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- Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the vlog.
I hope to start your day is incredible.
Or the afternoon or evening whenever
you happen to be watching.
Have you ever thought about keeping reptiles as pets
or do you have a bunch of reptiles?
I don't know, I'm just gonna give you the seven things
that you should know
if you really wanna keep reptiles as pets.
Let's go ahead and get started.
I know this may come as a surprise to some of you,
but believe it or not, reptiles are animals.
That's right, the unpopular belief.
Reptiles are still animals.
And listen, you may think it's funny
that I just said that, but I honestly believe
that there's a large part of the population
that doesn't even really consider reptiles animals.
I mean, they know they're animals,
but they don't think of them as like dogs
and cats are emotional or able to be trained
or be companions.
They just think of them as kind of like,
almost like a nuisance.
Well, the truth is, is if you're thinking
about getting a reptile, think about it,
they really are animals.
They deserve the same respect, the care, the love,
the attention that a dog or cat does.
Now, of course, they are a little bit easier to care for.
And that's one of the big advantages of reptiles
and why reptiles have probably really gained popularity
over the last 20, 25 years,
which brings me to my second point,
which of course is pick the right reptile for you.
And when I basically mean by that is one of the reasons
why reptiles have gained in popularity
so much over the last quarter century has been
that our lifestyle is fast.
And of course, dogs and cats are amazing.
We have dogs, I love all animals.
You guys know that, but the truth
is they do require daily care.
You got to walk up and you got to put them outside.
You got to feed them and all that other stuff.
Well, some reptiles you don't need to have daily care.
So pick the right reptile for you.
For instance, if you travel a lot
or you have a really busy life
where you're not home that much,
a snake is probably a great option.
And the reason for that is most snakes,
typically, you know, every seven to 10 days,
you can just put fresh water in with them
and they don't really need it.
You can take them out as much as you want,
but you don't have to.
So if you were gonna go out of town for four days
or something like that, you don't have to get anyone
to come in and actually babysit your snake.
You could just make sure that the temperatures are right.
The timers are set on the heat or whatever the case may be.
Make sure that it was fed before you leave.
Make sure it has good, fresh water
and really four or five days, it's gonna be completely fine.
Obviously you can't do that
when it comes to a mammal, right?
So that's one of the reasons why keeping a snake
if you have a really fast paced life
where you're not gonna be around a lot,
it might be a great option for a pet.
Now if you're home all the time.
You can still keep a snake.
You know, there's nothing wrong with that.
But if you want something that needs more daily care,
you like the fact that every day you've got to do something,
water, spray, whatever the case may be,
a lizard is a great option.
You know, these leaching geckos are incredible, right?
They're the largest gecko species,
but of course there's, Lapar, Calicos,
there's Crested geckos, there's [indistinct].
I mean the lizards list goes on and on and on.
And most of them do require daily care.
You know, these guys you've got to put either a patchy
or Pangaea or whatever.
Every single day you've got to spray them once
or twice a day, you've got to make sure
they have fresh water.
So again, a lizard could be a great option for you.
If you're someone that does want to have an animal
that has a lot of care,
but let's say that you're allergic to dogs and cats, right?
Well, you can have that daily care
with something like reptile here
and still get the kind of emotional animal
that you can work with every single day
without the allergic part of it.
Or if maybe you're just not the dog and cat person.
And you're like, I want a reptile,
but I wanna be a caretaker.
And I wanna mess with it every single day.
Point number three is set up, is everything.
Unlike a lot of pets that you get,
you kinda learn how you do.
You have to do a lot of pre-work
in order to keep a reptile healthy, set up, set up, set up.
Take for instance, chameleons, you know, Karma here.
A lot of people will tell me, like,
I would love to keep a chameleon,
but they're just so much work and they're so fragile.
The truth is it's all about the setup, right?
What we have here is a screen cage, which is important
because they don't like to see the reflection.
Because if they see a reflection,
they think it's another male and they get dominant.
It can stress them out, right?
They also like the air flow.
You also want a misting system or a drip system,
because a lot of times these guys don't drink
from water taps.
So they have to actually drink either from off the Leafs
or a dripper or something like that.
Sometime a combination of both and then lots of vines,
lots of plants, different size vines,
and plants so that their legs go.
So it's about setup.
If you set this up properly,
chameleons are actually one of the easier animals
to take care of Spiel, Karma,
and all our chameleons are so easy it's not even funny.
And they completely thrive?
Look at how beautiful he looks.
Another reptile that set up is everything
is a bearded dragon, just like
flaming hot Cheetah right here.
And basically you want a lot of terracing.
You want it climbing.
You know, you want to make sure
that you have everything that in that sense,
but also they need UVB light.
And they also need a hotspot right here.
This hotspots about 110 degrees right here,
but the cool sites about 82 degrees.
So once you have the actual setup,
perfect, super easy to take care.
But if for some reason you don't have the right hotspot,
you don't have UVB, maybe they're gonna get
what they call metabolic bone disease.
You're not giving them the right kind of nutrients.
And so on like that, all those things go back to set up.
If you have the proper setup, you are in good shape,
because if you don't have the proper setup
with the bearded dragon like this,
even if you're giving them the right nutrients,
they're not metabolizing them properly
and they can actually do poorly.
So the downside the bearded dragons,
one of the best Pet lizards in the world, in my opinion,
the only downside is, is that the setup
is a little bit more expensive and a little more intensive
because it's got that high heat and has got UVB.
Now, another option,
if you don't wanna spend the money upfront
and you still want a cool lizard
would certainly be a leper gecko.
Now, leper geckos are definitely
a much easier animal to take care of.
Don't need as extensive of a setup.
Of course, this is little snow, little Mack here
loved him to death.
And basically it's a very similar setup to a bearded dragon,
but you don't need that high heat
because really they need about an upper eighties hotspot
cool side, about 80 degrees, something like that.
They don't need UV light.
We do give them UVB light just because why not?
And if you can, it's always good to give them UV light
if you want it, but they are nocturnal.
So they spend the majority of their time
in caves where they're from.
So they don't need the UV as much.
But again, if you can definitely always offer UVB
because it's not gonna hurt them to have it.
But nevertheless, the cage setup is actually much easier
than a bearded dragon and typically a lot cheaper.
And they're just a little bit easier animal to care
for overall in all honesty.
So again, it's just about set up in the beginning.
Now the same thing goes with snakes
and all the other reptiles, do your research,
make sure the setup is impeccable.
And when you have that setup again, you got to remember,
you don't have to invest in it again,
it's just a one-time investment.
And once you have the perfect setup,
your reptile is gonna thrive so much better.
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Moving on to point number four, snakes like bread loaf here.
The Dumor girls boa are going to live a long time, right?
So reptiles as a whole, most of them live a long time.
Now snakes can live anywhere from 12 years on the short end
with some Kluver all the way up to 40, 45 years
and the animal like Bread loaf here.
Typically they'll live between 25 and 35 years.
That's a pretty big commitment when it comes to snakes.
But of course, if you get into turtles and tortoises,
it's a whole nother story.
Now turtles will live a pretty long time.
I mean, some can live 40 and then 50 years,
tortoises can live up to 200 years.
Now I'm not expecting you to live 200 years now,
no, don't get me wrong.
I'm going to be living 200 years,
but I don't expect most people to do that.
So the fact is this, you've got to think about it,
probably the rest of your life.
You're gonna be taking care of that tortoise
and eventually passing it down to your kids,
your grandkids, your great grandkids.
The turtles don't live quite as long as that,
but still a very long-term commitment.
You've got to be ready for that commitment
because we see it all the time
where someone gets an animal and then calls us up and says,
"Hey, I've had this for three years."
"I just don't want any anymore."
And that's not good for the animals.
It's not good for anyone.
So make sure before you get into reptiles
you're ready to make that long-term commitment.
Point number five would be buy from a reputable source,
you know, and listen, I'm not gonna be one to tell you
to not buy from any source.
Just make sure that they're reputable
and they take care of things.
There's a lot of hate that goes around
with Petco and PetSmart for instance.
But the truth is there's a lot of great employees
at Petco and PetSmart.
So it's not really about the entire chain that's bad.
If you go to a Petco PetSmart that has someone
that really cares for the reptiles
and they're really amazing, they can be a great source.
Of course, mom and pops, pet shops are the same way.
They typically really take care of their animals well,
and of course, breeders are a great option too,
because they know everything about it.
So just make sure you do your research,
make sure you know that you're getting an animal
that's gonna be healthy because one of the problems was
with reptiles is they do hide their illnesses a lot.
They're not like a dog or a cat when you pick them up
and they've got manger there they're skinny
or whatever the case may be.
A lot of times reptiles look completely fine,
but aren't healthy.
So you've got to make sure you're getting them
from someone that not only is gonna sell you
an amazing animal, but it's also gonna stand behind
that animal in the future so that if you have a problem,
you can go back to them and solve that issue.
On to number six.
And this is kind of a unique one in my opinion.
And I'm not saying you have to do this,
but it is a hobby that you can make money at.
The majority of hobbies, even the hobbies that I get into,
just cost me money, right?
I don't make money from them, but you know,
with reptiles you could actually breed them
if you so choose and sell the babies.
I mean, it's crazy.
I mean, that's how BHB grew.
That's how the rep Taren was born.
That's how all this stuff was, was us making money breeding
and selling reptiles, which is crazy,
which was just a hobby for me.
At one point in the hobby, turned into a profitable hobby
and ultimately into a business.
And again, most hobbies aren't that way.
And I'm not saying that when you get into reptiles
that should be your aspiration.
I'm just saying that it's a possibility
because a lot of hobbies, you aren't gonna have to do that.
And it's just cool.
And it's a fun experience too, right?
Yeah, but breeding snakes and hatching babies
or breeding reptiles and hatching babies
is just so much fun.
Don't get me wrong.
I mean, people do it with dogs and cats too,
but you know, I don't think that I ever wanna breed a dog
or a cat because it's a lot of work.
It gets a tremendous amount of work.
We're not saying reptiles aren't work,
but they're a lot less work than dogs or cats.
And again, you can produce, you know, multiple clutches
where you're not gonna produce, you know,
five litters of puppies a year.
And if you do, you're probably gonna be out of your mind.
The fact is, is that reptiles are an interesting way
to have a little side hustle
and make a few extra bucks on the side.
Whether you wanna buy more animals
or maybe go on a vacation or whatever the case is,
it's a pretty unique thing to reptiles.
And then the last thing is a point
and a little bit of a caution to you.
And that is, is that it's very difficult to buy one reptile.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
They're like potato chips.
You're gonna have a problem.
You're gonna buy one and then you're gonna buy five.
And then next thing you know,
you're gonna have a whole bedroom.
I can't tell you how many people
that come into the repertoire and be like,
I was so afraid of snakes.
I came across your videos
and now I have five ball pythons
or whatever the case may be.
And you know, ball pythons are a great example of this.
Of course is a camel ball python
which is a super chocolate pinstripe ball Python.
And a lot of times what happens is you might get an animal
like that and then you start looking online,
you start going, Oh my gosh, there's some beautiful snakes
out there and this is a leopard lesser clown ball python.
So now you're like, Oh, I've got a camel.
now I need a lesser leper curl ball python,
or the thousands of other morphs that are out there
that make them so absolutely incredible
and they're so beautiful that, look at this.
This is a pastel banana camel ball Python.
Again, it's really difficult to just own one reptile.
You fall in love with them.
There's so many opportunities to keep again,
whether it's lizards or frogs or turtles or snakes,
whatever the case is, it is almost impossible
to just keep one.
As a matter of fact, I'll be honest with you.
I know maybe one or two people that have one reptile,
every other person I know keeps multiple reptiles.
So that's a little word of caution to you
when you get into this expect the fact
that it's gonna be coming addiction
and you are gonna have multiple reptiles.
But in that way, I think is absolutely amazing.
And here's a little bonus tip for you guys.
If you get into reptiles, your happiness level
is gonna go up, that's right.
You're gonna be happier in life, at least I think so.
I think that is the seven steps that you need to know
before you get into reptiles,
or if you're into reptiles and you want to keep going
or whatever so pass it along to friends.
I appreciate you guys so much.
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I appreciate you guys have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember, be kind to someone and I promise,
I'll see you tomorrow.