They may be scary, scaly and slithery, but schoolgirl lauren wouldn't swap her exotic creatures for any ball of fluff.

MEET the 17-year-old Dublin teenager who counts scaly creatures as the pets she adores.

Lauren Rodgers, who lives in Kinsealy in North Dublin, has no regrets for picking scaly, slithery exotic creatures over the more traditional balls of fluff usually taken in as household pets.

The schoolgirl started a collection of reptiles three years ago when her Dad refused to let her have a normal house pet.

"My Dad wouldn't let me get a dog. They are slightly more work because you have to walk them and he was saying that I wouldn't actually do it," says Lauren.

The brave teen has 18 reptiles as pets along with just one cat. She says that she has been interested in dinosaurs since she was a child.

"When I was smaller I was into dinosaurs," she says.

Having started her collection of unusual pets in 2005, Lauren is now extremely attached to the cold-blooded creatures.

"I don't know what I'd do without them," she said.

Lauren has six different types of reptiles living in the shed in the back garden.

Every day she cares for her pet tortoises, water dragons, frilled lizard, bearded dragons, ball python snake, and corn snake.

"They're something that everyone else doesn't have," she says.

"They're just me. They all have different personalities -- one of them just wants to get out all the time but the other just wants to be in the water."

feeding

It takes one hour everyday for Lauren to feed the reptiles, and each pet has it's own likes and dislikes. They live on a diet of black crickets, locusts and meal worms.

Lauren has a part-time job to buy and look after her adored pets.

"They can be expensive -- I'm working so that's how I could afford them."

The Dublin schoolgirl is very different to all of her friends who keep cats and dogs as pets.

"They think I'm mad," she laughs.

According to Lauren her friends wouldn't dare get reptiles as pets because "their mothers wouldn't be happy about it."

Lauren has become quite the expert since she's bred six of the reptiles herself.

"They're unusual. They're very colourful. They have their own personalities. They just do what they want to do."

- Geraldine Gittens