hey fyi i have a w/c and hes fine...god knows hes more active(trying to do more vanishing/escape acts...if you dont want to buy one and you end up catching one...( find a young one) youll face a lot of challenges like changing food ect. but theyll get used to it..as for parisites i cant say, i dont think checker has any iv had him for almost a year (less than 3 weeks from today)