@@80Kpml08 You, sir, are lying!! Everyone knows that what you say is literally impossible... the chameleon would surely get a respitory infection from walking a dog, duh
Imagine working on your project one evening calmly sipping your coffee when you hear an odd noise, and suddenly WHAM there it is before you know what hit you, a giant tortoise tears itself mercilessly through the wall as it embarks upon it’s path of destruction. Children scream, alarms start ringing triggering the police as sirens sound, and cats screech panicked meows as the four-legged boulder makes it’s way through the wall and from the tv you hear HEEEERE’S JOHNNY!!
And you know that you can't be upset with the tortoise, not only because of the sweet face lol, but you should have known that it was gonna get this size and do this one day but you didn't prepare
I was given a tortoise when I was 5, so 30 years ago. I'm sad to say we did not keep him right for many, many years. But to be fair, 30 years ago there was not great information on what each species of tortoise really needed. Sleepy is definitely a happy boy today though!! I could never get sick of him. He's my first baby. 💖🐢💖🐢💖🐢💖
I want one so badly but I have to wait until I move out of my parents’ house first. They definitely won’t let me get another pet, it took forever to convince them to let me get a bearded dragon and I’m 19 and have my own money to take care of them. I can’t wait to expand the collection
@@tradeka4206 I'm thirteen and i have 4 leopard geckos, 1 bearded dragon, and 4 house geckos. It's very obvious i'm pushing my limits haha! I assure you, just be patient and maybe take them to pet stores with the reptiles you want in stock, to kind of get them to understand why you'd want one. I pay for all my lizards myself as well, I feel you man! I'm trying to get a hognose, but my family is very christian and my mom literally believes they are the devil lmao
honestly i'd even put bearded dragons on the list, a lot of people i've seen get them for their kids never look after them properly and they end up dying or getting health issues due to lack of space and other things
Raised a iguana at age 8 it was forced upon me by my younger brother who didn't want to raise it. I was bitten a few times but that was because I wasn't careful and I startled it. My older brother was bitten in the face because the iguana wasn't familiar with him. Definitely won't bite off a finger but it will Hurt. They only seem to bond with one person too so not the best family pet.
Some offered me a beautiful baby albino bright yellow 'green' iguana. I was so tempted to have it... it was soooooo cute and amazing. But, i know that when it got big I would not like it... so, even though it was hard to resist, I managed to.
"I think all reptiles are amazing" I am holding you to this when you end up keeping 500 venomous snakes as your 10 million subscriber special in a few years.
Remember, wild caught may seem cheaper, but you have to get them checked for parasites(Which they will have) and pay for the resulting treatment from the vet.
Also, by harvesting wild animals, you are impacting their native populations. Unless you are a breeder/zoo who is dedicated to the survival of the species, it is somewhat questionable ethically (in my opinion).
Yes, and it's just mean and cruel.....it damages the ecosystem, causes suffering for the captured animals and stress from being caught, transported, and caged up. It can also make some species go endangered or eventually extinct.
@@ShinningCrys I will say that our "wild caught" painted turtle is very friendly. But he was also rescued from a factory when he was about the size of a thumbnail, so he's very used to people
I dare you to actually upset some people. Let’s talk about the trend in snake care, where a single snake owner is expected to have that $60-$150 animal to be in practically zoo quality set ups ($250 set up at least). While many snake keepers with thousands of dollars worth of morphs in their collection, are keeping those snakes for $40-$50 per animal. I have seen it specifically said many times “for 1 or 2 snakes they need a 4x2x2 front opening enclosure with clutter and 2 or more hides. As your collection grows you might start looking into a rack system.” Like why is this okay for the animals? Isn’t the correct response is if you cannot afford keep the animals in the correct enclosure then you cannot afford those animals? Why does that not apply to reptiles?
Agreed 100%. And then the justification follows, from the professionals, that it is better for the animal to be in a rack system with zero enrichment ... (rolls eyes)
I agree that most of these belong on the list, but I can’t help feeling like nile monitors should have been on there as well. It boggles my mind seeing them at so many shops and shows for $50
Me, never owning nor intending to own reptiles of any kind, immediately logging on to see what controversial trash talk Adam is gonna throw out there today
Honestly I feel that a general risk with snakes is that they may decide they like burrowing and now you have a pet sandbox, honestly I was expecting to see my cornsnake far more but she really like to burrow 😅 to watch her when she is out I installed a camera to watch her without being disruptive (awesome decision I recommend for anyone with shy reptiles)
That's what I want to do with my BP! Get a camera set up, see what he does when nobody's looking haha. I clean the tank and get it all purdy.. by the next morning, he's shifted everything around. Apparently Tortellini doesn't appreciate my decorating XD
@@laurelh1975 Ember does the exact same thing! Or it'll be looking great and she's like hmm... poop now I think. Get that on camera biatch? I love her really tho, she's got spunk 😅
Hey, that's not a bad idea. I have an African fire skink, and she loves to be burrowed more often than not. I might set up a camera when I can't catch her coming out to eat at 3 am.
*looks at chameleon with my eyes exactly 3 cm open* Chameleon: oh-oh god did..did you just give me that look? Oh uhm..I don’t feel so good I-i rly don’t feel so *dead*
My sandboa (saharan) is super active at dusk, it always gets out of the sand and explores for 4-5 hours. I think on the contrary they're pretty underrated.
Totally knew iguanas were going to be on this list. I know quite a few people who had baby iguanas, at one point, and then a few months later you never hear about them ever again. 1 kid thought he was cool back in elementary school having his baby iguana on a leash sitting on his shoulder for show and tell. Never heard anything about that iguana after that. Several years ago I went to a friend's house and she had an iguana in like a 40 gallon tank. Apparently it was her step-kid's pet. I told her the tank was way too small. From nose to tail tip, the tank was maybe 3 inches longer than the iguana. She shrugged because she didn't know anything about reptiles and "it's not my lizard." 🤦♀️ And unfortunately, I also had no authority over her step-kid's responsibility. But I told her if they EVER needed to rehome it to call me. Never got that call. And now her and I have drifted apart as friends, so no idea what happened to the iguana. Definitely a great list. How about a baby update video? I know this year you hatched hogs and BPs. If there are any that hadn't sold, how are they doing? Any individuals with particular personalities? Did you name one Zapdos Jr?
I loved my panther chameleon, but you’re right. They take a ton of effort to care for them properly and we went to the vet just like you said. He also was far from my first reptile and they def shouldn’t be the first reptile in my opinion.
100% agree on sand boas. I never see my sand boa. I'm essentially taking care of an enclosure. Sometimes I dig him up just to check on him and see if he's alright. Due to the colder weather lately, he's been even more reclusive than normal.
when i was younger, like still in middle ish school. A person my mom worked with gave us an iguana, in a 10 gallon tank and he hated everyone and was not healthy. We didnt know much about them, but my dad helped me build him a big screen enclosure with a locking door and plants and stuff. He stayed in my room with me and every time i touched him would snap at me. But only i was allowed close enough to him to feed and stuff. He was that hurt by his previous owners and i think theyre children were too much for him. But he trusted me enough to feed him and occassionally pet him. Unfortunately he only lasted a couple months or so because he was that distraught and stopped drinking so my brother had to soak hi in the tub for me. But that poor guy just stopped fighting. I was so sad. Even at a young age knowing next to nothing about them, i still tried my hardest and was heartbroken i couldnt help him more. Im still upset at the deplorable state those people had him in. Youre right, not for the people who do care for them correctly. But iguanas are unfortunately one of those cheap pets that dont get treated well enough.
I was told by my homeowner’s insurance rep that her company (a major insurer) will not write policies for people who have Green Iguanas, because they have had to pay out on so many claims for serious injuries. I’ve since learned they are quite capable of biting off human fingers, and causing all manner of extremely serious, disfiguring injuries. No thanks!
Any animal can be aggressive, i don't see how they could do that. I would sue for discrimination since i have an iguana. She has her moods but has never done anything i would consider dangerous, i also don't let people handle her that have no prior experience more for her safety than theirs. Not attacking you. I'm not here to offend anyone just voicing my opinion
@@MrGir187 I've heard it's usually more often the male iguanas that cause the worst injuries. You should check out one of Clint's Reptiles more recent videos - he went down to Florida and they found a wild (invasive) male green iguana. They get absolutely enormous, and their head and jaw muscles are ridiculous. The way that I've heard they can remove fingers or chunks of flesh is by "alligator-rolling", and with how strong the males' jaws are, I can see how it happens. I know that females usually don't tend to get as big, and their heads are like half the size as a male's. As far as the insurance companies go, however, I don't think you would have a case for suing. Some companies refuse to cover clients who have certain breeds of dog, so I am not surprised that they will choose to not insure other animals as well.
I work in insurance and insurance companies are allowed to decide what risk they will/won't take on and it is not discrimination. It is based on claims history and statistics. Some insurers won't give home policies for certain breeds of dogs that have a statistically high bite and injury rate. Some won't do home insurance in hurricane or wildfire prone areas. Some refuse to cover certain exotic pets. The government cannot force any insurance company to take on higher claims risks, especially with homeowners. There is one exception for auto insurance but that isn't related to this post.
@@arasartsandjewelry7647 i get what your saying and appreciate the info but now you have me curious. When you say its based on claims and statistics i'm wondering how many people actually reported iguana attacks for this to actually be a thing? Seems like this would be a small number when compared to dog bites, except maybe in Florida.
@@MrGir187 idk, but it wouldnt surprise me if there were a lot of bites involving children and er/urgent care visits back in the 90s when iguanas were the cool 'in' pet to get your kid.
Related to the sand boa, I used to really want a sunbeam snake, until I heard Tyler Rugge say that owning one is like owning a tub of dirt and you never get to see it. Yeah, not my thing either
Hi, Adam! Can you make a video of the top 5 reptiles that have an easy diet? I love your videos, and I know that you’ve done one of the top 5 snakes that don’t eat rodents, but I think that a more general list would be great too. Keep up the great work! Edit: Your channel encouraged me to get a reptile, and yesterday, I got a baby created gecko named Tiki!
Well, I would recommend Mourning geckos! Theyre similar to crested geckos after all they eat a special powder you just mix with water, its super easy! They cant be handled sadly since theyre small and dart a lot, but its fun to watch them jump around the enclosure. Over all theyre just great pets
Can you do a Birchwood vs PVC vs Melamine vs Glass, enclosures reviews? I'm curious about the pros and cons in your opinion and which are best for what types of reptiles!
Totally agree about chameleons. Our rescue gets contacted about them quite a bit and they are almost always in extremely poor health, often requiring lots of vet care and months of rehab. In our opinion, the hardest thing about caring for them is finding the correct husbandry information. There is so much misinformation out there and if even one aspect of their care is wrong, they can crash quickly. We've had them come in with all sorts of ailments, including severe MBD, gout, dystocia, and 4th degree burns from using the wrong heat bulb.
I am in AZ and talked extensively about sulcatas to a guy who works at both our local reptile store and at the Phoenix Herp Society rescue. I was curious bc I have 1/3 acre. My yard wall is block. However, he said that they can dig down 8-10 feet in our sandy soils. That means digging under the house, under the fence, the shed, etc. So, no sulcata for me.
Definitely agree with the green iguanas! My brother got one, super cheap from a pet store.. "They're so easy!" I think he had Iggy in a twenty gallon, maybe a thirty? He was super little when we got him. Because of how slow and boring he was (husbandry was probably a factor), brother's friend was holding him and went, "He's so lazy.. I wonder what he'd even do if we put him down?" Proceeds to set Iggy on the floor.. and lizard is gone instantly. Of course my parents had a vent cover removed to clean it out..so yeah, iguana in the vents. Eventually we got him back, unscathed. Still kept him for a bit, until my brother started noticing, hey, he was getting bigger, go figure! He was rehomed to a dude who was really into iguanas. Had a huugee enclosure for one, it was massive! My brother and parents were looking at his full-grown iguana going, "THAT's how big they get??" lol..
I used to work at PetSmart, before that I was a reptile keeper at a zoo. I denied so many sales on our Chameleon because I had a list of questions I would ask people. If they couldn't answer the majority of them or they were not willing to listen to me educate them, I would tell them a Chameleon is not for them, and work with them to find the right reptile for their family. I was so lucky too that my manager 100% trusted my judgment on reptiles and would back me up in denying a sale.
Errin FACTS I think they're VERY overrated IMO my first reptile was a BP I bought it from Brian it was cool but.... nothing like my black throat monitors LOL or my alligator 🐊
Hey, let’s look at my ball python in the cool ass enclosure I spent a ton and made it perfect for him......oh, he’s hiding again.....wait is it hiding if you absolutely never come out? I hate spending time and money to go to reptile shows only to find that the show is 90% ball pythons. There are some very cool morphs and they are a good starter snake but, there are definitely cooler snakes. Overrated. I agree with his other mentions as well.
Since I have started listening to you and snake discovery I have learned more about reptiles than I ever thought I would. I really like the way you both put the importance on the animals. Diamond is one of my favorites in your family. Thank you for all that I have learned and keep up the good work
I’ve got one as well. He is awesome. I have a little tree cave hide in his enclosure, and that is his lair. Sure he spends time in the substrate, but he also hangs out in there a lot. I also see him climbing up through the top occasionally. Maybe mine is special. lol
We got our red eared slider, Buddy, as a baby about 10 or so years ago. He was my sister's but she lost interest in him after a while. She later started working at PetCo/Smart and learned that they are the Worst beginner pet. But we couldn't part with him, he's family now, so we built him a nice filtered pond with a waterfall and land area in our living room. He hates people and he only eats a specific turtle pellet. He refused the feeder fish that came with him. Won't eat anything else. He's a that but we still love him.
Hi Adam! I just found your channel a couple days ago, so far I’m loving it! You take such good care of all your reptiles! I’m subscribed, it’s a crime not to be! Keep up the amazing content!
I have a Kenyan Sand Boa male who is about 6 months old and he is very personable. It is true, they dont move much, but he does poke his head up often. Actually at night they will climb around a lot. I provide a branch in mine’s enclosure and sometimes at midnight I will see him climbing on it. He is very fun to handle and actually seems to enjoy it, believe it or not! He likes to explore between our fingers and up our sleeves! Sometimes if I hold him up to my face for a photo or something he will try to go between my glasses and my eyes- he is more fun than what a lot of people give these little worms credit for :D
Excellent video Adam. Back in the day a lot of people would see a green iguana in a movie and would rush out and purchase one. Almost a year later they were like, what the hell did I do. Digging the intro 👍🏾. Keep up the stellar edutainment and take care🇺🇸🇨🇦.
I know I'm late to this video, but one other thing worth noting is that chameleons do not enjoy being handled. When you pick them up and they flare their bright colors, it's because they're stressed. In other words, if you own a chameleon, it hates you.
How come that beardies are not on this list every petco/petsmart or what ever has these and sells them for tiny enclosures. If i tell people i have reptiles they are like “oooh you have a bearded dragon” and no i have not. Beardies are cool little spiny fellas but they have been neglected over time by mass production. So i kinda thought they would be on the list of overrated. They are for enthusiasts and not 5 year olds. Go get your son an aquarium and a guppy they die much faster and dont have to sufficate for that long.
Hi I love this channel because you give great advice and I like that you are nice enough to comment back to all of your comments and not a lot of youtubers that do that
thanks! i have been torn between a hognose and a sandboa for five years now. i am still in the research stage. thanks for putting information out there. i watch clint's and emilys channel too. and they still left me in limbo. finally you told it how it is
Yeah I did want a green iguana as a kid when I was about 6 and still did up till high-school...but even then I knew they needed a huge custom enclosure and I had planned going all out for one while living on my own....then life changed...I got into a relationship and am now happily married...and an iguana just wouldn't fit that lifestyle...so boa constrictors, vampire crabs, and a tarantula are much more suited for me now and in my opinion way more affordable and rewarding...boas are the best and I'm happy it turned out this way. :)
LOL by the end of you saying that chameleons don't make good pets for most and was about to go to number 3, an ad shows up with a chameleon. Perfect timing
Can you do a slightly different video on maybe the top plants you recommend for reptiles you keep or most people do for their living vivariums and or bioactive terrarium s?
Agreed on Sand Boas, Rosy Boas are a much nicer, more interactive alternative. They seem to enjoy being held once they get used to it, or at least enjoy the enrichment of getting out of the enclosure when I hold them. They're very curious and you'll see them exploring around their cage, especially at night. Also there humidity requirements are a bit more middle of the road, which is helpful in my case since I live near the ocean, and humidity is often in the 90s at night. (not in my room mind you, but outside)
There is a family in my northern Canada town that has a giant Sulcata. It always escapes its outdoor enclosure in the summer and takes itself for walks.
Might as well add sunbeam snakes on there right with the sand boas lol. What a lovely box of dirt you have! I do love mine and find it interesting to see what he's been up to at night with new holes dug. They dont much like handling either so I'm happy to let him live his happy little life tunneling around in his tub o' dirt. I get him out about once a week just to check on him and admire that cute face, little beady eyes and amazing burst of color.
My mom had a green iguana for years and years when I was growing up until he died when I was like 13ish (28 now). He was awesome, like a dog or something lol and he got HUGE. His enclosure was only about 120 gallon but he had everything he needed in there, enrichment, a large water pan to chill in, lights etc & he spent 98% of his time out with her just chillin anyways. He followed her around everywhere. He never tried to bite anyone but my dad got a couple little smacks with the tail lol nothing too hard though. He loved green beans and lettuce, stuff like that, it really wasn’t too expensive to feed him. But they do have to eat a lot more than many reptiles. And back when I was a kid & my mom was raising her iguana, the internet wasn’t really a thing yet & we from a tiny nowhere area where it was tough back then to find resources for information on keeping reptiles so she just had to kinda wing it. And she raised a monster sized, super healthy, super happy iguana who apparently had everything he needed. Just based on our experience with him, I would love to have another one. Huge reptile lover, so I kinda want everything, but iguanas hold a particularly special place in my heart, they are just awesome. Not only ours, but other iguanas have been probably the most friendly reptiles. Like rhino iguanas, I’ve seen multiple rhinos from different keepers act like dogs or something, it’s crazy. One of the only reptiles that seem like they actually like socializing with people lol
I have a pet Spadefoot. This is basically the amphibian equivalent to the sand boa. Its really a pet pile of dirt. All I really do is maintain some dirt and occasionally dig it up to make sure the frog is alive. It is a really fascinating little creature, but not exciting. Definitely would not encourage anything like this to just about anyone
If you really want a tortoise, go for a Russian. Much smaller than a sulcata (large hamburger sized), pretty easy temps, and have weird personalities. My guy loves to wander and will find pairs of jeans and fall asleep in the leg.
Great video! I had got an aquatic turtle a while back and realize it was too much for me (thankfully I was able to rehome them to some great experienced turtle owners!) I recently got a corn snake and I love him, his care, feeding etc is absolutely great for our daily lives. I'm hoping to get a tortise in the future but only once our daily schedule and home environment match up, until then lots of research and watching interesting videos like yours! 😁👍
Growing up my friends parents had a green iguana. I’ve lost so many staring contests to it. I don’t remember if it was male or female but I remember how much it hated her dad. It got so bad that our local reptile shop took it in the owners used to joke that it liked my friends mom and that’s why it was lashing out. It gave me a good laugh and we still laugh about it now years later.
I find that seeing my sand boas are similar to playing “ Where’s Waldo”, most of the time you don’t see them but sometimes they come out of the substrate and it’s the funniest thing to see their lil head peek out of it. I was blessed enough to see the female ‘yawn’ before. There’s more exciting snakes out there though of course
Great advice! We have an animal EDU channel of our own and respect others who have similar philosophies and preach caution without being "preachy." Good on you. Subscribed.
i want a chameleon so bad but i know my limits. as an exotic vet tech i’ve seen so many sick ones not make it more often than seeing a healthy older one :(
Fish keepers kill more pets than all the other hobbyists combined (assuming most people are raising cockroaches, superworms, crickets, fruit flies etc. as feeders not pets). For every neglected baby turtle, there are several thousand sick and dying tropical and not so tropical pet fish. They make up over 90% of the pet vertebrates killed annually due to improper care.
I have a sand boa. She climbed on the internal thermometer so I got her a climbing thing with a hide in it too. She climbs and hides in it a lot. She doesn’t like when I pick her up but when I try to put her back she climbs back up my hand
Me in the 90s wanting a iguana and getting a iguana. I couldn't agree me with everything you said. I had a green iguana growing up, was friendly for me but once he got to 3 ft big and I couldn't afford to give him that type of enclosure...ended up passing away...BTW I was 12 when it died and my mom shouldn't have let me get such a big reptile at such a young age and definitely one we couldn't afford to house. I would love to one day have a green iguana again or even a blue iguana but I know for experience that those reptiles are for expert keepers who have the money to care for them because they were expensive back then and I bet they're even more expensive now.
How about a video on the 5 most underrated boa species. I bought 2 at shows not to long ago, and think both of them are incredible. First one was a Saharan sand boa, and recently picked up a Solomon Island ground boa. Both are wonderful to handle
I agree with the turtles please do research. My yellow belly slider is in a 150 gal stock tank and she loves it. She has a DIY basking spot and lay spot for when she is ready for egg laying. Love her to death :) but def make sure the pet you want is something you'll enjoy for a long time.
When I was a kid my dad found a full grown yellow belly slider on a canal in the UK so he took it home and converted an outdoor pond into an indoor enclosure and nice shirt my russian tortoise is named bob Ross. For anyone who keeps tortoises do not walk them on wooden or laminate flooring as you could see in the short clip in this video they can't put all of their foot pads down when walking which will cause leg issues
Living in Arizona I always forget sulcatas aren't easy to keep elsewhere. I feel like everyone and their sister has one here that lives in their backyard, but I couldn't imagine having to keep them inside.
I kept Kenyan sand boas in the past. I will never keep them again! I totally agree with you, they are overrated. I made the green iguana mistake. I bought a baby and I just could not tame him down. I took great care of him for six months and fortunately the pet shop took him back!
Fantastic I never even knew there was even such a thing as a "crocodile monitor".....still thinking of one of your other videos. Monitor lizards are fascinating all seventy plus species. The most impressive one I think I've seen, there have been many including Komodo was a land species, Thalagoya or the Bengal monitor in Sri Lanka. While not the largest I've seen it had muscle and "shoulders" on it like a Schwarzenegger. Forearms like footballs, it was clamped to a tree trunk with giant hook talons. Man that thing had muscle, square outline rather than the long "slender" of the norm. Like some manic spider it shuffled straight up a huge vertical tree trunk. Sure that thing could take monkeys in it's stride.
So this isn't over-rated, its difficult. My friend never had a reptile and got a veiled that lived a long life got huge and never went to a vet. I have a panther chameleon, its my first chameleon. No problems. Just set up the enclosure before hand and know the temperature, etc is good prior to bringing the pet home. I have my lights on a timer. A humidifier I almost never use unless shedding and I soak the cage 1-3 times a day with a sprayer.
He mentions chameleons on almost every video about difficult or overrated reptiles even though he’s never owned one. I will agree with them having a higher cost to start with but once you have all the necessary equipment they’re not very difficult to take care of. Lighting and hydration are key.
Instantly love the content, watched expert & master level, and then this one. All amazing vids, all valuable. But this one sealed the deal, and arguably the most valuable. With the other two lists, you know better. If you have the connections, and know enough about reptiles to want one then you know enough to know it's probably not the best idea. This one though, is stuff you could shoot on over to a pet store and buy today if you wanted(for the most part). This serves as an excellent cautionary tale of: are you ready for this commitment, for the average new enthusiast, and uniformed viewer alike.
Hey Adam when the pandemic comes the an end would you go around and visit other big reptile keeper like camp Kennan for example and check out in person how they keep there reptiles and make videos on them
