These 5 RIDICULOUS Outdated Reptile Keeping Practices Must End NOW! 

yep!

Agree!

I understand from two perspectives. A giant glass box with nowhere to hide would even stress me out. More space in the wild means more food options available. More space in captivity doesn't come with the same increase. Given proper enrichment and making sure your animal eats, the rest makes no sense to me either.

Lmao

​@@WickensWickedReptiles Also good to point out when you first move your animal to a larger enclosure it is going to be stressed! But it would be just as stressed if you moved it to the exact same size enclosure or to a smaller enclosure. Reptiles just generally get a bit stressed when you move them. I had to move my boa's tank (not even put her in a new tank, just relocate the one she was in) and she went on a 2 month hunger strike. She was definitely stressed over it, but it had nothing to do with tank size, it was 100% due to snakes needing time to adapt to a move.

if you stop learning, your meaningful life is over. Life is all about learning.

@@WickensWickedReptiles I feel like I am brain burnt out at the end of every work day there is nothing left to absorb 🤣

@@WickensWickedReptiles learning will drive you crazy but it’s good to keep updated

Amen!!!

Why does my phone say this video was posted 3 hours ago but this comment was posted 2 days ago

it's all about doing your best!

I needed this. Thank you

@@anniec6211 all you can do is your best.

I cringe at my childhood self

@@herpthings i find that life is a series of moments where you cringe at stuff you did in the past. Just means you're growing.

100% the way life is man!

@@WickensWickedReptiles Not always, though. Fish tanks, for example, are actually much easier to manage when they are bigger.

when I talk about elaborate enclosures, I always think of your enclosures.

@@WickensWickedReptiles Thanks Adam 😊

This is not a rant against you or Adam, it is my observation in general terms. I am happy to see animal welfare taken more seriously now. What I am not seeing is an understanding of the species being kept. Again, in general terms, not this video. We are getting farther away from what was common knowledge by the early field herpers. Sometimes the "enriched cage" is kind of off the mark for the intended species. Take Cal kings for example. I live near Cal king habitat, and I have seen the micro-habitats where they thrive vs where they do not. It is not at all about looking good, about fake plants, about branches. The things live in the ground. Flat-ish ground mostly, or gentle hillsides, but in the ground in a network of tunnels. We can't really do that in captivity, so we try to simulate with low-height hides and moist hides, which is all good and approximates it to some extent. Branches not necessary, potted plants not necessary. Not every cage needs to look like a lot of cages are now looking - in many cases all the same decor, as if all of the species are the same. Which is the exact argument against racks. Ever been to western hognose habitat? I have seen one cage that approximated that. A plywood box with loamy soil and dry grass. Heated from above. The owner's hognose made burrows, and the female laid eggs in there. Just awesome. Now that is a naturalistic cage and yet not elaborate at all. Not even difficult. Simple was best in this case.

@@AllCanadianReptileGirl Something I say in my jumping spiders groups is that we *have* to give our animals advantages to captivity vs. life in the wild. Food security and lack of predators make a big difference to these animals but enrichment alongside those gives our babies the chance to live their best lives with us.

This is the same issue with parrots.

thank you so much!

I'd watch this channel over those any day! (Not saying Clints or sd are bad, still an awesome 2nd best)

I’ve always hated that phrase because it’s almost exclusively used by people that don’t want to take responsibility and make necessary changes. It’s used to excuse actions that are known to be harmful.

I hate feeding containers so much

I appreciate that!

I prefer to learn from those who can admit when they're wrong. Means I can trust in being right or wrong together.

Some of the principles from 30 years ago will come back I believe. The good stuff. When herpers applied field knowledge to husbandry. I hope anyway. What they did not have back then was the better temperature control equipment, heaters and lights that we have now, and that part of the hobby will continue to improve in the future.

People are going to nit pick I'm happy with what I got

Just because you are happy doesn't mean you're animal's are.

@@ipodhty my animals are dying 😢😭💔 and they never get held 😢😞😔😪💔😭 they don't shed probably ether 😭 they never eat ether. I'm kidding crucify me for keeping them in tubs and adventualy rack system. 🤷‍♂️ worry about your self not what others are doing. Unless they are starving a reptile stomping it ot cooking it and neglecting it. Or making it bleed. You can have lot of space for them to move around in but they are going to hide a lot aspecually when they are older. I had many people tell me to do this and that. So I stop listening to people and watched what people do for a long time and I'm glad I talk to breeders not Facebook people or comment people because breeders help me out a lot. Aspecually this breeder I go to he's against tubs but that's just him and he has some in tubs but mostly all are in nice set ups. Which are really cool but I'm not into nice set ups. I care about getting the Temps right and making sure my snakes are healthy

@@Hardhatreptiles95 I don't even understand what you are trying to say. He states throughout the video that it is his opinion on many things and he also says he doesn't have anything against a tub setup. I'm sorry that you took offense to a video that is 100% reasonable and does nothing to take away from your tub keeping practice.

I’ve heard of vets being like this a lot, and tbh I think a lot of this comes from them seeing lots of reptiles basically at death’s door in their line of work. They’ll see a lot of reptiles with impacted substrate in their gut that had generally poor husbandry, but not the ones that are healthy and also kept on substrate. So then the substrate gets blamed more so than the overall husbrandry etc.

Write a letter, explain politely. Maybe they will consider further education.

xZepherx is completely correct in my opinion. I'm a third year veterinary student so that's where I'm forming my opinion. Its very important to keep in mind that most reptile keepers do not take their animals in for annual exams as one would for a dog or cat or even horse. Mostly, because there are no annual vaccines for reptiles. I would argue, you should still take even reptiles in for an annual physical if you can though. Just the same as we go in for annual exams, we can catch problems sooner and develop a baseline level of health for that particular animal. That is all very important in the long run. However, for the most part, we don't see healthy reptiles. We see ill reptiles. For example, I have a leopard gecko in a bioactive terrarium with loose substrate. I take my leo in for annual physicals to our teaching hospital. We have a wonderful post-doc student in our exotics department that keeps his animals bioactive and he still won't often recommend loose substrate to clients because the top reasons they see leopard geckos are 1) Vitamin A deficiency, 2) stuck shed, and 3) impaction. They rarely see a healthy leopard gecko at all, much less a healthy leopard gecko on loose substrate. Mine is likely one of the few healthy leopard geckos they see all year. Lastly, another reason is we do not receive a lot of exotics training unless we go out of our way to learn it. Its not often apart of our core curriculum. This makes sense though when you think about it. We're licensed to treat All animal species when the equivalent degree for human medical specialists only allows them to treat a single species- humans. We focus on 5 core categories- dogs, cat, horses, cattle, and small ruminants (sheep and goats). Frankly, its hard enough to learn 5 species in as much detail as we are expected to within the core curriculum much less additional species. We also tend to talk about "reptiles" as we would dogs or cats. But in reality, the reptile category is extremely diverse. Its not just like learning about a dog vs a cat. Its more like trying to memorize everything about All mammalian species everywhere- and we all know how very different a cow is from a dog despite them both being mammals. This is why most vets won't see exotic animals- they chose to focus elsewhere (like on dogs or cats or horses). Those of us that want to treat exotics (or anything other than our core species), take electives and volunteer to work with exotics over our breaks. Some of us even go on to do internships and residencies to learn enough to care for them properly. Even then, we tend to have to focus on a select few species that we decide to specialize in simply because the numbers and information are overwhelming. This is why I would always recommend finding board certified exotics specialists for your animals if you can. I realize that's not always possible though, so simply speak with your vet more often about possibly them collaborating with an exotics specialist. 99% of the time, they'll want to send things off to a specialist if you are willing to have that added expense because they also want the best for your pet.

@@ZepherArt lmao I had a small animal and bird vet tell me not to worry about my discolored beardie's tail because if it dropped it would grow back. Needless to say I scrambled to find a reptile specialist asap.

@@pinecreekranch9075 I also agree and kudos to you for sticking with Vet school because it's definitely harder than trying to become a primary care Dr for people! I tried studying about 20 different species of animals at one point but had to give it up because it was too overwhelming for me. I do wish more promising vets would focus on reptiles a bit more as I don't have any in my area. I can say I've been lucky tho the past couple years with keeping all my reptiles on loose substrate. I learned it's best to tong feed or bowl feed crickets and other insects to my geckos, beardie etc. as they have never had impaction issues. I think the reptiles with impaction issues may be free roam feeding 🤔

agreed

True that and depending how far in time you go back we didn't know any better and without that learning we wouldn't have what we have now. I first started keeping in 1986 with a red sided garter snake. The set up was a basic vivarium with a unguarded household light bulb. The stats you had to attach the plugs yourself. It was kept on woodchip wall paper with a single hide box and a water bowl. The reptile shops were also an interesting experience. Looking back on it even in my life time its crazy to see how far things have come on.

@@alexp3519 yeah. I mean if we don't know better, what is there to be ashamed off. As long as you improve, and learn,imo everything is fine

I love seeing other people with BPs who climb! Mine loves it :)

Think about nature outside. The ground isn't just a nice flat space. It's bumpy af

@AlyFrederi I agree with you. The body shape of a ball python - the heavy base with the smaller neck and head - that is a snake that can strike from a burrow, can climb on/around ground-based obstacles, I suppose even up into low trees by concerntina method if they actually do indeed hunt birds.

Similar to Woma pythons - largely considered terrestrial and even fossorial but they’ve now been recorded climbing in trees, just no one ever really looked for them there.

My ball python loves to climb. We don't have UVB but regularly take him outside to let him roam. Last time he was outside, he climbed straight up the wall of my house. 😆

science baby!

You'd be surprised. Most of the Facebook groups are full of outdated info and breeders normalizing substandard care.

Good luck, corn snakes are rad!

That is awesome! thanks so much for watching and commenting

True!!

Agreed! Having done something for a long time - and even having it work out okay - doesn't mean it's optimal or even right! People who are open to learning and trying new ways that have science or logic behind them tend to make the best keepers (and the best people, frankly). What kind of horses do you work with? What are some of their names? 😊

@@Trynedge I own and show miniature horses! 😊 My horses names are Aries, Sampson, and Gianna 💜💜 A friend's Shetland pony is staying at my house too, his name is Balenciaga And we have miniature donkeys too! Arthur and Gus 💜 One of the barns I work at has Warmbloods (like in between normal sized horses and draft horses) Tigger, Rex, Evie, Santiago, and Maui 😊

Hogs in particular are the outlier most of the time. They are just weirdos in almost every aspect lol

I do my best

same!

hahahah right

All the time.

I feel really bad for kids growing up today .. my childhood was awesome ! If we could go back to no internet... discovering things meant so much more .. even if you didn't discover as much as kids do today . It was just different.. I remember the first huge Burmese python I ever saw .... was a guy that used to travel the country in a tractor trailer with his huge snake in the trailer . You paid 50 cents to walk in and see this big ass snake and walk out the other side of the trailer ... and he made alot of money that way .. but , it probably was just enough to put gas in the semi , and feed himself and the snake !! Not much more .. but again , this was early 1980s. And it was great .

@@robg7970 H

@@claraog thanks for the reply

100%

@@WickensWickedReptiles Maybe top 5 best tree frogs, top 5 amphibians for cohabing, or top 5 underrated amphibians? I would love to watch that

@@aidanlauzier326 all of the above! 😄

Well said!

100%

Agreed, I feed my garters in a separate bin since I house then communally and I don't want food fights.

Yeah, it really depends on the insect you are providing and what pet it is. For my Leopard Geckos, if I am feeding them any type of worm, I either just throw them in a food dish or i give it to them in their enclosures. But fast insects like crickets, i usually feed in a separate bin because crickets are a pain in the ass.

My Gecko happily eats whenever i put her in a seperate feeding bin but stops and kind of freaks out once she notices she is trapped lol, so i stopped doing it.

When feeding my beardie I put a deep plastic pan inside his cage when he is getting crickets or roaches. It lets him chase them around and I can line it with calcium powder without having to somehow catch, dust and decant an angry roach army.

What do you use in the geckos cage, do u do substrate or a reptile carpet? I'm new to this. We have a leopard gecko and now I'm questioning EVERYTHING the pet store told us lol

@@kristimorrison6501 the pet store was probably wrong. This is Adam’s care guide on leopard geckos: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eraphJhNwd0.html

That's very smart. I was going to suggest teaching them how to target. When the target is there no food. When you don't have it then it's feeding time. Or, something similar

@@kiki29073 I have seen a lot of people that have retics use a hook. They tap the snake with the back of it to see what mode they are in and to let them knows its time for handling and not feeding. Takes time, but it works well!!

wow eh

Glad you enjoyed it! Diamond is the man!

hey thanks so much for watching

thanks so much for watching

thank you so much!

amazing

that is awesome

Yeah, my beardie right now is 4 months and 12 inches and I’ve got him in a 120 gallon and he loves it

I hope you get better very soon!

@@WickensWickedReptiles thank you im improving so I'm hoping to be home Saturday maybe I appreciate it man keep up the great work on your videos by far my favorite reptile youtuber

You miss your beardie… but don’t miss your wife? 🤣 JK, man. Feel better soon!

Thank you, I will

amazing!

amazing!

It's hard to say that snakes need it because we can't provide any evidence to back up our claim. We know that they benefit but not why yet. I give all my reptiles uvb and encourage others to

crazy right

Right ! I did notice my eclipse gecko not liking her bright light above her tank. So I took it down and she has light coming from the snake tank next to her. She comes out more during the day now.

Specifically basking reptiles can go blind because of UV explosure (in Clint's "Top 5 Iguanas" video, you can see some Iguanas that have gone mostly blind). Human albinos tend lose vision as they age too. I would never get an albino in a species that needs lots of basking.

It's worth remembering that most artificial light is *much* weaker than natural sunlight. Like, less than 1% the strength of the sun.

Yay! Thank you!

same

hahaaha

wow really?

@@WickensWickedReptiles ya she just hisses at the mouse. The only tried and true way to get her to eat is a deli cup. Nothing else. Not Tupperware either. Just a deli cup 🤣

The reptile community generally just sucks like that, there is a great part but usually there is always a ton of unlikable rotten apples in these groups.

You animal...😂

thank you so much!

for sure

I agree, really awesome and underrated lizard

geez I needed to google earlobes to know what it was (not english native) and got super confused. Thank god you added the last sentence

bruh.... so silly

Duuuuuuuuuude some people are idiots

@@snakeluvr1395 the worst part was look ingot when I said "thats not true"

Thanks, you too!

Your welcome

for sure

weird

hahahhaaha wild eh

Don't forget that people justify Betta Splenden tanks by saying they 'live in puddles." Never knew you could call a gigantic miles long rice paddy a puddle.

I had thought everyone knew that rule was for fish between 1-3 inches only (like 10 1 inch ember tetras will be fine in a 10 gallon, but a 10 inch oscar definitely can't fit.)

I hope you enjoyed!

@@WickensWickedReptiles sure did! Learned a lot from your channel 😄 Thanks for all you share!

sure seems like it!

hahahhaa

Thanks 👍

very good!

If they’re not eating inside their enclosure it may mean they don’t feel comfortable eating inside the enclosure (perhaps it’s too open and there isn’t enough clutter). You could try adding more clutter. Or feeding them in a container inside the enclosure, so they can leave on their own (without needing to be picked up to move them back).

hey I'm just glad you guys like them :)

that's wicked!

thanks so much for watching

you can always just got to the store every few days

I love giving climbing opportunities

That’s awesome! You’ll be upgrading your corn once he’s an adult, though, right?

@@nightinggale6470 yes, that’s the plan.

thanks so much! I appreciate the push a few years back!

great point!

Good point!

I strongly recommend feeding inside the enclosure, moving to feed can potentially risk regurgitation. Regarding her feeding response, I’d look into tap/target training, they’re very effective.

haha