Top 5 Most Fragile Reptiles | 1 Mistake From Death

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Part of what makes reptiles great pets for most of us is that they're easy and forgiving. But these five reptiles, they're going to die if you give them the chance.

[00:00:18]These five reptiles certainly are fragile. These are the ones that really need extra TLC. And if you don't give it to them, you're just going to walk in your room and going to have a dead animal. With that said, these make great pets if you're up to the challenge and each one's different. So, let's start off with number five, Europlatus, the leaf tail geckos. Leaf tail geckos.

[00:00:39]Well, there's a whole bunch of different species, some from Australia, but I'm talking about the 20ish species from Madagascar. There are some really popular ones and more unknown ones, but the ones that I'm really talking about are the ones that you see at expos and almost always wild caught. The beautiful lineatis. These are ones that are super expensive, even wild caught and absolutely gorgeous. They look just like wood. Sorier, which are a little bit more, I don't know, not as flashy, but definitely very interesting, very cool with cool adaptations that most other animals don't have. My favorite, the fimriatus or the giant leaf tail geckos.

[00:01:17]These are really, really big, impressive, showy, and those eyes look like they're from a different planet. Or the one that everybody knows and loves, fantasticus, the satanic leaf tail geckos. These are crazy looking, and if I showed you just how small they actually are, you might not believe it.

[00:01:34]And that's only part of the problem. The size of these animals does make them rather fragile, but that's only if you're careless. And if you have a terribly setup enclosure where they might fall or you as a person holds them and then they might fall, that is definitely something to consider, but not the reason I put them on the list. I put them on the list because they are very prone to environmental stresses and where they come from in the world has very specific climates. I've been to Madagascar. I found some of these species in the wild. And let me tell you, that environment is unlike any other that you might ever see. So, their parameters are unique and you might not be aware of them or used to them and that's something you want to factor in.

[00:02:13]And if you don't get them right, well, that might be the end of your gecko.

[00:02:17]Now, these as captive born and bred individuals are not going to be the most fragile on the list. But most of these animals come in not captive bred. Most of the captive breeding is done by a few people in the US, a few in Europe, maybe one in Canada. And normally if you find them on an expo table, let's say a lineatus for 150 bucks or a fantasticus or even a fimriotus for, you know, $100 or $200, that animal is probably wildcaught. That means a few things.

[00:02:44]Well, they're going to be stressed out.

[00:02:45]They went from Madagascar in a box.

[00:02:47]Probably took a week to be where you are now. And now they're under bright lights, which they've never experienced ever before. Last week, they were in a forest hunting their natural foods and getting away from the natural predators.

[00:02:58]And now all of a sudden there's a bunch of scary primates looking at them with blinding lights over top of their heads.

[00:03:03]This often is just enough to kill them.

[00:03:05]Period. Never mind the fact that they came in and they need specific hydration which means they are going to be severely dehydrated. Even if the person who imported them took them out of the box and hydrated them, even if they did it correctly, it's very difficult to do in a short amount of time and these people who are importing them aren't taking care of them for weeks and weeks before the expo or the photo shoot, putting them online and whatever.

[00:03:27]Everyone that I've ever seen at an expo looks at least a little bit dehydrated.

[00:03:31]And that dehydration can happen very fast. This is something that I've had twice. Fimriotis are my favorite of the leaf tail geckos. I've had two of them.

[00:03:40]And unfortunately, both of them passed away. Both of them were wildcaugh individuals and I thought that I could be the one to take them and make captive bread individuals. And unfortunately, I was just unsuccessful. I really did try.

[00:03:52]We put a lot of effort into it. The first one we had rolled over basically immediately. It was a lost cause. I shouldn't have bought the animal in the first place. They were so dehydrated.

[00:04:02]There was just no coming back. The second one lasted for months and months.

[00:04:05]And then and I honestly don't know why this animal passed away. We tried to deal with the parasite load but likely still parasites. And either way, just a fragile animal that was fine and then literally hours later was not. This footage that you see right here was filmed literally hours before this animal was found dead. Speaking of dehydration, number four, Brazilian rainbow boas. This is one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, nonvenenomous snake on the planet.

[00:04:32]They're gorgeous. And years and years ago, they were really expensive because everybody wanted them. Now, the price has come down a whole bunch because people realized although they're beautiful, they're pretty difficult to take care of, especially as babies. The good news is most of the ones you find in captivity are in fact captive bred, which means somebody bred them in their basement, living room, facility.

[00:04:52]whatever. And these animals almost always do really well. But again, the dehydration is the main problem, especially with baby Brazilian rainbow boas. Once you get them over the hump, once they're a year, year and a half old, you know, they're 3 or 4 feet, no problem. Generally, they're much more forgiving. However, as babies, these things will dry out almost immediately.

[00:05:14]If you leave an empty water bowl for 8 hours, there is a strong chance you're coming back to a dead animal in that water bowl. I know, I've had this. I had someone working for me in the past. So, they dumped the water bowl, left, and then the next morning I came back to a dead animal in that water bowl. Even though the humidity was around 65%, it was during the day, so it dries out a bit. And at night, it was 90. Still, that was enough to kill this animal.

[00:05:39]Now, I'm not blaming this person. You know, it's my collection. I should have gone down and checked after this person left. But either way, unfortunately, these animals just dry out really fast.

[00:05:48]They need crazy high humidity in comparison to everything else. If you have a ball python and your humidity dips to 40% for the whole day, it's not ideal, but they're going to be okay. You want it to be around 60 for these animals, 70 even, some might say. But for Brazilian rainbow boas, they need it much more humid. And if it's not, they don't forgive you. They just aren't there anymore. So, as babies, I recommend keeping them in small plastic containers. Not small, but smallish.

[00:06:14]Obviously, you want to give your animals as much space as possible. I don't use racks anymore. Everything has Well, I mean, look around. Obviously, I like big enclosures, but as babies, I do have a pair that are still in quarantine. I've had them in quarantine for a year just cuz the source I got them from was found to be kind of shady. They're doing great, but I still have them in plastic containers so the humidity stays around 85 90%. And I fill the water bowls myself, so I don't have to worry about that thing again. But as they get older, you know, a 5ft plus animal, this is difficult to keep in an enclosure that holds humidity really well. And there's a lot of great options out there. I did a video about all my favorite reptile enclosures right here you can watch. But I love these animals. They're great. I'm glad to have a pair, but I definitely would never become a breeder of them because it's a little bit of a headache and most people probably aren't suited to keep them. You know, I kind of have a bad habit of kind of talking smack about the animals that I love the most. And if you've got a habit that you'd like to break in 2026, you can with today's sponsor, Fume. Listen, cravings aren't just about nicotine. It's the handto-mouth oral fixation, the pause in between. And when you break the loop, that's when the cravings spike. So instead of reaching for another one, reach for fume instead. No smoke, no vapor, no addiction, and no harmful chemicals, either. Plus, if you're looking to distract yourself from your habit, this is perfect, too, because there's no batteries involved. Reach in your pocket, always charge, and always just air. You notice nothing came out of my mouth. No smoke, no vapor. Plus, even if I'm not looking for the oral fixation, it's literally a fidget device also, which I really, really like. Plus, when you do want to change the flavor, open it up, put a new core in, bang, bang, boom, Bob's your uncle. The crisp mint is probably my favorite now.

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[00:08:02]They're not too weak. They're not overpowering. They're just right. So, if you're finally ready to break the habit, now is the time to try Fume. Right now, when you get the journey pack, you'll also get a free topper when you use the code Wiccans at checkout. I like the topper. It's chewable, reusable, nice mouth feel. We'll give you a free one when you pick up the journey pack. Just use code wiccans at checkout. So, head to trifume trfum.com/wickens and pick up the journey pack today. Give you a free topper. Number three, chameleons. Now, there is over 200 species of chameleon. It's kind of the jury's out on how many. Some reports will say up to 230, but either way, about half of them come from Madagascar, that place we were talking about the very beginning where the leaf tail geckos come from. And the same sort of idea applies. These animals need a very specific type of environment in order to flourish. There's a lot of animals out there that have specific types of environments. Let's say bearded dragons, for example. But if I kept him outside where it was 10° too cold and 14% humidity too high, he'd be okay for the day because he's robust. Chameleons generally, and this is of course a blanket statement. There's a lot of exceptions, aren't that robust in comparison to a lot of other animals that are more common in the hobby. I found a lot of different chameleons in Madagascar. And I always kept asking the chameleon experts, why aren't these more popular? And the answer is, well, we've tried, but they just come in and then they just die. And this is the case. If you look at lists from the 1960s,7s, 80s, 90s, you'll see a whole bunch of species of chameleon on there that you don't see in captivity. So, if they were coming in over and over and over, shouldn't we have captive bread populations? Well, yeah. It's just people never really figured it out because they're fragile and they don't last long enough to create captive bread specimens. Not only that, but they stress really easily. And most people who want a pet want to handle it. These animals are easily handable because most of them aren't going to really bite you.

[00:09:57]And even if they do, they're slow and it's not aggressive. It's not like having, I don't know, a big monitor that's angry at you. If these things want to bite you, you can get away from it. But these animals don't want to be held. And they have a weird defense mechanism where sometimes you'll be holding them for 3 or 4 minutes and then they'll just close their eyes and chill out and people think, "Aw, he loves me."

[00:10:18]Nope. He thinks you're going to eat them and he's just given up and it's really sad and it stresses them out and they don't do well with stress and they don't do well with environmental change either. And your living room is generally not a great place for a chameleon, especially when they need 80° Fahrenheit plus 80% humidity. Some species of course and you are told to put them in a wire cage or a mesh cage.

[00:10:40]Most of them aren't going to last because they're going to be at the same temperature and humidity as your room and that's not the right environment for a chameleon. That's the other thing.

[00:10:48]There's so much bad information out there. The standard tall mesh enclosures are great for some chameleons, but not all of them. But you wouldn't know that because if you type it in on Google, AI tells you that's what you need. Not to mention, a lot of these animals are wild caught. For example, you find veiled chameleons in Orlando, Florida. I went herping in Orlando. And guess what?

[00:11:08]We're looking for freaking animals that come from Yemen for crying out loud. If you go to Hawaii, there is an invasive population of Jackson's chameleons. And even in the best cared for or best bred Jackson's chameleon comes in even if they're captive bred, let's say, they need crazy nighttime drops in temperature and spikes in humidity. And most people can't offer that. Plus, because I say that and you'll say, "Oh, well, for 4 months I've had mine. It didn't do that. He's fine. He's dying a slow death, dude. He's dying a slow death." So, you think they're fine because you're doing things wrong and it's still working. And then just one day they're on the floor on their side.

[00:11:43]They're just really fragile to a lot of things. And chameleons make really poor pets for most people. Number two, green tree pythons. Now, if you watch the channel, you know my personal beef, not with the species, but with the lack of information that's out there, unless you really know what you're looking for. And that's the problem. You can look, even someone as seasoned as me, and I've researched thousands of animals, hundreds of different species. And I researched green tree pythons forever and ever, and didn't see anything about nidovirus, which is just one of the things that can sneak in your collection. come in with the animal, even if they're captive bred. And I bought captive bred animals several months ago, and they all came in with nidto virus, which is an incurable issue and highly contagious, which means if I didn't quarantine them, well, the rest of my pythons might have got sick and died, too. They're also prone to respiratory problems even without nidovirus, if you don't keep them at the right temperature and humidity. They're just more fragile than things like ball pythons. And because a lot of them still come in, well, wildcaught, even if they're sold as captive bred, there's still a lot of wildcaugh animals that are coming in from Indonesia in that part of the world. And those ones are coming with a parasite load to boot.

[00:12:52]With that said, there are great breeders out there, especially in the United States, that breed amazing animals, perfectly healthy, and test for nidtoirus before they send them to you.

[00:13:03]So, you can be sure that you're taking in an animal that is healthy and going to be robust. So, this animal doesn't really fit on the list if it's a captive bred animal by a reputable breeder somewhere like the United States for example. But if you don't know what you're getting and you're getting it from ABC, I don't know. I'm not I'm just trying to think of a random name for a website. Joe blows reptiles and it comes in it's 200 bucks. I promise you that animal is not freaking captive bred by a good source. These animals are expensive and there's a reason for it. And number one, it's going to be a tie between dragon snakes and elephant trunk snakes.

[00:13:36]These are both unique species from a very similar part of the world. One of them is mostly aquatic but kind of fossoral in the dragon snake. And this is an animal just to give you an idea has been captive bred. All right. Once when none of the babies survived. That is my understanding. Now this is an animal that might have I don't know who knows there might be someone in Indonesia breeding them. We don't know.

[00:13:59]But in the United States from what I understand one breeding and none of the babies survived. They're very difficult to proliferate. They're difficult to find in the wild. And really, in my opinion, we shouldn't be bringing them out of the wild. And I don't think that unless you are a seasoned breeder who really thinks you can give a go to make a captive bred population, just don't get one. They're so difficult to keep alive. And never mind keep alive, what about thrive? They need moving water in order to breed. They need moving water to be happy. And that water needs to be clean and the perfect temperature. And how are you going to do that? This is a fully aquatic animal that will escape if you don't have a fitting lid on your aquarium. And this is a aquarium, by the way, that is going to be full of tannins cuz they need tanninrich water, which means you'll never see it. It literally looks like you have a mud puddle in a glass box in your living room. They're really interesting. And I've got to hold them. And their tongue is super deep forked, which is interesting. Which just means instead of the fork being like this, it's like this. It's crazy. And their skin is loose and weird. It feels like you're shaking your grandma's hand.

[00:15:03]And they're so limp. You think hognos snakes are limp when you hold them?

[00:15:07]These things are limp limp. Like they have no body rigidity at all. And they're fragile. And it really takes an expert to take care of them. Now, with that said, in this list, I'm not saying don't get any of these animals. I'm just saying that you have to be an expert and really know what you're getting yourself into. And even if you're not an expert, at least have mentors and know what you're doing and be ready for the challenges ahead cuz it's going to be challenging. So, I want to say thank you for watching and put in a comment down below to let me know what you think the most fragile reptile is. Thanks for fume for sponsoring today's episode. And because I do videos twice a week, that means I'll see you on