206: How to Tame Your Pet Reptile | Ellie Hills - AAH

Animals at Home Network

In this episode, we discuss how to train and tame your pet lizard or snake to improve their well-being. We discuss establishing trust with lizards and snakes, positive/negative reinforcement, and how to target-train your pet reptile. Ellie Hills, an animal welfare specialist joins the podcast to discuss her experience in animal welfare and what welfare means for reptile keepers. She discusses her viewpoints on controversial topics such as euthanasia, reinforcement training, and incorrect ways to enrich an animal in captivity. Ellie highlights her work in a ball python study that she and her colleagues are working on, which will discover the captive behaviors of ball pythons and how they interact with their respective environments. SHOW NOTES: https://www.animalsathomenetwork.com/206-hills-herptiles/

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Links from the Episode:

• Ellie Hills YT: https://youtube.com/@hillsherptiles
• Wild Welfare Video: https://youtu.be/7EAfP1nlsRU?si=aYdt4Hd2llEhHDSe
• Wild Welfare: https://wildwelfare.org
• Capacity building for better animal welfare: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1090.2011.00136.x

We Discuss: 00:00 Coming Up - ZooMed + The BioDude 0:57 Introducing Ellie Hills - Hill’s Herptiles 2:28 Welcome Ellie - Her Animal and Reptile Experiences 7:00 Beginnings in Animal Welfare 10:30 Care and Welfare 16:16 Thoughts on Euthanasia and Suffering 21:42 How To Begin Positive Welfare 25:07 Ellie’s Experience In Training 26:10 The Right & Wrong Way To Enrich an Animal 28:29 Stress in Reptiles 30:14 The Four Quadrants of Training + Stimulating Food Responses 39:10 ZooMed Dragon Food 40:06 How To Build a Relationship with Your Reptiles & Learned Experiences 44:44 Target Training in Reptiles 46:54 The BioDude Substrates + Bug Grub 47:55 Reading Your Reptile’s Behavior 48:47 Ellie’s Feeding Routines, Frustration Tolerance & Force 54:09 Ellie’s Ball Python Behavior Study 1:05:29 Closing Thoughts Support, Subscribe & Follow:

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