Who We Are

Divergent Exotics was founded by Monica Mertz in 2025 following a lifetime of passion for the reptile hobby and industry. What started back in 2003 as literally begging the owner of our Mom & Pop shop to hire me even though I wasn’t 16 yet has now come full circle and I’m getting to contribute to the hobby in my own way, now.

Husbandry has come a long way since the early 2000s and it was almost like rejoining a whole new world with the most curious sense of deja vu. As a neurodivergent herper, this hobby really combines so many different skills, hobbies, and a touch of crafting. Between caring for and raising the herps themselves to propogating plants, creating custom enclosure builds, and everything in between, there’s something in the reptile hobby for pretty much everyone.

I wanted to approach reptile keeping from a new lens—that of a neurodivergent keeper. There are a ton of neurodivergent-specific groups handling everything from cleaning to general coping skills, but I wanted to show how some of those quirks expose themselves in the herping world. There are so many videos of how people do things, but not a lot of content out there about how we can make our twisty little brains work for animal care. So here I am—out and proud—ready to show you the often silly little hacks that help me be a better reptile keeper. Yes, my crickets live in bougie glass 10 gallon tanks, but not because I’m trying to be fancy. It’s because if I can’t physically see their empty food dish while I’m walking through the room, I’ll forget to feed them entirely. And gut-loaded feeders make for happy herps.

I look forward to connecting with the community at large, sharing tips and tricks, and doing my bit towards conserving wild populations by working with some of the less common species out there.