“Drago loves to enter my mum’s room because he likes sitting on the curtain rails. So every time my mum sees him heading to her room, she closes the door and he gets upset and throws tantrums.

“He will climb the dresser outside her room and start pushing all the items to the floor. He will make a mess until my mom opens the doors and lets him in. Only after that, will he quiet down,” Iman, 29, shared with FMT Lifestyle.

Drago is one among Iman’s 22 pets at her Subang home. Her other pets include six snakes (ball python, corn snake, egg eater and elephant trunk snake), four bearded dragons, three giant millipedes, two geckos, two ducks, two cats, one tarantula, and dumpy tree frog.

Iman’s “mini zoo” started when she got herself a corn snake on a whim after she turned 24. She kept it a secret for three months for fear of what her mother might say. But when her mother seemed alright with the corn snake called Francis, Iman went on an exotic pet-buying spree.

While she keeps most of her exotic pets in tanks, she created an L-shaped enclosure with partitions on her room’s balcony where she keeps the bearded dragons separated using plastic playpens, complete with heat lamps.

There’s also a log of wood attached to the window frame where the “very manja” Drago can hang out.

“My maid has to video call me every time I’m outstation for work and I will tell him ‘I love you. You have to eat’. Only then will he eat. If not, he won’t even touch his food!” she said, incredulous.

While Drago, whom she adopted from a friend, is one of her closest reptilian children, Meg the hypo trans orange bearded dragon is Iman’s “best girl companion”.

Sometimes, she crawls into bed with Iman, goes under her armpit for heat, gets herself comfortable and falls asleep.

“Every morning, the first thing I do is check in on her before all my other animals. And she knows I take better care of her than the rest. So she won’t eat until I put her on my bed. Very manja and very drama,” Iman fondly recounted.

She added Meg is also quite active, like a “tiny lizard dog”. Besides crawling around her room, Meg pulls Iman’s plush toy from the bed and carries it around, much to Iman’s entertainment.

“She’s a picky eater, too. She eats mealworms but she likes dubia roaches better. Sometimes I will force her to eat the mealworms but she will simply shake her head and not eat,” Iman shared.

In fact, since all her lizards, her one frog and one tarantula feed on the dubia roaches, Iman decided to breed them in two large containers in her balcony as it’s more cost effective. She feeds her snakes mice and quail eggs while Drago and the ducks eat vegetables.

Iman noted that contrary to popular belief, reptiles aren’t hardy creatures. She said she coats their food with calcium and multivitamin powders and soaks them in herbal baths before cleaning them.

“I’ve noticed my bearded dragons and snakes come out with a very vibrant colour and they eat very well, are more energetic and seem more relaxed,” Iman said.

Interestingly, Iman’s cats mingle very well with Drago, the bearded dragons, and the two ducks, Louie and Louis. They especially love to play with Drago who sometimes whacks them with his tail if he’s not in the mood. They even huddle together under the heat lamps.

Iman shared that sometimes, she brings her reptilian friends to her mother’s and friends’ kindergartens during science classes to educate the children and give them hands-on experience with these creatures.

One lesson Iman has learned living with 22 pets is how to understand their body language.

“If you’re able to interact well with animals and have compassion for them, you will also learn to have better communication with people because we use words, animals don’t. It makes you a better communicator,” Iman concluded.