- That's right.
We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel today
with a reaction video of all things,
of Howcast, featuring Jungle Bob.
So let's just jump right in, shall we?
- A very popular lizard these days in the pet world
is the crested gecko.
Number of great reasons for that.
Easy to keep animals, is the primary one.
He's an arboreal creature.
He needs an enclosure about 12 inches wide,
12 inches square, but they love height.
18, 24 inches is ideal.
- Crested geckos definitely do enjoy height,
but 18 to 24 is not that many inches.
A lot of people say that I recommend
too small of enclosures,
like say a leopard gecko in a 20 gallon,
people say is too small.
So, you know it's bad when even I'm saying
that a 12 by 12 by 18 is pretty bad
for a single adult crested gecko.
'Cause you got to think about it.
They do get pretty big.
For a juvenile, sure, that's fine.
But you got to bump it up a little bit.
It's one of Exo Terra's sizes.
Just go up to the next size,
and it won't cost you that much more,
but your cresty will probably appreciate it.
The next clip has copyrighted music,
which I do not have the license to.
So I'm gonna voiceover Jungle Bob for you.
Heavily planted is good for them.
They like to hide during the day.
They're nocturnal.
They come out and eat at night.
But for many moms in particular,
who are often the barrier to dad and the kids
getting a pet lizard in the house,
the crested gecko doesn't need insects in order to survive.
It does not eat mice and meat.
What it really likes is fruity types of things,
almost a nectar or something,
that it loves to lap up with its long tongue,
that's often used to clean up his eyeball
when it gets dirty.
The crested gecko will therefore live on pre-packaged food,
which you mix like flour and water.
And you put it in a small dish
and leave it at the bottom of the tank,
and it's all the nutrition the animal will need.
This video might only be two minutes long,
but there is certainly a lot to unpack.
And the mother being the barrier to entry
is something that I'm sure a lot of you have experienced.
I've experienced it in my own way.
That being that all the mothers send me an email,
and they're like, my kid got this reptile.
Please take it.
Here's the thing.
There's two types of these situations.
One is where you sneak it around your mother,
which if you want to do that, by all means do it.
But if you're not an adult,
and you can't take your animal somewhere else,
and if your mother finds it, well it's game over.
And guess what?
She's gonna have to scramble
and you're gonna have to scramble
and find someone to give it to,
because she's not gonna be okay with it.
I am a believer in asking for forgiveness
and not permission,
but it can be a little risky with reptiles.
So do it at your own discretion.
But the other side of this is when mothers are hesitant,
but they really want their kid to get the animal.
They understand their kid is willing,
but they actually have a fear of them.
For some reason, crested geckos, a lot of moms,
I don't know if it's a mom thing,
have a fear of crested geckos.
And I've talked to a lot of them and they're like,
I don't know what it is.
I just can't get over their hideous faces.
I've been told that before.
And so, even if the mother wants their kid
to get the animal, well, guess what?
They have this actual fear, rational or not.
And they just can't get over it.
I've had this happen, especially with snakes,
where they're like, yeah, all right, you can get it.
I bet it'll help me get over my fear.
And I respect these mothers,
but it turns out, they can't do it.
They literally can't sleep at night.
It's all they think about,
is there's this animal in their child's room.
Again, it's probably irrational, but I don't recommend it.
You need everyone on the family to be on board,
unless you're willing to take that risk.
Also, the other part, yes,
they can survive without insects,
but most keepers would probably tell you
that you should give them insects anyway.
Not freeze dried, not frozen,
not insects you find in the backyard,
but quality, healthy, live insects
are gonna be the healthiest.
They not only add variety to, say a Pangea mix
that he's probably talking about,
but it also adds some extra nutrition and protein and stuff.
So yes, they could survive,
but you want them to thrive,
and they're gonna thrive better with insects.
- If you add a little bit of a waterfall, running water,
you really recreate his natural habitat.
And these animals are very simple
and happy to live in captivity.
- Yeah, I can pretty much agree with this.
They are pretty simple.
Fresh water.
I mean, you can just mist the enclosure.
You don't have to buy a waterfall.
One downside of waterfalls
is you do kind of have to clean them,
especially with crested geckos,
because they, well, kind of poop everywhere.
And so, it's gonna get in the waterfall,
and it's literally gonna start running through the system.
It's just like a little fountain basically,
but it's a waterfall theme, of course,
because reptiles are from the jungle,
every single reptile out there.
But now I'm just being nitpicky.
So, yeah, just give them fresh water.
They'll be good.
- A male and a female together.
They're not very long lived, five to seven years perhaps,
but they are prolific breeders.
So oftentimes, a coupling of males and females,
and they'll breed in the tank, and you'll get babies,
which is always a great treat and fun to watch.
- Hmm, what?
If I understand correctly,
he just said, passively, as a little side note,
huh, it's fun to get two.
And then they mate, and then you have babies,
and it's kind of fun to watch.
It's kind of cool.
This is the thing that also happens.
People will get a male and a female.
Oh, they're a cute little couple.
They're in my enclosure.
They breed, and then they start shooting out those babies.
I'm not really sure how,
but sometimes, people don't realize that, oh wait,
these babies have to be cared for.
It's not just a fun little side thing.
It's literally a whole nother crested gecko
you're gonna have to start raising.
And these things grow quickly.
But they might not grow at all
if you don't take them out immediately,
because the male and female
is probably gonna eat the babies.
You got to get them out, and kind of quickly.
Reptiles are quirky like that.
Sometimes they see their babies and they're like, ooh,
I spot a little snack there.
You see, you gotta beat them to it.
But why did he even add that in there?
- Crested geckos again, coming from the New Caledonia area,
South Pacific forests, not a very hot environment.
They do not need intense light bulbs,
like some other lizards, bearded dragons.
Uromastyx need well over 100 degrees.
This animal's fine at room temperature,
with little supplemental light at night,
just to keep them a little warmer.
They do not need any kind of ultraviolet light to live.
They're nocturnal, therefore they don't need all that.
- Okay, bearded dragons don't need well over 100.
I think 100 is fine personally,
but this video is not about bearded dragons.
It's about crested geckos.
Now yes, it is true that room temperature
can be good for a crested gecko,
but room temperature, believe it or not,
is not the same in every room.
I've been in houses where people keep the house at 60,
59 degrees even, and people that keep it at 84, 85 degrees.
I think both of those people are insane,
but there's a range.
I'd say there's like a 15 to 20 degree range Fahrenheit
that people keep their rooms.
And I'm guilty of this.
Actually, I used to say in old videos,
the center of this enclosure, or the cool side,
can just be room temperature.
And then I forget that not everyone's room
is the same as my room temperature.
Worst case scenario, if your room is too cool,
you can just add a little lamp or something.
You can't really use a heat mat with them,
but you've got a few options.
The thing is, if your house is too hot,
it can be a bit harder.
A lot of people ask, I'm in Arizona.
We don't really use the AC all that much,
or it's not powerful enough,
but I want this corn snake
or something that needs a cooler environment.
It's how do I cool it down?
And really, your main option that I know of
is adding additional ventilation,
but this can also be bad with animals like crested geckos,
because you also need humidity.
So ventilating a humid enclosure
is just gonna be a constant battle of spraying more water,
and then trying it out with your ventilation.
So it is a bit harder.
If you have recommendations,
feel free to leave them in the comments
for cooling down and enclosure when your house is too hot.
- So the crested gecko has become quickly,
one of the most popular reptile pets.
Breeders have had a field day with these
because they're so prolific in their mating habits
that we're getting many different colors.
- Yeah, one of the things about breeding crested geckos
is it is so easy.
Even I, of all people,
have created a crested gecko out of thin air.
It's a lot of people's first breeder animal,
'cause they're like, oh, I want to be a reptile breeder.
Well, let's start with crested geckos.
You just put two together in a room temperature enclosure.
Room temperature.
You take the egg, put it in a room temperature,
room temperature room, and then a baby pops out.
To the point that A, crested geckos are getting so cheap
that I don't even know how people profit off just normal,
morph crested geckos anymore.
But also, I heard, I don't know if this is true,
but I heard in a couple of videos that crested geckos
have started to become a feeder lizard,
the same way a green anole is.
So some animals will eat not mice
when it comes to reptiles.
So for example, some snakes will eat lizards,
and some lizards will eat other lizards.
And it's pretty common practice
to feed certain lizard species,
like mourning geckos as well, to them.
And apparently, some people have started doing this
with crested geckos.
Now I don't feel worse for a crested gecko being eaten
than I do a mourning gecko.
I mean, they're both geckos.
What's the difference?
But it does kind of show
that maybe there's a few too many crested geckos.
There's also problem with,
if you're trying to produce the fancy different colors
that I think he mentions in this video,
is you're going to end up naturally with normal morphs,
especially, a good example is ball pythons.
Pretty much every clutch, I'm sure not every,
but generally, if you're breeding ball pythons,
you're always going to end up with some normals.
Even if you're breeding these fancier more expensive morphs.
Well, there's so many normal ball pythons on Earth.
What are we gonna do with them?
A lot of them end up getting sold
to be fed off to other animals.
For example, venomous snakes,
or, I dunno what else eats ball pythons,
but things do eat ball pythons,
and that makes people uncomfortable.
I don't specifically think that's bad,
as long as you're doing it humanely.
I don't see a ball python's life superior to a rat's life.
But I mean, I guess that's personal opinion.
But just the idea that there are probably a few too many.
We can probably cut back the breeding just a little bit.
I think there's enough right now in the world.
So get a cresty if you want,
but I don't recommend just breeding them just for fun.
And I can't stop you from breeding crested geckos.
It's your geckos, you can do what you want.
But do we really need more crested geckos right now?
Now yes, I have also bred a singular crested gecko.
So does that make me a hypocrite?
Well, I think the other thing to consider
is a lot of people breed the animal
and then think about what to do with it.
When you should probably have something
to do with them beforehand.
Are you gonna keep them personally for its entire life?
In which case, cool.
Or do you already have people lined up
that can possibly buy them,
or people you're gonna give them to?
Whether it's a trustworthy friend
or a buyer that you're willing to sell to.
You shouldn't breed and then be like, all right,
time to find people, because you very likely
might have to end up just giving it away
for free on Craigslist to some random, sketchy person,
who just might be me.
(laughing)
- Red ones, flame, Harlequin, different spots,
all different types of crested geckos
are adding a nice variable to the marketplace.
Anything that could stay this small,
that will hang with you like this,
certainly is a pet that kids are gonna love to have.
- What is his obsession with selling to children
in particular?
This is, in my opinion, rule number one of selling reptiles.
Don't sell to the kids.
Don't sell when just a kid is there.
Like selling in person.
Yes, kids did want to just buy.
They'd be like, all right, here Mister.
Here's my cash.
Give me a ball python.
Mm mm mm, you gotta.
(chuckling)
I need to talk to someone that's not nine to 12 years old,
which I personally believe that many nine to 12 year olds
are 100% capable of doing all the care needed
for many animals.
But ultimately, you do need that adult there.
You need to make sure that someone is going to be a backup
in case, say, a kid falls behind.
Or if the kid, I don't know,
has too much homework or just gets bored.
And yes, adults can get bored too.
But the problem is, if you have a kid who gets a reptile,
the parents don't care about it.
The kid gets bored of the reptile.
What happens to the reptile?
The kid releases it.
It dies from neglect, whatever.
A kid can't really do a meetup on Craigslist
by himself or herself to rehome their crested gecko
that they impulse bought without their parents.
So why is he selling to kids?
It's kind of weird.
And also, even if it's for the kid, you got to keep in,
he said that crested geckos lived five to seven years.
Now that I think of it,
I don't actually know the lifespan off the top of my head,
but just back to ball pythons,
'cause they're easier to talk about as examples.
They can live 20, 30, 40 plus years in the right care.
If your kid gets it, what's gonna happen?
Maybe your kid will not go to college.
In which case, maybe they'll move into an apartment
or a rental or they will go to college.
All of those possibilities are most likely going to result
in your kid not being able to keep that animal.
So guess what?
They're gonna either dump it on you
or try to find someone to give it to,
which also might end up in neglect.
So no, you got to sell to the parents.
That's all, sorry.
I'm ranting a lot in this video.
Actually, I'm not sorry about it.
Let's keep watching.
- Is that wow factor.
It looks like it's from outer space almost.
I can say a dinosaur more from outer space,
but his eyes wide open, like they are.
They're wide open, of course, 'cause he can't close them.
They have no opposable eyelid.
- I guess I do get, in a way,
why so many mothers are creeped out by them.
They are kind of objectively creepy.
Creepy things can be cute,
but objectively, their eyes are the size of their head.
And also, they cannot close them.
I agree with Jungle Bob here.
They are a weird looking animal.
- So the crested gecko makes an awesome reptile pet.
Something that we definitely are,
it's growing in popularity.
And I think it'll be in the market
for years and years to come.
- Well, this video is from 2013.
They have definitely grown just a wee bit in the market.
I feel like everywhere you turn,
there are crested geckos everywhere.
And even though there are many morphs,
I'm gonna be honest.
Most of them look very similar.
So that's that.
So look, of course,
those are just a little two-minute video
of four care tips for crested geckos.
But I just thought that they were kind of weirdly
thrown together, where hopefully yes,
someone that's looking for a crested gecko
isn't just going to click on this video,
and that's the whole research process for them.
That was a solid two minutes 38 seconds.
I might need to care for this crested gecko
for the next five to seven years,
without my mother's permission, in room temperature,
and only feed it a mix of flour and water.
(laughing)
Look, this has 200,000 views.
At least one of these people misinterpreted
the whole mix like flour and water
and just gave their crested gecko flour and water,
and their crested gecko is probably no longer with us.
So that's that?
That's my opinions on this Jungle Bob video.
What do you think?
And also, before we go,
although crested geckos needing insects
is a bit of a debate,
what's not a debate is that you need to back up your data.
So you see, I had an eight terabyte hard drive.
It was full to the brim
of all the videos I've made since 2012.
It died.
The hard drive completely died.
And I was so grateful that I got a backup service.
Now you can use any service you want,
but I am a Backblaze affiliate.
If you want to check them out in the link below,
you can sign up.
It's literally a few dollars a month,
and it can back up all your files
that you want onto a cloud.
So if your hard drive fails or something,
or if you need to do a restoration,
you can either download the files,
or in my case, you just order a drive from them.
And they sent me my entire eight terabytes of data
on a new drive, and it was the best thing ever.
It felt so good.
They're not a sponsor of the video.
I'm just an affiliate, so I do get a commission
if you use my link in the description.
Ultimately, you can use any backup service,
but I've been really happy with Backblaze.
So I wanted to mention them,
and make a few bucks along the way,
when you use my link.
So thanks for doing that, if you decide to.
That's all I got.
I'm Alex, and thanks for watching.
(gentle music)