sanctuary-Based Experiences
🎉 Parties • Schools • Community Groups
📅 Pre-booking Essential

25/04/2026

Who really speaks for animals?

Extremist animal rights campaigners operate from a worrying ideology: that humans should not keep, breed, or utilise animals for any reason. For them, the aim is not welfare, but abolition. No zoos, no guide dogs, no captive breeding and no pets. In their eyes, even the most devoted and ethical animal keeping is wrong.

Yet these campaigners often have little or no real-world experience with the animals they seek to ‘protect’. Their knowledge is shaped by rhetoric, slogans and theory. They’re experts in protests, media manipulation and emotionally disingenuous campaigning – not animal care, veterinary expertise, ethology, or conservation.

Compare their inexperience and ignorance to the knowledge and experience of animal-keeping specialists, and the source of the most useful expertise should be obvious.

Yet, in legislative hearings, media reports and public debates, it is often the activists, not the specialists, who get the final say. The imbalance is not just frustrating. It’s dangerous.

When policy is driven by emotion rather than evidence, animals end up losing.

Join the fight for data-driven policy making. Become an RRK member today.
https://responsiblereptilekeeping.org/memberships

13/04/2026

🪳 WAIT… is that the SAME animal?! 👀

What you’re seeing here is one of our Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches during one of the most incredible (and often misunderstood) moments in its life…

➡️ MOULTING – shedding its old exoskeleton to grow!

📸 Image 1: Mid-moult – halfway between old and new
📸 Image 2: Fresh out of the old skin – soft, white, and almost unrecognisable

For a short time after moulting, they’re:
⚪ Pale in colour
⚪ Soft-bodied
⚪ Extremely vulnerable

But give it a few hours… and that brand new armour hardens and darkens into the familiar look we recognise 🛡️

🧠 Fun Fact:
Cockroaches (and other invertebrates) don’t “grow” like we do — they have to shed their entire outer skeleton to get bigger!

At the sanctuary, moments like this are GOLD for learning 💚
They help us show that even the most misunderstood creatures have fascinating life cycles and vital roles in nature

💬 Be honest… did you know this already, or does it surprise you?

🦎 Want to experience things like this up close?
Our sessions are hands-on, educational, and perfect for all ages!

📍 Stevenston, North Ayrshire
🎉 Birthdays | Family Visits | School Sessions

17/03/2026

🦎🎉 GIVEAWAY WINNER ANNOUNCED 🎉🦎

A huge thank you to everyone who entered our 500 followers giveaway — the support has been incredible 💚

All entries were assigned a number and selected using a random number generator to keep things completely fair and transparent.

🏆 Congratulations to Iain Gordon 🏆
You’ve won a Small Group Reptile Encounter at our sanctuary 🦎

Please send us a message to arrange your visit — we can’t wait to welcome you!

👇 If you entered, drop a 🦎 in the comments so we know who to include in future giveaways!

15/03/2026

Chocolate the African Fat Tail Gecko enjoying a little spa treatment today 🦎🛁

Reptiles shed their skin regularly as they grow, but sometimes small pieces can get stuck — especially around delicate areas like their toes.

When this happens, a short warm soak can help soften the shed skin so it can be safely removed.

If stuck shed is left in place it can tighten around the toes, affecting circulation and potentially causing damage, so it’s important to keep an eye on it and deal with it early.

Thankfully Chocolate was very relaxed during their soak and should be feeling much more comfortable now 💚

Moments like this are all part of making sure our reptiles stay healthy, comfortable, and well cared for.

14/03/2026

Rocky seems to have taken a particular liking to one of the plush snakes from our sanctuary shop 😅

We promise the toys are usually treated with a little more respect than this…

Rocky the Bearded Dragon is one of the reptiles visitors can meet during our Reptile Encounter sessions 🦎

13/03/2026

Today we had the pleasure of visiting St Anthony’s Primary School in Saltcoats to spend some time with their P7 class 🦎🐍

Unfortunately the pupils had to return early from their residential trip to Arran due to the weather, so we were very grateful to the school for giving us the opportunity to introduce some of our reptile team to the class instead and hopefully bring a little excitement to the day.

It also turned out to be quite fitting that the classroom had a poster for “There’s a Snake in My School!” by David Walliams on the wall… because today there really was a snake in their school! 🐍

The pupils had the chance to meet:

🦎 Sunshine the Leopard Gecko
🕷 Flame the Mexican Fire Leg Tarantula
🐍 Ratz the Corn Snake
🐍 Cinnamon the Royal Python
🦎 Blaze the Bearded Dragon
🐢 Shergar the Horsfield Tortoise

Sessions like these give pupils the chance to learn about reptiles, ask questions, and experience these incredible animals up close in a safe and educational environment.

A huge thank you to the staff and pupils at St Anthony’s Primary School for making us feel so welcome today — we hope everyone enjoyed meeting the team! 💚

If your school, nursery or youth group would like to organise an educational reptile encounter session, feel free to get in touch.

📍 Based in Stevenston
🚗 School visits available across Ayrshire and beyond

08/03/2026

What a fantastic day at the sanctuary yesterday! 🦎🐍

Our morning started with a Small Group Reptile Encounter, where some very brave young reptile enthusiasts got the chance to meet and handle some incredible snakes up close.

The afternoon then continued with private reptile encounters, giving families the opportunity to spend more one-to-one time learning about these fascinating animals.

One of the best things about these sessions is watching confidence grow — many visitors arrive a little unsure about snakes, but by the end they’re smiling, relaxed, and completely amazed by how calm and gentle these animals can be.

Thank you to everyone who came along and made the day so enjoyable 💚

If you’d like to experience a reptile encounter yourself, keep an eye on our page for upcoming availability.

📍 Stevenston, Ayrshire
🦎 Small group encounters
🐍 Private reptile experiences

05/03/2026

🐍 Meet Cinnamon! 🐍

This beautiful Royal Python is one of the stars you can meet at Reptile Encounters Scotland this weekend!

We still have a few spaces available for our small group reptile encounter sessions, where you can get up close with a range of amazing reptiles and learn all about them in a relaxed, hands-on experience. Perfect for kids (and adults!) who love animals 🦎🐍

We also have limited availability for private reptile encounters if you’d prefer an exclusive experience just for your family or group.

These sessions are:
✅ Hands-on and educational
✅ Great for reptile lovers of all ages
✅ Small groups so everyone gets time with the animals

If you’d like more details or to check availability for this weekend, just drop a comment or send a message and we’ll be happy to help.

Who would be brave enough to hold Cinnamon? 😄🐍

03/03/2026

🦎🎉 500 FOLLOWERS – THANK YOU! 🎉🦎

We’ve just hit our first big milestone… 500 amazing followers!

For a small, local reptile sanctuary in Stevenston, that means the world to us 💚

Every like, share, comment and booking helps us:
✨ Educate children about reptiles
✨ Change misconceptions
✨ Provide safe, hands-on experiences
✨ Care for our incredible animals

To celebrate, we’re giving away…

🎟️ 1 FREE Small Group Reptile Encounter Space!

To enter:
1️⃣ Like this post
2️⃣ Comment your child’s favourite reptile 🐍🦎
3️⃣ Share to your story (tag us so we see it!)

Winner announced Friday 13th March.

Thank you for being part of our growing reptile family 🦎💚
Here’s to the next 500!

Address

4 First Avenue Stevenson
Stevenston
KA203LR

Telephone

+441294442415

Website

http://www.reptileencountersscotland.com/

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