Hot Takes on Reptiles

Most of these don’t seem like very hot takes IMO, everyone seems to be in agreement, except maybe the cohab beardies :rofl:

I’d say a “hot take” is something that a majority of the community would disagree with, or make a significant group really mad.

With that said, here’s my two pennies:

Most of the hubbub about enrichment is anthropomorphizing. I can’t speak for a lot of reptiles and their care, as it’s impossible to have extensive experience with every species, but for many snakes as long as their physical needs are met then you’re golden. That isn’t to say you can keep them in an enclosure where they barely fit and can only sit kinked up, but your ball python is not going to get snake anxiety from living in a rack system on paper.

Second, my biggest pet peev however would be with hybridization. Specifically with animals that are similar enough that the hybrids might be confused with the parent species or, and this get’s me ridiculously mad, breeding with the intent of crossing over one gene into a different species. I’m a Short-Tail guy, and there are currently attempts to breed the Piebald gene (among others) into Short-Tails. It’s the worst aspects of the Ball Python breeder mentality bleeding into what is a really respectable community of enthusiasts. The most ironic thing is that there’s already a Blood Python pied out there, but there are those who are simply too impatient or too greedy to wait. Make some Woma-Balls or Bateaters, I don’t care, just leave my shorties alone :rage::dagger:

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