00:00Well thank you so much Jay for joining us on this great day for snakes. Now I
00:04know you're a big reptile fan yourself and you're from RDJ Reptiles, so what
00:08do they do and what are you all about? Well firstly thank you very much. It is a
00:15very special day, a very close day to my heart, being obviously it's National
00:20Snake Day. So we're RDJ Reptiles, so we are a reptile education and welfare
00:27company. So we started three years ago now, so we're just coming up to our third
00:33anniversary, but a couple of years ago we actually in a position where we were
00:38asked to take on a few reptiles that people couldn't have anymore. So we sort
00:43of stumbled into the rescue part, but it is a big big commitment. So yeah it's
00:54something that we thought about for a while. Yeah and you're kind of having your
00:57own Beyonce moment at the moment with the with the snake around around your
01:00shoulders and holding it. Tell us a bit about that one. So this is actually my
01:05first ever snake. So this is a royal python, so they're very very common as pets in
01:12the reptile hobby. So this is actually called Ekins, which is a bit of a nerd
01:19name. It's the word snake backwards, but it's not one that I came up with, it's
01:24actually a Pokemon, so I kind of pinched it. But Ekins has been one of my
01:29ambassadors for seven, six, seven years since I rehomed him. So yeah, very special
01:37snake to my heart, very close to my heart. And how many do you have in total? We can
01:40see all the tanks behind you there.
01:45In just in snakes we have about 12 different species. Wow, 12 different species? So it could
01:52be, yeah it's a 12 different species, so it could be anything from roaring pythons to I've
01:59got a baby boa constrictor, I've got carpet pythons, boa constrictors, Burmese pythons,
02:07Uti snakes, hog noses. Yeah, we've got, we've got, we've got a few.
02:14And what do you feel like is the biggest misconception about how to take care of them
02:18or, or what they're like in general?
02:22I think the hardest thing to get over, that people struggle with the most is, yeah, but
02:28it's going to be really expensive. Initially, yes, it is. Just getting the vivariums or the set-ups,
02:35you could be looking at a couple of hundred pounds, depending on the size and what you
02:40want to put in it. If you want to make it, you know, nice and jazzy and, you know, really,
02:44really do it up. But it's like any animal, if you're going to get an animal for the first
02:49time, you do the research, you get everything, you know, all the information that you need
02:56firsthand. Then it's the money bit, which is the most expensive bits. If you haven't got
03:02the kit, you've got to go out and get the right stuff. So, you know, there's lots of
03:07people that try and get the cheaper versions of the stuff. But always go for, you know, the
03:15best quality that you can afford, you know, as if you would, you know, feed yourself. You
03:22know, if you had a tenner, you wouldn't go and spend £4 on food. You know, you'd spend
03:26£10 on food and get a really nice bit of food. And what are your future plans? I'm aware
03:30that you've just spent a whole lot of money trying to make the environment for the snakes
03:35even better. Yeah, indeed. So we have our own ambassadors and then we have rescues or
03:42rehomes that we take on as well. So we always try and make sure that whatever we do, it keeps
03:47them in mind. So any money that's generated, 100% of it just goes to them. I work full
03:54time, so does my wife. So our wages pay for our bit. And then taking the reptiles and doing
04:01all the reptile education and events like that, that pays for the reptiles. So that helps
04:06to make sure they have the right food. If they need a vet check, then, you know, they can
04:11get that. So all the money goes into it. We've just put in our own money to get the
04:17building put up as well. So again, we can just give them a better environment as well.
04:21So it's always just making sure that their welfare is at the forefront.
04:27Fabulous. Well, happy, happy snake day, Jay. Thank you so much.
04:31Thank you very much. Thank you.
Comments