GONE are the days when tripe and dog biscuits were all a pet owner needed to satisfy their animal's hunger. Nowadays animal-lovers are just as likely to be filling their shopping baskets with live mice! Snakes, monkeys and iguanas are fast becoming the top pets in the popularity stakes. This week Anthea Turner posed naked with a nine-feet-long python called Monty, and Zoe Ball, Liz Hurley, and Gaby Roslin have all used snakes to make a slick impression. Now it seems that East Lancashire animal lovers too just can't get enough of these super cool pets. But have the new owners bitten off more than they can chew? Reporter AMANDA KILLELEA finds out.

IT SEEMS it is no longer good enough to have a dog or a cat as a family pet.

The latest man's best friend is more likely to be a boa constrictor or a water dragon than a cuddly collie or a pampered Persian.

Since Blackburn's first pet superstore, Pet World, opened at Focus DIY, animal-lovers have been flocking to buy the exotic creatures.

The store has sold out of water dragons - Iguana-type creatures - and there are only a few snakes left in stock.

Manager Chris Furness said: "It seems the people of Blackburn want a more exotic type of pet. We've sold snakes, lizards and spiders by the dozen." Once you've bought your designer reptile the cost doesn't stop there. You've got to feed it, house it and tame it.

Chris said: "Snakes have to be fed about twice a week on frozen mice and they should be kept in quite a small tank as they like confined spaces.

"If they are handled regularly they become very tame and aren't dangerous as long as they are fed well."

The store keeps boa constrictors, garter snakes and corn snakes, none of which are poisonous.

But if you are a looking for a pet with a bit more personality, then you could always plump for a monkey.

Barry Crabtree, who runs Pets Corner in Rawtenstall would not be without Clyde the marmoset monkey who entertains the customers with his own brand of humour.

Clyde, named after the monkey in the Clint Eastwood film Any Which Way But Loose, usually lives in a huge "den" at the back of the shop, but likes to have a run around the shop at every opportunity. Barry also sells Iguanas, snakes, chipmunks and parrots, but is more likely to warn customers off buying an exotic pet than go for the big sell. He said: "People don't realise what hard work it is keeping a snake.

"I've had people come into the shop who want to buy a boa constrictor but then I find out they have a three-year-old child.

"The snake wouldn't kill the child, but it would certainly frighten it to death.

"Snakes can grow to 18 ft long and people don't think about this when they buy them."

Barry recommends that new snake-owners agree to feed their prized pet live mice rather than fish or the frozen variety.

He said "I always make sure my customers are capable of caring for the animal properly before I sell it.

"Some people just aren't willing to feed live mice to a hungry snake."

Now, why would anyone not want to do that!

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