How to Get Into Venomous Reptiles & Is It For Just Anyone?! | Tyler Nolan

Tyler Nolan: We’re going to jump right in, baby. We’re just going to just jump right in there. Yes, jump right in. I’m wide freaking awake today. What’s up, Pepe?

Alex: I’m wide awake.

Tyler: Are you awake?

Alex: I’m ready to do it.

Tyler: You don’t seem like you’re that awake. Are you awake, bro?

Alex: I don’t have coffee in my system. I need to wake up.

Tyler: You haven’t had coffee?

Alex: I don’t even drink coffee.

Tyler: You don’t drink coffee?

Alex: I need to start drinking coffee, I think.

Tyler: You’re freaking crazy. You got to drink coffee. Starbucks.

Alex: Got to match your energy.

Tyler: Sweet cream, salted cream, cold brew. Taruk, what the hell are you doing?

Tyler: What are you doing, baby? Do you want to say, “Hi”, to the camera? Say, “Hi, cam.” Don’t you bite my face, you little brat. Go back up here. Daddy’s got to work. Just look at the reef tank real fast. Get a little reef. Dope. Looks so good. Oh God, I love this freaking thing, whatever. Enough messing around. Time to get to work here. How the-? Oh God.

Alex: It’s a bright one.

Tyler: How the hell are you? This is Pepe. I’m Tyler Nolan.

Alex: Happy to see us as always.

Tyler: That’s a False Water Cobra. Welcome to the freaking show.

Tyler: Today I wanted to go over something.

Tyler: Taruk is obviously is going to put her input in also. We need to turn off this freaking filter right here. Today- that’s much better- reshooting a video because the first one didn’t turn out that great. Yes, I know it’s crazy, right? Not every video that I make is good. Sometimes I go to edit things and I look like a retard, right?

I don’t know what it was the other day but I just could not make words properly come out of my mouth. Every time I was editing it, I was like, “Dude, what the hell am I talking about? I’m just talking out of my ass here it’s so stupid.” Today we’re going to fix that. Look at how beautiful- dude, this Eyelash Viper cage right here is looking good. Look at that Bonsai tree, it looks like a regular size tree. It’s crazy. It’s just really tiny.

Alex: Baby tree.

Tyler: Baby tree, so cool. Squat cage kicking ass. All the plants are thriving. Not wilting. Everything’s super strong. Taruk is being a psychopath per usual. It’s raining outside right now or was raining all morning, so when it rains she gets a little antsy in her pantsy.

New Kilo shirts. These are freaking dope. Hold the camera like that real fast, just like that. Check out the new Kilo shirts. Pretty cool. Got them on the front logo, with my name on it on the back. Check them out, they are down below this video right here if you want to get some. Anyways, enough of me rambling. What are we doing today, Pepe?

Alex: Cleaning a bunch of poop, I guess.

Tyler: Yes, we are cleaning poop but also we are going to talk about how to get your venomous permit. Because a lot of people hit me up all the time about it and they want to know. Email me, text me, DM me, you name it, they do it. I was answering emails the other day, had some kid reach out to me saying, “Hey, I want to come learn how to do venomous. I’ll pay you money to come over here and have you teach me.” That’ll be great. I would love some extra income for sure. I’m all about making that paper, baby. But it’s not that easy, so I want to go into that in detail today for you guys and just explain a couple of little things about getting into venomous, having these animals, what it takes, and what it could possibly cost. It’s a big thing. It’s a lot, so let’s get into that.

With that said, I’m going to take care of some animals. Kilo’s cage needs to be cleaned, per usual. Just cleaned it yesterday but he’s a Cobra, poops a million times a day so we’re going to get that changed. Want to go over everything with you guys about how to go about this, all right? Yes, I am reaching into the cage with my bare hands because I’m crazy. He’s my baby. Ready?

Tyler: This is Kilo. Kilo is my dude. I love this freaking snake, man. He is such a badass animal, man and I am very fortunate to have him as a– he’s my pet, he’s my homie, he’s my little dude. We’re going to clean his cage but I want to talk more about this venomous permit. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? So, who? Let’s start off with who. Who should be allowed to have a venomous permit? That is the number one thing. That is the first thing that I have to establish when somebody hits me up about doing venomous.

“Who are you? Who’s hitting me up to do venomous? Do you have snake background? Are you familiar with animals and snakes in particular”, do you know what I mean? Who? The people that should be allowed to get their permit are people that have been doing this before. If you are already a snake keeper, you already have experience with non-venomous snakes. Non-venomous aggressive snakes, I’m not talking about the Corn snakes or Ball pythons, and stuff like that. If you have just those snakes, you want to get into venomous, it is some snake because a lot of venomous snakes, just by nature, are super aggressive.

Cobras hood up, strike like crazy. Your Vipers, your Rattlesnakes are very fast striking animals and they can kill you so definitely, who is a huge thing when it comes to who’s allowed to get a venomous permit. You really need snake experience first, just like riding motorcycles or something. I’m a biker, when people hit me up, they’re like, “Hey, I see you ride bikes, blah blah blah. I’m very interested in it and I want to get into it, what do you recommend for my first motorcycle?” Dude, if you’re 30 years old or you’re late 20s or even older than that, you’re trying to get your first motorcycle, it’s probably not the best idea. They are very, very dangerous vehicles.

You need to have your what’s about you, you need to have fast reflexes. Fast reflexes are everything. If a car stops in front of you, you need to be able to hit those breaks. It’s the same thing. You need to be raised around these animals, and already have tonnes of experience working with animals before you are allowed to deal with animals that can potentially kill you.

Even Kilo right here. If Kilo were to bite me, that’s a really bad bite because this is an Asian Cobra. Asian Cobra venom right now is a no bueno. If I went to the hospital, honestly, I have a better chance of surviving a King Cobra bite right now than one of these guys, because the anti-venom is not as available as others.

What makes you want to get into venomous? What made me want to get into venomous is I grew up working at Underground Reptiles. I grew up working around regular snakes and I was always fascinated by Cobras. Cobras are what got me into everything. Now honestly, I’m more into Vipers. I don’t even know. I can’t say that I’m more into Vipers than Cobras because I love them all. Obviously, my favourite snake in the world is going to be a King Cobra, but also Eastern Diamondbacks are close second, which is a Viper.

That’s really hard. The reason why I got into venomous is because I love these animals and that’s what did it for me. There’s nothing cooler than a Cobra. The way that this snake hoods up, he stays at attention and just stares at you, there’s nothing cooler than that, I think. It’s hard to explain. Holding a Cobra in front of your face, it’s hard to explain that feeling. It’s just an adrenaline endorphin high rush. It’s awesome. That in itself is the reason why I like keeping venomous just because I’m an adrenaline junkie, and it’s definitely a rush handling these animals. Let’s get you safely in your garbage can, and get your cage cleaned, Kilo, okay? You sweet little boy. Down in you go. The next thing I want to go over is, how? And where? All I really know is about Florida. In Florida, your venomous permit is all one piece of paperwork. I’d show you mine, but it’s in my supply closet. It has my address on it, so I’m not getting to go there. But’s one permit, has five different classes on it.

You got your elapids, which are your Cobras, you got Gila derma, you have Viperidae, which is your, obviously, Vipers, Eyelash Vipers, Bush Vipers, your Rattlesnakes, animals of that nature, Gaboon Viper, obviously. You have your Colubridae. Colubrids are false water Cobras, that’s really all I have here. Mangrove snakes, Cat Snakes, all those rear fang animals. Colubrids. You got Hydrophiinae, I forget- I don’t have any. Those are sea snakes. They fall under that category. That is the only permit I do not have anything for. I have every class that you can have, except for the Hydrophiinae which is [unintelligible 00:11:15] kraits and stuff.

With that said, in Florida, in order to get your permit, you have to have a thousand hours of each class. That means you have to find somebody that’s willing to give you an apprenticeship and teach you how to take care of these animals. That’s the hardest part, honestly. Getting your hours and doing that. Yes, it’s time-consuming and you’re putting your life in jeopardy, obviously, but eventually, you learn how to take care of these animals. It’s not that bad, but the hardest part is to find somebody like me to let you come in. This is my house. My venomous room is in my house.

Alex here, on camera, is very lucky because, quite frankly, Alex could lose his life here and that’s on me. That’s the biggest thing about doing venomous, you have to know somebody very well that is going to teach you about these animals. Because, honestly, to have venomous animals like this or to have big cats, or crocs, or anything exotic it is a privilege for us to have these animals. You need to be very educated on them and know how to take care of them before you’re allowed to have them.

If anybody could go out and buy a Gaboom Viper, people just holding Gaboon Vipers all the time and getting bit. It’d be horrible, these animals probably wouldn’t be allowed to even have because so many people would be getting hurt by them, so you have to be very careful about that.

I have had many people back in the day– Not, no many, a few. I’ve had a few people come to my house. I’ve only signed off on one venomous permit ever, it’s my friend Brennan. He still has venomous, he’s a very great handler. He lives in another state now, so you might meet him one day, you might not. You have to be very careful on who you let come handle your snakes because they will kill you. Not only can the animals kill you, but whoever is helping you, could also kill your animals, nobody’s ever going to take care of your animals as well as you do.

When Alex first started here, it’s in a video, I was keeping a Wagner’s Viper a swamp together. Two different localities, two different animals, I know. I was cohesively keeping them together for years, though. They were great. I just know that they cannot bite each other, I know how to handle them together, I know to keep them separate, everything was cohesive, and kosher, and great. Alex didn’t know. Not his fault, I should have explained it to him more, which is why it’s better for you to do your own shit. Unfortunately, the Wagner’s Viper got bit by the swamp and it died. It sucks. I’m still really upset. That female Wagner’s Viper was beautiful, I’ve had that snake for so long. But whatever, there’s more out there in the world, I’ll get another one day. Look at this real fast.

My buddy Lewis came over here. Remember that white Vision that I had? I got a great one, it came to swap that thing out. The snake wall is looking great. I got to fix this stuff, I got to bring it down a little bit more. More of my Vision cages are coming soon, we’ll do that video in a couple of weeks when they come. Anyways, back to this. Back to my boy. Come here, bro.

God, I love this freaking snake. He is just so cool. Now, Florida is not the only state, obviously, that you can have venomous, there’re a lot of other states that it is fine. Some states don’t allow it at all. That is actually where I got Kilo. I got Kilo from a couple that breeds corn snakes, and they didn’t have any venomous, all they had was Kilo. I guess Kilo was getting too much for them and that’s when I got him. Now I am the lucky snake dad of Kilo, who’s my baby. I love this freaking snake, man. He is so dope.

I hope that clears up a few things about how to go about getting your venomous permit. I strongly believe that the only people that should be allowed to have venomous permits are people that have experience with these animals to an extent in the first place. You need to have snake history. Jake has been doing venomous at my house because Jake has been working with snakes since he was a little tiny kid. Alex, same thing. Alex has been working with snakes, working with animals since he was a little kid. His grandfather is into it, his family is into it. It’s a thing that they were brought into, that’s why I let them do this.

I trust them. Alex is getting there. He’s doing great with these animals, and soon enough he’ll have his venomous permit. Like I said, a thousand hours each class, so think about how long that takes. It takes at least a couple of years of training and cleaning snake poop. Hours doesn’t mean like, “Oh, you get to come here and you’re going to play with snakes. That’s your hours.” No, hours is cleaning snake poop. That’s what it is, you pretty much are going to be cleaning a thousand hours of snake poop for each class. That’s how you get it, cleaning lots and lots of poop. With that said, it’s time for you to clean some freaking poop, bro. Are you ready?

Alex: Yes.

Tyler: There’s not really a whole lot of poop in there, but his favorite snake is this false water cobra. I don’t know why you like that cobra so much.

Alex: We just get along great.

Tyler: You get along fantastic.

Alex: Good buddies.

Tyler: Good buddies. All right, so Alex is going to take the false water out. We’re going to see how he does with this. There you go, you got the lock off of there, got trash can right by you. There’s nothing in there? You’re good? Coast is clear? Check that bad boy here. Over the household. My God. No, we’re good. There’s nothing in there. Alright, cool. Just making sure. Noise. Now you see my false water. He’s in his water bowl because he loves it there.

Alex: He thinks he’s real water.

Tyler: He loves it.

Tyler: You see what Alex is doing right now? You’re getting all the obstacles out of that cage, so if he were to come out flying, go into there, now you got a problem. The less stuff you have in the cage, the easier it is to work with venomous animals. That is why a lot of my crazier snakes have more of a simplistic cage. That way they cannot get hooked up on any tree branches and stuff like that, and in the long run, it just make it harder for me to take them out.

You got to grab him right there, midsection. He’s a little jerk, per usual. Man, why are you doing that into my carpet? You got to think. He’s not really on the hook, but. Jason? Jason, hey you little guy. Don’t be a jerk. Why you got be such a jerk? It’s okay, I still love you. All right, let’s get this freaking mess cleaned out. Nice and clean.

Alex: Except for the floor.

Tyler: Except for the floor. Not bad, though, Pepe. All right, take her out. Her out, him out, it out. It’s a boy. Small, girls are big, boys are small. He’s a small jerk. Let me see if I can actually grab him. Here, hold this. Let me see. Watch. Let me put some Chi together like this. You got an energy. I’m going to gently go in here slowly, pick him up like this, and hopefully, he’ll be nice. Hopefully. Ready? Chill.

[music]

Tyler: Very slow like this. Slow. Very slow. You see? Now, the way that an animal reacts is a lot to do with your body language and how you handle the animal. If you just go into his cage you grab him or you go into the trash can, you see what I’m doing Alex? You just go in there and you grab him, obviously he’s going to have a bad time. He’s going to have a bad experience. He’s not going to ever trust you. Now, the key is with these meaner animals, especially this false water cobra that is normally a jerk to me and normally would try to bite me, he’s not trying to bite me. He could, he could very well just turn around and grab my hand right now and there’s nothing I could really do about it, but he came light.

I’m being super calm. I’m not talking loud. I’m not scaring him. I’m not being mean to him. I’m not grabbing him. I’m letting him sitting. I’m not holding him right now. He is sitting in my hands and he is just slithering around exploring, just being a snake. That’s what it is all about because if you can just get your snakes to chill out and do this positive reinforcement, positive every time you handle these animals, if they’re not scared and it’s a positive interaction with you, they will calm down and they can chill out. He’s not a bad snake. He’s a good snake, obviously. It’s all about how that they’re handled.

He’s a great snake because he has a really strong feeding response in his cage and he’s great for training with that aspect, but he isn’t that bad. He’s just a puppy dog just like the rest of them. That’s it. I just wanted to do a cool video for you guys. I want to answer that question about how to get your venomous permit, I hope that cleared up some questions. Anybody, you have more questions about how to get involved this stuff like this? Who to ask? Where to go to? What to do? Let me know.

See how I’m talking louder. The energy is changing in the room and he’s feeling it. You guys have any questions, comment down below. Make sure you like, comment, subscribe. Make sure you’re subscribed to my channel, turn on those notifications so you don’t miss a video. I hope you guys have a great day. I hope everybody’s staying safe out there with all this crazy shit that’s going on in the world right now, with the COVID thing, this whole racism, Black Lives Matter thing. All my Black homies, my Spanish homies, power goes out to you guys. I hope everybody gets through this shit, and everybody pulls through, and we can all get along and be cohesive in this world together. Just like us. Peace out guys, till next time. Thanks for watching. You guys are the freaking best. Peace.