Horrible way to handle. Opinions?

[Madkatter]

That video was absolutely a poor representation of retic owners and our hobby. My first thought when the guy said that the retic hadn't been completely out of his cage since he was a hatchling, was why on earth do you own him? None of those people had enough experience with retics to be handling it the way they did, let alone make a video about it. If that snake was being aggressive, he would have been striking from the get go. He came out of his enclosure curious and more than likely could have been moved without having his head secured. The comment "almost killed by this snake" was completey retarded and pissed me off. He wasn't "almost killed". He did something stupid and got bitten. Sucks to be you. The snake bit you bad? So what. Walk it off princess. You shouldn't have that snake to begin with.

For anyone out there who may have been on the fence about owning a retic, please don't let this video change your mind. I will say this to anyone who will listen. If interaction with snakes is what you really like about this hobby, then there is no better interaction than with a retic. Retics will look you directly in your eyes. There is true interaction. These snakes are intelligent and the ultimate experience in handling, in my opinion. These snakes make you ask the question "Does my snake recognize me?" These animals are just plain awesome! Everyone knows that retics have an aggressive food response or you better know this if you are going to own one. Hook train them. My retic just needs one touch on her head and she immediately snaps out of the food response. I absolutely love retics!

[CryHavoc17]

On a side note I was also a little disappointed with this weeks SnakeBytes episode as well, Brian built up PP like it was an amazing facility. I have been to the "reptile zoo", the husbandry is terrible, the facility is filthy, most of the repitles on display had mites there are always ants and other bugs climbing in the enclosure and on the animals themselves, the cages are way too small, the staff giving out info was not knowledgeable and they are quick to tell you that the animals on display are also for sale, the list goes on. Even my son who is 6 knew enough to say, "these cages are way too small, all the animals look sick". As an example they had 2 adult rhino iguanas in a tiny (I believe it was a 4x2x2 may have been a 6x2x2) melamine and glass cage and that theme tracked through the entire "zoo". If you spend 10 minutes searching for reviews online you see years and years of the same complaints.

I agree with this 100%. For brian to air an episode there implies a tacit endorsement of Jays husbandry practices, which vary somewhere between poor and unconciounable



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[CryHavoc17]

I rewatched the video, and honestly I just think Kenan is clearly inexperienced with these animals and was afraid of the snake in that situation. I dont think he was sensationalizing or hamming it up, I think he was scared of the animal. You can argue that boradcasting this footage was in poor taste because he didnt know what he was doing, but I really dont see it as that big of a deal. Its easy to armchair quarterback them and say they should have done x y or z. But they moved the animal from point a to point b without putting anyone (the snake included) in harms way. I say Id chalk that up as a win.

[Rob]

I rewatched the video, and honestly I just think Kenan is clearly inexperienced with these animals and was afraid of the snake in that situation. I dont think he was sensationalizing or hamming it up, I think he was scared of the animal. You can argue that boradcasting this footage was in poor taste because he didnt know what he was doing, but I really dont see it as that big of a deal. Its easy to armchair quarterback them and say they should have done x y or z. But they moved the animal from point a to point b without putting anyone (the snake included) in harms way. I say Id chalk that up as a win.

I agree he was afraid. But putting a video up like this is only going to add to the misconception that these animals can not be kept as pets. That's the exact opposite purpose of the channel. If a channel we come to expect to put our pets in the best light is putting up videos making them out to be out of control animals only because of poor handling. Then it's only a matter of time before they come for our retics. For those of you that aren't worried because you don't keep large snakes, they will continue down the line until the point of adding bps to the Lacey act as well. Videos making snakes look like monsters should bother you if you want the hobby to have any future. In no way would I chalk this video up as a win.

[reptileexperts]

Meh,

Ok, so there have been a lot of people spamming this on facebook and talking about the head grab. Why was the head grabbed? To hype the episode. The snake showed absolutely no aggression... none... it was trying to get away from the head grab that's for sure, but there was no cage aggression even witnessed. When my mainland males get aggressive, they are flying out of their cage mouth open. But even then, I don't grab the head... the only time I have ever had to grab a retics head was during a shot, and during an inspection on one of my largest girls when we wanted to look in her mouth.

Case and point, when they let the snake go back in the new enclosure, the snake barely retreated... when a snake is angered to a point of worry, especially a retic, they will stand their ground, not simply slither away a little bit and be content. My thoughts are it was going to be a very simple move, so the owner tells some scary story, the guy hypes it up, and they show a giant snake trying to escape a head grab.

Does it represent the hobby well? Not really... Is it the worst thing to happen to retic owners? Probably not since the ultimate goal was "safety" at the cost of demonizing a seemingly docile snake.

My two cents.

[rlditmars]

In my opinion the whole thing was sensationalized. Why wouldn't they have simply let the snake crawl into a crate with handles and then transported the crate to the new enclosure? Because then you wouldn't have seen a giant writhing snake. However, you would have seen a way to safely and securely move a large constrictor from one enclosure to another without putting the animal or any of the handlers at risk of harm or injury.

Sad really. Just my 0.02

[colton62]

I kinda feel Animal bytes might become exactly what they said they weren't in the future. But I hope they do not.

[iPanda]

Another note, if it bit ONCE, how do we know it wasn't some idiot trying to hold it when it was in feed mode? I hate snakebytes with a bloody passion. They do us a disservice to the hobby.

[Mike41793]

These animals aren't dumb. They're not as smart as a human or gorilla or dolphin, but they're certainly not a worm or slug either. They command and deserve respect. Just because a snake bites you once, it doesn't mean you have the right to handle it like that every time after just because YOURE scared.

When someone makes a mistake, that doesn't mean you get to forget all the nice things they've done. Just because it bites you once (which could have been feed response, in which case not the snakes fault at all) it doesn't mean you get to take away all trust and respect and treat it like an aggressive beast.

[reptileexperts]

Another note, if it bit ONCE, how do we know it wasn't some idiot trying to hold it when it was in feed mode? I hate snakebytes with a bloody passion. They do us a disservice to the hobby.

Did I say you could come here and dog Snakebytes :-O ;-)