#prehistoric pets

[kedreeva]

For those of you non-reptile folks out there (or the reptile folks who haven't heard/don't know yet)- "Prehistoric Pets"/"The Reptile Zoo" is one of the worst faces of captive reptile keeping. Jay Brewer, the guy that runs it and faces it on youtube, is basically running the equivalent of a reptile puppy mill, and sensationalizing it for views.

He keeps his animals in enclosures that are far too small for them, participates in mass breeding without care for the health or well-being of the animals involved, including creating morbidly obsese animals to have the "biggest" ones for clout and so that he can breed them as fast and often as possible since they don't get too skinny from being bred too often while being massively overfed. He's also well known for cutting eggs (which by itself is.... eh but-) where he removes the entire top, pulling live babies out, and putting them back in, which is ridiculously dangerous to the baby.

This year he's going to be getting his own television show. I don't know the name of it yet, but given his behavior on youtube - where he purposely elicits stress responses, defensive behaviors, and bite attempts from large reptiles purely for views, with no interest in whether these actions are in the interest of the animal's best welfare - I doubt he is going to improve any. The producers are GOING to try to sensationalize it a la Tiger King.

Please, I am asking you to not support this man or his new show. He represents the worst side of the hobby, the people that have no business being in business, no business keeping the animals he does. Don't spite watch, don't curiosity watch; pirate it someplace if you must, but any views that count toward success of his show only puts more into his pockets to continue doing things he shouldn't, and it's his animals (and the animals his popularity convince others to buy thinking they can do the same as him) that pay the price for it.

Please understand that he is NOT a good representative of the reptile keeping community, and that so many people do not find his keeping, handling, or practices acceptable. Despicable would be a better word.

[kaijutegu]

As if you needed another reason not to listen to Jay Brewer/Prehistoric Pets

Of all the reptile influencers, Jay Brewer is my least favorite. Let's see what he is up to today!

Recently this colossal idiot pet store owner who pretends he has any real knowledge about natural history went field herping. He grabbed a wild rattlesnake and filmed himself popping its genitalia for field sexing, without having ANYBODY CONTROLLING THE HEAD.

He just put his snake hook on top of it and popped out its genitals. In this incredibly unsafe video, he not only put himself and the snake at risk, but he claims it's educational- and that's why he did it.

Only thing is, he's wrong, and in fact spends time spreading misinformation. Let's take a look at some of his comments. This is the caption to his video.

The "nodes" are the hemipenes. He says that if there was one, it would be a girl. Thing is, girl snakes don't have hemipenes. While they do have hemiclitorises, those don't evert like hemipenes do. If "a node" comes out when you pop (read: bend a snake's tail back at the cloaca, forcing the genitals to emerge), you've given your snake a cloacal prolapse. This can kill them, but mill-style breeder Jay Brewer does not care about the lives of animals. We've known this. He doesn't care about his own snakes- he cuts eggs for funsies, he keeps giant snakes in drawers, and he regularly puts peoples' safety at risk for viral videos. But he also clearly doesn't care about the lives of wild animals.

What else has he said?

So here's a thought: Maybe your audience shouldn't know that they can pop a rattlesnake's hemipenes out of its cloaca because that is fucking dangerous. Not all information is good information to share in the Instagram format! Sometimes the general public shouldn't see you casually doing something dangerous without explaining what it is or why you're doing it!

Just wanting to know the sex of a snake in the field, when you're not actually doing any real research, is not a valid reason to do something this risky. Part of education is knowing what's actually educational. Another part is knowing how to appropriately frame dangerous activities so that you don't make your audience think that it's something anybody can go out and do. One of the things that makes me so upset about this video is the complete lack of context. It's not just that he has zero respect for a venomous animal, it's that he has zero respect for his audience.

Also, in the audio of his video, he doesn't call them hemipenes. He doesn't provide the most basic education he claims he does! He's just messing with an animal for the sake of messing with it!

He also promulgates a lie that popping doesn't cause the snake any harm, which is not what even most breeders say about it. Now, luckly, the snake seemed fine in this case. But there are plenty of people, mostly pet owners, who have lost snakes because they've tried to pop incorrectly and broken their snake's spine around the cloaca. Between the inability to eliminate correctly and infection caused from wounds, popping is one of the riskiest- and most unnecessary things- you can do to a pet snake.

Good breeders and snakekeepers do not take videos of themselves popping their snakes and put it on instagram and pretend it's educational. You pop snakes to guarantee the sex of the animal, and you do it ONLY when they are very young. Older snakes have more muscle control and it can hurt them pretty badly.

Even Spruce Pets knows that popping can cause your snake significant trauma, but fine, whatever. Let's traumatize random venomous snakes for Instagram views!

Also, he's just completely uninformed! Take this answer:

Probably? No, the answer is an easy yes. Rattlesnakes lose rattles all the time. They lose rattles due to terrain, to genetic deformity (some rattlers never form them!), and to predation attempts. It's just keratin. They're fine without it. Any real herpetologist would know this. If he can't get basic facts right, how can he be trusted to get more complicated stuff right?

And yeah, maybe this whole post is a little unhinged. But I hate this man and his practices so much. I hate that he's the face of an industry that could be so much better if it weren't for people like him. I hate that he's getting a TV show. I hate that people encounter his media and think that anything he does is a good idea. At least Brian Barczyck tries these days and actually promotes good care and safety at the Reptarium, but all Jay wants is popularity. He has zero respect for animals, and I loathe and detest that he's the face of our hobby.

[robopet-archive]

the robot pet of the day is: Cruncher Interactive Dinosaur (2010)

[troythecatfish]

[cryptictangerine]

*Throws on tin foil hat* THE END IS NIGH! HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF, WE ARE DOOMED! DOOMED I TELL YOU!

[paleo-cafnir]

Two mimir

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

A group of visionaries have figured out how to bring nonavian dinosaurs to the present, and have determined the 10 species that make the best pets and domesticated them, with an oversimplified guide to what modern pet/livestock/husbandry animals they resemble most. you have done the work, you're completely prepared, and today, you're bringing your new friend home.

you will be able to take care of the pet and they will become your best friend for the rest of your lives. there are no downsides to any of these pets apart from what is in the brief description.

the pets, with image descriptions indicating which is which and artist credit, with artist links attached:

[biirdex]

Pomme & Dinosaur!

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Wait what’s wrong with Jay’s Prehistoric Pets? Is he not caring for his snakes right?

I'm so sorry to be the one to break this news, but Jay's Prehistoric Pets is pretty infamous for being one of the worst reptile content channels out there.

His content is very clickbait-y and often relies on playing up how "scary" snakes are; he goads his snakes into striking way too much for content. The animals featured on his channel (and related accounts like "the Reptile Zoo") are often obese and crammed into tiny enclosures. Egg-cutting is already a controversial topic, but everyone agrees that the way he does it (cutting the eggs open and actually pulling babies out) is wrong and inhumane. He frequently misreads reptile body language (here's an example rating for one of those videos). At the end of the day, he basically treats animals like fun collectibles instead of living creatures.

I'll give many reptile creators the benefit of the doubt, but Jay's Prehistoric Pets is one of the worst and I consider much of his content to be straight-up animal abuse.

[opabiniasarecool]

Just thinking bc I'll never be her </3

[kedreeva]

Forgive me if you don't want to answer, but would you please elaborate about the egg cutting? As far as I know, cutting open a small slit if the majority of a clutch minus that one is alright?

He's not cutting a small slit in one egg, he's doing this:

and he's pulling the babies out of the egg through those holes before they're ready

and then shoving them back in.

[trinketfairy]

Dinosaurs at the tourist trap gift shop

[dustyratt]

RAPTOR SQUAD

fullbody outfit (tail and body separately)

for large dogs

Echo, Blue, Delta, Charlie +26 swatches

all LODs | maps | no morphing

HQ compatible

Cats & Dogs DLC is required

Jurassic World: Evolution conversion | Commission | Full-sized 4k preview poster

DOWNLOAD

SFS

(early access, public 03.05.2023 | MAR 05)

@sssvitlanz ❤

[reginaldubel]

pancakesaur, getting pats.

they do not enjoy the pats

[scrilladge]

Dinosaur lps anyone?

I am most proud of spino I think I really nailed the style with that one! The other ones are pterosaurs + Scleromochlus taylori (pterosaur ancestor, he look like if jerboa was a lil archosaur) forgot to add the teeth on the bottom jaw of Raph tho lol might 3d model these guys and commission a person with a resin printer to make them real.

Hopefully you guys can read my atrocious handwriting <3

[mysticfarm]

the photo won't upload idk why but i pet my dog and she dropped a prehistoric vertebra on the ground?? where did she get it from?? did she go kill some dinosaurs??