Feed your ex to a reptile! Tell us why for your chance to take part in this experience...
31st Mar 2025
We're launching a "feed your ex to a reptile" experience to help heartbroken singles during breakup season.
Have you recently been ghosted? Or maybe you're just looking for a way to move on from your slimy ex?
Now that we are officially in breakup season, we're helping newly singles navigate their breakup with a new initiative that will turn heartbreak into healing - the ultimate cathartic, post-breakup that will enable them to feed their ex to a reptile.
The launch of this new experience coincides with the launch of our BRAND NEW habitat, Close Encounters - The World of Reptiles and Spiders - which will be opening to the public on the 6th April 2025.
As of today, heartbroken singles can apply to have a bug named after their ex and submit a reason as to why they were a terrible partner, before deciding their fate by picking the reptile they would prefer their ex to be fed to.
This includes sand lizards, masters of ambush that use a combination of stealth and speed to hunt their prey, and panther chameleons, expert predators who can spot their prey from up to ten metres away and strike with remarkable accuracy. Both reptiles rely on insects as a key part of their diet, so the likes of “Jake”, “Michael” and “Natalie” will be a welcome reward.
To shed light on the benefits of this experience, we have enlisted the expertise of Andrea Balboni, Sex, Love and Relationships Expert at Lush Coaching to explain why symbolic acts like this can be so therapeutic for heartbroken individuals.
“Naming a bug after an ex creates a tangible way to release lingering emotional energy from past relationships. When that insect becomes nourishment for another creature, it symbolically transforms negative experiences into something positive and regenerative.
“This ritual, like clearing out old possessions, helps create psychological closure. My clients who perform similar symbolic release practices consistently report feeling unburdened and free afterward — ready to move forward with renewed emotional space.”
As submissions come in, we will be on the lookout for the MOST deserving participant who needs to confront their past relationship and take this step to finally move on. With that in mind, the zoo has launched a competition for one unlucky-in-love entrant to visit the zoo and witness their ex, in bug form, being fed to a reptile in a one-of-a-kind experience — and have an exclusive tour of the brand-new habitat and meet some of the zoo’s other exciting residents.
“This campaign marks an exciting time for Twycross Zoo”, says Assistant Curator (Birds, Herptiles & Invertebrates), Rhys McKie, “With the opening of our brand-new habitat, we can provide people with a memorable way to move on from their breakup, while also highlighting the incredible reptiles we care for here at Twycross Zoo, as part of our charity’s conservation mission.”
Applications to feed your ex to a reptile are live until the end of April, and those eager to see their ex meet a symbolic untimely end can click here
Participants will also have the option to make a donation to support our ongoing conservation efforts. Since 1972, we've been a registered charity, existing to protect endangered wildlife, and through our 2030 Conservation Strategy, plans to increase the number of EAZA Ex-Situ Programme (EEP) species housed in the zoo to 75%.
📆 Close Encounters opening April 6th
