Charlottetown man has thirty reptiles living in his bedroom

By Daniel Brown

Jan. 25, 2019

Nathaniel Morrison sleeps in a room with 30 reptiles.

An arboreal alligator lizard gets cozy on Nathaniel Morrison's hat. There are only 30 of these little guys in Canada, Morrison said. Daniel Brown photo.

The 20-year-old Charlottetown resident started researching reptiles when he was 11, which sparked an interest, he said.

For months, he begged his parents if he could get a snake. One day, he was in the car with his Dad, who wasn’t going to budge.

“You’re never going to own a snake.”

A year later he had three.

A year after that - six.

Now, he has about 40 pets, including snakes, pythons and boas. He also started getting into geckos, lizards, and invertebrates.

For Morrison, they’re primarily his pets and hobby, he said.

“I love all of them like they’re my children.”

A lot of people who collect reptiles do it to breed and make a profit, as there’s more money in the industry than people would think. But that’s not the right way to go about it, Morrison said.

“With me it’s all passion. I do it because I like doing it.”

Many people fear reptiles, but this was never a factor for him, he said.

“Just pure interest. And they’re definitely interesting.”

He spends 2-3 hours a day taking care of them. Every creature has a separate schedule, some needing to eat twice a day, some only once every couple weeks.

He sprays water on the reptiles regularly. His room stays around 25 degrees all the time, and he keeps it humid, he said.

Maintaining the cages is easy. He breeds insects that clean the cages by going through the soil and eating any feces or mildew.

Morrison breeds these little isopods to live in the reptile’s cages and eat any waste or bacteria. Daniel Brown photo.

“I have it set up basically like its own little ecosystem.”

His current apartment makes it tricky to take care of his ‘little family.’ He has to cart water up to his tiny, third floor bedroom, and he often has to move cages out of the way to get to others, he said.

Some of his pets are staying at relative’s houses, including some snakes, insects, and a parrot, he said.

He’d like to find an apartment where he can have everything in one spot. But Charlottetown doesn’t have many options, he said.

“It’s hard to find a bigger spot right now, but that’s the eventual goal.”

A sand snake wraps itself around Nathanial Morrison’s arm. Daniel Brown photo.

For the most part, his roommates don’t mind. One isn’t too keen about his tarantula, but is okay with the reptiles, Morrison said.

He often gets people coming over to check them out, or to overcome their fears.

One man visited recently who had never seen a snake before. He was terrified, and didn’t want to enter the bedroom.

Ten minutes later he was sitting on Morrison’s bed with a snake wrapped around his neck.

“I don’t know why I was so scared,” the man said.

Watching and enabling those experiences is the best part of it, Morrison said.

An arboreal alligator lizard hanging out in its nook. Daniel Brown photo.

Sometimes the snakes don’t want to be held, so Morrison uses this hook when he needs to snag them. Daniel Brown photo.

Morrison also has lots of bugs, such as this preying mantis. Mantis’ are cool because they have personality, he said. Daniel Brown photo.