Top 5 Most Questionable Reptile Practices | Are These Really That Bad? 

If you ask the reptiles, one questionable practice is “Not letting me bite ears”

The lack of thermostats in general is one of the worst things; they're in no starter kits, commercial care guides, etc... Sometimes they're not even brought up, other times they're listed as "optional" and a way to "make things easier" instead of a necessity

"Rehoming and trading reptiles like they're playing cards" was a great way to state that. Personally, I name all my reptiles and treat them as family. Wouldn't give up my beardie for a Croc Monitor (and I don't think I'd ever want to own another beardie). I can see reasons to trade and rehome but it should not be a usual occurrence. Just my opinion (feel like I always have to put this disclaimer now haha).

To add on about ceder/pine - those are horrible for small mammals too. There are no animals I know of that can be safely kept on ceder and pine. It's one of those things like heat rocks that should not be sold anymore really. I've always wondered how that carefresh stuff would be for reptiles that don't need much humidity though, since I've found it's really good for things like hamsters/gerbils/rats/mice. Not so much for guinea pigs and rabbits though, since you'd need a ton for their giant enclosures.

I just have to say, my almost 7-year-old reptile-obsessed son has his first leopard gecko and he LOVES your videos. Thanks for keeping the content entertaining and kid-friendly. He loves your reptile room tour video and has watched it more than once.

Dude! I’ve had my ball python on aspen since I got him 2 months ago as a juvenile. I changed him out to moist coconut husk about an hour ago after watching this video and he couldn’t be happier! He can’t stop checking it out and he’s even burrowing! Thanks for this vid!

Yeah, everytime I see people keeping like 3 or 4 ball pythons in a 40 gallon enclosure I just think, "For the love of all that is holy! If you don't want to spend the money on the 3 or 4 enclosures then only get 1 ball python!"

I used to keep my leos on the reptile carpet for YEARS! (I know, shame on me). But now I have flat basking rocks over a layer of paper towel in my leos tank. Of course the years of my negligence have already taken its toll and my girl Nessie is missing a few nails. But now she can live her golden years in gecko luxury. Also, so glad you put trading/rehoming in here. I had a ball python that went on a feeding strike. I figured no big deal. I'd heard a million times from fb groups and youtube videos that this happens, and that it could be a month or 2 or 5 til he eats again. Except I think it was more than a feeding strike for him. It was like over night I had an entirely different snake. For a year I had a great bp that ate almost every week and didn't mind me handling him. And suddenly I had a huffy hissy snake that hated me, out of nowhere. Nothing changed. Not his husbandry, not his food, nothing. He just all of a sudden acted like he'd been through the worst trauma of his life and now wanted nothing to do with the world. He just wanted to hide in the darkest corner of his enclosure and stay there. Soon he started losing weight, so I brought him to the vet and nothing. Blood work came back fine, and nothing on x-rays. So after wasting that $500 I felt obligated to force feed him. This made him even more stressed, and trying to force feed a full grown bp that is already afraid of you is the most emotionally draining thing ever. Long story short, I found a reptile rescue that was willing to take in my problem child and I surrendered him to them. I follow them on social media and recently saw that a month after striking at them and refusing food, he finally took his first feeder in almost a year, completely on his own. So they must have been able to do something I couldn't, and hopefully they can find him a good home. In the meantime, I had an empty enclosure staring me in the face, so I filled it with a new snake. lol.

Excited for this one. People don't really address things like this on camera too often they just say what they like instead of what they dislike.

I love this channel, he clearly expresses his love for Reptile’s, and gives information, and admits when he is wrong. He even tells you to go to other places and websites to do further information searching. Not a lot of people are like this.

Thank you the "loose"substrate segment! The whole substrate debate is ridiculous IMO. I have used either Coconut Coir, Play Sand, or Soil/Coir/Sand mix for years and never had issues. In the wild reptiles live on soil or sand! They don't live on newspaper, or Aspen shavings. Get a hamster if you want something that lives on Aspen shavings!

My roommate lost his shit when he found a spare thermostat in a local pet store. He could never find them at the ones by his parents' house, and always got them online.

Crazy thing on cohabitation; I have a male/female pair of hognose. They REFUSE to be separated. When separated, they are always on the side of their tanks trying to get to each other. They are only content together. So, we keep them together and only separate for feeding. They are seemingly content with each other and do better together than they do apart. I certainly agree, cohabitation is dependent on observation of your animals. These two do not do well apart.

I was shocked one time when the owner of this well known and respected reptile shop told me a thermostat was optional...I later found out he did that because it was April fools day...but that scared me it sounded like he wasn't joking.

Everytime someone talks about Emily Me: ❤

For me it's seeing tortoises in fish tanks I just can't understand why

Wait, so you're saying the Australian bush isn't made up of ceramic tiles???

Growing up I had a lot of pets, and as a big animal lover I wanted every creature in sight. As I got older though and became an adult, I realized that keeping a lot of animals didn't suit me and I wasn't adoring some of them like I used to. Recently I rehomed my two leopard geckos that I had since I was a kid, and I gave them to two close friends of mine and they're doing great, and they really love them too! Now I have just a few pets including my one snake that I can focus my attention on better. Some people aren't suited to have multiple animals and it's okay :)

I really like this video busting myths and informing but I gotta say one thing. One of my beardies is a rescue. He's my third one, had two previous owners and tbh it seems that he has needed a settling in period to adjust to me. Most of the 9 months I've had him he's been sulking in his dig box and barely comes out even for food. He has improved, but it's been slow. Granted, he had a rough start with his first owner who kept him in a 2 footer all of his life, didn't handle him and only interacted during feeding, but it really looks like he bonded with his last one that rescued him from there and he hasn't gotten over that separation. Not stating all reptiles are the same way, but I wouldn't be surprised, especially with some species like tegus, that reptiles do develop a bond with an owner over time. For the longest time people thought cats didn't care until we started knowing what to look for when cats get upset. Reptiles are harder to read than cats. But maybe somebody will eventually do a study on the whole thing.

I was literally browsing PVC cages in another tab while listening to this video, and then you mentioned the ReptileKages promo. it was such oddly perfect timing that I'll definitely check them out 😂

10:36 Yo, those little thermometer/hygrometer things are what I use for general monitoring in my rosy boa's enclosure! I find they're not always 100% on temp, but they've always been within about 1-2 degrees fahrenheit and pretty spot on for the humidity so they're definitely good enough for just a quick glance to see if anything's way out of line in between more accurate temp gun checks. Like you said, thermostats almost never malfunction but I'd rather still have a quick indicator if something's suddenly gone sideways.

Good list. 2 things missing in my opinion is don’t power feed and no free roaming large reptiles. My eyes actually rolled when you said cohabbing. Makes me crazy when people who don’t know reptiles ask me why I don’t keep my snakes together so they can have “friends” 😣

So I really like you touching on the right way to do loose substrate. There’s so much info out there and a TON that basically scares the shit outta people to not use a single thing other than tile. Thanks for being awesome!

I'm just glad to know what these 5 things are.

Dude you just helped resolve one of my biggest problems! Finding a good and pleasing enclosure that won't literally cost my arm to get, I also am not crazy about glass enclosures for various reasons. I WILL be getting one of these cages for my Beardie now THANK YOU so much you are a lifesaver! I also loved your video and you content you are so underrated! One of these days your channel is really going to explode I can feel it! Keep up the good work!

This isn’t the exact same kind of tub you’re talking about but I keep both my ball pythons in clear plastic tubs. I think they’re equivalent in size to a like 55 or 60 gallon tank. I love them! They’re so easy to customize and buying tubs allowed me to get a larger size home for my snakes than I could have offered them if I bought glass tanks.

Our bearded dragon was an adult regime situation and he seemed depressed for about 2 weeks after we brought him home. He's better now, but he seemed to miss his old owner.

Adam, I hope you don't mind me saying this. In my view you are the best reptile content creator. To the point, honest, amusing, and never boring, so keep them coming buddy. Regards from independent England.

Just want to say, pine and cedar shavings are also not suitable for small mammals like hamsters! Moral of the story? Avoid soft wood shavings at all costs.

Diamond is the cutest teddy bear reptile ever.

The BP at 3:19 is killing me!!! "Oh no, he's filming me again! HIDE!" hahahaha so cute.

Keeping tubs without any enrichment, or sufficient caves/water bowls is a big issue. I have all three of my ball pythons in large 40 gallon tubs (they are hopefully getting nice tanks one by one once I have money) but providing good enrichment and a nice set up really can work! I think another obvious thing with tubs is making sure you drill or melt in air holes (and sand them if there are sharp pieces). I know a lot of people are against tubs but for me they are really a life saver.

Yes to all of these!! 👍 Thank you for sharing all your knowledge with everyone. Sometimes we feel like everything is just common sense, but to a new reptile person (or even a person getting into furniture building - like I do), it's not. So I appreciate you sharing your knowledge so people can grow and learn. You're the best!

I will say I have avery humid house so keeping my bp on Aspen has been a godsend I went from 90% humidity to 60% and I change it out frequently enough to where it doesn't mold. Just throwing my two cents in I love your channel man!

I am not sure if you'll see it (judging by the most recent comment below this you may), but I cannot stress enough how helpful your videos have been for me. It has been about 7 years since I last had a snake and I am looking at getting one again. In the process of doing better research you have helped me learn an immense amount - from what I didn't know I was doing wrong, new products, bioactive info, species specific information, do's / don'ts, other creator channel mentions, and so much more. So, thank you and keep up with the good work; it is very clear you love the hobby and have a passion for these animals.

Solid points! I will say about aspen though, I feel like you can't say "It is a bad choice for every ball python in every situation". I have tried other substrates and they have each not really worked for my ball python, for one reason or another. I keep coming back to aspen and she sheds in one piece, she has no respiratory issues, she eats like a champ, and I have only personally had mold once (I was lazy and it'd been a min since I cleaned), but I spot clean my snakes' enclosures often. So, I don't think it is fair to say 'it is okay, but other things are better'. This fits all of my snake's needs, so I see the reason why some people might not use it but to put down the use of aspen for BPs entirely seems hasty.

clicked so fast my finger almost fell off lmao

Hello Adam! Really cool vid idea! I might do my own version

This was a really interesting video but I was honestly expecting you to address hybrid species! (Which I've seen your top 5 coolest hybrids video :)). Do you think you could do a video where you talk about the top 5 controversial breeding habits? I'd like to see what you think about stuff like temporary rack systems that don't have a lot of enrichment, breeding snakes for money, breeding certain morphs like spider balls, etc etc. I love your content btw I found you in the recommended section on a snake discovery video ☺️

"Diamond whispered in my ear..." well, better than the usual treatment your ear gets from Diamond

This is prolly my favorite vid so far I love it!

Could you make a video on the reptile culture on Facebook and the groups? It’s one of the worst phenomenons ever and it confuses me

Thanks I'm slowly growing and learning I'm glad you posted this I did learn a few new things always good room to learn and grow and better aid our amazing reptiles

The placement of ads really gets me 😂

Hopefully people will listen because I see the lack of thermostats and/or the question about are they needed all the time. The other is cohabing reptiles that clearly should never be together. The big thing with this whole list is that proper research and putting in the time and/or money would solve all of them. Great video!

Small animal owners actually dont use cedar and pine because of the oils as well. It can irritate them.

It would be great to see a kingsnake care guide from you. I want to be sure I'm doing the best I can for my little Artemis 🐍

Cant lie adam diamond was killing it in this vid made it a little hard to focus on u with the overall cuteness radiating from diamond

Him: gonna chap somebody's behind! AD: PAMPERS!!!

I’ve had my leopard geckos for 17 years. They cohabitated from they day I got them. I got them from someone else that way, and I didn’t know any better. They stayed that way for 17 years. Then this year there started to be aggression issues. I separated them, and they’re happy again. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️

See you Friday, don't really care about winning or not, just enjoy watching your content.

Thank you I love your videos

I do agree that tubs are fine for reptiles if they are done correctly. For example, I looked up what size tub a ball Python would do best in, and it said we keep our adult ball pythons in 41 qt. There was a picture to go along with it and the only thing in the enclosure besides the snake was a water bowl and some substrate! No hides or enrichment whatsoever. I was appalled that people actually do this. P.S. assuming you are talking about Maizee I hope they have a good home

Great videos man

Soo I was watching this, and my brother (who has no interest in reptiles) comes in and says ”Oh I know this guy.” I ask how, and he apparently knows you from your comedy! What are the odds.

Thank you for bringing up Cohabbing. Some people hold this belief that reptiles get "lonely" and "need a friend" and I could not stress it enough to a former co-worker of mine to NOT house a WILD CAUGHT ( I know, horrible) blue belly with her juvenile bearded dragon in a 20 gal tank. I warned her of everything wrong with it, including the likelihood of aggression, the risk of parasites from a wild caught reptile, and how generally unethical this plan was. Every day she looooved mentioning to me how they're "getting along great" and are "sharing" and that I was just so silly for suggesting it was a bad idea. Less than a week into the co-hab, she came home to the bottom half of the blue belly hanging out of her beardie's mouth, both of them dead. I wasn't even shocked, but extremely frustrated with her for putting her own baby beardie and an innocent blue belly in harm's way for no reason other than to try and prove me wrong. Her own arrogance killed her pet and that poor blue belly who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.. I don't work with her anymore, but from what I know, she never did get another bearded dragon.

Our second bearded dragon is a rehomed, the person who we got it from could no longer take care of it so she picked us because she trusted us and have experience with reptiles.

We had our hognose on aspen for awhile. At some point, he just stopped eating and we tried about everything to get him to eat again. As soon as we switched him to a coconut mixture, he ate.

Can't believe how close your getting to 100k

Oooo i didn't know that you needed to be apart of all of those social platforms for a chance to win.:( Nice video though and I will still will come to the stream tomorrow

I’m not the only one who has never heard of a majority of these? Thanks for bringing up all of these controversies for the uneducated (like me).

We need more videos of your northern! He's looking great

I don't have a reptile yet, I have been watching videos to give me some info on all of these reptiles. I want a sand boa in a bioactive cage, but since I am on a low fixed income for being disabled it is taking me awhile to get all the things needed. So I just keep getting as much info as possible would love to have a crested gecko one day as well!! I really enjoy your videos!

Would love a care guide on your king snake, planning on getting my own

Number 2 I totally agree with your opinion! I got bored of my leopard gecko which might surprise you but I got a tortoise instead and I’m much happier

My new gecko was on half carpet half small ROCKS for years. (Still unsure of his age). I immediately did paper towels and fixed his heating situation to heal up until his bioactive is ready. This was a great list!

I def. think that tubs should be used more for animals that prefer to burrow or be under logs than those who'll climb on occasion, because then you're matching their behavior with the environment that they would typically consider safe, or letting them out/putting them back in periods that make the tub simulate a burrow. No shame in keeping animals in a properly set-up tub if it simulates a secure, safe area for them

I use high accuracy sensors and adjust the height of my CHE to control heat. I can check hot and cold on either side, I could set up a PWM outlet but it's pretty constant and allows a nice gradient/hot spot. Arduino is awesome lol.

I used tubs for my snakes when they were babies. It helped keep humidity to make sure they had good sheds, and I found it easier to locate them, especially my corn snake when I first got her. And I’ve never had a snake escape a bin (one with the lockable lids), but I have had snakes escape from glass enclosures.

Emily (Snake Discovery) said you SHOULD use Aspen for ball pythons because not only is the substrate dryer (similar to that of Africa), but it also works effectively when compensating it with a humidity hide Is this alright or not? Does anyone know?

I had no idea Aspen shouldn't be used with Ball python's, gonna change mine out now, thank you!

i love these videos and i really love seeing this channel grow from when i came at 20k subs

my mom uses those heat rocks at her pet store but she doesn't plug them in she always cuts the cord off of the heat rock and just uses them as a another rock for decor because a lot of times people bring in enclosures that they trade and they don't know how bad heat rocks are and they use them so she just ends up with a bunch of them and she like many others hates them but still finds a use out of them by cutting the cord off and using it as a regular piece of decor

I had to rehome all my reptiles (except my beardie Toothless) after my car accident. I couldn’t care for them properly any of them on my own. They weren’t my family’s pets they where mine. So I made the decision to rehome my animals in their best interest. I kept the beardie and made my son hold Toothless when I cleaned her tank out, all he had to do was hold her. She’d sit on his head or shoulder, he played video games and I 1 arm cleaned her tank out. He did help me with preparing her food until I could do it on my own again, but he liked using the magic chopper too. Since I have limitations now due to that car accident I don’t get reptiles I know can’t handle on my own, like my favorite snake a red tail, they just get too big for me to handle and I can’t shoulder them anymore so I won’t have one. :( Yes this is a very different than I am bored I don’t want this animal anymore. It killed me to give them up, all my snakes, frogs, lizards and turtles, but neglecting them wasn’t fair either and I could’ve force my family to take care of my animals for me. Took a year before I could care for anything properly on my own again. Just made me think of it. Now I have 2 snakes again a corn and a ball python, sadly my beardie passed away earlier this year.

I just got my leo off of carpet. my mom didn't realize it was irresponsible and I don't even care that getting them off of reptile carpet takes up like half my xmas, they're safe

I need to get my two balls off aspen because I've been having issues trying to keep the humidity high enough to help them shed, thank you for the info

I run a 8 watt heater on just a timer, I did monitor the first 48hrs tank stays between 75 and 79. 2 off cycles a day. Side mounted on a 10 gallon, works fine.

Great video as always. Could you do a video on handling basics for a variety of lizards and snakes?

I'm glad someone other than my son and myself name all their reptiles after pokemon!!

When I was a kid we co-habbed three wild caught toads, and 3 wild caught fence lizards. They loved it and would run around with each other (definitely not aggressively). The only issue was that we definitely did not do enough research and they were in way too small of tanks and while we did take substrate from where they were caught, we didn't quarantine them or their substrate. Lots of lessons learned (they did all live their full lifespans surprisingly)

My beardie is on a top soil/sand mix and she loooves it. Digs a little spot every night to sleep in! If you’re nervous about using loose substrate try something smaller, like a dig box. Or half loose substrate/half tile etc You never know what they might be missing out on!

Do you have any experience with the deep heat projectors? If so how do you feel about them? I was looking into getting alternate heating sources for a water monitor enclosure.

Great vid

I wanted to add on to what he was saying about cedar and pine substrates and say that it's not so much about the respiratory infection, tho yes that can happen if they are exposed for a brief amount of time. The bigger and i feel, far more important reason to NEVER expose your reptiles to anything containing cedar or pine (watch what candles you burn and air fresheners you use) is because long term exposure can cause seizures. Similarly to what happens when you feed a snake strictly thiaminase carrying fish (like goldfish) and accidently cause a thiamine deficiency. So be careful guys!

Hi, rabbit keeper here! Use paper bedding like Carefresh for your guinea pigs/cavies, hamsters, rabbits, etc. Aspen is okay, but paper is better if you can swing it. You can even go reusable with polar fleece, but my preference is paper bedding because I already have to much laundry to do. I get the store-brand, but Carefresh has a bunch of colours if that's your thing. The oils in cedar and pine that Adam's talking about are hard on our warm-blooded friends' bodies too.

Do you have a way of shipping Kages to Canada? I am looking to upgrade my blue tongue and jewelled Lacerta enclosures but they don’t seem to ship here.

Yeah I have 3 leopard geckos living together and they've been absolutely fine for a few years now. They're in a huge enclosure with tons of hides and I never get any "cuddling" or nipping. Sometimes they seem to forget that the other two exist and go "oh hello" whenever they see each other before moving along lol

Hey great video I agree and I just found almost a the reptiles that you said on your 5 dream reptiles and your the one that inspired me to get a reptile wish I could get a snake my parents won't let me

I usually let my customers know that female leopard geckos have been successfully kept together, but I still prefer to house separately to monitor food intake and feces/urates. I have two juvies together but they will be separated when they're a bit bigger. Same with two female hognose that were clutch mates. Though in their case, I had a divider in their bin and they kept escaping into their sisters side. Once they hit the 10-12 month mark I separated them.

Speaking of Black Solider Fly Larva, I feed freeze dried ones to my redfoots. Good protien, and calcium too.

Quality letterKenny insert!

I’d love to see a video about cohabiting different species. Are there any species that can work well together?

if i use a super thin reptile carpet with paper towels underneath will my geckos claws still be able to get stuck in it? ive already bought a reptile carpet and im wondering if it will be ok

I’m thinking on moving my bluetongue skink from a glass enclosure to a tub reason being he doesn’t like being seen and runs to his hide the moment he is I just think he might be more comfortable in a tub where he can’t see anybody just wondering what your opinion is

I’m getting a Madagascan giant day gecko in December and I think I know anything but would appreciate any tips man! Love the vids BTW!

I immediately thought of heat rocks when clicking this video 😆 no surprise it’s the first thing haha. When I first planned on getting a ball python I got too excited and bought a heat rock cause I read they needed belly heat. I continued reading the next few days and quickly found out how bad they were 😭😆 It never got used of course and I bought a proper heat mat.

With bulbs I’ve found that thermostats don’t really help much, a lot of the time you end up finding a bulb and lamp set up and whatever the normal output is gives you a good temperature. For my bearded dragon at least, I just keep an eye on the temperature of her basking spot and then I have digital thermometers for ambient temperature. The bulb and lamp I use keep her basking spot around 101 degrees which is literally perfect and it never really deviates so I don’t use a thermostat.

i used carpet, my gecko kept getting his teeth stuck on the fibers once to the point where he was stuck for a whole 5 mins so I removed it immediatly

Great video! Love the Cohab section!! Will you please do a video on heat sources for Leopard Geckos? I have belonged to several Leopard Gecko fb groups and they all say something different. Some say you should only use a Deep Heat Projector (but they rarely even use one themselves but they PLAN to, so then the only other option they recommend is a halogen light. This group of people say that heat mats are no good (old information and that CHE’s are no good because they only give ambient heat. The other groups say that heat mats are good because Leopard Geckos need belly heat to digest their food. These groups often say that if you need more heat it is okay to add a CHE to get the proper temps in your enclosure. Which side of the fence do you fall on? I really respect your opinion, so I am dying to know!!! I personally use a heat mat and a CHE. My temperature gradient is perfect. I have a basking area. I use very low UVB lighting during the day. My geckos come out in the evening just like they should. They have perfect sheds and seem very healthy, a little overweight but otherwise very healthy. Isn’t that what really matters? If you already have a video on lighting and heat sources, please let me know. Thank you! Love your videos!!! 💙

I love my 3 by 6 foot grow tent. Although It’s just a temporary enclosure until my baby Argus gets a little older!