Your Reptile Is Bored! 5 Ways To EASILY Enrich Your Reptiles Life 

"If you're watching this you post pics of your reptile on Instagram" bold of you to assume I have a reptile

Diamond: 👁👄👁 Adam: IM A TREE

TV. My bearded dragon Luna, and her deceased predecessor Cuddles (also a beardie) both really loved watching television when they were out of their tank, so I got one of those little travel TV/DVD player things, and set that up outside the cool end of the tank so they could watch TV while they basked (though Luna had a bad habit of crawling over to the cool end of her tank to get as close to the TV as possible while watching it. Luna also would rearrange things in her tank sometime when she felt like it - such as her blankets, crawl box, pillow, stuffed animals, ect. Also, reptiles are actually more intelligent than people gave them credit for; there's been a lot more research on it lately. Bearded dragons have proven capable of social learning through observation, can tell specific humans apart and remember how they've treated them, and respond to Delboeuf illusion the same way humans and other intelligent primates do; red foot tortoises can navigate mazes without visual signals; and giant tortoises can remember tricks they were trained to do for over a decade without practicing the trick at all during that time period.

4:08 that moment when you almost call a room in your house an “enclosure” 👀 I have to admit I’ve done this before too lol

I have what I call the "dollar store playground" for my rosy boa and ball python. I spend very little to no money on most toys. I use stuff from around the house, thrift stores and dollar stores: A plastic laundry basket, cardboard boxes with holes cut in them, toilet paper rolls, wooden dowels, step ladder, wicker baskets, plastic Easter eggs, 3-ring binders, and my rosy boas all time favorite toy... a bike helmet. I set up the playground on my bed and they will play for hours. The "ball pit" of dozens of TP cardboard rolls in the laundry basket are always super popular. I put wooden dowels thru the basket holes to make climbing branches. Cardboard boxes with lots of holes cut in them are great cheap toys. I change mine out every month or so or if they get soiled. I have to change up the toys all the time or they get bored of them and look to get into mischief and end up going places that I don't want them. Because of this I know that snakes aren't as simple-minded as some people claim. The entire playground can be set up and taken down in a minute or two and most everything fits into the laundry basket for easy storage. I think the exercise and my presence helps my slightly timid ball python address his fears. After playing with his toys for a while he acts a lot more relaxed and seems to enjoy being handled. It's so fun when they choose to incorporate you in their play. If snakes had thumbs, they'd give the dollar store playground two thumbs up!

Enrichment has been great for my snakes and beardies. They act so much more chill and calmer around me since i started this a few months ago. Highly recommend. Even if you cant do all of them just a few of them make a difference and develops a better bond. Great vid.

I loved when he said “Now lets move on to number one this is kind of expensive and you probably didn’t see this coming-“ add pops up advertising pampers and first thing it said was pampers

Diamond definitely found your ear enriching. At least she was sticking with the topic of the video.

I like to train my reptiles for enrichment. I like to teach mine to obey commands like a dog. It's really fun to watch them trying to figure out what I am saying, it's like " your asking me to do what" . Somehow they understand and do exactly like I ask. Great idea, have fun with you're reptiles.

I love how similar this is to bird care - changing where things are put, swapping items out, changing diet and playtime

I went bioactive within a month of getting my beardie. The difference in behavior was immediately noticeable. Oddly enough, she seems to enjoy the plants, even if to destroy. I accidentally left a female cricket in there once too many. Now, there are crickets living in there. They just munch on the plant matter in there, leave the beardie alone, and provide my beardie something to chase.

Hahaha he wants that ear. Twards the end his focus on your ear is hilarious.

My little lizard loves obstacle courses, boxes, blankets, toilet paper tubes. He loves scrambling along the table or on the floor of my gaming room. He likes watching me play computer games. Every time I clean out his cage I also rearrange the items in his tank, he acts like it is a whole new world and moves around exploring as soon as I put him back

I take my bearded dragon to PetSmart with me when I need food or supplies. He loves looking out the window of the car when we drive him, he doesn't get stressed at all. Plus he gets attention while we're there and a hornworm when we get home.

I let my corns explore my desk if they feel like it (sometimes, they prefer sleeve naps or to look out of my sleeve and stare at my monitors, trying to figure out what the heck those things are). For once, my tendency to have my desk cluttered is actually an advantage. Are you aware that you can build a different labyrinth every day from ~50 nail polish bottles (yes, it's okay to laugh, really!)? I also added paper tubes to the chaos. Naturally, they learned how to climb down the cables at some point, sometimes they do it, sometimes they don't. If they do, well, it's move-that-lazy-butt-time for me. I was surprised to see that they actually prefer to climb on the stool where I have put the feeding bin once (forgot to put it back where it belongs). I leave it there since, along with another small container in which I've put a fake plant and a root. They like to check that one out, too. You might say that, slowly, their playground is expanding and threatening to take over the whole room. I've also made a part of one bookshelf snake-proof, so when they aim for that, they can explore that, too (all under close supervision, of course). On another channel, I recently saw an "activity" tree for snakes and think that's simple but genius. You basically take a wine shelf, one of those multi-level flower shelves, or a ladder, clutter the "stations" with items they can climb and explore, and let the snake have some fun. Good for the snake, entertaining to watch, and a great excuse to give in to the occasional impulse shopping when you see a lovely plant or piece of decoration that would just too lovely with a snake in, around, or on top of it but technically, the tank is already full. No going outside for my snakes, though. We have occasional gang wars between seagulls and crows on the neighbour's roof and I don't want them to think I'm opening a snek-bar.

I let my bearded dragon get to swimming in my bathtub and he loves it and he hates it when I rearrange his cage because he puffs up all mad so I've stopped doing that but he gets to come out of the cage once a week because he's generally in a bad mood lol

Making King Gizzards enclosure bioactive was the best enrichment idea I ever had and didn't know it was going to do that. His current favorite activity is terrorizing isopods.

“2 birds stoned at once” I literally thought that before the clip got a chance to play! Lmao!

this is a great video for the hobby! as a zookeeper, it’s a huge part of my job to enrich animals and i’m sometimes surprised with how little it’s talked about sometimes in the hobby. great vid!

Diamond: (whispers) you better not f this up bro so help me God.

I used to rearrange my living room once a year just for fun, my critters get the same thing, I rearrange their enclosures once in a while with different decor, I take mine outside to explore the grass and garden, they get out of their enclosures every day to run around, change up their food, it really important I believe to keep them enriched and happy

My tortoises love their weekly trips to a big field. I've noticed their behavior changes throughout the week ever since I've been doing weekly trips.

Because of your videos I was able to start my own reptile business and channel at 14. Thanks so much Adam

My bearded dragon is in a 400 gallon tank with a swimming pool and a huge log, so she can stimulate herself whenever she feels like.

My crested gecko is so picky if I tried to give him any feeder thats not a cricket he turns his head like a child😂

I rearrange everything when I clean and I swap out items for climbing and exploring too!

I got a neglected albino tremper gecko 4 months ago. I set her up in a 25 gallon tank and am slowly switching it over to be bioactive and realistic. I've been rearranging her enclosure every few cleanings, but felt guilty because I read info saying that was too stressful. I'm happy to know others do it and even recommend it. I have a habit of picking up new hides, cork bark ect every time I visit an expo or petshop. I love the idea of taking her out and giving her a playground. She's still a bit nervous being handled so she would probably run right off a table. However, I have a really large tupperware bin that would fit several enrichment items, and give her a new space to explore without overly stressing her or having her get lost. Thanks for a great video!

I dont have any reptiles. But Im hoping to have one in college. I just had the thought of "Wait. Small rodents can play in toilet/paper towl rolls...Could small reptiles."

Giving them a bath is another really good activity

I also don't like using live feeders so for my cornsake, once he notices the mouse/rat I actually try to keep it away from him to simulate hunting a little bit

I saw people decorating a big puppy pen with different obstacles. When I move to a bigger place I want to put up one like that for the lizards and "smaller" snakes (not my 1,7m BCI).

I love how he just randomly tells his beardie that he is a tree,also bioactive is amazing and I am hooked

Tortoises, which is what I have a lot of, really don't like change. They get pretty stressed and pout sometimes for weeks after any significant changes in their enclosure. But I do try to vary their food/feeding as much as possible.

I just got my first Ball Python, a Blue-Eyed Lucy! The breeder told me “Do Not put any wood in the enclosure” but because I watched your videos I put wood in there. I catch her climbing on that wood every single night! She absolutely loves it! So, Thank You! If I had listened to the breeder, she would probably still be hiding under her bowl (also a tip from one of your videos! Found it at the Dollar Tree!) Your channel is freaking amazing!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU 😊

I couldn’t take my bearded dragon outside like I usually do because of how cold it got this year in Florida, and he was the happiest I think I’ve ever seen him when I was able to bring him out again yesterday because of the warmer weather

i bought my little sister a beardie for early-christmas. i still make sure that i do all the feeding+supplementing and pay for everything. she came into my room this morning and told me that he was black bearding and gaping and flaring at her, and running up and down trying to get at her. I went in and got the lizard, and he snuggled up on my chest and went fast to sleep while i stroked him. he just wanted attention.

How does this still only have 2.8K views and 87 comments? This video should be blowing up by now!

I made a small enclosure out of a cardboard box which was placed on a sunny window for my beardie and he seemed to love watching the world go by. Whenever birds flew too close he would jump down and hide under his log then would reappear when the coast was clear. Sometimes he would pace up and down his (6' x 2' viv) and I'm sure he was wanting out as when placed him on the window he would calm right down and get back to his 'lookout duty'.

I like the way Lori Torrini describes the kind of stress that comes with novel encounters for snakes. She explains that for any animal in order to learn and experience new things some stress will occur and they will be forced outside of their comfort zone, which would be like what a snake might experience when you rearrange their enclosure or introduce them to a new space. But it's still beneficial for them. But there is a stress threshold where if they become too stressed or too uncomfortable they are not learning anymore because they are too scared.

We love taking my son’s leopard gecko out to play! We make a blanket tunnel that he can climb or hide in, he loves having his head rubbed and just exploring.

I set up a bio tank with a fogger for my Asian Spiny Toad and she is so much more active now! She loves the humidity and the set up

“I’m a TREE” - Adam, 2020

You got some many cool points off that Trailer Park Boys clip! 😂

I have always changed up my 4 Dragons enclosures. I absolutely agree. If you do this from the start, they get used to it & in my experience, they don't stress. They do love new stuff & I can see the change in attitude, I can tell they definitely like it. Thank you for getting this info out there. There can never be enough correct info on these guys.

I've read you should NOT change up the enclosure for your tortoises too often because they don't like change. Beyond that, all fun advice. I also like to buy the cheap sphere-shaped cat toys that have bells in them that are small/light enough for the reptiles to move around. Some really like making the toys jingle.

My gecko is all I have, I literally call her my girlfriend 😅😅😅I’m always trying to think of fun things for her to do... I like using cardboard and making little things for her to climb around and explore. My parents say I do way to much but I love her to much there’s never enough that I could do for her 😅

Everyone try a pot of Portulaca plants 🪴 in your tank. My Beardies love the flowers and the plants. They are safe, people also feed them to chickens. My baby bearded dragons perch on these in their tank and also munch on the plants a lot. Most plant nurseries don’t spray them because bugs are not a problem for them and they tolerate the heat lamps well and the UV in the tank helps them to grow.

Yeah I also change up our bearded dragon enclosures all the time. Feed them in different ways. And even "stress" them out from time to time, mainly by letting the two of them see each other. It gets all systems pumping and flowing and they run around like little bobbing psychopaths for half an hour. Good exercise. We also have an outdoor enclosure that's much bigger then their indoor ones complete with living edible plants and a lizard spa that they actually use. They will soak themselves and even appear to bathe, they will splash around and even dunk their heads similar to what a bird would do. It's really cool too see them act naturally liked this as well as forage for their greens.

I'm going to back up redoing the enclosure when you clean it for blue tongue skinks. Because we need to keep in mind, most animals in the wild don't keep in an 8 square foot space their whole lives. Most reptiles don't move around a lot, but they'll be going to different places seasonally, if it doesn't rain for a while they might move their regular burrow to be closer to a river, or go to a particular new place when berries that they eat come into season, or just generally go somewhere else when they've exhausted their current store of food that they can safely access. Changing up their enclosure regularly helps to provide them that kind of stimulus and I think we all should be able to recognize the difference between a stressful time for the animal and one where they're just being curious. Blue tongue body language is really easy to read in that regard. When they're stressed, they move a few inches to a foot at a time very fast, then stay as perfectly still as they can until they have reassured themselves that nothing has found them to kill and eat them, and various other very clear indicators that they're doing something that might help them evade a predator. On the other hand, if they're going around slowly and methodically, climbing over random obstacles for no reason, getting on a raised basking platform, slowly and methodically tasting the air around them as they go, they're probably having a fine time.

I always loved herping, I would search for toads during the night but also the day, I saw them do things I assumed the couldn't do. I remember once I was in the wood and crouching down trying to not damage a specific pile of wood while trying to check for toads, when I felt watched. Turned out there was a stump next to me with the biggest toad I'd found so far just quietly watching me, she was a gorgeous toad too, kinda having striped markings instead of the Ol' grey and brown mix. Seeing the toad on that vantage point, knowing they aren't climbers and kinda clumsy made me understand that reptiles and amphibians aren't just a list of boring specific needs. I bought them bigger enclosure, enclosure that had vertical space even if they didn't need them and some wound rather be standing on some sort of high ground and others would just peek from their cave. Cleaning and adding leaves was always fun too, when they come and go and investigate the tank was a pleasure to watch.

Most of my herps seem indifferent to changes to their tank (or actively annoyed if I move certain things) but my corn loves it when I redecorate, I'll often leave her in her tank while I rearrange things & she will nudge things around with me

I am so glad you made this video! My kids and my bf are always picking on me for rearranging my Red eared sliders aquarium every time I clean it. I have been saying exactly what you said to them and you confirmed it. They always say without a doubt he is happy and well taken care of but now they will really believe that it makes sense. I had said, you know in his mind he may think he is just entering a new area a little further down when things are different. Right? I also take him out and put him in an animal playpen with a covered top to get some more room and real outside atmosphere and sometimes let him hang out in it for a bit inside with us too.Thanks for another awesome and informative video.

I really appreciate this video, it's a topic that people should really consider seriously. Often when I ask someone what their reptiles, especially snakes like to do for fun I'm met with a confused response and it's sad, we know we need to walk our dogs, but don't think twice about keeping a large curious interactive pet snake in a box it's whole life. Mine is a Kingsnake and when he's interested in coming out, usually in the mornings he has my whole office to explore and he sniffs everything and checks the whole room to make sure everything is as it should be. I can't imagine him not having the option to be out and whats the point of having a pet you never see. Thank you.

2:39 Everytime I hear this saying I think of Ricky, the best part is, you showed the clip.

Ball pit. I have a tub full of Easter eggs and paper towel and toilet paper tubes and my ball pythons love it.

This was really helpful! Xeno my beardie looked really down until now. I changed up her habitat and lizard proofed my room so she can free roam. Thanks to you she seems a lot happier now!

I love rearranging when I clean my snakes enclosures. Something I like to do is collect and sanitize wood pieces from the woods behind my house and then add them in or switch them out with other pieces. It’s fun to do and I can see it perks my snakes interests in their space again, for a little while at least.

Great suggestions! I've been free roaming my beardie for a couple of years now and have noticed a huge improvement in behavior. It takes time to figure out how to do this safely but it's not rocket appliances.

I let my beardy chase down her food like rolling blueberries across the floor.

I take both my bearded dragons out for walks in their carrier. My youngest one loves it especially. He likes sitting up on top of the hide I put in there for him and looking out through the transparent parts and holes to watch everything going on. He has no signs of being scared at all. My older rescue is still shy but these trips out have worked wonders for his socialisation and mood. On colder days I stick back heat packs underneath the carrier so that they can go under the hide and get heat if they need it. Using this method I can take them out from March to October here in England. It's definitely made taking them to the vet a lot easier, too since I use the same carrier and it means they're not scared when I grab it because whether they're going to the vet first or not, they're getting a nice walk outside out of it. I'm gonna try modifying a second carrier for colder temps, though. Since the youngest one loves these walks so much that he gets noticeably sad if he doesn't go out for a while.

I should probably do this. Sometimes, Lu, my leopard gecko, just won't settle and it's not until I pick him up that he calms down.

Ricky, Julian, & Bubbles 🫧 TRAILER PARK BOYS reference 😂🤣💕it

That’s right they need stimulation! I watch the agamas in my yard for a few hours every day. They have very active and interesting lives! The red headed male patrols about an acre + area, several times per day he makes his rounds, hunting bugs in the grass, chasing competition, mating with his females who come after him! And the females are much friendlier! They hang around a certain tree, getting teased by the blue jays and squirrels, eating and sunning.

When I finish my tank for my turtle, I'm going to put a barrier in that is at just the right height to where fluctuating the water level can give access to another portion of the tub. I can rearrange it and stock it with fingernail clams and even use it as a temporary holding area (filter would be on other side) while I clean the rest of the tub. Such a fun turtle to observe and feed!

I'm trying to give both my flying gecko and leopard gecko a bioactive enclosure so they can both live their best lives :)

Currently setting up an enclosure for my garter snake as we speak, I get it tomorrow and i'm adding a whole bunch of stuff like loose substrate, spider wood, universal rocks, cork bark, moss, and a bunch of different types of fake plants!

The JW Pet Hol-EE Roller Dog Toy is something I use for my baby king snake when I have him out on my desk. It's like those jungle gym domes we have at the playground for him. I get the biggest size I can find for him to be safe.

I think this works for fish too i moved a couple of hides around in my beta tank just now and he is exploring way more normally at this time he would be in his cave Had to come back to this video to tell you this. Pretty sweet!

Another suggestion that is borrowed from the zoo world, rotate animals through a couple of enclosures. This way they experience smells from other species/animals as they would in the wild. It may not work for every animal to switch enclosures as it could be too stressful, so in those cases, grabbing substrate from another enclosure would work just as good. New smells are a great and easy enrichment activity, and fun to watch! People often forget to enrich all five senses, and animals often have more then five, so think about it from the animals perspective. Many reptiles can track smells (chemosensory) so drag a food item across a new area and let them "find"it. Maybe they detect heat, so hey warm a safe object and let them explore. Anyway, think of all the ways in which your animals experience their world and have fun!

My king seems to love exploring a new tank as well. Such fun to decorate for him.

You put in the “get two birds stoned at once” 😂😂 ever since I saw that episode of trailer park boys I use that saying all the time 😂

Thank you so much I have been wondering this for the longest time

Awesome video and great information. Thank you for sharing. Can't wait to see more.

My leopard gecko is in a 4x2x2 on kitchen roll with stuff to climb on etc, still I’m starting to feel bad and feel like I really need to add a background and a proper substrate etc for her to enjoy. She usually wants to come out at night and explore and will claw at the door to come out so I don’t think she’s stimulated enough. Great video 😊

I try to do a combination of rearranging with having as large an enclosure as possible, my water monitor which is coming up on that 7 foot mark has a 16x8x8 enclosure with a 750 gallon pond with fish and that dude spends half his day swimming and exploring that pond. It’s got stumps and an underwater shelf and the dude genuinely loves that thing. Surprisingly he hasn’t destroyed all the plants or grass either. Granted that’s a prohibitively large enclosure for most people and the 6,000 pounds of water in it doesn’t help that case either.

I got a baby bearded dragon from Petsmart a few months ago (I know, I know, what was I thinking not going to a breeder) and it took me 1&1/2 weeks to get him eating. Well, he's making up for lost time since then, eating _EVERYTHING!_ But he's still a bit hand shy, but I can do most of this stuff while getting him used to handling. So far, most of the enrichment I've been able to give him has been offering different foods different ways. I'll need to try making him work for his food using toys, that sounds fun. I also have a king snake and 2 corn snakes. The king and one of the corns are still very shy, but the other corn loves nothing more than crawling around on my desk or in my hands, or into my shirt (if I'm not paying attention).

Lots of new ideas for me to try! THANK YOU!!

Another great video! And I’m early again

I absolutely love enrichment! It is one of my favorite things that comes with owning reptiles. My beardy has a bioactive tank, and loves to dig! I gave him 4 to 5 inches of substrate and I gave him a large tile on top of 3 bricks that he is always under or on top of. I am always changing his tank around and changing what and how I feed him. He eats crickets, supwer worms ( his favorite ), meal worms ( very rarely ), calcium worms, and soon I will give him dubias and horn worms. I also always change his veggies and colors of veggies. He loves turnip greens so I normally give him those with at least 1 colorful veggie and every now and then 1 fruit. He gets carrots, red, orange, and green peppers, cilantro, celery, blueberry, black berry, raspberry, grapes ( rarely ), turnip greens, collard greens, cabbage ( rarely ), and so much more. I also always let his feeders run around and feed him in different spots including on top of his hammock. Just the other day i tossed two meal worms into his water to challenge his brain and also keep him hydrated. He also loves running on the ground or going outside! Thanks for an amazing video. And thanks to anyone who read this whole thing. Lol. You are a trooper! 😁

I am just so thankful for you. I absolutely love your videos and I really appreciate what your doing for the reptile community!! Your going to change so many reptiles lives by informing people what they can do for their pets. Thank you so much!!

I asked the question on moving around my Beardie's tank decor on another video. You have answered my question on here. Thanks man

Another great video,seriously, i can't get enough of how much time you spend with your reptiles!

Very informative thank you!

My young sulcata (5) she has always been shy... But she loves my room

I do this all the time. I take my crested outside all the time. I was.think once my new build is done the birds are getting an out door aviary so my chameleon will have an outdoor summer home as well. My dart frogs get new plants and I move their logs and hides around alot. Enrichment is a subject I learned for my five parrots so that is part of my research for any new animal. Always a tip for anyone else who keeps SILF Solomon Island Leaf Frogs, I have two babies in a 36 inch wide enclosure at the bottom of my chameleon mansion I just built. The tip is this: change up the hides and as much as you can as often as you can. They say SILF are hard to get to feed, nope change up their surroundings and they eat like crazy!!! Today dubias got out of the chams dish and the SILF had a feast!!! First day I had them, they had crickets... So yeah when you change up the surrounding area it makes them move more and they work up an apatite...

Love the ideas and especially diamond and his ear biting 🤣🤣

Between your video and @Random Unicorn’s post here, I’ve got a million ideas for enriching the lives of my reptiles. Ty to the both of you. ☺️

I just got a ball python and your videos are both entertaining and educational. Thanks man!

So I have an ADORABLE hognose and i wasn't sure where i would find to share this. Well here we are. I have a knitted blanket that we found he seems to love. So I folded it all up and let him burrow from the top all the way down. It looks like such a huge workout and he seems to LOVE it. after he does it I put him back and he goes to one of his hides and passes out haha. Strongly recommend!!

I had no idea on this, but it makes sense. An eye opener for sure

I had a bp that, everytime I rearranged her enclosure, she would move everything back how she liked it 😂

Excellent video! Fantastic suggestions, I agree 100%.

I am just so thankful for you. I absolutely love your videos and I really appreciate what your doing for the reptile community!! Your going to change so many reptiles lives by informing people what they can do for their pets. Thank you so much!!🐍🦎🐢

I only have 5 reptiles, which means I can luckily give them the highest quality of life, ive met every category on this list and more. 5 bioactive tanks, all natural, all full uvb all top quality all the time. Im very lucky that i live in this time where its easier and honestly cheaper to provide the top quality care.

when i get reptiles in the future i'm definitely going to have a day/night cycle that reflects the time of year, never thought of that before

Wow excellent. Will try some things out👍

Now that I've got a proper sized hab for my Beardie, I definitely plan on changing things up. Different basking surfaces, different branches, different decor. I've always done "walk about " time in a safe room, and he definitely loves it. Thanks for this video!

So glad to hear you say that it's OK to change up their environment and because I love switching things up at least once a week in my beardies cage age and she seems to love it but then people are telling me that it is stressing her out don't do that but I'm just judging by my beardies behavior and she likes it so I'm super glad to hear you say that it's OK because being a first time bearded dragon owner I obviously have a lot to learn

I second the enclosure rearranging something I learned with tiger salamanders. My single salamander is in 55 gallon breeder and every time I rearrange his enclosure. He’s much more active and spends a lot of time exploring.

'let it roll around'😂