Arids Only is a Herpetocultural endeavor that I (Phillip Lietz) started around 2013. I’ve kept reptiles as pets for my whole life and began experimenting with breeding attempts around middle and high school. In about 2013 I began dedicating time and energy in earnest to build Arids Only into a proper project dedicated to production and education.

Currently my strongest focal points are Uromastyx and Xenagama with secondary projects involving Chuckwallas, Butterfly Agamas, San Esteban Island Iguanas, and a few Tortoise species. I don’t fully understand exactly why, but I’ve always had an affinity for animals that live in deserts and dry climates. And while I have plenty of field herping ahead of me, I have spent many hours in the deserts of the American Southwest studying and observing the herp inhabitants of that region.  

Another set of themes that helps guide what I choose to work with is the combination of sporadic importation, infrequent captive propagation, and little/inaccurate or no care information. In my opinion this combination of characteristics highlights species that are in real need of increased information and production, both to raise the standard of care for those species and to reduce the pressure on their importation from the wild.

Additionally, I seek to keep and breed animals that have high potential for quality pet or breeding project potential for the average or new reptile keeper. Using this as another guiding force has led me to move away from species that get too large or that have high maintenance requirements. It is my perspective that choosing the ideal animals for Herpetoculture involves considering how their biology makes them more or less suited for a life indoors with people. 

Over the years of producing these reptiles, I’ve grown a passion for sharing experience, knowledge, and information to help boost the baseline level of care for both the species I specialize in and reptiles in general. In keeping with this theme I put a great deal of effort into sharing as much information, both successes and mistakes, as possible.