- Yeah, little buddy.
I love the fact that this albino turtle here is so mellow
that it doesn't run away like the other turtles in here.
And good morning everybody, welcome to the blog.
You know, every animal,
no matter how big or how small in this place
means so much to us,
I mean, from every little turtle
to our major animal attraction,
animal ambassadors like Ben and Jerry mean the world to us,
not just to me, I mean, you know,
certainly they're my pets and they're my babies
and I've worked my entire life to get to this stage.
But really every single person in the crew
cares for each of these animals like they're our babies.
I mean you guys see the relationships
that we have with these animals,
the amount of time that we spend with them,
the love and care that we all give them.
I mean, there are thousands
and tens of thousands of hours
that we spend with these animals
to get them to be so socialized and so habituated, you know,
animals like Elvis here, the Asian water monitor,
you know, again, he loves me,
I mean, he sees me, he's just checking me out,
see, he's not running away from me
like get away from me, I don't like you human.
I mean these are amazing relationships
and that doesn't come without a lot of love, right?
The more love you put into your animals
and the more love and attention that you give them,
the more that they're gonna love you back.
It's a two way street, right?
You can't fear them, you have to love them.
They can't fear you and they have to love you
or whatever that means in a reptile sense
to make that incredible bond happen.
What are you doing?
My gosh, you look so beautiful.
She's just coming out of the shed,
off course my girl pretty
and why am I telling you all this?
You guys know that I love my animals
and you guys know how much all this stuff means to me
and everyone else.
The fact is that there's been kind of a rash of thefts
that have happened in particular in the Florida area, right?
We know that Tom Crossfield, a handful of other people
and then recently Kenan Harkin had their place broken into
and animals that they absolutely love were actually stolen.
Again, you're not stealing an object,
you're stealing something that's part of someone's family.
People love these animals,
everybody that had their animals taken,
you took a part of their family away
when you took those animals.
And it is, I mean, it is just crazy
for me to think that there are someone out there
that would do that to somebody, it just infuriates me
and every time one of my friends
lost one of their beloved animals,
it literally made my blood boil.
By the way, my girl pickles is definitely looking good,
matter of fact, even my buddy Mark down at Texas,
chondro mentioned in a photograph he saw
of course saying like,
boy, it looks like she's ramping up for an ovulation
and that's a guy that's an expert on green tree python,
so I think we're looking good here
and I actually just got off the phone
with Kenan a little bit ago
about what's going on with his animals
and so on like that
and I'm gonna let him tell you on his own channel,
I'm not gonna give you guys any ideas, but you know,
they've been working hard on kind of cracking this case
and listen, my point is, is that like, you know,
I would die if someone broke in here
and a lot of nights, I stay awake at night,
I'm not gonna lie to you.
You know, you guys see in the videos,
all these animals and everything like that
and then sometimes things like
what if something ever happened to the reptarium
and someone took these out,
I mean, it would, it's not the money,
I could care less about money,
even to the point where if someone ever was gonna break in,
I'd rather say, Hey Brian, I was gonna steal this,
could you just pay me not to steal it?
I can't, I mean these animals are my life
and to lose any of them to something so heinous
as someone stealing them,
it would just, it would literally kill me.
All indications are, it's actually a ring in south Florida
that happened doing these crimes,
but you know, it can happen anywhere, right?
I mean, we're up here in Michigan and Utica
and that's one of the good things
that we have going on here at the reptarium
is number one, the fact that we're in a small city,
only about two miles square,
now it's surrounded
by a lot of metropolitan Detroit area obviously,
but our city itself is only about two miles square.
We have a giant police force for two miles a square
and the police station
is literally a half mile away from the reptarium
and they all come in here all the time,
so they know me really well.
So whenever an alarm goes off,
which we have all entry, breakage, motion, fire, everything.
When alarm goes off,
they're here literally within like 30 seconds
and they're calling my cell phone saying
Brian, we're at the shop,
because every now and then
an animal will trip a motion sensor or something like that
and they're always here within about 30 seconds,
so that makes me feel a little comfortable,
but I'm not gonna lie,
I still definitely lose sleep over it.
- [Noah] Asian water monitor.
Look how friendly he is,
he just is curious, he's interested.
- He's gonna be so huge so quick.
I can already tell he's growing so much faster
than even toothless did.
Oh, oh, you're gonna poop.
- [Noah] He gonna poop on you?
- Ew, you're about to poop.
He has a limit and so like,
he's got to get, get used to being held.
- [Noah] He's doing good for a while,
it's like the reverse of Chicken Strip.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah it's like Chicken Strip will calm down
and he gets all riled up.
I think it's more stubbornness rather than him freaking out,
he's just like, I wanna go to this place
and you're not gonna tell me I can't.
I was just expecting him to just blow,
just boom, just crap all over me.
Oh, there it goes, yep, yep,
I felt that coming.
I managed to, I managed not to get crapped on this time.
- [Noah] Yeah, it does.
- Yeah, the chocolate pudding,
like it's like it's not really,
it doesn't have a chocolate color to it
and you're wondering what it's made out of.
- Mike in his job security over here,
it looks like Daisy did a little bit of a blow up shed,
she's got some nice big boots,
she had a big lump in her though in her back.
- There was where it it was coming through,
we knew it was coming.
- So if you ever wanna work with big snakes,
you gotta deal with big poops,
but I'm gonna let Mike just get a Daisy and soak,
you know, soak her up a little bit, get her shed out
and then actually her cage doesn't look bad at all.
- No, this is not as bad as it's been before.
- Yeah, this is just a little area over here,
yeah, she did a good job for you,
so I'll let Mike do that
and I'll get back to doing whatever the heck I'm doing.
(upbeat music)
- We have the case off going on,
we've got Elvis and Daisy.
Oh, the phone knock this thing down, don't,
come here, come here you silly monkey you.
All right so Daisy look, wow, she looks good.
Whoa Daisy, you clean up good, everything good?
- Mm-hmm.
- [Brian] All right, let's get her back
before Elvis decides she's a big banana.
(laughing)
- Back in your enclosure.
- [Brian] Guys, that looks good.
That wasn't too bad, right?
- No, not very bad, no hassle.
- [Brian] No hassles, all right, good,
any other big issues today or we're looking good?
- So far, so good.
- So far, so good, knock on, knock on fake rock, okay.
Well, if anyone can handle it, Mike can handle it.
So what can we do about this
to stop this kind of heinous, you know, ring of crime
that's going on particular down in Florida,
but we don't want it to happen
anywhere in the entire country
'cause anyone is kind of, you know,
subject to this potential thing.
Number one, if you know someone
that's thinking about doing it,
you know, don't let it happen,
or if you've heard something, turn them in, right?
I mean, these are little lives,
think about if you had a puppy
or a dog that you've had for years and someone stole it,
I mean, it's part of your family and these are our children,
yeah, they're reptiles but we look at them
like dogs and cats,
I mean, we love them to death,
so we don't want that to happen.
And then the only other thing we can kind of do
is ourself is try to protect yourself
as much as possible, right?
I mean, you know, if you have a collection
or you have something outside or inside
or whatever the case is,
make sure you have the right security
so that if something does happen,
some jerk out there
actually is trying to take your animals,
your loves, your family,
that you actually have some protection against it.
(upbeat music)
Now listen, in no way is this a challenge to anyone
I want to definitely make sure you understand that.
I don't wanna challenge anyone
to try to break in here
because I don't wanna take that chance
and lose these amazing animals, you know?
But the fact is, is that we do a pretty good job, I mean,
we have cameras on the parking lots, front and back.
We have camera shot the entire place,
again, we have break in,
we have motion sensors, we have door sensors.
I mean, it's really gonna be difficult
to get into this place without setting off an alarm
and with the police being literally
less than a half mile away,
not to mention them paroling in a two mile square area,
chances are you breaking here,
you're probably not getting away, right?
But again, I don't wanna have this as a challenge
because I don't want you to ever steal my animals,
like I said, I'd rather you steal my money,
'cause I can always make more money,
I can't replace these animals
because they're absolutely amazing.
(upbeat music)
Come here Nova, silly monkey you.
And like I said, I talked with Kenan
and there's some good news
that's gonna be coming on that front,
but I'm gonna let him deliver that good news.
You guys can check it out over on his channel
and stuff like that, but the fact is that, you know,
it's scary, you know,
and I don't wanna see anyone go through that,
not only my friends, but people that I don't even know
and I hear something like this happens, it breaks my heart,
because again, I know how much these animals mean to us.
You know, when we do this expansion,
because obviously now we're gonna have water,
we're gonna have twice the space,
we're gonna have, you know, kind of a front area
that's gonna have a pond,
that's gonna be really open to the public,
where if you're walking down the street
at three o'clock in the morning,
there's gonna be a pond with koi and stuff like that.
We're actually gonna hire security
that are gonna be on site 24 hours a day
well, the security won't be on site 24 hours a day
'cause we'll be onsite for 15 hours a day.
But then the other 9 or 10 hours that we're not here,
we're actually gonna have security guards on site,
that way we know that if there's a leak with a tank,
someone's gonna know it.
That way if someone messes the pound out front,
we're gonna know it.
That way if someone tries to break in,
we're gonna know, we're gonna have security.
Kinda sucks that it's gonna cost a lot of money
to hire that security,
but I just think that that's the safest way to go,
to make sure that everything stays safe,
that no one ever does anything, because again,
we're gonna even be closer to this road
when we do the expansion
and someone just walking by could break a window
and grab something or something on that line,
that way if we have security here, we're always set.
But that isn't until we get the expansion,
but I've even considered doing it now
to be totally honest with you,
when I hear things like this I'm like,
no, please, 'cause again, it's not about the money,
it's not about that, it's about the animals
and how much we care for them
and how much they're, I mean, could you replace Nova?
I mean there's no way, look at this monkey,
I mean, he's the cutest thing in the world.
I can never get another Nova, there's no doubt.
Even though I have five or six other frilled dragons,
you know, they all mean a lot to me,
but you know, Nova is so absolutely incredible.
And I've told this story before,
there's been people that have been offered me
ridiculous money for say Elvis,
one time I got offered $100,000 for Elvis
and I said, there's no way, you know,
is it worth 100 grand?
No, it's worth maybe 5 grand at the most probably,
but I turned down 100 grand.
That's how much these animals mean to me.
Hey Elvis, what are you doing, buddy?
Elvis is busy cruising around over the last like hour or so,
just kinda checking the place out
and I love the fact
that he has kind of roam of that place and he does ever.
Come on over here, buddy,
come here, come here.
Hi sweetie, hi buddy.
What you got going on,
you just coming over and say hi to dad?
Hi buddy.
I know what a cool animal,
I mean, you can't tell me that you aren't jealous of Elvis.
I want you to be jealous.
I would be jealous of me
if I saw someone that had an animal as cool as Elvis,
I mean look at him, he's not running away,
he just like, hey, what's up dude,
gonna come up hang out with me, buddy?
So, this is absolutely amazing.
Okay, that's enough about that.
I'll finish this whole segment up with just saying,
please, please, please don't ever steal my animals
because it would kill me, so please do me a favor
don't let anyone ever steal my animals.
- [Noah] There's a pit in the middle of it.
- Really, I was.
- [Noah] Yeah. - It is, okay,
I'm like, what is this, an avocado?
Apparently it is.
- [Noah] No, yeah, it is, it is.
- It's a fruity avocado.
- [Noah] Once you get that open,
which is, it was too hard for me,
We're gonna feed it to Drogo.
At least try to, he's been a little picky.
Think that taste good.
Oh, there you go.
- That's a huge.
(both laughing)
- [Noah] No.
Smells like a pumpkin.
- Not getting much.
(Noah snorts)
(both laughing)
- [Noah] All right.
- Look at who's there, hello crazy.
- [Noah] Oh wow.
- [Woman] Hi crazy man. - [Noah] He's just hanging up.
I think he's got a scent on it,
look at him, he's coming out and he's he's like.
- Do you want a bite baby?
- [Noah] It's from my homeland, that's what he's saying.
Let's see if this is the thing.
- [Noah] Oh yeah, oh yeah.
- Yeah, but it needs to be cut 'cause.
- [Noah] Why?
- 'Cause he's gonna get mad.
- [Noah] Okay, life's not easy.
- No, you don't want a mad sloth.
He's not gonna get it.
- [Noah] You sure cut it up, huh?
- Yeah, a hundred percent,
but he definitely likes the taste of it.
- [Noah] Oh yeah.
- It's like a bottle.
(woman laughs)
What do you think, buddy?
I think you've definitely liked the taste of that.
- [Noah] He likes that mango,
you should have seen Brulo.
- Oh yeah same, oh he was probably just tearing it off.
- [Noah] But he actually was taking bites out of it,
no problem.
- Well, you can see he doesn't really have teeth,
just have those four, like, incisor, yeah.
So it's not much for like biting and ripping.
So that's why usually smaller pieces are best,
but he's still.
Yeah.
- [Noah] I would imagine these guys are pretty travelers,
travel for fruit.
- Sure.
- [Noah] What, slots are unstoppable.
Maybe we'll leave a little piece in his bowl or something.
- All right - [Noah] All right Drogo.
- I mean, he had a little chunk, he liked it.
- [Noah] He liked it.
- Success.
- [Noah] A little enrichment, there you go buddy.
- There's actually a high pressure front in today,
which usually you get breeding
when there's low pressure front,
but I've got to check all my males
and see if there's any lockups
and switch the ones that aren't breeding to new cages
and then see what's breeding,
so hopefully we'll get some lockups today.
(upbeat music)
All in all,
it was actually a better breeding day than I expected.
We had about 15 females hot locked up, so not bad.
I figured there was only gonna be 1 or 2,
15, I'll take that every day of the week.
And I've told you guys that it's a process
that takes months and months and months with pythons,
unlike colubrids that happened literally
in like four to six weeks.
I mean, take them out of brumation,
you breed them and then bam,
they got eggs before you know it.
These guys take months, I mean,
the earliest we're gonna see eggs is,
you know, four to five months after start breeding,
it can go sometimes seven or eight months,
so it's a long haul process, there's no doubt about it.
Look at this applegate gopher snake right here.
Oh my God, I got these guys as babies
about a year and a half ago and wow,
this is when they start to really become spectacular.
And for the longest time,
these were considered the prettiest of all the albinos
when it came to snakes, now I'll be totally honest with you,
there's so many amazing albino snakes,
it's not so much the case but back, you know,
in the nineties that was like the pinnacle,
the albino applegate gopher snakes
were absolutely incredible.
Now we have stuff like the albino wolf snakes
that are just absolutely ridiculous
and so many other albinos that are incredible as well.
Definitely been lonely in the lab this last,
but I think that Jay
is finally gonna be back out of isolation
tomorrow or the next day,
Noah's fine, he's been around and stuff like that,
we can start to implement
some of the things we've been talking about on the blog,
like more family adventure, more crew adventure,
just kind of changing things up a little bit, so
it was kind of a bummer that we had all these plans
and then omicron happened, so we got postponed,
but I think today/tomorrow is the last day
before we can get back
to start implementing some of those plans,
so stay tuned for some changes
and hopefully you'll like them.
And with that being said,
we're gonna go ahead and end the blog here,
I hope that you guys enjoyed watching today,
if you did do me a favor,
go over here on this
and check a couple of the playlist out,
would mean a lot to me.
You know, what else would mean a lot to me,
subscribe to this channel right here,
hit that subscription button,
hit the like button while you're at it, if you don't mind.
Have an absolutely wonderful day reptile army,
remember be kind to somebody and I promise,
I'll see you in the next one.