Reptile Expert Answers Reptile Questions From Twitter

This is Big Lou

and he is one amazing alligator snapping turtle.

If you look inside of his mouth

he's got a little red lure for bringing fish in.

They got about 2,500 pounds of bite strength.

He could bite a two by two right in half.

Hi, I'm Jay Brewer.

I'm here today to answer some questions off Twitter.

This is Reptile Support.

[bright upbeat music]

Okay, @Prinzeribe, How does a chameleon change color?

Well, that's kind of a technical question,

but you know what?

I'm gonna get some help with a chameleon.

Okay, so we got Greco,

and it's actually a panther chameleon.

Now, if you see, they don't really change color.

They just modify the colors that are there

by squeezing open and close and dilating like your eyeball.

There's another cool part about him.

He has two eyeballs that work completely independently.

So he's actually great at catching his bugs and insects.

And look at how beautiful he is.

@maggotstomp, Do alligators chew their food?

Absolutely not.

And you know what?

I think we'll go feed dark gator, our giant gator

and you'll see he just swallows it whole.

Okay, this is Darth and Gomer.

Darth, let's show him.

Do you chew your food?

Oh, there you go.

He doesn't chew his food.

He swallows it whole.

The only time you would even consider it

kind of chewing their food is the attempt

of maybe breaking the shell of a crab

or something like that.

@JackVandertoll, If you were bitten by a venomous snake

would you know what to do?

Unfortunately, I'd really know what to do.

Cause I've been bit by a venomous snake at 23 years old

and it was not a pretty sight.

Some people actually say the first thing

you're supposed to do is suck out the venom.

Completely a myth, that venom that went in,

is in, end of story.

Truth is when I got bit the first thing I did

was start sucking the venom out.

So I thought my lips started tingling

and the tingling I thought, oh my gosh,

I shouldn't have sucked it out.

I got in my mouth, but that's not what happened.

The effects of the venom were already

through my whole system in seconds,

and my lips were tingling

because of the venom inside my bloodstream.

That being said, if you get bit by a venomous snake,

the most important thing to do is stay calm

and work your way towards a hospital

as quick as possible.

@PlanetReptile23, Question for all snake handlers,

wildlife experts handling dangerous reptiles.

What type of handling gear do you commonly use

when handling snakes?

Some kind of snakes are not venomous

so I might take a little risk and use my hands.

Best tools ever made end of story.

That being said, if I'm gonna hold something dangerous

I'm gonna actually need to a little bit of space.

Something like a pair of tongs.

We also use these for feeding big pythons and stuff

because the snake's excited going after its food.

Then the snake hook.

Snake hook, what it actually is for

is that when the venomous snake that you're holding

drops his head in here,

he's no longer can strike left or right.

Then you got your tongs, and that can be used

for a lot of different things

for handling tarantulas, scorpions little venomous animals,

and also for feeding small animals, it works really well.

@Jamesrus42, Without cheating, what venomous snake

has the longest fangs in the world?

Wow, that's the easy one.

I think I should get out a giant gaboon viper

and show you how amazing they are.

This is a gaboon viper got the longest fang

of any venomous snake in the world and you could tell that

from that big head and actually has the most venom

to dump at one time.

Not to mention one of the fastest striking snakes,

even has a horn like a rhino viper.

They're closely related.

Both of them have this incredible pattern and color

to hide in the forest floors in Africa.

@aaa1e2r3, wow, that one I better go back to school for.

[Jay chuckles]

What's the difference between

a gator and a crocodile anyway?

A crocodile, generally speaking

has a long slender, more V-shaped nose

where an alligator's got that nice U-shaped nose.

Now the interesting part about that question

is there's actually only two types of gators

in the whole world.

They actually come from China and America.

If it's not a Chinese alligator,

or it's not an American alligator,

it isn't an alligator anyway.

@Tingo_89, How do eye lid-less critters

clean the moisten their eyes?

You know what?

I think I'm gonna cheat on this one.

Get a subject out to show you.

This is George, the giant new Caledonia Gecko.

Largest gecko in the world.

Now, geckos a lot of times have eyelids

but they don't close completely.

This one has no eyelids

and what it does is actually just lick their eye

like a windshield wiper kind of wild.

But then when you have a snake, for instance,

it doesn't have eyelids either.

It gets a brand new lens every time it sheds pretty amazing.

Okay @GrahamRKidd, Can reptiles be said

to have personalities?

Absolutely, so I have a lot of monitors, lizards,

and they have a lot of personality.

So today I'm gonna play with one of them

and let you see what a rambunctious little critter

this particular one is.

And maybe we'll get a second one out

and you can see how calm and relaxed the other one is.

I'm gonna show you a little mini dragon

that's got tons of personality.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.

Here, here, come on!

So, we're gonna take him for swim.

Here we go.

Here we go, whoa, whoa!

There we go.

So you see every animal's

got a little bit different personality.

This guy here is a pure, swimming, hunting, wild creature.

Oh, there you go.

It's great exercise for our animals to interact with people.

And this is one of the ways it's called enrichment

to make an animal love its life.

I'm gonna show you a completely different personality.

Come on, come on, come on.

So he's pretty laid back.

So much so that he won't chase it like that.

Come on, his name is Fabio and he's just a big sweetheart.

He's like more relaxed, more chill.

Here, here, come on.

There you go.

Gentle, relaxed, just a complete...

Whoa, what did you do?

Vanishing chicken.

The other guy, if I tried to do that, he'd have my hand

but all of 'em are very cool.

Each one's a little bit different, kind of like you.

@Uomareyy_, What if dragons exist in real life?

Oh God, I'm gonna show you some footage

of a giant dragon in Komodo Island.

Look at this guys.

This is the most incredible time of my life.

This is the peak right here.

I don't know if it's gonna get better than this.

The two biggest lizard in the island meet up

at dinner time on the beach.

Wow, look at him.

They exist.

Okay, @tntgal, Why do cobras have hoods?

Actually, it's to make 'em look big and scary.

When they jump up, they triple their size

they start making loud noise,

and it's gonna scare off any animal

that's gonna attack them.

@swaggna_, Are iguanas dangerous?

Can they bite?

So the funny part is, I think iguanas

are the most underrated animal for being dangerous.

Not only they have razor sharp claws,

they have an incredible bite

because they have to bite through lettuce leafy stuff

and get a clean cut.

So unlike a snake that has really no bite

except long teeth to hang on,

these teeth are actually for cutting.

I've seen some horrible bites from iguanas

but let me show you how beautiful they are.

And to be fair, I've seen some amazing pet iguanas.

I'm gonna show you one that we've had for many years.

So this is actually jolly green, he's a rescue iguana.

Because a lot of people don't realize iguanas can get big,

and most people don't realize that they go in heat

kind of like a dog, except that when a male iguana

goes in heat, they get very aggressive

and they want to be dominant and they can bite you severely.

That being said, they can be great animals.

And Jolly Green is luckily relaxed,

and he's about 25 years old.

We've had him over 10 years.

He's absolutely amazing.

Beautiful animal and not your normal iguana.

@bahrelfi, Komodo Dragon's saliva kill the prey?

Actually, no.

They used to say that the saliva would eventually kill it

from infection, but that's not true.

It's not the bacteria.

The actual truth is their saliva is venom

that is made to paralyze the animal.

Just long enough for the Komodo dragon

to actually finish it off and eat it.

@JanetS Watson, How do you tell the difference

between a python and a boa?

Okay, so boas and pythons are both constrictors

they're both snakes, they're both reptiles,

but boas have live birth and pythons lay eggs.

And those are all the questions for today, peace out.