Welcome to my channel, Animals at Home! Here you will find the reptile videos I have made as well as video versions of The Animals at Home Podcast! The podcast mainly focuses on the pet reptile industry.
My mission with Animals at Home is simple: To inspire others to push the limits of their reptile husbandry by promoting the importance of high level, creative care individualized for each reptile.
I actually ordered these ones off Vistaprint, I just chose a photo of the habitat that I liked and ordered an outdoor sign. (basically the type of sign that real estate agents use.)
I feel like we should be doing the best we can and I agree with a limited number of animals depending on size and care needed.. for example, if I have 3 boa pets I will need some proper size enclosures and that will reduce my number of pets allowed.. different if you want frogs Rack systems shouldn’t be allowed at all! We have been pet birds for so many years and they need lot more freedom then certain reptiles like a snake for example, and their cages are soooo small! I love my pets, I don’t pet birds, but I have dogs and snakes but I provide best possible, overall! That’s needs to be the way.. I also love seeing my animals, not looking at a rack system of plastic tubs
The answer is no it is unethical to lock something in a cage for its entire existence. If you love something set it free. How would you feel if you had to stay in your bedroom for the rest of your life?
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast you have it on one side of the pvc enclosure. I've tried that and the other side wouldn't get to the warm side temps. What I do is for example I have a 4x2x2 and I put a 3 foot piece underneath that way the warm side would stay around 80 degrees
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast I run my probes on the inside of mine versus using the in between method, because I tried doing that and I let one of enclosures set for about a week and even though the thermostat was saying it was at temp, my substrate was way lower
There is a guy posted pics/vids on Facebook, who has a play room for his retics, and he rotates which can go play, and his observations are that they are social and choose to coalesce together, they don’t seek out different hiding or basking spots. Very interesting!
Yes ! Years of hard work & lots of dedication…& lots of awesome videos as well! I’ve always thought how amazing it would be to have that awesome enclosure company as a sponsor ! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the next X amount of years ! 🤞🏻🙏🏻🤞🏻haha
Yes heat lamp is the way to go. I also think the way we build vivs could change a lot. By using modern building materials and getting a higher R-value in at least a section of viv you could use less wattage to achieve the same temps. Have you considered layered lighting as well?
@AnimalsatHomePodcast rather than have a basking spot at the top of a viv only have another basking light lower down embedded in a faux rock face maybe with a smaller wattage near a rockscape. Think of a dappled sun spot coming through the branches of a shrub heating the low down area for maybe an hour every day. Cryptic basking is for all. Plus this could give you a way to pump up a noon to 3pm temp shift. I am hoping one of the reptile lighting companies comes out with some of their uvb LED's on a 2 wire lead system for some better flexibility in designs like this one. The dome light is super dated IMHO.
@@dshobe720 oh yes, I’ve absolutely thought about that! I especially think this will become more popular as enclosure sizes start to increase, especially due to increased height. I haven’t toyed with it myself, but it’s definitely something. I’d love to try one day!
@AnimalsatHomePodcast height oh height. My ideal height for a terrestrial species is as tall as ceiling height or 6 feet. Why? Because plants that create micro habitats must be this tall ie 4 ft grass makes a micro habitat at its base about 12 inches that is shaded and humid midway up the stalks and leaves it's a little warmer a little brighter and provides cover for prey. At the apex of 4 feet you get high light air circulation flying bugs and a basking branch directly next to a cover source. Same thing in jungles just different plants with higher a apex or canopy. Bio active is the current term, but I feel we need to move toward "ecologically sound" keeping with an environment within our vivs that can sustain an ecology beyond springtails and isopods. I think we can pack this into a wardrobe sized space. Are you incorporating a drain? If no then please reconsider putting one in even if it's a small drain. Oh and diversity of plants.
Porque no los dos? I use a 50W halogen at a set distance from basking zone without a thermostat, and a heat mat connected to thermostat to get the substrate and air temperature to the comfort zone under the hot side of the enclosure.
I have considered a heat bulb standard for years. Heat comes from the sun and heats up rocks so even if it is a warm rock the animal isn't going to consider it initially without some sort of visual that says this rock should be hot. Now if you building a hibernaculum then a heat mat would make sense if you could set the thermostat to 40⁰F.
I know this is an old video, but omg do I love this talk. Such good questons. It felt like a walk thorough (modern) history of the reptile hobby. Rebbeca is clearly such an honest and lovely person. Her way of talking is so beatiful and you could tell from the video that she is just an honestly kind person, who will really think twice what the impact of her words and actions will be. I know this all sounds completely over the top, but from someone who is relatively knew to the reptile hobby and came into it without following reptile stuff on yt, it feels so amazing to get to know all these people from over the world who educate and share their experiences with reptiles. I came to this hobby at an exciting time! Even though it is only virtual I actually felt a source of belonging to a group who are joind by really caring for their animals. I just have one thing that bothered me a bit. I like that you do not presume that anyone has money and can afford all the expensive eqquipmet. And I think it's fine not having a UVB for some time or something which is very expensive and not crucial, but compromising on other things does not seem fair for the animal. I honestly think that the best care we povide to these animals is sufficient in best of cases. Yes reptiles are expensive, but maybe wait slightly longer if you cannot afford the neccessary equippment. What if the animal gets sick? This is a much larger cost and you should be able to provide it for your animal, at least a checkup visit...
It is dangerous to promote only topping up, plants deal with waste etc. not water changes. Test kits only deal with a minority of waste, using plants unlike the terrestrial environment is entirely unnatural and there is a lot they wont deal with. Most test kits are really vague but realistically need to be replaced yearly for accuracy. Only topping up is like having a viv with no vents at all but only so often opening them up. I feel this feeds into the aspect that the pet people don't focus on aren't researched. More then often fishes are the accessory unless it's marine. There is more to the tech, Fluval is cheap for a reason. Paludariums have always been a thing in the aquarium hobby but the aquatic side is complex. Hence it's not popular over Ripariums.
Will they come out with a new safety cage for the LumenIZE UV fixture? I want to upgrade to LumenIZE, but with a corn snake in a hard top wooden enclosure which requires lighting elements to be inside the cage, it simply isn't safe.
I struggle with the idea of buying a pet from a breeder for this exact reason. And even if you give the animal the "perfect" life, it doesn't really matter if in the end you supported something financially that is exploitative by buying from a breeder who profits off it and is financially incentivized to breed as many animals as they can. Who knows how many other animals have gone to other houses just to suffer and live in dark drawers for the rest of their lives like those boas that the doctor was talking about. And you supported it.
mines been in a tub for 2 years , never uses a hide , barely find it soaking , usually semi burrowed , or kinds of purched , going to try adding leaves and stuff on top…about to build a enclosure to upgrade her for the winter coming
I inadvertently kept my pothos in a pot like container. Guess that was a good idea since as you said it grows like a weed. I used a large cork round and planted it in there to keep the aesthetic. Maybe next time you need to use a pot try a cork round if you dont want to have to hide a pot. Great job looks awesome.
So you have two separate light sources in that tank, one for the animal and one for the plants? Can you use one for both, or will or the other harm the animal? I have a crested gecko enclosure in putting together so im curious. Im just worried about having too much light for either my gecko or the plants.
I have three separate lamps in total. They each serve a different function, the UV lamp is for vitamin D synthesis, the visible light LED bar is for plant growth and also has benefits to the animal and halogen bulb for Infrared heat. As long as you have lots of shaded area, you don’t need to worry about having too much light (provided your temperatures are correct)
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast gotcha. Thanks for the info. As you stated my plants are surviving but I want them to thrive. I'm gonna purchase that jungle dawn one you mentioned. Seems to be the best I've seen so far.
I don't want to sound critical, but where's the grass tussocks? Toads, tiger salamanders, box turtles all use the stabilizing roots to hold the shape of their burrow and the stalks to ward off the sun's heat. Get some plant lights and grow grass it's not hard to make a viv 4 feet tall so you can grow some grass to full height get some heat and uva/b going at the top of the viv. Then let those branches elevate the herp to the light while keeping the ground covered in shade that plants roots and herps like to retreat to.
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast ok ok I jumped the gun sorry Dillon. Love the pod and your contributions to herpetoculture. What species of grass are you using?
😂😂 no worries. I’m just using fescue for now, as well as a few various species of wildflowers. I sort of just want to see what happens as it grows in, not planning on adding an animal for a while yet
@AnimalsatHomePodcast nice shorter grass. Look into some strawberries as they grow between grass clumps. Prairies consist of three primary plant families Asteracea(sunflowers, asters...), legumes(peas, vetch, clovers...), and grasses of course. Fescue might be a tough grass to make clump but it may since it's not being mowed regularly. Some dwarf bamboo (a grass) can give you stiffer structure if you are planning a heavier herp. The more leaves in the air the higher humidity especially down below the leaves. Micro climates! It's what's missing from a lot of set ups. We are always wanting to create a picture framed in by the walls of our enclosure when in reality it's a much messier affair in nature where herps live. Viewing angles through porthole windows would add more security for the really shy guys.
Yeah, I’m very curious to see how it matures, if I don’t like it, I can always plant a new species. The enclosure actually isn’t attempting to replicate the prairies, I’m aiming for more of a coastal grassland/meadow. The island I’m replicating is very narrow and it’s made up of open plain areas of the coast that led into forest (Kunashir 😉). And actually, funny that you say dwarf bamboo as that is one of the main grass species on the island.
I doubt it’s scared of the human tho. Its more protecting its resource i think the wild is an incredibly competitive place and they still have that instinct. If the animal was truly scared i doubt it would even come out for it
I understand that Tanner was speaking very casually here but I am disappointed that he said pretty much any frog is suitable for a paludarium. Dendrobate frogs are NOT suitable for paludariums. Even tree frogs that can swim fairly well would get little to no benefit from a paludarium, so I would only consider keeping them in a paludarium if it was large enough to facilitate a water feature that did not come at the cost of terrestrial area.
