Night Nile update

[monitorlizard]

Huge Lizard Attack : SnakeBytesTV - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbAgZe3bBhQ)

[smy_749]

Bad husbandry, bad information, bad handling, and not sure what makes him think hes getting eggs...

[Hannibalcanibal]

XbAgZe3bBhQ

Normally i couldn't care less what flies out of bhb, but i saw someone ranting about this on facebook, so i checked it out..... And i'm pretty speechless right now.

[monitorlizard]

I don't see the picture/link you posted.

[Terranaut]

Yup. Saw that today. Brutal. Maybe he owns shares in Minitec?
I make stuff for work out of exactly the same stuff at work everyday.

[slowhite03]

Pretty sure it's about the black Nile episode on snake bytes. There is another thread about this

[Terranaut]

There was already another thread about it.

[Hannibalcanibal]

Oh alright then, i must have missed it. Mods, feel free to delete.

[jhinton6932]

will be interesting to see the long term effects of that caging/wood chip bedding mix after say 3 years.

i can survive on mcdonalds and mt dew and a pull out couch bed in a small apartment with no AC, but i probably wont be happy or healthy after a year. im a human and need the right stuff :>

[nepoez]

mammals are also a lot more adaptive than reptiles.

[infernalis]

I just merged the threads together,,,

[Hannibalcanibal]

I just merged the threads together,,,

Thanks! :D

[Pirarucu]

Gag. A few things:

"I think it's going to work perfect for these...It's a lot of room"
Nope. Strike one.

"80 degrees with a hotspot that can be over 100 degrees"
Much hotter. Strike two.

"With these guys being super aggressive, I don't know what I'm going to do when they get five or six feet long"
Maybe that's something we should have thought about before buying the large, aggressive animals you don't know how to care for, hmm? Strike three.

"We ended up with a male and two females, which means we're going to get some babies really soon."
Firstly, and I might be mistaken here, but didn't he start with five or something like that? Hmm...
Yes, you might get babies soon, maybe two or three survivors if you're lucky. If you're really lucky they'll be females, to replace the adults when they die from reproductive issues...

[monitorlizard]

Gag. A few things:

"I think it's going to work perfect for these...It's a lot of room"
Nope. Strike one.

"80 degrees with a hotspot that can be over 100 degrees"
Much hotter. Strike two.

"With these guys being super aggressive, I don't know what I'm going to do when they get five or six feet long"
Maybe that's something we should have thought about before buying the large, aggressive animals you don't know how to care for, hmm? Strike three.

"We ended up with a male and two females, which means we're going to get some babies really soon."
Firstly, and I might be mistaken here, but didn't he start with five or something like that? Hmm...
Yes, you might get babies soon, maybe two or three survivors if you're lucky. If you're really lucky they'll be females, to replace the adults when they die from reproductive issues...

-I think I remember seeing him say on Facebook that the basking spot was 120f.
-He only had three

[Pirarucu]

-I think I remember seeing him say on Facebook that the basking spot was 120f.
-He only had threeStill not hot enough, or large enough.
Ah, my bad. I was just guessing based on the first video I remember of them, I just remember seeing a small pile of them but not hearing a number.

[Akuma223]

I'm going to post this and hope it maybe gets somewhere, tell me what you think.

"Hey Brian I am a big fan of what you do and love your passion for your work, But your husbandry for your Night Niles is way off. A lot of people look up to you, and I think its extremely important that people see the proper way to care for these animals. Its really important to me that people improve their husbandry so these animals can live the absolute best lives they can."

Has anyone tried to contact him? If it bugs people so much contact him and try to change things.

[slowhite03]

will be interesting to see the long term effects of that caging/wood chip bedding mix after say 3 years.

i can survive on mcdonalds and mt dew and a pull out couch bed in a small apartment with no AC, but i probably wont be happy or healthy after a year. im a human and need the right stuff :>

Hate to break it to you but you can actually eat McDonald's and be healthy. I get what you meant but your example was way off. In a thread about bashing everything, I thought I would return the favor

[Pirarucu]

I shot him an email a long time ago, no response. I'm positive he's seen these threads. He reads forums, and past threads about his monitor husbandry got a fair bit of publicity on The Reptile Report.
SnakeBytesTV Questioned | The Reptile Report (http://thereptilereport.com/snakebytestv-questioned/)

[formica]

I'm very surprised to see a monitor being kept like that by such a major company in the reptile business

Hate to break it to you but you can actually eat McDonald's and be healthy. I get what you meant but your example was way off. In a thread about bashing everything, I thought I would return the favor

oh yeah LOL

I've seen what goes into US McDonalds burgers (pink slime, for eg, banned in the UK), there is no way on earth that it is even remotely healthy! and then there are the Hormones, Antibiotics and Steroids, and vast quantities of GM crops, which have also been banned in Europe because of their effect on fertility, infant mortality and cancers... here in the UK there are multiple laws which have forced McDonalds to serve up a very diffrent burger to what you guys get in the US, and even our McDonalds burgers are far from ''healthy''

[Donnie]

Hate to break it to you but you can actually eat McDonald's and be healthy. I get what you meant but your example was way off. In a thread about bashing everything, I thought I would return the favor

If by this you mean you have a burger once in a blue moon along with your normally healthy diet then I agree, eating it all the time = not healthy. I am sure Morgan Spurlock would have loved to have been fit and healthy from eating McDonald's for 30 days straight but he wasn't and it took him a long time afterwards to get back to the fitness he had prior to the experiment.

[Terranaut]

It took him almost 2 years before his liver function returned to normal and 9 months to get his body fat back to the same as test start.

[formica]

lol @ the censorship of GMO comments and links.

[jhinton6932]

anyway best of luck to him, hope he achieves his goals but not at the animals expense

[slowhite03]

Watch the fat head documentary. Get more than one source before you become an expert. Getting back to the original topic, I agree that some of his practices aren't the best but he does have a pretty successful buisness with a ton of happy customers. He must know what he's doing.

[Donnie]

Watch the fat head documentary. Get more than one source before you become an expert. Getting back to the original topic, I agree that some of his practices aren't the best but he does have a pretty successful buisness with a ton of happy customers. He must know what he's doing.

Nobody claimed to be an expert but apart from the fat head documentary you mention what other sources do you have to say eating McDonald's is healthy or do you just have the one that makes you an expert? To point out a few things from what I have read about it (I have not watched it yet but will do when when I have the time or inclination), Tom Naughton didn't eat solely McDonald's, he also limited his calorie intake to 2000 per day and he also increased (doubled) his weekly exercise whilst doing his experiment. Most people who start to monitor calorie intake and increase exercise will loose weight........
An interesting read (there are more like this if you look ;))
Tom Naughton is a Fat Head | The Science of Nutrition (http://thescienceofnutrition.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/tom-naughton-is-a-fat-head/)

Back on topic, just because somebody who has a successful business breeding snakes with lots of happy customers doesn't mean they know squat about keeping monitors.

[B_Aller]

This is hands down the worst monitor husbandry I've ever seen from a "so called expert"
Snake keeping success is often the harbinger of failure with varanids.
I will be certain to make sure I never spend a dime with this company and will do everything I can to discourage others from supporting his business.This is unacceptable.
Ben

[Akuma223]

This is hands down the worst monitor husbandry I've ever seen from a "so called expert"
Snake keeping success is often the harbinger of failure with varanids.
I will be certain to make sure I never spend a dime with this company and will do everything I can to discourage others from supporting his business.This is unacceptable.
Ben

Hey, have you ever tried to contact him? You really know your stuff and if anyone can instruct him on how to improve things you are one of those people. Seeing his monitors like that breaks my heart and I think if enough of us speak up we can catch his attention and encourage improvement. He seems like a really reasonable guy :/

[Aaron_S]

It took him almost 2 years before his liver function returned to normal and 9 months to get his body fat back to the same as test start.

By no means am I saying that Mcdonalds is healthy but that experiment was so lopsided.

To my knowledge, he and his girlfriend lived a very healthy lifestyle prior to this. He exercised and ate I believe a vegetarian or vegan diet so when he started this diet with NO exercise whatsoever I think it skewed the results a bit.

Again, I'm not saying this type of diet is any way good for anyone but I think his results aren't necessarily the normal that would occur if you did it just during everyday living.

Besides, who can eat that poop for a month straight?! Fast food should never be consumed that frequently.

[boosh96]

I believe Brian has a passion for the animals and what he does, but the video was just painful to watch. It's a shame such an amazing animal has to be kept like that.

[nepoez]

If you give your kids a high enough basking temp and humidity, eating McDonold's everyday wouldn't be a problem.

[Terranaut]

By no means am I saying that Mcdonalds is healthy but that experiment was so lopsided.

To my knowledge, he and his girlfriend lived a very healthy lifestyle prior to this. He exercised and ate I believe a vegetarian or vegan diet so when he started this diet with NO exercise whatsoever I think it skewed the results a bit.

Again, I'm not saying this type of diet is any way good for anyone but I think his results aren't necessarily the normal that would occur if you did it just during everyday living.

Besides, who can eat that poop for a month straight?! Fast food should never be consumed that frequently.

Oh yeah. They even discuss that in the movie for a second or two. What shocked me the most was the liver function issues. The get fat was obviously going to happen but I did not expect to hear immediate health issues from such a short experiment.

[Aaron_S]

Oh yeah. They even discuss that in the movie for a second or two. What shocked me the most was the liver function issues. The get fat was obviously going to happen but I did not expect to hear immediate health issues from such a short experiment.

Yeah I'll agree that was surprising. Incredible how fast it compounded his health.

[Sublimeballs]

I've never seen someone handle a varanid so wrong, of course he can bite you when your hand is in the middle of his stomach he's got a foot long neck. He's lucky he didn't end up with a big gash and tendon damage. I've seen much worse from a varanus indicus about half that size.

[smy_749]

To be fair, a nile that size is not easy for anyone to handle. It also takes balls to stick your hands in there (though it may be stupid, just sayin..)

[Sublimeballs]

To be fair, a nile that size is not easy for anyone to handle. It also takes balls to stick your hands in there (though it may be stupid, just sayin..)

I used to own some V. Panoptes so I understand the difficulties handeling/psychological aspects of dealing with the larger, lets call them intense monitors. But why/how do you get that high up in the industry without learning proper handeling techniques.

[Aaron_S]

I used to own some V. Panoptes so I understand the difficulties handeling/psychological aspects of dealing with the larger, lets call them intense monitors. But why/how do you get that high up in the industry without learning proper handeling techniques.

He's a snake guy?

[murrindindi]

I used to own some V. Panoptes so I understand the difficulties handeling/psychological aspects of dealing with the larger, lets call them intense monitors. But why/how do you get that high up in the industry without learning proper handeling techniques.


Hi, I think the more worrying aspect is his lack of knowledge on proper housing (supporting the animal).
I did leave a very polite comment on the youtube video regarding the wire cage he believes will provide all the monitor`s needs but he hasn`t responded, though he always seems to reply quite quickly to people saying how great he, the animals (and their care) are.
Very disappointing.....

[B_Aller]

I think the more worrying aspect is his lack of knowledge on proper housing (supporting the animal).

This is the whole problem with guys like this, the promotion of antiquated and debunked husbandry. For an "expert" he is ignoring 40-60 years of progress and knowledge and he's getting a lot of people to view his horrid husbandry and many will try to emulate him, seriously stunting and retarding the decimation of good husbandry info and harming the health of who knows how many animals. He is a big part of the problem we face as responsible keepers, he promotes himself as knowledgeable when the opposite is obviously true, at least when it comes to varanids. Those animals should have been sexually mature and laying eggs over a year ago. His husbandry is so off as to call in to question his entire business, as previously stated I will do all I can to steer people away from this guy, his business, his show and anyone who associates with him.
Ben

[Sublimeballs]

Hi, I think the more worrying aspect is his lack of knowledge on proper housing (supporting the animal).
Very disappointing.....

I agree, I felt that subject had been touched on fairly well by others. No monitor should be kept in a wire cage period. No means of holding humidity or heat in. And to say they require a basking spot of over a hundred, yeah 40 degrees over 100. I haven't followed these night niles at all how old are they?

[murrindindi]

I agree, I felt that subject had been touched on fairly well by others. No monitor should be kept in a wire cage period. No means of holding humidity or heat in. And to say they require a basking spot of over a hundred, yeah 40 degrees over 100. I haven't followed these night niles at all how old are they?

I used to keep some of my monitors in outdoor "aviary" type enclosures in Oz (plastic coated steel wire in part), and obviously if anyone`s living where the conditions are similar to those in the wild, that type can work (at least during the warmer periods).
I`m not familiar with (his?) company, I`m living in the U.K at this time.
I have no idea how old that particular Nile is but it certainly looks big enough to be sexually mature (around a metre?), clearly nowhere suitable for nesting, let alone living healthily whether male or female.
My username on youtube is "ornatusvaranid" I left a couple more comments earlier, I doubt he`ll respond... I noticed we are now back to Varanids maiming and (killing?) by bacteria, according to this "expert"?? Does he actually have a t.v show in America?

[infernalis]

I will do all I can to steer people away from this guy, his business, his show and anyone who associates with him.
Ben

Thank you for that.... seriously.

[Sublimeballs]

I used to keep some of my monitors in outdoor "aviary" type enclosures in Oz (plastic coated steel wire in part), and obviously if anyone`s living where the conditions are similar to those in the wild, that type can work (at least during the warmer periods).
I`m not familiar with (his?) company, I`m living in the U.K at this time.
I have no idea how old that particular Nile is but it certainly looks big enough to be sexually mature (around a metre?), clearly nowhere suitable for nesting, let alone living healthily whether male or female.
My username on youtube is "ornatusvaranid" I left a couple more comments earlier, I doubt he`ll respond... I noticed we are now back to Varanids maiming and (killing?) by bacteria, according to this "expert"?? Does he actually have a t.v show in America?

Ok maybe I shouldn't have said no wire mesh cages period, if your in the proper climate with an outdoor enclosure that's another story.

No he doesn't have a tv show here in the states, just a YouTube show. Wouldn't surprise me if animal planet wanted to give him a show tho,lol. Our animal based programming has really gone down hill since the 90s.

[Corey209]

Hate to break it to you but you can actually eat McDonald's and be healthy. I get what you meant but your example was way off. In a thread about bashing everything, I thought I would return the favor

Healthy? Maybe on the outside but after eating all the processed **** for years you'll regret it when heart disease and cancer sets it.

[infernalis]

Our animal based programming has really gone down hill since the 90s.

Stick with public broadcasting abd BBC :D

I'll take quality over quantity any day.

[Hannibalcanibal]

Stick with public broadcasting abd BBC :D

I'll take quality over quantity any day.

^this.....

Also, we can try to get word out about this, but the issue is that his audience is so large and we're just one forum... When every other place those new to reptiles congregate (i.e ten gallons with a thin layer of wood chips for a foot long savannah monitor on youtube) is crawling with under-educated "reptile lovers" who eat up bad care information like candy, especially if it's coming from a big youtube show.

Only issue is, people always tend to look past the people saying "this is wrong" if there is a big youtube guy with thousands of snakes and his own website, (start sarcasm) then the youtube guy has to be right, i mean, he has his own show and stuff, right? RIGHT? (sarcasm ended)

[infernalis]

^this.....

Also, we can try to get word out about this, but the issue is that his audience is so large and we're just one forum... When every other place those new to reptiles congregate (i.e ten gallons with a thin layer of wood chips for a foot long savannah monitor on youtube) is crawling with under-educated "reptile lovers" who eat up bad care information like candy, especially if it's coming from a big youtube show.

Only issue is, people always tend to look past the people saying "this is wrong" if there is a big youtube guy with thousands of snakes and his own website, (start sarcasm) then the youtube guy has to be right, i mean, he has his own show and stuff, right? RIGHT? (sarcasm ended)

I can ALMOST excuse LLL when they had a video on youtube claiming to be a "starter setup" but nowhere did the video mention this, nor did it clearly indicate that "starter" meant for about the first week.

It was an aquarium, screen top, dome light, wood chips setup.

I whined about it all over the net until one day I was asked to stop and the video disappeared.

Brian on the other hand clearly states that he's had these lizards a long while now, so he's promoting his version of long term (A.K.A. permanent) housing to impressionable young people, many who fail to engage the common sense side of their brains, They will just copy without thinking anything through.

[Hannibalcanibal]

Also, he does clearly read this forum. or at least knows about it:

[B_Aller]

There really is nothing you can do except NOT buy any of his products, NOT watch his shows and try to get everyone else you know to not support his business. You vote with your dollar, this is no different. I wouldn't bother trying to tell this guy anything unless it was face to face, just don't support this type of business, period.

[BH Varanus]

Bad husbandry, bad information, bad handling, and not sure what makes him think hes getting eggs...

i agree snakebytes should stick to snakes. I don't think they're niles at all.