7:30 The pet box of dirt is the perfect description of a Kenyan sand boa, I have one, I think. The only time i see her is when it's dinner time. I've spent more time telling my friends that there is, in fact, a snake in the enclosure
Fun fact about moi, I do actually have an uncle named Bob and his wife is named Fran (Francine) So I feel somewhat special! Also great list!! As usual!
Replace Asian vine snakes with rough green snakes. They require good humidity and eat feeder lizards. Rough green snakes eat insects and are much easier and cheaper. Both are green, slender and arboreal too.
Rough greens are rarely CB (ime) and they're known to not do well in captivity even when CB just like Dekay's browns. This has been my experience and things I've heard about, so others' experiences may vary
I have a captive bred rough green snake I agree they are a good alternative! Mine is 6 yrs old, healthy and eats every bug i feed her. They are an easy and beautiful snake to keep if you dont mind caring for insects. Definitely avoid wild caught snakes, they don't do well in captivity. Captive bred are more expensive but so worth it if you're into this species 🐍
As weird as it might sound, five lined skinks are 1 of my favorite lizards to keep. They are very common in the wooded areas where I live and they settle into captivity pretty much instantly. I keep mine outside in my 100 gallon Rubbermaid cattle tank that I have my strawberry plants in and feed them red runners that I have thousands of. I do catch them out of my strawberry bin every November because they can't dig down past the frost line in the bin and would freeze to death. I hibernate them in another bin on my enclosed back porch during the winter. They stay in the mid 30s to low 40s. That's low enough to hibernate but without freezing to death. Then in mid April back outside in the strawberry bin they go. I get babies every year. Most of the time I release the babies into a rock pile on my property. Now they are probably here to stay. I like that they are native and can be successfully bred outside here in Maryland. I also like the males bright red heads. My strawberry harvest has went way up because the skinks will eat any insects that try to get the strawberries. I had 1 of my males for almost 10 years before he passed away but I don't know what his true age was because he was a wild caught adult. I really like that I got them established on my property now but I will always keep a few in captivity so that I will always have babies to release on my property. They can become very tame and some of them will eat from your hand.
Honestly the demand is so low and their population is so stable it doesn't hurt to take them out of the wild for pet keeping. But I just let my kids catch them and play with them and release them. Just be careful, they really like to drop their tails if your a kid catching them.
Pretty cool! How do you keep your skinks from running up the sides and escaping? Also, do you have to drill holes low in the tank so that it doesn't flood and drown the skinks?
@@Pablo-sr5bx skinks don't have the toe pads that some geckos and anoles have and they can't climb smooth surfaces like glass or plastic. Oh, and yes I do have holes in the side down towards the bottom to keep it from filling up with water.
@@chaliceflame1314 they aren't commonly bred in captivity so I doubt it. I breed them because I find them interesting and I turn most of the babies loose in my backyard. They are native to where I live.
1:10 These guys are an awesome alternative to parrot snakes too. Parrots snakes are awesome, not overly expensive to keep but have very, very specific dietary needs. Feeder frogs and lizards cost a bit more than feeder mice, but not much.
My local pet store brought in a Chinese cave gecko just for me and I’m finishing his set up today and bringing it home this week. I have cresties and a leo, and it was your channel that introduced me to cave geckos. I’m very excited to take him home
Colubrids are such beautiful snakes. If I kept snakes , it would be colubrids. The vine snakes that you were showing are stunning, especially the green and black one.
Crested geckos are BY FAR the easiest and most inexpensive to care for!! I have four now--two of them were given to me for free with their enclosures and food. Literally I got everything I needed to care for them, just given to me. Can't beat free! And one of the ones I was given/took in for free is my literal best friend. He is the best little dude ever, and the reason I now own 4! His cute little permanent smile and chill temperament is also how he has managed to convert people who were NOT reptile people, into reptile people. I'm telling you, I have multiple friends and coworkers who are OBSESSED with him and gush and fawn over him any time they see him. I purchased one at a place that shall not be named (I have learned my lesson), and my latest one was at an expo. Overall, I am so so happy with my crested geckos, and recommend them to anyone looking to get into reptiles! Thanks for the awesome video, as always, Adam!
Fun story about the reason I currently can't get the snake of my dreams, an acquaintance of mine found out one of her chinchillas was male the hard way. I seemed interested and was encouraged to take one/both when they were old enough. A friend of hers was trying to pressure me into it and I said I didn't know if I could spare the $200, and definitely couldn't spare $350 (mixed sex litter). The friend looked horrified "She's charging?!". Then I explained that while I could make some of the enrichment (hammocks, bridges, hides) and get some of the stuff at a discount by going to the local thrift store (grandma's knick knack bowls are $0.50 on a good day), the cheapest cage I could find was $150 (chinchillas need vertical space, cause squirrel - and she could wiggle her way out of it until she was 6mo. - 1 year, so there was a chunk of time where she lived in my dog's crate). Suddenly I was really responsible and had great foresight. - I don't understand people.
That's probably better for the Cresties, in the long run. The biggest problem with cheap reptiles is they mostly get purchased by people who invest little to no time learning how to take care of them.
Good evening Adam, thank you for making this video. I love vine snakes they are so unique and so pretty. Everything on this list is awesome. I hope you have a fantastic day and weekend, see you again on Monday
I absolutely love how the asian vine snakes look and would love to keep one but I've heard a lot of stuff about them eating lizards, and me being a more of a lizard person than a snake person, I don't really see myself doing that. Also I would say that western banded geckos are better than cave gecko because they are pretty cheap they stay smaller and live mostly on sand and stuff. They also don't need that much heat because they often live in high deserts and the like so it gets really cold and sometimes even snows. I keep mine at around 75 degrees f and it works really well. I have a baby one and it acts literally a leopard gecko. They are also a bit easier because they don't really like humidity because they are desert dwellers.
My retics and burms are cheap to keep when you breed your own rabbits. The rabbits aren't super cheap to feed, but they breed fast enough to sell babies for $25/ea and break even.
I just came back from a reptile convention. Got 2 leopard geckos (bringing my total to 6 now). Super hyper tangerine morphs. Sisters. One doesn't want to live nicely with her sister and my resident albino morph female tho. She's a bit more high strung and spicy, so she has her own enclosure for now. Hopefully, she will calm after a couple weeks. But they're from local breeders.
I just bought a gopher snake today, since there native to this area and I keep my home warm for the tropical animals the only price I pay for this one is a mouse once a week until it’s old enough for rats.
I'm planning on getting a Kenyan sand boa once my kingsnake gets his cage upgraded later this year. I'm normally not big on fossorials but I love creating little environments and a cute desert set up with death feigning beetles and airplants sounds soooo cute. It'd be a win win because I thought the idea of the beetles alone wouldn't be that fun but them cohabbing? Let's go. I'm leaning towards a rusty sand though with those pinkish reddish salty feeling rocks. It's a 20 long so I was just gunna get a male
It’s the Judgemental Shoelace! I think the other guy said they were not easy to keep because they were tiny and really fast so it might be easy to loose them behind the furniture, or maybe it was a different snake that looked similar?
One thing I’ve always told people is that beardies can be fairly cheap pets once you get rolling. I’ve been breeding my own roaches and such since I’ve had my beardie and it has saved me HUNDREDS of dollars. Of course I also give her greens and all that but a big tub of organic greens here is only $6!
Yo thanks so much for this video! I've been looking for something arboreal that could fit in a relatively small enclosure as I've had a quite nice one I didn't have an animal for for a while now. Was debating getting another crested gecko or something, but I really wanted something different, and the Asian vine snake might be perfect!
**Crested geckos are cheap IF you can get cheap used stuff, free stuff, or alerady have stuff lying around, you can use. If you're starting from scratch and have to get everything new like I did, it gets expensive to set up, especially if you go all in on bioactive, live plants and making a nice-looking 3D background for all three sides. Including the $250 I spent on the gecko, I think my 12x12x18 setup ended up being around $1200 (USD), and it's going to get more expensive because I have to upgrade the enclosure size pretty soon. However, yes, after everything is set up, overall care is cheap, even considering I buy the more expensive dubia roaches instead of crickets.
Can you do one for anfibians too? Sadly I don’t think I have ever seen a vinesnake or a cave geco here in Sweden on our expos. We are flodded in crested gecos though😉 and of course ball pythons and cornsnakes!
My one "correction" on the KSB is that, if you live in the in a humid place, you're gonna need a heating lamp or ceramic heat emitter bc, without it, lowering humidity in their enclosure is a STRUGGLE
Hey now, I've been raising a savannah monitor for going on 6 years and i'm pretty poor lol I think I paid about 20 bucks for her., I built her enclosure myself and I have a dubia colony in addition to repashy meals. Reptile keeping is only expensive if you buy reptile branded stuff. Slapping a brand name on any Product is going to make it more expensive
Exactly. There was a time in this hobby when _everyone_ built their enclosures because nobody _sold_ the kinds of enclosures that were needed. Now that reptile keeping is mainstream, people look at you funny if you say you build your enclosures. A trip to Home Depot and a can-do attitude can provide a whole lot in the way of reptile housing.
Crested geckos ARE great but - they need to come with the caveat that you really need to spend a lot of time getting them to be ok with you. So they dont run away every time you open the tank.
@@ingeniouspixie My son's Crestie not only isn't shy, he comes right to the door and jumps on you when you open it. I think someone told him he's an Emerald Tree Skink or something. Such a sociable, little guy.
After seeing irwin several years ago I fell in love with blue tounges and finally tracked down a blue tounge of my own last week! He's called smokey and he's huge for his age, I love him to bits already ❤
This was so helpful! My family and I just bought a crested gecko baby and named them ziggy! This helps out so much since we might buy more reptiles in the future! Thank you!
10:10 I live in Florida and we have wild corn snakes all over, in many different morphs too. Not saying you should, but if one was inclined to go the cheapest route, and live here there is that.
in Canada, I got a ‘ fancy ‘ leopard gecko for 130+tax.. it’s a scam I realize now, and the ‘normal ‘ leopard geckos were about 90$, I am looking right now for a crested gecko, and the ones at petsmart are 119+tax, so definitely going to buy one online this time..
I wish I could have an Asian vine snake simply because they're green and not stressed easily and don't have a lethal bite. If green mambas didn't have lethal bites, I would get one of them.
Where I live only thing that is cheap are anoles, house geckos and long tailed grass lizards everything else even crested geckos are 90 dollars or more so your very lucky to be able to get your animals cheap even tarantula prices are insane where I live as well
i paid 50 bucks for the best behaved bci boa ever. He was awesome and he was just your average "normal" bci. very inexpensive and easy to keep. They're Hardy and dont need a huge enclosure at first so you have time toi save up for a nice enclosure.
I love Asian Vine Snakes! I had one back when they were considered junk snakes and a friend of mine who dealt with reptiles had a couple tossed in with a snake order he did as 'filler' snakes, a freebie. Anyway he was so awesome! This was some years ago and I've wanted to get another one for a while now. Nice to see them coming more mainstream.
I get paper deli cups for my Crested geckos in bulk. The box lasts years for my four gecks. I think it was $20 for 3 years worth. Way cheaper than plastic.
More like five dollars a week because that's what I pay to feed my snake. I can't get to the pet stores that sell mice for two dollars each most of the time so I settle for ones from Pet Supermarket or Petco.
You have quickly became my most watched channel. I really appreciate all of your content. Very informative, good presentation. I’ve learned a lot from you. God bless and I wish you continued luck on your channel.
Great video. I would clarify that the vine snake is safe to keep not because it's "rear-fanged" but because its venom is not as medically significant, regardless of venom delivery. Being rear-fanged shouldn't imply that's the reason why it's safe to keep. Very cool, though. Thanks for sharing!
Omg 😂 I love the "off brand" green tree python, hahaha. Vine snakes are cool because they are sort of like garter snakes in diet, and they eat anoles, feeder fish, quail eggs, mice, etc. Also some people say they can supposedly live together like garters too.
The problem is there are multiple species of vine snakes out there - but the two that are by far the most common are strictly lizard eaters. They end up suffering in the hobby because people think they will eat a wide range of foods when in reality they are specialists.
@IvoryExotics True- I'd have to do a lot of research first. I'd also love to own a rough green snake, but I read that they don't do well in captivity.
I have been looking everywhere for a USCBB Asian Vine Snake! No luck with MorphMarket and don't trust the few places I've found in general searches. Guess I'll keep looking! :D
got a crestie two weeks ago and one this tuesday and i love them theyre two different individual by far mushroom is shy and extremely skittish whilst lichen will attempt man slaughter
Are you okay? You look like you caught the sun a bit- or is it just my monitor? If you did I hope it’s not too sore! Thank you for the video- I’m pondering our first pet reptile in our family and with two young children it’s a big decision and commitment. Your videos make deciding easier for sure!
I love my corn he's a fiesty fella and as stated before i hope he stays that way. Now i will say that for where i live you won't find any sellers on MM but luckily i'm not far from london and a local pet shop is where i got mine and where i'll probably get the female to and possibly a boa too. Weird thing is the pet shop is an aquarium so you'd only know they sold reptiles if you went in.
Haven’t seen yet but I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that bearded dragons probably won’t be on that list xD Between the big enclosure and their need for UVB they can be pretty expensive, both the initial set up and in long term care
Hey I see some of my sand boas in the morph market clip!!! Thanks for sharing about them!! 😊. The SNK Kreatures ones! Obviously think they are some of the cheapest to keep! Though we enjoy the crested geckos too.
To be fair you CAN spend a ton on an enclosure for a crested gecko. I went full bioactive, big tank, lots of enrichment and all that. BUT you can definitely go with something more affordable. Oh and also I don't know how the hell people can get bored with these guys. I love mine. I never get tired of checking up on him, cleaning his enclosure, misting him, feeding him. Hell even feeding his food that'll I'll feed to him later.
Hey Adam on your last video I asked if the cold was enough to sanitize the wood from insects outdoors. I didn’t mean to come off judgy. Sorry if it came across that way!
I’m planning an enclosure for a rhino rat snake some people have said it works fine others don’t here’s the planned specs what do you think good for the animal as an adult or no 100 gal vertical 36 18 36 On the bottom it will have a water feature in the front about half of the tank width behind that will be dry substrate/plant area Will have lots of branches not sure on the wood yet but will also have flat ledges in the corners/back might but the basking spot here Planted bioactive going to have the tank set up anywhere from a few months to a year before I add the snake Custom background DRYLOK/cement tints on styrofoam What do you think is it big enough am I missing anything if not big enough what animals anything non venomous would go well in here if big enough then great also plant/wood suggestions would be great I do have experience keeping animals Dart frogs Snakes Geckos
I only have a small side walk the city let’s me stay on if I’m not laying down (I do at night obviously to sleep). This is perfect! I keep street snakes so definitely upping my game!
@@rickieoakes5267 pet expos here in Florida aren't that generous. The ones I was going to were Repticons. I was able to get a baby eastern garter snake for $20, but that's it.
Easiest non fish🤔 I had some kind of small water snake that ate little goldfish in its water bowl. I was very young so it may not have had proper care or enclosure size but if i did, it was a very affordable creature.
Ocilated skinks and most cordylus species would fit this list, and you can keep them in colonies. Flying geckos are cheap easy and stunning, they are always hiding in plain sight, so you see them often as well.
Two words. Viper. Gecko. witsy wee teeny teenums leo. Cutest lil sunuvvagun ya ever dun saw. Eyes like a couple of polished coins. Fat little keeled tail that they will slowly wag back and forth at you, their reflection, a rock... Not very expensive to get and if you breed the bugs yourself next to nothin' to keep. Little Kenyan roaches are also cheap and easy to keep and the perfect feeders for them. Sassy and adorable (the gecko not the roaches- they're cute as roaches go bc very teeny, but not at all sassy, they're just lil buggos). Not as personable as cresties but definitely handle-able and once actually in hand don't seem to care much. Though I also agree that cresties are the MVP. I've had mine since the day after she hatched and she's been gently handled most days of her life. She's the most chill creature who ever lived and I just kind of hang out with her on me for a bit nearly every evening. She's spoiled, cute, funny, has tiny eyelashes, and can't catch a bug to save her life, what's not to like?
I recently priced out a gold dust day gecko setup. This would be my first herp as an adult, (I had turtles for like two minutes as a small child) so I’m starting from zero on the supplies front. To do a fully bioactive Tanner Serpa style vivarium with quality life support equipment and all the plants and mosses my heart desires plus the gecko and some starter food…. it’s going to cost at least $1800 in total. 😅 That’s going to seem like an absolute pittance someday when I graduate to much larger and fancier enclosure builds and I know that day geckos are pretty cheap to maintain, but still. I can’t help it, I didn’t want to go the “box of dirt” route for my first real reptile, especially since I’ve been learning so much about enclosure building and proper husbandry over the past few years. I wanted something pretty and showy, sue me. ETA: speaking of arboreal/semi arboreal colubrids… my absolute dream is to put a mangrove snake in one of those ginormous, fully kitted out Orinoco Grande enclosures from In Situ Ecosystems. I’m thinking paludarium, custom background, live plants, the works. It’ll cost thousands and thousands of dollars, but by the time I’m ready to undertake that project I’ll be making doctor money so I think I can make it happen. 🤷🏻♀️
I bought things I should’ve never bought. They ruined my tank like a waterfall. Just flooded the side of my tank. Just ridiculous I should’ve never started this
I don't even have to pay for one, a trucj delievering lizards to a pet store flipped over in the late 90s near my house and they all got away. Since then from May to September they are everywhere outside, hell they even sneak into the house.
