1990s Reptiles You Never See Anymore | Where Are They Now?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- The 1990s was a wild time for reptiles! Every 90s Kid will remember the expert level reptiles available for a few dollars in every pet shop. The 90s nostalgia is real and so are these 5 insane 1990s reptiles that you never see anymore and where they are now!
#1990s #90s #reptiles
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The coolest 90s reptiles are sometimes also the hardest reptiles to care for. Iguanas for example are really big and certainly not for the average reptile keeper. Big green iguanas can be 5ft or even bigger and have nasty bites and gnarly tail whips. Imagine being sold this little lizard that turns into Godzilla as a kid? Chameleons are also a great example of a 1990s reptile store staple. You would often be sold a Veiled chameleon for $40 and told to keep them in a 10 gallon aquarium with a house hold light to heat it. We have come a long way with chameleon care thankfully. Basilisks also were in every reptile shop or big box pet brand in decades gone by. Don't get me started on African Rock Pythons being available for pennies! These massive constrictor snakes get huge, have bad attitudes and really shouldn't be available to anyone who isn't a serious large snake enthusiast! As for alligators and caimans being available back in the day, oh boy were the 1990s the decade of the pet store alligator! Times have changed and thankfully so! Would you watch a Top 5 reptiles of the 2000s video?
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What reptiles did you see more of in years gone by that aren't common anymore?
I feel like chameleons were very common but now they need bigger cage, more care etc.
Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, and Mosasaurs.
Well I mean tank not cage lol
You used to be able to buy red eared sliders in gas stations when I was a kid haha
We also used to be able to win green iguanas at the fair at the gold fish toss game.
Ha! I used to work at Pj's Pet Center at Yorkdale Mall in Toronto for several years in the Reptiles section (best job in the world) and the reptiles/exotics we used to get there would blow my mind! I did however make sure every customer buying every animal knew what equipment/enclosure it needed. I read all the books! Also, the rock pythons were my least favourite to feed! Always bit! PS - Haha! And yeah we did sell caimans, and if you were a minor, we were required to get your parents to write a signed letter! Hahahah!
No doubt in my mind you got signed letters. I rember when i was a kid my grandma would send me to the store for some candy or a soda oh and with a note for me to pick up a couple packs of lucky strikes non filter soft packs for her and my grandpa
@@strugglejennings7215 The store down the street from me didn’t even ask for a note. I was 8 and getting my mom a pack of Winstons lol
Crazy times i think back like it was yesterday and my how things have changed and my father omg how his mind must be blown from kid till now
THE MAN THE MYTH THE ANT LEGEND!!!!!!!
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Emily and Ed at Snake Discovery have Rex the alligator, and even as stunted as she is, she required a whole room in their house before they moved her to their zoo. As I recall, they've made a very good video about why you shouldn't get an alligator as a pet, and explains why they do have Rex.
Yes
And she ruined the basement. The walls and the flooring had to be replaced after they moved her too
Didn't they have another one die?
@@zacsdiyreptiles7146 no, they rescued her from a negligent home. they never wanted an alligator and would never actively pursue one
Theyre awesome, alligators are not pets!
Reptiles of each decade series would be amazing.
Two amphibians I saw at every pet store that I dont see anymore are fire bellied toads and newts. They were so popular back in the 90s and early 2000's
coming soon!
@@WickensWickedReptiles newts are a protected species here in the uk I believe
I kind of miss seeing newts here in the states. I had a couple of fire-belly newt enclosures and I loved watching them just walk around underwater.
@@davidreynolds9375 I agree, I had both and they were so much fun. very underrated
whoa, memory unlocked!
Would love to see an '80's version...take me right back to my childhood in Florida!!! I remember a shop that had caiman and even a nurse shark!!!
I used to see caiman for sale in the 90's also
Okay boomer
@MaggieFox45 some of us were kids kids in the 80s and that makes us: millennials. Google before you comment your insults please
You still see nurse sharks in stores here in florida, to be specific: bamboo nurse sharks.
@@MaggieFox45 Nah girl Gen X'r
here!!!
This video is nostalgic 👨🏼🦳… I’m getting old
same dawg
@@WickensWickedReptiles should do a Reptiles Of The Decades mini series
Saaaame. '99
I graduated High school in 1996 thanks for reminding me I'm ancient 🤣
I feel the same, too- I& I graduated 1997!!🙂❤️
As a 93 baby, I remember seeing and learning about these reptiles the most as pets when I was around 5-7 years old. So wild!
I remember when I was a little kid back in the early 2000s, my great grandparents kept a pair of male and female iguanas and they legit had their entire outdoor patio closed off and set up for them. They also had 2 kiddie pools that they changed the water out for them daily. I don’t remember much else about their set up but I remember it was a massive patio. Like 20x20 feet
that is crazy cool!
I have two green iguanas and I plan on buying and modifying a greenhouse in the near future for them, I live in New York and I've been wanting to do something very special for my green iguanas, I feel like for the most part they get a bad rap most TH-camrs do not even put a good light on them I feel like if anything they are villainized, a greenhouse may seem excessive and very expensive but I looked up prices and some of them are pretty nice for about four hundred bucks, with some modifications and TLC I think a greenhouse would make a wonderful enclosure for my best and most beautiful green iguanas, one is a super red Mal and the other one is a axanthic blue female, she is around 3, and my big boy is almost 5, he is very loving and Interactive smart and inquisitive and demand lots of attention
That’s awesome
I always think it's weird how green iguanas are widely considered to be horrible pets given how common they were. My cousin had one for 20 years and it was her best friend. She had an enclosure for him...but the iguana just hung out around the house all day with seemingly no health issues from that. Maybe he was just a particularly well suited iguana for captivity. RIP Iggy.
They are banned here in florida if i remember correctly....... They are extremely invasive in south florida after all
My grandfather found one in a Pizza Hut parking lot back in '93 (we live in Maryland so WTF?). He took it home, nursed it back to health, named it Burt, and converted most of the laundry room into a habitat for him. He passed away in 2015 and will be forever missed.
I'd love to see all the generational reptiles! I remember knowing so many people who got iguana's for cheap!
wicked!
I remember when people thought I was crazy because I got a Bearded Dragon instead of an iguanas…. I also remember being the only one who DID NOT have tail- whip stories!!! 🙂🙂
We had an iguana when I was a kid (est. 2002). We got him from my uncles ex wife who didn't have time for him because she was caring for my grandma.
I think he was outgrowing his tank, so my mom put him in a tent briefly, but he escaped.
In the early 2000’s I volunteered with my son at the wildlife center in the back of an SPCA. Many times they had iguanas that people didn’t want anymore. Many times they had missing nails and or parts of toes due to poor nutrient. Most volunteers were scared of them. My son and I would feed and clean their enclosures since others wouldn’t. I would bring hibiscus flowers from my house to feed them as a treat and they wouldn’t know what to do with them until they figured out they tasted good.
The Basilisk section of this video is so true!!!! About eight years ago I remember my local Petco selling them for around 20 bucks, when asked about their care the workers said how “Basilisks are basically water dragons and if you can take care of one you can take care of the other.” Which I get they are slightly similar, but still they are totally different species
I used to have a pair of Basilisks when I was a teenager. They make really bad 'pets' because they are always skittish and never like being held, even if you raise them from hatchlings. If they have a big enclosure with UVB, heat, humidity and a large pool to soak in they are easy to care for though. But they are never pets.
Meh, my pet store only had one because they weren't allowed to send it back and after I bought it they've refused taking in any more. And in my case it was actually the vet arguing with me that it was a water dragon. They make terrible pets and I'm pretty sure there are still reptile TH-camrs out there praising them as "easy". Clint has a video basically praising a dude for breeding them when in reality it's just an animal that shouldn't be bred period.
Who els misses playing snake on there flip phone? 🙋♀️
Yes the 70's, 80's, 200's I'm obsessed with these
coming soon!
I had a Green Iguana in the 90s, i got it for free. I kept it in its own room with a humid warm hide. Very aggressive to everyone except me. Most likely saw me as his food source. Ended up giving it to a small zoo. It had weird colours, but I now I can't find any pictures of it.
adorable
I bought my ex an iguana for... I wanna say Christmas or birthday. His parents hated it. He ended up sending it to his cousin since she was moved out. In my defense, he was an experienced lizard owner and knew what I was getting him into.
Most pet shops didn't even know what they were selling they just had these reptiles there to make their shop look cool & important. Good ole 90s 😂
bingo bango!
A friend of mine remembers Caiman's being sold at Woolco back in the early 70s for $5 a piece! Igauna's were $2 and Red-Eared Sliders were fifty cents.
I would love to see a reptiles through the decades…. And maybe even historically? Like how they were used in the Colosseum, and I have royals used them in gardens etc. like the history of reptile keeping
I went from seeing a bunch of these a lot when I was little to hardly ever seeing them at all it’s interesting
I remember back in the late 90s, when I was a teenager, a friend’s dad was building an iguana enclosure for a customer. I went to her house and saw this monstrosity. He had measured out a third of the room where this iguana was gonna live. It was maybe 7 feet high? The height of the room, apparently. And it was going to take up and entire wall and then come out about 5 feet. And that’s when it was explained to me just how much space and iguana needs in captivity. So SOME people knew in the 90s, at least. But I gotta say the majority of them didn’t! Also, these were very wealthy people ordering this thing!
Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash!!! 😂 As a 90s kid I couldn’t imagine anything cooler 😂😂😂
I recently saw a few caiman at a pet store nearby...it's one in the back of an oddity place that's got all sorts of stuff. At least they aren't selling monkeys anymore there. That place seems to specialize in the strange and exotic pets though, and have a massive tank of some of the largest piranha that I've seen outside of an aquarium.
I also see Green Iguanas in a LOT of places, and, still, really cheap...probably because they're one of the animals they can get in without much effort.
One friend of mine growing up had a pet alligator and was raising a couple more to put with it...of course, his parents were exotic animal vets that largely worked with various zoos and had the equipment due to their family farm being something used as a quarantine facility for a lot of imported or shipped animals as well as for observation.
I remember this like blockbusters on every corner
I remember back in the mid to late 80s PANCAKE TORTOISES selling for $10 each. Also, “THROWING STAR TURTLES” which I never see at all now.
Awesome video Adam! I Remember some of the smaller mom and pop shops selling everything from sulcata tortoises and red eared sliders for basically nothing and macaws for less than $100. I know it’s not technically a reptile, or is it 🤔 🦖 but being a bird owner these days I can’t imagine how much trouble an inexperienced keeper could get into with any of these.
I would love to see a similar video for 70’s and 80’s reptiles.
I remember seeing hatchling gators and crocs for sale at a pet store I went to in the mid to late 2000’s. Left an impression on me and I bought myself a smooth front caiman a few years ago.
PetSmart sells Veiled Chameleons. I did everything I could for those poor things when I worked there. It was really frustrated to raise them in something about the size of a shoe box with 40 watt bulbs. We had one that didn't sell until he was almost fully grown. I took him out of that box and had him in a tall 60 gal bowfront fish tank. It was the best I could do, but at least he could move around.
Cool video!! I remember going back to the early 2000s, there was this reptile shop where he had this alligator. Thinking about it now, it was definitely not a good set up, but back then I would never have known that. Needless to say, he isn't in business anymore and it wasn't for poor animal husbandry.
remember the days of Savannah Monitors in every shop, bruh!
@@WickensWickedReptiles I sure do!!
Yup I remember seeing multiple baby gators in 40 gl tanks....bad times
@@ren17x50 😡
@@caseysilva6919 no special lighting that I recall.
I would love to see reptiles from the '70s and '80s for sure! I mean I was just a kid back then so I don't really remember too much so it would be cool. Let's get tubular
As a Mexican, I find it hilarious how they recommend keeping iguanas in tiny cages back then especially given I've been to Mexico visiting family multiple times and those lizards do get very large
My iguana is still juvenile so he is in a cage but it is a very big split level setup with a custom wooden bottom that I planted and have coco fiber and reptisoil as substrate. Also have the sides and back coverd in plastic and poster board to help with humidity. He's a happy dude and eats a whole hell of alot of turnip greens. One day he will have a big custom wooden build for the room
It took me three attempts to master chameleons but once you get the hang of it they’re amazing ! I’m older than dirt and clearly remember during my childhood when color TV’s and VCR’s first appeared.
Me too! I was 5 years old when the first episode of Sesame Street came out. I remember being very confused by the concept! 😆
Great video Adam,was speaking about this exact subject the other month, iguanas and water dragons ,chameleon’s were very popular to see for sale in the Uk late 90’s and 2000,s.
Even though I'm a 2001 baby I still remember the pet store at the mall that definitely had iguanas and chameleons that should not have been sold. I think they also had macaws which is 😬😬😬 and I even remember starting to do research about keeping reptiles and there was more information at the library than there was online. Plus the information was subpar at best. The quality and access of information is so much better now.
I was born in 2000 and I very clearly remember the pet store we went to for dog stuff having baby alligators. I don't remember the cost but I do remember that they where in what was basically a chest height (For me at the time, and I was ~5) chicken wire pen with a small kiddy pool. They also would let kids hold and pet them.
Thinking those emojis replace actual words is a tell tale sign you were born in the cabbage people generation.
@@shadowbanned1999 those emojis represent the face and sound I would have made if I was speaking?? They arent replacing words which is why I used them in the first place. Emoticons have been used in online text based communication since the early 90's. Not sure what cabbage people means but I assume it's an insult.
You should check out Tropical Gems in Barrie Ontario, it's amazing! They have lots of obscure species of reptiles you don't normally see in Canada (including NERD bred monitors) however, the owner is very very knowledgeable and so are a lot of the employees. Great reptile and aquatics shop
I remember visiting pet stores and seeing tiny little green chameleons, easily sit on your thumb size. I wanted a green iguana, also sold as adorable little green babies, but thankfully my parents were responsible and the first thing they had me buy with my allowance money was the iguana care book the pet store also sold, I might still have it somewhere lol. I did not end up getting a green iguana!
edit: House Hippos
It wasn’t very effective for me as a kid. I was convinced for years that they were real. 😂
I remember those care books! We had to buy and read them front to back and we’d be tested on what was in them before we were allowed to start looking at them as pets
I definitely want to see "different decade" animal videos like this
Love the content!!! I’m absolutely obsessed with learning about reptiles for the past 3 weeks and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon and it’s all because of you Adam thank you so much for all the amazing videos keep up the great work and I hope you your family and all your lovely reptiles are safe and doing well!!
Awesome! Thank you! I hope you liked this video!
I feel like you have been binging Adam's channel for the past 3 weeks yeah and that probably is for the best if you're thinking about getting a reptile
@@brandi3981 I haven’t stopped watching lmao I have videos on download for break at work but I did get a crested gecko (dw I didn’t just watch youtoube I took the first week to get as much info I could get about crested geckos as I could both google and youtoube and it’s safe to say Apollo is eating and pooping and is at a very comfortable temperatures 77 degrees Fahrenheit cause that’s what it is in New Caledonia this time of year and is in a 12x 12 x 18x rn he’s 9 grams and I’m planning on getting him into a bio active terrarium once he’s bigger and he will be getting a bigger terrarium once he’s in the bio active terrarium
@@WickensWickedReptiles I’ve been loving all your videos seriously I’ve found something that I never knew I’d be this into and it’s a great feeling so thank you for all the hard work you’ve been putting into your channel it’s very much appreciated
@Dillon ings....but do you own any reptiles as pets, and if so, which kind?
I remember when I was a kid back in Puerto Rico, my cousin has green iguanas in a birdcage outside his house. He fed them just lettuce and water. This was very common back in the day, unfortunately. They are now an invasive species in Puerto Rico and it's legal to hunt and eat them.
very interesting
I'd love to see a top 5, Smallest Monitor Lizards and some basics on care and availability. I keep Ackies and know of timors and kings but don't hear about much else before jumping up to Savannahs. Also I'm not sure if you personally run your Instagram or have a friend who does but I sent you a message from an account named "Super.Scales"
I fell for the green iguana in 95. He stared off less than a foot. A year later he was 3 feet and completely out of control. You couldn’t even touch him or clean his tank without being attacked. Thankfully a local zoo took him for their exhibit and he live a great life there.
This was a super clever video idea. I remember an old show Clarissa explains it all, she had a gator as a pet, and I thought I needed that as a pet 😆
I was thinking that exact thing.
as a kid in the 90's my local store had all the rare animals. multiple big snakes, alligator in a kid pool, baby monkeys, etc
Elisha Cuthbert could convince me of ANYTHING when I was a kid. 😍
Also, I believe there was a Leave It To Beaver where they bought an alligator baby from a comic book and were keeping it in their basement. 😅
They were keeping it in the back of the toilet while it was small. It was the first time a toilet was shown on television. Then when it got too big they moved it to the basement where it scared the cleaning woman and bit Ward. Crazy stuff.
@@maxmaven99 omg, I remember this episode from watching reruns with my dad. We used to joke about the "must be the alligator in the toilet" if something was wrong with our toilet, lol
I worked at a store that sold caimen and I always tried to talk people out of them. Most of the people buying them had no business getting them and they wound up released in the rivers and lakes in TX. We also had people bring in random green iguanas they found outside (which never would have made it through winter).
That 'Bois who ain't got no toothbrush' subtitle made me laugh quite a bit.
I remember seeing SO many iguanas back in the day. It seemed like everyone had one. Except me. I had hamsters named after the ninja turtles. Until my step dad left them outside after cleaning their cage and they became hamster jerky. Then we got a cat. 🙃
I currently work at a pet store, and we still sell Veiled chameleons, but we do talk with the customer to make sure they understand care requirements, the amount of care it takes, and that it is not a beginner pet. We have the right to refuse the sale if we think it will not fit. When I sell reptiles, I also tell customers about future upgrades they may need to make and that they need to keep that in mind when considering buying a pet. I also promote naturalistic substrate over carpet except for babies unless they are willing to pull out the pet and feed them in a different enclosure.
I went with my mom to actually get an iguana in the late 90's early 2000's and the guy at the pet store was the one who told us how bad a pet they can be. It was a PetSmart or pets plus so it was cool to have someone knowledgeable and care more about the animal then the sale
1999 I bought my dad 2 alligators from the local pet shop. They had crocs and cobras too. They were about 10" long.
Now over 20 years later, they are nearing 10ft and we are looking to either commit a full scale habitat, or donate them to a zoo.
I remember seeing an alligator at a local pet store when I was a kid. I feel like they were only $100. This store is no longer in business. I went to another local pet store a few months ago and they had a few pets that I did not agree with them selling (all babies): green iguanas, savannah monitors and sulcatta tortoises. I feel like these are pets that often either end up being rehomed or something much worse. I just don't think they should be sold in a pet store in my opinion.
I agree!
@@WickensWickedReptiles I don't think any pet should be selled at pet stores. Here in Germany the most pet Shops don't have animals. Just a few exceptions in big citys. I'm so glad about this.
The neighborhood pet store was my favorite place as a kid in the 80's.
We would go to gawk at the exotics, but come home with something cheap like an anole or a turtle that would die in a few months because we were given no instructions.
Now I realize how wrong that was
"Other reptile people" dude you are my other reptile people, I'm thankful for your videos you helped me overcome my fear of snakes. 35 years of lost sleep and fear to man look at what I've missed out on all these years
that means a lot! thank you!
@@WickensWickedReptiles no problem
I own a giant iguana but you’re right they only make good pets with the proper set up
Facts!! I used to see alligators in my local reptile shop all the time when I was a kid. Actually, I saw one about two months ago at the shop down the street. It wasn’t there for very long either.
when i was younger my grandfather bought me a giant green iguana illegal in Newyork (where I live), his name was Zigi (not Ziggy) and I had him until 2020, he was almost 6 feet long when he unfortunately passed away at the age of 12, i loved him so much but one thing though, he mightve been cheep to buy but GOD the money for the food was insane, a bundle of collard greens, vegitables and occasional treats was like 25$ a week which is insane
Thank you for making this video! The thumbnail was spot on! Oh, and I remember seeing an iguana in The Terminator movie from the 80’s (it was Sarah Connor’s pet.) In the 90’s I remember seeing iguanas in pet shops, but not bearded dragons. Nowadays, beardies appear to be way more popular reptile pets than iguanas!
His name was Pugsly! I thought it was pretty cool that he seemed to just free roam their apartment.
Albino Alligators always make me think of Claude at the California Academy of Sciences
The Petsmart close to my house still has chameleons. I overheard the employee telling a customer how easy they were to care for and they only needed freeze dried insects. They were $80. Pretty sure the customer bought one.
And that kinda crap is why I HATE petsmart
Yep, my petsmart has them too. Their tank is always super humid with water dripping down the sides and I don’t know much about chameleons but that doesn’t seem right.
They need very high humidity. Most chameleons are tropical animals after all.
Yeah, Petco almost always has babies too but they appear to be captive bred, so that's good at least.
The pet store I worked at as a teen through my early twenties once got in a green basilisk. For whatever reason, we kept him up at the front by the registers instead of in the back with all the other live animals. He was very interactive with you through the glass. However, he nearly got out when one of my coworkers tried to hold him. Someone eventually ended up buying him but I enjoyed his company.
My mom told me that she had a friend in the 90s that had an iguana. I guess it had a custom enclosure that was essentially a room, and they also had an outdoor area for it in the summers. It had plenty of things to climb on and she had it pretty tamed down, to the point where she could sit on the floor and it would come up to her to get some scratches and treats. I think she said it had to have been at least three foot long and that the friend had kept it since she was a young kid. Unfortunately, my mom told me, her friend had someone babysit the iguana while she went on a trip and the friend for some reason thought it would be smart to feed the iguana a newt or a salamander and it ended up dying.
Almost all newts and Salamnders are toxic so not surprising
"Where are alligators now? In zoos where they freaking belong!"
They belong in the wild but I get you and it's all good.
hmmmm this is very interesting. so I live in India and the reptile hobby has just started here, before 2020 there were no clarifications on the legality of ownership of exotic species and prior to that the law prohibited the ownership of Indian species, therefore almost 99 percent of animal imports were for zoos, so the private hobby would basically never be able to find reptiles for sale, however since the government acknowledged the demand for exotic pets they permitted the possession of exotic foreign species maintaining the ban on keeping Indian species, I have personally noticed a similar trend in animal availability here, most of the times any random pet store barely the size of a bedroom will have reptiles available and well the reptiles are almost always just green iguanas, the sellers have either no knowledge or half knowledge which is even worse, the iguanas are cramped in tiny bird cages and sold as babies, they also tell the customers that these iguanas are gonna grow up to be puppy dog tame, which certainly a risky gamble. I have been wanting a snake since almost 10 years haven't even been able to find a genuinely passionate ball python breeder yet, so I have personally decided to wait another year and just import beginner friendly reptiles from the US and breed them myself. Adams videos have truly helped me forget the void of these animals I have been obsessed with since the past decade. genuinely thanks a lot.
Great video!! I LOVED it! 😍
I remember my mom talking about her a relative of hers that had an iguana when she was young but it was practically a free range pet in Peru. Kinda crazy how times change.
Also, and i just remembered, but my brother bought a book years ago in the 2000s about exotic pets you could get and i remember fire bellied toads and chameleons.
Bruh, bird cages back then weren't even big enough for birds! I can't imagine having an iguana in there
exactly!
My father agreed to adopt my friends spectacled caiman in 1996. We had absolutely NO business having that animal (neither did my friend) and she passed away after about 2 years with us. I think back on it now, with the knowledge I have and feel terrible, but in the end, I was a minor and she was ultimately my father's responsibility.
Forgot to add that we somehow managed to keep a green anole alive for 7 years with nothing but an incandescent light bulb and a water dish and one of those awful electric heated rocks. I have no idea how it never got MBD, because we didn't use supplements either. My dad used to feed him moths that he would catch on the front porch during the summer and crickets in the winter.
there is a pet shop in my area with the veiled chameleon in the store for sale but they have a form you have to fill out before they will let you get it, and that is for all of their animals.
Veiled chameleons are EVERYWHERE here in Appalachia that I've seen. I went to Petsmart yesterday and they had 2, which is usually the case.
There was Petsmart where I lived as a kid that had a caiman just chilling in a walled off kiddie pool. Definitely can't do that nowadays lol.
Would love another video like this. 80s or 2000s. We are close in age and you hit the nail on the head with this.
Great job. Love all the info and your presentation kept my attention.
As a 38 year old (suspect we're about a similar age), i remember just HORDES of green iquanas in every petstore, a friend literally gave me one as a christmas gift in 96 (it was very sickly and died only a month of my very overwhelmed ownership). I remember a local store tried to sell me an adult BCI as a "good starter snake" instead of the tank with baby corns as my very first snake. I also recalled at least in my local area, burms were super popular back then too, as well as western box turtles. Hell, as someone who got more serious into the hobby in 2001, it's kinda wild how different it is even today.
I still see veiled chameleons fairly often.
for sure
As someone who has has reptiles since the 80s I can definitely remember a bunch of the trends from back in the day
I had 2 green iguanas growing up, a male and female. The male was mean and was only friendly to me and mom while the female was like a loving puppy. Fortunately we got them from a friend who taught us how to properly care for them.
Great topic! Pascal wants everyone to know if you are looking for great information about Chameleons try the Chameleon Academy. Care guide/pet stores biggest misinformation is screened enclosures are the only option. Truth is ventilation is what's important and full screen is not the only way to achieve this parameter. Pascal has one of our most complex set ups: Heat lamp, T5 UVB, Day light LED, fogger, MistKing all running on separate timers to achieve day/night cycle and natural hydration cycle. Funny how the starter chameleon kit has none of this...lol
Perfect thank you!!
Chameleon's are so amazing but for sure not for beginners
@@WickensWickedReptiles after my first I couldn't imagine not having one now.
You still do see green iguanas offered for sale in the U.K. although only in specialist reptile stores. I got one myself in 2020.
I'd love to see the video option on geckos as well! I want to learn more about geckos that aren't leos or cresties
You could check out satanic leaf-tailed geckos, I don’t have any myself but they look awesome.
I remember being very young, can't remember my age but I wanted a green iguana. The guy at the pet store instructed me to buy a heat rock for it, and I now know heat rocks r frowned upon. He never said anything about any lighting at all. I did put the baby iguana in a 55 gallon tank but he had nothing to climb on. He ended up dying cuz I had him in front of the window and I opened the window but I thought as long as I turned the heat in my room to 85° her would be fine. When I woke up in there morning he was dead. I wish I in could have googled the care requirements
When I was a kid in the 1970s, I had a green iguana. I had no business keeping a green iguana. I got it from a truly legendary reptile store that's still open. My sense is that, in the '70s, nobody knew what they were doing in the reptile hobby. At any rate, I ended up rehoming it long before it grew big.
thats so cool, iguanas r amazing animals
gonna get called insane over this one, i was out fishing with a friend at a river behind my house and saw a whole pack of basilisks crossing the river. this all happened in new hampshire.
When I was little you could walk into Topps, or Two guys, or even WT Grants, and find a tank full of baby cayman or alligators for $2-$5 a pop. They were tiny and stuffed together in a 20 gallon tank. They sold out like chocolate chip cookies. That was the 50's.
By 1972, they sold for $9.99 at Woolworths. Like you said, just a whole bunch of babies in a small, dirty tank.
Absolutely right my dude....
My partner has a buddy who used to breed lizards and when I asked, he was pretty sure his friend bred iguanas. I doubt that's right, I do want to talk to the friend about it, but you mentioning iguanas had me remember that being in the hobby, and living nearish us, you may actually know this friend. He's one of those guys who knows EVERYONE! I'm pretty sure we're a bit older than you are, so it's very possible you guys never ran in the same circles. Anyway, the friend is a dude named Ben and he has one of the most glorious ginger jewfros I have ever seen (before anyone gets upset, I am Jewish, so I'm allowed to say jewfro. Lol)
Anyway, because of how my partner talks about Ben's popularity, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you know him. He actually now runs a shop... or did at least about 3-5 years ago, that sells curiosities. It was called Natural something. I'm thinking Natural Selection, but I don't remember. I'll go look it up... aaand yeah, Natural Selections, and I see on Instagram that you follow them too so I guess that answers that haha. My fiance is actually a high school friend of Ben's. Such a small world eh?
What’s a jewfro btw I’m Jewish too
@@SunflowerElk a jeew with an afro whos pretty cheap? Idk or maybe a frog with a some kind of a big nose, tbh i dont know what he means
Thank you for sharing.
I remember seeing all of those in shops in the 90’s! Great video Adam.
I used to have an iguana as kid
cool!!
I'm obsessed with the 1980s and 1970s so I'd love to see those videos, even though I'm gonna shudder at how wrongly so many creatures were improperly taken care of back then.
coming soon
I've seen crocs and green iguanas in my local exotic pet shop in the UK its amazing they sell a lot of reptiles and breed but some animals like the green iguanas and the crocs they don't sell as one they are rescues and two their enclosure for them is massive so they are purely just part of the shop I like this as I know full well they care for the animals and yes not many everyday people have a spare room in their house lol
I wanna hear more about that Anaconda from the 90s pet store, that’s so crazy a pet store had one for sale.
Glad reptile shops are way better about who they sell what to and what they recommend people. There’s an awesome store where I live, I like to just go there and hold the pythons since I can’t get one. But this kid wanted a chameleon and the employee’s wouldn’t sell it and ended up selling him a tiny frog.
Shop by my house still sells anacondas.
Snakes n adders reptile shop in the UK refuses to sell retics, burmese pythons, anacondas etc along with most monitors and green iguanas etc.
I would love to watch the comuns reptiles from years before
Petsmart still has veiled chameleons in northeast OH. I always feel so bad for them, but I'm not the right owner for a chameleon. They run about US$60-90.
Petco also has veild, but also jacksons and panthers. I have even seen pied veiled chameleons!
When I was a kid, a place called Cow Town (they no longer sell animals), but they had a lemon shark for sail for like $1200. Wonder what happened to it.
I actually bought a veiled cham from petco two months ago. It was $50 (discounted) because he was getting big. The same store continues to sell. They just ensure you have an enclosure ready.
there was a shop at a mall in oshawa that had caimans and the girl working at the store had chunks of her ankles missing from the little caiman they were selling lol
Chinese Water Dragons too. I remember my friend went back and forth between getting an iguana and a water dragon but finally settled on the iguana because he didn't want to have to feed it living things.
Looking back, he wasn't really prepared for either. He sort of figured out what the iguana needed in response to every tragic thing that happened to that poor lizard. Like... it's listless and dark in colour. Oops, it needs heat. Now it has MBD. I guess it needed calcium and UVB! And it stayed mean and unhandleable its whole admittedly short life.
Poor wee thing, it's sad that if they're not bought by someone who knows what they are doing that they live a short painful life.
@@KittyO7878 Poor thing indeed, but what's really sad is that pet stores will just buy farmed mammals and wild-caught reptiles and indiscriminately sell a sentient being to anyone who can produce the money. My friend was a really gentle sensitive kid. Like I said, he chose the iguana over the water dragon because he felt bad about live feeders (and in fact, he kept feeder goldfish as pets). But, like, he was a preteen kid, and nobody at the pet store gave him any guidance in terms of care requirements. Most kids just love animals and want to have animal friends but don't really understand that there's a world of difference between caring for a hamster (which he had done successfully) and caring for an iguana. And so, like I said, he only ever knew he was doing something wrong when the poor lizard suffered. He still gets wistful about Tyrone (who was, looking back, almost certainly a female) when he talks about it. I'm really glad to see the unspecialized "pet store" -- the ones that have sections for live dogs, cats, birds, small mammals, fish, and reptiles -- have largely had their day in the sun, and now it's getting to be a lot more common to get animals from reputable breeders, rescues, and specialty (reptile / aquarium/ bird) shops, and a lot of pet shops have narrowed their focus to pet SUPPLIES.
@@raggedyanarchist Aww aye it's often not the persons fault especially if they're young like your friend was and back then it was harder to find the information unless you were involved/around the right people and pet shops are not often the right people for sure because it's about money for them, not all of course but still too many.
I feel old lol I turned 30 in 1984! Had a pet gopher snake at age 10.
Iguanas were definitely the type of pet your weird young uncle kept
Love this! I’d watch more decade vids!
Man Adam your lucky I have had my Amazon milk frogs for like a year this month and I don’t have tadpoles.🤣 good luck on the tads 🤣
agreed!
I remember iguanas always in like petsmart. Mymusic teacher kept one in a bird cage like you said. that was back in 2008. I also remember seeing a gator baby for sale back int he day i think for 500$ but i could be wrong. I think i saw it for sale at gatorland's petshop idk it was more then 20 years ago. lol