- Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the vlog.
Have you ever had one of those days
that you're just like it's going to be an amazing day today?
Well that's how I feel.
I think today is going to be an incredible day
and I hope the start of your day is going to be amazing,
regardless of what's going on.
Let's just push it aside right now
and have a great day together.
Chicken Strip is absolutely incredible
and you can see the socialization with this guy
has come such a long way.
He still gets a little bit crazy when you first take him out
but literally, not kidding, 10 seconds after
you take him out he turns into this.
And every now and then he'll do a little bit of an explosion
where he'll try to get away.
But for the most part, once he really, really calms down
you could have him out for an hour.
And literally he'll sit in your hand.
I can literally just put him on my shoulder like this
if I want to and he'll just hang out with me,
just like this.
So, it's pretty amazing that just those threads of trust
that we continue to build with him are paying off so much.
And again, the fact that he's the only albino Nile monitor
that we know, obviously he's a male,
Ubusuku is a female and hopefully here, maybe next year,
we can get these guys breeding.
Which I think would be pretty dang awesome.
Could you imagine hat for albinos and hat for melanistic.
So they'd be double hat for snow,
because they're both recessive mutations,
or at least we think they're both recessive mutations.
There's nothing to tell us that they're not
because, of course, the melanistic Asian water monitors are
and we know the albino monitors have always been recessive
as well.
So, hopefully we can maybe, you know,
three, four years from now
actually have some of the rarest monitor lizards
on the planet.
And it's just crazy to think that we have Ubusuku
and Chicken Strip.
You know, one of ones.
I mean, actually, I think last year,
I saw a baby black Nile again, that was a baby.
But I don't know if anyone bought it
or if it was just a picture.
Maybe it even was a picture of Ubusuku when it was a baby,
I'm not 100% sure.
But as far as I know right now,
she's the only black Nile monitor on the planet,
which is pretty cool.
And again, she is such an absolute sweet heart.
So it's cool that I get to come in everyday
and see two of the rarest monitors on the planet,
and one day, I sure hope that these guys'll go together.
You can see she's a chonker right now.
She's definitely ready to breed.
Again, maybe another year with Chicken Strip,
we can put these guys together.
That would be unbelievable.
Maybe one of the coolest accomplishments in my entire career
if it's lucky.
So I don't want to count my eggs,
because we still have another year
of raising Chicken Strip up.
And certainly we got to keep Ubusuku
as amazing as she is right now.
So, fingers crossed guys.
But I know I count my blessings everyday
to have both of these amazing animals.
Just my daily Ivy update.
Looks like finally that bloat in the center went down
quite a bit.
So everyday now, you're going to see less and less.
Probably by tomorrow you'll be able to just barely see
a lump in her.
So she's digesting well.
Definitely a trip.
And if I hadn't had so much experience,
I would have been freaking out, to be honest with you,
because yesterday,
she looked like she was gonna literally explode.
It was such a wild thing.
But again, obsessed with my green anaconda.
I hope you guys are enjoying, kind of, taking along
on this crazy journey of this girl
and obviously I've got to get back in here
and do a big water change again.
So, she's keeping me busy but I love her to death.
- I'm going to share with you guys a few of the Asian rats
that we are working with.
We don't work with a whole lot right now.
In the past, we used to work with a bunch of different ones,
so I kind of am excited about the ones that we do have.
This year we're breeding some Mandarin rat snakes.
These are definitely one of my all time favorites.
We have worked with these for years.
These are some new bloodlines that we've raised up.
This will be first year breeding.
So, it seems to be going pretty good,
so hopefully we'll get some eggs from these.
This girl here is actually a Taiwan beauty snake.
And this one really takes me back.
When Brian and I, in our first few years, I think,
being together, we used to have one or two of these guys.
Again, they were mainly pets, I think...
Well, I take that back,
we did work with some different kinds of beauty snakes,
I don't know that we bred the Taiwan
but I know we had the blue beauties at one point.
These guys get huge.
So this is only a year old.
It's already got some good size on her.
We're not really going to breed her,
we only have the one.
So I think she's pretty much getting ready
to go over to the Reptarium,
because this'll be a really cool addition.
Like I said, they get a really impressive size
and with a really nice attitude.
It's a nice animal to be able to share with everybody
over there.
Another favorite in the rat snakes are the rhino rats.
So, we've been raising some up.
This is a guy that will probably be in the breeding project
next year.
Got to love these animals.
So, this is at the size now, where the green is coming out
and I'm sure Brian showed you the babies,
they hatch out a really boring,
almost kind of grayish color.
And it takes about a year for the green
and those little blue flecks to really come out.
They're a fun animal to work with,
a little bit different
because they kind of go back and forth.
Sometimes they want fish if they get picky.
But definitely worth working with
because they are definitely very cool.
- Getting a little time with my girl Salty here.
She's absolutely incredible
and, you know, now that we're not open, you know,
there are hundreds of people that hold her every week,
when we're open.
I have to work with her a little bit more
because I don't want her to lose that training with her.
To keep her calm and to keep her extremely amazing.
And she's getting so big
and their enclosure is finally looking nice and clean.
That bacteria bloom is gone and so now it's really cool.
So, it's amazing.
She's an amazing animal and I'm so lucky to have her.
But as you can see, got to work with her a lot
because she's definitely getting a little more hyper
so I just have to get her out even more often
and can't wait 'till we open again,
so we can resume that training,
where she stays still in people's hands.
Because I tell you what, she's getting too big
to be a little brat, that's for sure.
(calm techno music)
(ding)
(calm techno music)
- I grew up in Alabama.
Like my dad's always been really big about science,
he's a scientist himself,
and one time
we'd actually seen an alligator snapping turtle.
We had actually pulled over and saw it.
It was actually trying to cross the road
and a lot of people were moving around it and stuff,
and it was creating a lot of traffic.
So my dad got out and he was trying to show me,
he goes, "All right,
well the one thing you have to always remember
is don't turn these guys around.
Don't put them back where they came from.
Let 'em go where they're going
because there's a reason they're heading that direction."
So we just helped him across the street.
We helped him about his way
and it was one of the really,
really pinnacle points in my life
when I was a kid, because I remember that.
And I will always, always remember to respect those animals,
respect where they come from, and really, really...
And it really, really inspired me to love them more.
So I don't know if you remember, actually, last year.
He wasn't really...
Like he was sort of hesitant to actually take food.
Now, this time of year, he's just crushing food.
I mean, like, everyday I come here in the morning,
I do my morning checks.
I walk around here with Brian
and Brian's always pointing out, like,
"Look Bowser's ready to eat right now."
And we're just like, "Oh dude, let's do it.
Come on, it'll be fun."
- Of course my girl Lucy never ceases to mess up her cage.
This time she pooped over here, she pooped over here.
Water's nasty.
So, I'm going to go ahead, take her out,
do a little socializing with her
and Bruce, thankfully, is going to clean up the cage
while I'm actually messing with Lucy.
So let's just see what kind of mood she's in.
Hey girl, hey baby.
You're okay, you're okay.
(yells)
Okay.
Just a little bit, a little hyper today.
Come on girl, it's all right.
Uh-oh.
So this happens, I mean, it's just the way it is.
We're going to be all right.
We'll get her, we'll get her.
Come on girl.
It's okay girl.
(tense music)
(clicking)
All right.
There we go, now get her backside out.
(cartoon slipping noise)
You okay? - Yes, I am.
- You get that, you can start.
All right, now as you can see,
so even when we get a rocky start,
it's just about not having her have a bad experience
with us, right?
Just like we socialize our monitor lizards,
we want to do the same kind of thing with our snakes, right.
We want them to understand that we're not bad, right.
She has the same memory as a monitor lizard
and if she has a memory of like a bad experience,
where we're maybe grabbing her or man handling her,
of course she's probably going to have that in her mind
and she's not going to trust us as much.
So, the idea is, is to continue to build that trust.
And, again, she may be in a rocky mood, to start with.
As you can see, If I give her the respect that she deserves
there's nothing to be concerned about, right.
She's not trying to bite me now,
she's completely placid, I can move around with her,
I can interact with her.
She's just one big, powerful snake.
And we've been talking about,
wondering if you can do
kind of the same sort of target training
with Lucy or other snakes.
We saw something on king cobras,
where they were able to actually target train king cobras.
And actually, my friends at the Columbus Zoo
used to have some kind cobras that,
when they started to flood the cage with water,
they would immediately go into their shift box.
So as soon as they heard water running
they would go into their shift box.
So that means that they can learn.
So, I'm not sure if you guys think we should
but maybe with some sort of a target training for Lucy,
or maybe some of our other big retics
and see if that works.
But just take a look at how big that animal is.
That is one impressive snake.
Oh my gosh.
Bruce is just going to have to clean it's cage up,
then we'll get her back in there
and again, have that really positive thread of experience
with letting her have a little free time
but also us interacting with her,
where she doesn't feel like we're bad,
and then, ultimately, get her back in her cage
and she's going to be like,
"All right, that wasn't too bad."
It doesn't mean that the next time
she's not going to strike at me again.
It does mean that she can at least respect me
and we don't have to really fear each other,
if that makes any sense.
(calm techno music)
- Time for my girl Lucy to go back home.
Come on baby.
You've got a clean house now, all good.
Come on.
Up you go baby girl.
Up you go.
She is getting heavy, I tell you what.
Either I'm getting weaker or she's getting bigger.
I'm not sure which one's happening.
Here you go baby.
There you go.
And up in the tree is where she'll go.
There she goes.
So predictable but what a good snake, huh?
Successful experience for her.
She's got a nice time out, a little exercise,
and now she gets to go in
and curl up like a green tree python
on top of her enclosure.
(laughs)
That is so cool.
Could you image being in Indonesia
and walking in the rainforest and coming across that?
I tell ya' that's an impressive snake.
It really is.
All these years later, I'm still impressed by her
every time I see her.
Take a look at this girl right here.
I'm really gently holding her.
This is an ovulation from a rough scale sand boa.
This is what they call conicus
and they're actually a smaller sand boa.
This is as big as they get,
obviously 'cause it's (mumbles)
they'll get a little bit larger.
But she'll probably have anywhere from like six
to 10 babies, something like that.
And that is a huge ovulation.
So essentially she'll have babies about three months
from now.
And of course sand boas
are what they call sexually dimorphic.
Which basically just means, this is an adult male here.
This is as big as it's going to get.
Rarely do you see male sand boas in most species
that are much larger than this.
They're typically really small compared to the female.
They look exactly the same as a female,
they just get much, much smaller.
So, interestingly enough is that these guys will feed
just like normal when they're babies
but once they hit around adult size,
a male sand boa sometimes will only eat six to 10 meals
per year.
And she keeps me guessing.
Of course Ivy now has climbed up on the land.
I was really surprised to see her,
when I walked over just an hour ago she was in the water.
Now, she apparently wants to spend a little time on land.
And yeah, that lump looks huge,
but trust me, it's about half the size it was yesterday.
So, by tomorrow it'll probably be half the size again.
And I don't know, will she hang out on land?
Will she go back in the water?
Your guess is as good at mine.
But that's awesome.
Isn't it crazy?
And I hope you guys are enjoying kind of learning
the behavior of an anaconda with this type of exhibit
as much as I am.
Because it's again, I said it before, I'm obsessed,
I'm fascinated, I'm all the things.
Absolutely wonderful.
And she's looking great.
So, good job Ivy, I love you so much girl.
I hope you feel better tomorrow.
Time to un-box.
Thanks Robby Wilson for these-
- Ridiculous.
(laughs)
(sighs)
- This is from Doug in Illinois.
- This is not the time where you want a cut
or an open wound.
- No that is true.
(laughing)
- So calm down.
- Got to play it safe.
All right, so what do we have here.
Let's see.
Oh my gosh, there's all kinds of stuff.
It's a Ridiculous Rhacies.
- Stickers.
- So he works with Rhacodactylus obviously.
And this is a a dope shirt.
Are you kidding me right now?
(laughs)
- That's cute.
- That is a really good shirt.
Love the blog.
I know you're building a gecko room
for New Caledonian species, keep me in mind for leachies.
Oh, yes, Doug, seriously reach out to us.
I would love to talk to you about leachies for sure
because we want to get some more of those,
want to get some more chahoua stuff.
Just a whole bunch of different things, so yes.
This is nice paper here, this is actually watermelon.
- Oh wait, this has my name on it.
- Oh this is yours, okay.
You can open that.
What's it say?
- I just want to pet wine and drink my dog...
Oh wait.
(laughing)
That's what I say after the wine.
(laughing)
- [Male Voice] I can't believe that actually happened!
- That's awesome.
Okay, so we got...
This is awesome, look at this!
That is absolutely incredible.
- Here's this.
- From Alberta, Canada, my name is Jasmine.
I've been a big fan for about a year now.
I love all your animals.
I've included a pice of diamond art,
that was made by herself.
I made it a while ago
and didn't know what I was doing with it yet.
So she sent it to us, so thank you so much.
Steve in Pennsylvania.
Thank you Steve.
Oh my gosh, this is sloth.
Team sloth!
(laughing)
We'll get there when we get there.
(laughing)
- That's funny.
- That's great.
I love watching the vlog and the new podcast too.
I thought I'd jump on the sloth bandwagon
and send you a shirt.
A group of us ride bikes together
and we had these shirts made.
So these shirts are actually made for you guys,
that is awesome!
I hope you get up there...
I hope you get up to the Reptarium and visit one time,
when we're back open.
Thank you Steve, seriously.
So, thank you guys, as always.
You're amazing.
In these times you guys uplift us in everything you do.
And it certainly is cool to be able to work with monitors
that are so rare and hopefully one day have the ability
to potentially produce them.
That would be so cool.
And I hope that you enjoyed the video
and if you aren't too sick of me yet,
you can check a playlist out right out here
of a bunch of really cool egg cutting,
because I know that's coming up pretty soon.
You can also listen to my podcast called Checking In.
You can subscribe to that right over here.
Subscribe to the vlog channel on this side,
if you don't mind.
Have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember, be kind to someone.
And I promise, I'll see you guys tomorrow.