Good sensible answers as always. In every way possible, good naturalism trumps poor bioactive care. Naturalism will allow X species to live, develop and behave in the most natural ways, moving and strengthening the body, and stimulating the mind in this natural way alongside the developed abilities/needs of the species. Bioactive care should only really be implemented as part of an 'extension' to naturalism! BioActive care is not the lazy keepers choice nor does it reduce keeper workload, quite the reverse. The keeper will ALWAYS be the apex custodian, the more elements of care you add in, the more 'work' you will have to do. Bioactive is not always best! indeed, poor non-natural bioactive has no real benefits to care and enrichment. Live planted is not always bioactive and bioactive is not always live planted, keepers get confused here with the assumption that a few plants and a handful of springtails make a viv self-sustaining and require no care, it does not, not at all . I would much rather see keepers instill a sense of the wild into their care, with or without a few select hardy plants, ideally local to the species in question than see someone load a poorly designed and poorly thought out viv full of plants and insects and call it bio. As Chaz rightly says, the biggest possible change in welfare that you will see is found within installing the correct spectrum of light over the whole terrestrial spectrum and in the correct quantity. This will, and in short order start to energise the animal in a very similar way as it would in the wild. You will start to see better colouration for most, a greater degree of activity, natural basking and regulatory behaviors emerge quickly. The correct provision of lighting for reptiles is a 'process not a lamp', there is no 'one hit' solution that covers the whole spectrum other than the actual sun, the same is very true for reptile care as a whole. We have to look at every aspect of our care, then check this with the abilities and needs of the species as dictated by its own natural development over time, and then join these together in a coherent way in order to make the 'whole' of care whilst taking into mind our own abilities, time constraints and finances. This means that lighting is as important as food choice, hydration, viv size and orientation, cage design, substrate choice, substrate humidity, plant choice, rock and branch choice, hide choice etc etc but without a wild-like synergy within these elements, we risk it all falling apart. The watchword is safe, effective, measured and measurable choices, instilled into our care with reason and surety after good advice has been obtained and understood.
THANK YOU for answering my three questions! I will start using a dark cloth to protect the vivarium from light during my streams. Such an easy fix! And I will definitely skip bioactive. My work schedule and lifestyle wouldn’t sync up to the level of time and care that would require. You are my snake-keeper superhero! Cheers
Hello Chaz, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge to help us become better pet keepers. I have a Japanese Rat Snake. He is two years old. I've owned him since March 2021. Up to this point he's been great with feeding. I'm going on 5 weeks with him not feeding. I offer a hopper every 7 days. He is still very active in his 4ft x 16in x 2ft enclosure, he's drinking water, and looks as beautiful/healthy as he always has. It's hard to find any information on Japanese Rat Snakes and I'm hoping you could offer some insight on what I'm doing wrong. I keep his warm side at 82 degrees . Thank you for all you do!!!!
Hey, Chaz! Much love for what you do! Any thoughts on rhino rat snakes (gonyosoma boulengeri) in terms of the beginner/intermediate/advanced scale? Obviously, no need to give me a long exhaustive review in this format, but I can't wait for an actual video 😅
Really minor comment here: My Indonesian blue tongue skink has a habit of crawling of to a corner and depositing a hidden turd (plus urinates). And ferreting out the offending material is challenging! The humidity makes it worse. So threw a couple dozen orange isopods in there. They eat the hidden waste material I might miss when cleaning. When I do a full substrate clean out, I scoop up 2-3 dozen of the isopods scurrying about and put them in the clean enclosure. I do not change anything I do in the enclosure for the bugs.
As I am looking to get a snake in the distant future, do you know if there is a list of the good breeders in the UK? They can be hard to find as they don't always advertise themselves too well. I would love to ideally get a pure locality boa so I am not making it easy for myself. I have found Yorkshire constrictors but he deals mostly with Surinam's/ long tailed boas, far from a beginner snake
@@SnakesNAdders I'm talking maybe a year or so. I want to make sure I can reliably afford and care for a snake before I go and purchase one. And yes this will be my first snake. I am aiming to get a dwarf locality so I don't have to deal with a giant as my first.
Thanks for another good video with relevant advice. Any chance you could touch on some of the Mediterranean snake species of Malpolon? There is very little done with them here in the U.S. and I think we are missing out...thanks
Good sensible answers as always. In every way possible, good naturalism trumps poor bioactive care. Naturalism will allow X species to live, develop and behave in the most natural ways, moving and strengthening the body, and stimulating the mind in this natural way alongside the developed abilities/needs of the species.
Bioactive care should only really be implemented as part of an 'extension' to naturalism! BioActive care is not the lazy keepers choice nor does it reduce keeper workload, quite the reverse. The keeper will ALWAYS be the apex custodian, the more elements of care you add in, the more 'work' you will have to do.
Bioactive is not always best! indeed, poor non-natural bioactive has no real benefits to care and enrichment.
Live planted is not always bioactive and bioactive is not always live planted, keepers get confused here with the assumption that a few plants and a handful of springtails make a viv self-sustaining and require no care, it does not, not at all .
I would much rather see keepers instill a sense of the wild into their care, with or without a few select hardy plants, ideally local to the species in question than see someone load a poorly designed and poorly thought out viv full of plants and insects and call it bio.
As Chaz rightly says, the biggest possible change in welfare that you will see is found within installing the correct spectrum of light over the whole terrestrial spectrum and in the correct quantity. This will, and in short order start to energise the animal in a very similar way as it would in the wild. You will start to see better colouration for most, a greater degree of activity, natural basking and regulatory behaviors emerge quickly.
The correct provision of lighting for reptiles is a 'process not a lamp', there is no 'one hit' solution that covers the whole spectrum other than the actual sun, the same is very true for reptile care as a whole. We have to look at every aspect of our care, then check this with the abilities and needs of the species as dictated by its own natural development over time, and then join these together in a coherent way in order to make the 'whole' of care whilst taking into mind our own abilities, time constraints and finances. This means that lighting is as important as food choice, hydration, viv size and orientation, cage design, substrate choice, substrate humidity, plant choice, rock and branch choice, hide choice etc etc but without a wild-like synergy within these elements, we risk it all falling apart.
The watchword is safe, effective, measured and measurable choices, instilled into our care with reason and surety after good advice has been obtained and understood.
Good to hear the shops doing well, well deserved.
THANK YOU for answering my three questions! I will start using a dark cloth to protect the vivarium from light during my streams. Such an easy fix! And I will definitely skip bioactive. My work schedule and lifestyle wouldn’t sync up to the level of time and care that would require. You are my snake-keeper superhero! Cheers
What a thoughtful keeper asking such great questions and great advice given.
Hello Chaz, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge to help us become better pet keepers. I have a Japanese Rat Snake. He is two years old. I've owned him since March 2021. Up to this point he's been great with feeding. I'm going on 5 weeks with him not feeding. I offer a hopper every 7 days. He is still very active in his 4ft x 16in x 2ft enclosure, he's drinking water, and looks as beautiful/healthy as he always has. It's hard to find any information on Japanese Rat Snakes and I'm hoping you could offer some insight on what I'm doing wrong. I keep his warm side at 82 degrees . Thank you for all you do!!!!
Hey, Chaz! Much love for what you do! Any thoughts on rhino rat snakes (gonyosoma boulengeri) in terms of the beginner/intermediate/advanced scale? Obviously, no need to give me a long exhaustive review in this format, but I can't wait for an actual video 😅
Really minor comment here: My Indonesian blue tongue skink has a habit of crawling of to a corner and depositing a hidden turd (plus urinates). And ferreting out the offending material is challenging! The humidity makes it worse. So threw a couple dozen orange isopods in there. They eat the hidden waste material I might miss when cleaning. When I do a full substrate clean out, I scoop up 2-3 dozen of the isopods scurrying about and put them in the clean enclosure.
I do not change anything I do in the enclosure for the bugs.
Very happy your doing good, I share your videos to groups often. You guys are tops. Appreciate all the time you put into it. Take care man.
At last ,a good dose of common sense regarding bio active set ups .well done sir.
Hope your going to get some Iran jaya carpet babies in soon???👍oh and what's your theory on uvb for jayas?
Hey Chaz! How about a video with more book recommendations? Loved the first one! (It's actually how I found your channel.)
More baby bci boas please not 2-3 yr juices 👍
As I am looking to get a snake in the distant future, do you know if there is a list of the good breeders in the UK? They can be hard to find as they don't always advertise themselves too well.
I would love to ideally get a pure locality boa so I am not making it easy for myself. I have found Yorkshire constrictors but he deals mostly with Surinam's/ long tailed boas, far from a beginner snake
Donyou mean inthe not too distant future? Also is this your first snake?
@@SnakesNAdders I'm talking maybe a year or so. I want to make sure I can reliably afford and care for a snake before I go and purchase one.
And yes this will be my first snake. I am aiming to get a dwarf locality so I don't have to deal with a giant as my first.
Thanks for another good video with relevant advice. Any chance you could touch on some of the Mediterranean snake species of Malpolon? There is very little done with them here in the U.S. and I think we are missing out...thanks
Never kept Malpolon but there are other species from Europe which i have if thats of use?
@@SnakesNAdders I would absolutely be interested. There just aren’t that many European species kept by people here.
Can you please get some Iran jaya carpet babies in??? Not cross breds? Cheers