- Hey, Elvis, what's going on, big boy?
How you doing today, buddy?
Of course, Elvis is an amazing animal
and this enclosure is a decent enclosure.
I mean, it could live its entire life
in an enclosure like this.
It's actually six foot deep,
it's got lots and lots of room,
it's got different terracing,
it's got some water features,
but the truth is I do want
to actually upgrade a lot of enclosures.
In particular, a water monitor loves to swim.
Now, we take him out and let him swim in the ponds,
he actually goes into the turtle pond
by himself all the time,
but we have a lot of upgrades that we want to do,
that's part of the reason for the expansion,
and we're always thinking
of that type of stuff, right, Elvis?
What are you doing, buddy?
You being a good boy today?
He is such an absolutely incredible animal,
and you guys know that we let him just crawl
around the zoo, probably an hour or two every day,
when we get an opportunity,
so he not only enjoys his enclosure,
but he gets the whole run of the zoo.
But the truth is that we wanna make an enclosure,
similar to Ivy's enclosure, for Elvis,
where he has a swimming area,
he can go swimming and stuff like that.
He's such a special animal,
so to have that as a showcase is going to be amazing.
But again, Elvis could live his whole life
in an enclosure like this without having any issues.
But the truth is, we do have a lot of animals
that do need upgrading,
that cannot live in their enclosures,
so I want to take you through that today
and show you what we're planning on doing
in the expansion,
and the fact that we probably won't need many more animals
because we have to upgrade so many that we have here.
And you know, as the animals are growing,
they're gonna need larger and larger enclosures.
That's just how it is.
Night Fury has a really nice enclosure right now.
You can see it has plenty of room right now
at this size, for sure,
but you've got to remember it is a reticulated python.
And even though it's a male,
it's probably still going to get 12 to 18 foot long, right?
So, right now he is completely fine and good
for probably the next year or something like that
in this enclosure,
but he will eventually need an eight foot enclosure,
you know, eight foot by six foot by four, eight foot tall,
something on that line.
Most likely, almost all the enclosure
we're building in the Reptarium expansion
are going to be floor to ceiling.
We're probably not going to have too many short cages,
so he will probably get an eight foot by six foot
by eight foot tall enclosure one day,
and he's going to look absolutely amazing in it.
And even when I started getting a lot
of the animals here at Reptarium 1.0, 2.0,
I knew we were eventually going to have to expand
because not all the animals could stay
in these enclosures forever, right?
Beetlejuice right now is great in this enclosure.
He's got lots, tons of space,
and of course he was little tiny baby when we first got him,
but he's getting big.
You got to remember,
it's the second largest monitor lizard in Australia.
This can get five plus foot long.
It's not going to be able
to stay in this enclosure for long.
Maybe another, again, eight months, year,
something on that lines,
then it's going to need a large enclosure.
So just like Elvis is going to need an upgrade,
certainly Beetlejuice is going to use an upgrade.
Again, it will have a floor to ceiling type enclosure
that we can walk into,
because I think with monitors,
it's actually really going to be important
to be able to get in their enclosure
and spend time with them to keep them very docile.
Certainly Beetlejuice is super good,
but he does have some pretty big daggers for claws,
there's no doubt about it.
So if we can get him really comfortable
walking around on the ground
where people can pet him, much like Elvis,
I think it's a great opportunity, right?
But a large enclosure is going to be needed
to make that happen.
Of course, oh, (water splashes)
someone did a little flopper.
Of course, we're going to need a large enclosure
for my guy, RJ, here.
He's going to go into a 20 foot long enclosure,
so he's going to have lots of space.
He's coming back over to say hi to us.
I tell you, I have a different appreciation for crocodilians
since this last trip down to Florida with Chris Gillette,
and obviously all the people from Gatorland,
and obviously meeting up with Crocodile Kyle
and all kinds of stuff like that.
It's really interesting
how I have a different perspective on it.
I can't wait to get RJ into that giant enclosure
where we can interact with him at a much different level
than we interact with him now.
So again, he's done well in this enclosure
for the last couple of years,
but he's definitely needing an upgrade.
Cannot wait to not only have that upgrade,
but also so everyone that comes to the Reptarium can see
how amazing this animal is.
Remember guys, if you go to reptilearmy.com,
if you get any merch for the extended period of time here,
I'm going to be giving you a personal video thank you.
So again, we have all kinds of new designs,
we're going to have some new stuff dropping
sometime in January as well,
but the Christmas and holiday designs are still available,
not to mention all the back catalog,
so you can go over to reptilearmy.com,
get some cool merch and get a personal thank you from me.
Of course, we have a lot of animals over here at BHB
that are going to be going over
to the Reptarium pretty soon,
but we'll need larger enclosures as they go.
Neo, the motley golden child pied retic,
that's just starting to shed
and still looks absolutely amazing,
will actually come over to the Reptarium pretty soon
in a smaller enclosure,
but again, it's a pied reticulated python.
It is a girl as well,
so she's going to probably get 15 plus foot long,
so she's going to need a big eight foot plus enclosure.
So I can't wait to get her over there
so people can enjoy her so much,
but the fact is that just getting over there isn't enough.
We're going to have to expand,
and that's my whole point about this vlog is
that the truth is, we're expanding,
almost doubling the square footage,
but I don't know that we can add that many more animals
because the animals that need upgrades
and the animals we have that are going
to be going over there that are at BHB now,
are going to take up a lot of that expansion.
Obviously Salt and Pepper are getting big.
This enclosure was great for them when they moved in,
but they're fastly outgrowing it,
and there's no doubt that we need a need
for a much larger enclosure.
RJ will get a big enclosure, so will Salt and Pepper,
and right here is where that enclosure is going to be.
Starting right here, this will be gone,
the gift shop is actually going to be moved,
and the enclosure will come all the way out to here
and go to this wall and go all the way over.
It's going to be 20 foot long,
so you're going to have a gigantic, from here to the wall,
20 foot long for Salt and Pepper,
and then another one that's almost 20 foot long for RJ.
So this entire area here that's now the gift shop
and a couple of the animals over here,
like Helen, will be replaced,
and actually, again, this wall, you've got to remember,
this wall here's going to be pushed out 20 feet, right?
So that is where RJ is going to be on that side,
or Salt and Pepper, one or the other,
not sure exactly which one way they're going to go,
but it's going to be really amazing
to have all of that extra room.
But again, you can start to see
how lots of large enclosures,
lots of moving animals into bigger habitats,
kind of refining things.
Don't get me wrong,
we're gonna be doubling the square footage of the zoo,
but a lot of that is going to be taken up
with just increasing the size of the enclosures
for the animals we already have,
and then also putting the animals that we have at BHB
over into the new, large enclosures too.
So it's still a work in progress,
but it's going to be absolutely incredible.
Absolutely in love with Marshmallow.
I mean, look at how incredible that snake is.
Of course that's an ivory Burmese Python,
but what'd I say?
It's a Burmese python.
So right now, five foot, maybe five and a half foot.
Eventually going to get 12 to 15 foot as a male,
could even get a little larger,
some males can get 16, 17 foot.
So obviously the enclosure it's in now is great,
but it's going to need a larger enclosure,
and that is the goal of the new Reptarium expansion is
so every animal that we have
have these absolutely massive enclosures
that are going to be great for them,
with heat gradients, with opportunities to climb,
to do all that type of stuff.
Really great to view but also keep the animals happy, right?
So Marshmallow is going to eventually get big
and it's going to definitely need a giant cage one day,
and I am planning on doing that for every animal we have.
Not only the animals that are here now,
but the animals that we add on,
making sure that their habitats are actually,
really stepping it up
to the point where it is absolutely amazing,
so we got our work cut out for us,
there's no doubt about that.
I tell you what, these Sanzinia,
the Madagascan tree boas are looking amazing.
Again, I can't wait to get these over to the Reptarium.
We may be able to put them over there before the expansion
because these guys don't get really large.
I mean, they max out at six foot, something on that line,
and then not that much.
So they don't need a giant enclosure,
but they certainly need a tall enclosure
so that they can go on the ground
and go way up into the trees,
so these will definitely get an eight foot enclosure
added in the expansion.
It probably won't be a gigantic enclosure,
but it will be big enough so that they can move around
and get that gradiation.
But wow, what wonderful animals.
These are going to be an absolute hit
when they get over to the Reptarium, for sure.
I mentioned getting a chance to film with Sam
down at Florida Iguana and Tortoise and Kamp Kenan,
and the fact that it really changed the way I thought
about the tortoises and stuff like that.
I've been doing the best I can do,
but we need to do better, right?
And obviously we've talked
about giving these guys a much larger enclosure.
You've gotta remember, Matilda is going to get two,
maybe even three times this size,
and we want to give her a giant enclosure
that is going to be really cool.
I've already got it in my mind,
I've talked about it on the vlog before,
but she's going to get something that's probably three,
four times the size she's in right now.
Have a big water feature in it
so she can climb in the water, spend time,
that way we don't have to take her out
and soak her or wash her off,
she can actually go in by herself.
But it's going to take up a lot
of square footage at the expansion,
there's no doubt about it, but totally worth it.
Of course Hiccup, the snow-blind water monitor,
is just a little monkey right now,
but it's going to eventually get big, it's a water monitor,
so it's going to get the size of Elvis, of course,
just like Toothless.
Toothless already has a giant enclosure,
so it's pretty much set.
This one's going to need just as big of an enclosure,
at least eight to 10 foot, something on that lines,
with lots of water features and lots of climbing areas.
It's an absolutely beautiful animal,
but I take the responsibility
of caring for animals like this extremely seriously;
obviously it needs a large enclosure in the future.
Right now it's fine in the enclosure it's in,
but it's going to grow pretty quick.
In the next two, three years,
it's probably going to be five foot plus, right?
So it's going to definitely need something big.
So we might as well build it something big
now in the expansion,
so that it can live the rest
of its life that way and be happy.
But man, I tell you what, I'm in love with this animal.
Like I've been mentioning, a lot of animals over at BHB
that are going to come over,
the pair of diamond pythons will certainly be one of them,
and they are so amazing.
But these are, again, an arboreal animal,
so they like to climb a lot, so they're going to have
to get a really tall enclosure at the new expansion,
and they are just absolute rippers.
These animals are from that north east part
of Australia, New South Wales,
and they can actually get down to the low forties,
believe it or not, in the wild,
which I find absolutely amazing
that a python can live at that type of temperature,
but they are incredible,
and they're going to have a great spot at the new Reptarium.
King Tut is actually our Egyptian Uromastyx.
He's actually here in the offices at BHB
being cared for by the office help,
and they love him, obviously.
They love all the animals that are up here, but the truth is
that he needs to go over to the Reptarium sometime
because this is the largest species of Uromastyx,
one that can get about three foot long,
and they're typically puppy dog tame,
just like King Tut is right here,
so he's going to be really cool.
Doesn't need a giant enclosure by any stretch,
but we're going to give him a decent size one
that gives him all the room that he wants for sure.
These guys want to have about 130 degree hotspots,
so definitely a pretty specialized enclosure,
there's no doubt about that.
Can't wait to get him back over at the Reptarium
'cause he's just so darn cool.
My goodness gracious, these are getting large.
This of course is the patternless rock python,
and we have a het patternless rock python too.
Now, unlike some of the other animals here at BHB,
that are going to need decent sized cages,
these are going to need giant cages.
African rock pythons are the largest snake
on the continent of Africa.
They can get literally 17, 18 plus foot long,
big body snakes like a retic or a Burmese python,
so these guys are going to need giant enclosures.
And my plan is to probably put both of them
in one really large enclosure,
and eventually one day we may breed them.
I'm not a hundred percent sure if we will or not,
but they will be great display to see that patternless one
and then the wild type looking one as well.
But again, these will not have a small enclosure,
they will have a giant enclosure,
and they need a giant enclosure.
My biggest baby, here.
What are you doing, sweetheart?
We talked about the fact
that we fixed Brillo's enclosure here a week or so ago.
By the way, it's working fine,
doesn't seem to be scratching, trying to get out
or anything like that.
He's still scratching,
but now he just can't actually break his way out,
but the fact is he's going to get a much larger enclosure.
Much like the Matilda thing,
we're going to do an enclosure similar to that,
that way he can run around,
people can actually access him from the top,
so he can come over for pets
and have a lot of interaction, stuff like that.
So it's going to take a lot of space
to actually have Brillo,
but it's so worth it 'cause he is such an amazing animal
and people love him so much.
What are you doing Brillo?
Brillo, you can't scratch my face, you silly monkey.
So I can't wait to actually work on that,
and I'm glad that I got a little cement work behind me so
that I can actually make his enclosure when we expand too.
So he's going to be so happy,
and I'm going to just play with him
for the next 15 or 20 minutes
'cause he looks like he wants to stay out here
and have a little bit of fun.
(relaxed jazz music)
Look at this ripper right here.
This is a Suriname red tail boa.
Of course we have Cupcake, the BCI,
or boa constrictor imperator,
which is basically a common boa,
but we're definitely going to put some red tail boas
over at the new Reptarium as well.
They do get really large
and they're just so absolutely beautiful,
so I'm excited for people to see the difference
between this BCIs and the BCCs
because there is a pretty major different,
and these guys are incredible,
but it's going to need a pretty large cage.
These we'll get 10 plus foot, right?
So it's going to need a pretty large enclosure.
And you can kind of see what I'm starting to talk about,
the fact that lots of large enclosures,
animals we already have that are slated
to go over to the Reptarium,
and I don't really know how much more space we have.
Is it weird to say
that we haven't even started the expansion
and I'm already out of space?
So as you can see,
even though we're doubling the square footage
of the reptile zoo,
the fact is that we're pretty much getting close
to capacity in a way, right?
Just by moving animals up,
bigger enclosures and stuff like that.
Don't get me wrong, we're going to be able
to add some things, there's no doubt about it,
it's not like we're a hundred percent full right now,
but it's not like we have as much room
as people will think when we're doubling the square footage.
It's just a matter of upgrading a lot of enclosures,
bringing animals that we already have over
that we've had the opportunity.
When you get an opportunity to buy Sanzinia,
you can't say, oh, I want to wait a year,
you have to buy them and get them
because they're hardly ever available,
and then knowing
that I'll eventually put them at the reptile zoo,
so it's going to be a fun process
to actually do all these new enclosures,
and see the animals move into bigger enclosures,
and see animals from BHB move over to the Reptarium,
and see how they habituate to this type of environment.
It's going to be fun,
but I wanted to share with you guys the vision
of what's going on,
so you guys don't think
that we're just adding twice the animals
that we already have,
because in a way we're adding things, but not like that.
We're really making larger exhibits
and making the animals even happier,
and we'll be able to bring all the stuff,
obviously, from BHB and a few other things in and so on.
It's going to be an amazing journey.
I wish it was starting tomorrow,
but we have to just do our due diligence.
It's going to take another several months
before we get going,
but it's exciting guys, it's really exciting.
And by the way, if you guys enjoyed this video
and you enjoyed the whole thing
about building the Reptarium and so on like that,
here's a playlist of us actually building the Reptarium.
Can you do me another favor?
On this side, you can hit that subscription button,
it would mean the world to me.
Have an absolutely wonderful day, Reptile Army.
Remember, be kind to someone,
and I promise I'll see you in the next one.