(dramatic music)
- Tabasco, no, stop.
Iguanas can be an extremely popular lizard.
As you can see, Tabasco is an absolutely beautiful animal,
but I tell you what,
there's definitely a dark side to them.
Iguanas have been pet since the '70s.
As a matter of fact, back in the '70s and '80s,
when you were gonna get a big lizard
it was almost always iguanas for a couple reasons.
They were actually relatively available,
pretty cheap to be honest with you,
coming outta Central and South America,
being bred down there,
and they were coming in dirt cheap
and people just thought iguanas were the best option,
that was before bearded dragons, leopard gecko,
all the other options we have, now.
Heinz is of course, a sunglow albino.
And the reason why the albinos are typically pretty chill
and can make some pretty good pets iguanas
is the fact that they actually
don't have really good eye sight.
So, the fact that they're almost blind,
they don't seem to have that kind of aggression
that other iguanas have, because trust me,
the problem with a iguanas is that
they're really great as babies
and even at a year old,
but once they reach maturity, it can get ugly.
And we thought that Tobasco
and Sriracha were just basically getting into breeding mode
which we're actually excited about.
But moments after we filmed this tragedy happened
and that tragedy was actually
that Tabasco totally beat up
and injured Sriracha.
I mean, you could see there's some cuts
on her that we've treated now.
Unfortunately, he broke her tail off at the edge right there
and even broke a couple of her fingers.
I know, it's terrible guys,
bummed me out so bad.
I love this animal's so much.
And to see her get injured like that
literally within minutes,
we were able to pull her out
and now we have her in a smaller enclosure right here,
just to kind of heal up.
Our vet is taking a look at her,
making sure that we can get her as good as possible.
She's probably gonna lose a finger or two
which is an absolute bummer.
But just supposed to show you that what happens is that
when a male reaches sexual maturity
sometimes within minutes, it can actually snap.
Literally, just a couple days before this event,
Tabasco was out and playing around
and acting completely normal.
(Vacuum machine whirring)
- Where'd he go?
- And I really believe
that sriracha is gonna be okay,
but she's definitely beat up
which just absolutely bums me out
because she's such a beautiful animal.
And that's the problem with green iguanas,
there's no doubt about it.
And like I said, we'll keep her in isolation down here
for a little while.
Once she's completely healed,
we'll move her into a larger cage
that is obviously away from Tabasco.
And she'll spend the rest of her life
not with a male,
'cause we never want anything like this to happen again.
But I tell you what it stressed me out so bad
when I seen her get hurt like that,
I was like, "oh no,
I raised this little thing up
from a baby and they were so good."
I thought maybe we were gonna get some eggs
'cause they were breeding.
And it turns out
that Tabasco just went absolutely territorial
and beat the heck outta Sriracha.
Green iguanas are stunning animals
but you can see right now he's looking
at literally whipping me with his tail
and stuff like that.
You've gotta be careful.
It's okay, buddy.
Whoa!
Okay, calm down.
All right.
He's kind of calmed down and listen,
they are stunning.
I mean, there's not much more beautiful than this
when it comes to a reptile.
I mean, look at how incredible Tabasco is.
The problem is that
oftentimes they just don't make great pets.
And that might be why
some of the invasive issues in Florida
have happened is that people keep these animals.
They're super cute as babies,
they were coming in for 10, $12, people were buying.
Then they get to this size.
They kinda get more territorial
and some people are letting 'em go.
Now, I'm not saying all the problems in Florida
are from will let 'em go.
'Cause they come on shipments of other produce
that actually come in from other countries
and then ultimately get released from those ships.
So, I'm not blaming people
for the invasiveness in Florida.
What I am saying is that the vast majority of people
that keep a large iguana
can't keep 'em for any length of time.
And so now you have a problem
where you can't get rid of 'em,
because you have all these big adult iguanas
that are kind of unkeepable.
They're not friendly,
they're not good to work with.
So, people are like, "I just need to get rid of them".
And I hate to see that with this animal.
When you take on an animal like Tabasco, Sriracha,
it's a lifelong commitment for them, right?
Personally, I think that for most people
green iguanas aren't really the option.
- Brian showed us this-- - Shut up.
So, Brian taught us this crazy trick, right?
That's it, it's all I got for you.
So, now-- - Please, guys--
- Try this at home.
- Don't try this at home.
This is really stupid.
And we're professional, guys.
- I really don't even know how to do this part.
- Oh my God,
he won't even grab it.
- Mike, Mike, get it. - Jay, you are so dumb.
I swear, sometimes...
All right, we're going with the big boy.
Oh no, you're doing it. - No.
- You didn't grab it. - No, absolutely.
Stop.
(Mike laughing)
He can't even hold the aligator.
- Any last words? - No, I got this.
Ready?
- No, you have to touch his tongue.
- No, you don't.
I can just-- - Oh! Sorry.
- I can't even do it.
- So hold on, can I tell you something real fast?
(Mike laughing)
Listen, let me tell you what Brian...
Hold on, listen to me.
What you're about to do,
you are going to hurt yourself.
You have to just touch the tongue.
Yes, 'cause right now you're aiming for those teeth.
- Oh, his disapproval face.
I'm scared. - I'm scared too.
Oh, did it hurt?
- He didn't get me.
- But you didn't pop.
- Oh, I got a little pop.
Did you hear that? I heard it.
- There was a little one, good job.
All right, Jay yours turn.
- [Mike] Hey, hey, get back here.
That's right.
- There are so many options
when it comes to really cool lizards
and the truth is,
is that iguanas can be absolutely amazing.
But green iguanas are just really tough.
I mean, they're best kept like in big outdoor enclosures,
oftentimes enough where females
can totally get away from males.
And even the large case
that we had Sriracha and Tobasco in
wasn't large enough obviously
to keep her in the situation
where she wasn't able to get hurt.
But I would personally recommend
if you want an iguana
and you don't want a bearded dragon
or a gecko or something like that.
A rhino iguana is amazing.
I mean, look at Diddy here.
I mean, he's just a puppy dog.
He'll sit in my hands for hours.
And when these guys reach sexual maturity
just like Diddy did this last year
they don't change their personality, right?
Now, he went around,
he chased Dixie around
to breed her and stuff like that,
but he wasn't gonna harm her.
He wasn't gonna try to beat her up
and try to rip her tail off
and break her fingers and stuff like that.
They're just not that way.
And they don't change their attitudes for us people, either.
I mean, he is an absolute wonderful animal.
So, again,
I'm not trying to tell people
that are working with green iguanas that you're wrong.
What I'm tryna say is that
green iguanas are really not for most people.
They're really difficult pets.
Every now and then you get one
that stays really, really docile.
But the majority of the time, especially with males,
once they hit a certain size and age
they turn kinda psycho
and they become terrible pets.
Again, if you want a iguana,
because you're like, "I've gotta have an iguana",
I would really suggest a rhino iguana,
a lewisi, some sort of Cyclura,
because they are wonderful.
I mean, just look at how...
I mean, they're like puppy dogs.
So, don't take the risk on a green iguana
that could potentially break your heart down the road
when you can get something like a rhino iguana
that just make great pets for the next 50, 60 years.
(upbeat music)
Come on, girl.
Hi, Ivy.
Of course, yesterday we saw that Ivy started to shed out
and have some stuff shed on her.
Day two, still the same amount of shed,
you can see she's got shed on her face
and on her body a little bit.
She hasn't went anymore.
And I don't understand,
she's been in the water all day since yesterday
but still hasn't broke that shed off her head,
her face or her underbody.
So I'm not exactly sure what's going on,
but I sure hope
that eventually here, in the next day or two
she'll get that shed off,
because I don't want anything to happen
to one of my favorite snakes, Ivy.
And in typical Anaconda fashion,
someone's coming up to say hi to me.
Hey, girl, what are you doing?
Of course, Ariana,
she's as curious as Ivy is.
What are you looking for?
Is there something I can help you with?
No, you're just hanging out with me.
Anacondas, I'm telling you what,
they're the craziest animal on the planet.
Do you think finding a needle in the haystack is difficult.
Tyson, the albino box turtle certainly is great at hiding.
You know, that's a big enclosure for him
and I just can't seem to figure out where he is at.
Well, that was a little bit of a problem
finding this little monkey for sure.
He's been eating really good.
So, we're just gonna go ahead, weigh him
and see where he's at.
11, 12 grams.
Last time he was at 10 grams.
So, he's gaining just a little bit,
not a whole lot,
but he's definitely working in the positive way
which is all we want.
He's absolutely adorable
but I tell you what he is good at hiding.
There's no doubt about that.
- You gotta get the mouth
and I'll get the nose.
- How is that fair?
Hurry up, before he move out.
Get him out.
- It's just Milton.
- Oh, really?
- I mean, I don't know anything about Milton.
- He definitely does bite.
- We combed my beard with him the other day.
Throw back. (man grunting)
Oh, mine.
You're really getting deep in the pore.
Throwback.
- He's got a little bit
of salt build up in the nose.
Would you relax?
- I'm fine.
- He's like the size of your thumb.
It's got a bit of calcium and build up by his nose.
So, we're just gonna get that off,
'cause it makes him look good,
it'd help him breathe a little bit.
Can someone else hold his tail.
- Wow!
- I thought it was actually gonna come out in the--
- Yeah, like a bearded dragon.
- That was just was like a salt.
- It's been a while.
- Now you guys have to high five.
- Thanks for watching today's video.
I promise, we're gonna take care of Srirachi.
She'll be on the mend soon.
Definitely really bummed out about what happened.
If you wanna support this channel,
what you could do is you could watch a couple of videos
in this playlist right here.
You can also subscribe right here.
It really does mean the world to me.
Have a wonderful day Reptile Army.
Remember be kind to someone
and I promise, I'll see you in the next one.