Fl@sh
Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2017
- Messages
- 94
Anyone ever watched Kenans you tube channel or seen his torts . opinions and beliefs on his advice
Thank you for this comprehensive cover, look he has lovely torts and ive read articles in this forum that sing his praise when it comes to buying or receiving babies from him. i enjoy his animals but i shall overlook his advice from now onI think he is a good guy that means well but is missing the mark. His charisma and celebrity could be used to really promote the understanding of chelonians, but in trying to pass himself off as an expert, he is instead contributing to a lot of misconceptions and promoting methods that not only don't work in most cases, but can lead to bad results, illness for the tortoises, and ultimate frustration for the keeper looking for advice. He would be much better served to promote himself as an investigator and fellow enthusiast, looking for best practices, and showing examples of great chelonians and keepers. When he instead draws conclusions and starts making statements as fact and giving advice on husbandry, when he has not yet had experience universal enough, and then starts giving advice on a forum as international as he has chosen, he crosses over to dangerous. Show us what works in a particular situation, and what is getting great results in another. But don't draw conclusions and give international advice until you can show results that work everywhere. OR, at least qualify the results as "I know this will work in these situations".
If you simply look at his video on pyramiding as one example. (That is a very serious and exhaustive study and interest of mine!) He states as fact many myths. Let me compare his statement to what I have found...
Metabolic bone disease can lead to pyramiding. False - totally separate issues! You can have smooth tortoise with MBD and extremely pyramide tortoises with no MBD.
Lack of sunlight will lead to pyramiding. false - There are plenty of totally smooth tortoises raised totally indoors.
Wild tortoises may not be pyramided because they have worn down the pyramids! False - If they wore down pyramids, we would see raw bone as the keratin layer remains uniformly thin over pyramids and the bone itself has been deformed into the pyramid. New keratin will not be laid down in the center of a worn scute.
Pyramiding is the bone growing up into pyramids. False - the pyramid is actually caused by the bone being force DOWN at the seams as new keratin is added.
Improper diet will contribute to pyramiding. False - I've seen smooth tortoise grown on the worst imaginable diets - and with MBD as mentioned above.
You need to slow down the growth to promote smooth growth. Fast growth leads to pyramiding. False - some of the fastest growing tortoises I've ever heard of and seen are right here on this forum, and totally smooth. My own Burmese Stars I bought from one of the most respected Chelonian centers in the world (Who Kenan toured and interviewed in several videos) subscribed to the slow growth theory and ALL of their Burmese Stars are pyramided. Yet the 8 I have obtained from them All immediately starting growing at over 3 times the rate and dramatically smoother immediately.
I could go on, but my point is that by promoting himself as THE expert, how many automatically put weight and credibility on all his advice, and start implementing "his" methods in their circumstances, when he is in fact off base? It is so tempting in chelonian husbandry to draw conclusions if your way seems to be working for you. But is something is successful, we often learn the least from those scenarios. It is failure that is the ultimate teacher. In the example of pyramiding - show me the person who has fought with and struggled with countless scenarios trying to find a way to eliminate pyramiding. Each time finding examples that DON'T work. Now we can start eliminating things! And now finds a way through it all to eliminate pyramiding time and again in a way that others in vastly different locations can duplicate. Now that's a person who's earned the right to be giving advice. Mr Kenan would be better served to be finding and promoting those people. That would be worth listening to!
Don't misunderstand. I do enjoy his video and find them quite entertaining. And part of my comment is that he has a wonderful opportunity to advance awareness and understanding of chelonians using his celebrity and professional video-making team. As his experience widens, I think (hope) his advice becomes more careful and match the international scope of his audience.Thank you for this comprehensive cover, look he has lovely torts and ive read articles in this forum that sing his praise when it comes to buying or receiving babies from him. i enjoy his animals but i shall overlook his advice from now on
I know this thread is old, but my thoughts are this.Thank you to @Markw84 for explaining with tact and poise exactly my sentiments on the matter.
I would not have worded it so eloquently or tactfully, but all of my points were well covered and explained.
I love when he visit s different p!aces, the ponds and I love the lizards!
Yvonne is right. My tort got sick because i set up like i lived in Florida because i watched his show to learn how to take care of my tort before I got her.I've seen a couple, but he advocates keeping the babies the old school way, so I don't give him any credibility. Also, he lives in Florida - it's very humid there. Most of us don't live in Florida and we are unable to follow his advice in our geographical areas.