- 30 years of handling animals.
And today I'm putting it all to the test,
handling my most insane snakes.
And I'm not just teaching you guys, I'm teaching the boys.
And if I can pull this off, later in the video,
they're gonna go head to head with Titan.
(boys scream)
- That was really close!
- It's a really interesting snake.
First thing you have to do is obviously recognize
the fact that he's in that classic S.
And he's like, don't muck with me.
This is a reticulated python.
I've gotta try to get around him without him biting me.
Whoa, now, whoa.
You always have to make sure
that you're not within striking distance.
Now, I know he's got a pretty good strike.
But now you see how his body kind of
flattening out this way?
That means he can't spring towards me that far.
So I can get like this.
See how he only struck just a little bit?
Now he's got the S to where he's really far apart.
I'm wearing him out a little bit too, right?
As he wears out, he's gonna strike a little bit less.
Woo, that's a lot of snake right there.
So what I wanna do now is slowly pick him up.
Whoa, there you go, bud, ah!
See how quick this guy is?
He'll turn on you in a dime.
You have to be really, really careful.
Now he's just kind of running.
That's gonna wear him out a little bit.
Whoa!
Okay, you guys getting this?
I'm staying away from the poky end.
Whoa, okay.
Whoa, uh-oh, now he's wrapping around me.
That is not what I want.
I don't want him to anchor on me.
He's starting to wear down now.
There he is, there he is.
That's how you handle a pretty defensive snake like Titan.
Before I handle my next snake,
I'm gonna have the boys start a little slow.
- Let her go right here.
- I can't, she has me. - Mike, let her go.
How are we supposed to handle animals
if you can't even handle an animal?
- [Brian] You always wanna start slow
with an animal that's not gonna give you a hard time.
It's all about reading space.
- You hear that? - I do.
Who was that, God?
- Reading animal?
- Is that brail? - Feel it.
- [Brian] It helps you build that confidence
to handle something a little bit more gnarly.
- Gnarly? - Gnarly?
- She's not gnarly.
- Hello? - Where'd you go?
- Why'd he stop talking after gnarly?
- Jimmy is a Chinese beauty snake.
But his attitude is far from beautiful.
You can see as soon as you get your hand close,
he's gonna bite.
And you notice my technique here,
'cause I'm just trying to do
everything I could do to keep him away from my hand.
'Cause if he gets close to my hand or my arm,
he's gonna absolutely bite me!
You can go up in the air,
they feel a little bit more comfortable.
When I come down, he's feeling a little bit more like...
Oh, he got me, I couldn't get my hand away quick enough.
And that's the thing.
You just have to read what they're doing.
Okay, okay, okay, Jimmy, that's all right.
He's a lovely snake, though.
Absolutely an incredibly beautiful animal.
Biting himself now, this snake is just absolutely crazy.
Most beauty snakes aren't that bad.
For some reason, this guy just has
an attitude that is something else.
Got me one time,
and I've been pretty much winning the battle ever since.
I'll even do stuff like,
if he's coming at me say this way,
I'll spin this way, and see how he goes away from me?
That spin move is a great move
to get snakes to move in a different direction.
But he is still just fired up.
Jimmy is always a great snake as a training mechanism
for maybe elapids or something like that that is venomous.
'Cause he moves very similar to an elapid.
And if you can avoid getting bit by this,
you can avoid getting bit by a venomous snake.
Not that I ever expect you to handle a venomous snake.
And I'd leave that to the professional.
Even with 30 something years of experience,
I still got a bite.
And if this was a venomous snake, I'd be in trouble.
But look at him puffing his neck up, and ooh, coming at me.
That's one cool snake.
- What are we gonna do?
Your Dad's been the professional
for 30 years of experience and he just got lit up by Jimmy.
- He's already bleeding.
- It's only the second snake.
- And it was this big.
- We're doomed.
- All right boys, one step closer
to you guys handling Titan.
- We're gonna move up to Night Fury.
- Titan? - I thought you said Tyson.
- [Noah] Hey buddy, what's he doing?
- He's looking at Jay's heat signature.
Part of that reading the snakes body language.
- You don't know what you're talking about.
- What are you talking about?
I just don't believe you.
- Well, Night Fury is male retic.
Every time you open the cage, he thinks he's gonna get food.
- That was very a nice way of saying that.
Oh!
- So if you read his body language and tell him.
- [Brian] He's definitely a little bit touchy.
But the good news is, typically, he's not a biter.
- What's this guy saying?
- I'm saying that now-
- Not you, God.
- Oh, is he talking?
- [Brian] So this is a great way
to start to hone your skills,
getting ready for an animal like Titan.
- He stopped.
- Why does he keep doing that?
Just hello?
Well, once you get him out, generally pretty good.
- And once the food response is over,
you can tickle him right on his little chinny-chin-chin.
'Cause he loves it.
- Just jeep an eye on the head.
You know, it's all about reading the body language.
- What was that?
Mike, help, Mike- - Sit still.
- Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.
No, why is it?
Did you do this on purpose, Mike?
God, Mike, you could have just asked.
- Didn't plan that, I swear.
- That's what they always say.
- [Brian] That was kinda messed up, Mike.
- I didn't do it on purpose!
- Next up, of course, is my boy Lucky, the Amazon tree ball.
He's not in the best spot right here.
The last thing you ever wanna do
is go in face first like that.
You go in face first, you're getting bit.
See how it's gonna turn around for a second?
Oh, ooh!
I'm gonna have to do is probably get it to strike once,
and that's how I'm gonna
get around potentially getting bitten by it.
Whoa, now it's turned, now I can get it, see.
You go from the backside, it's okay.
And some species are just more defensive than others.
Certainly, Amazon tree balls are one of those species.
And it's very visual.
So you can see it's kinda going after the camera.
It's going after my hand.
As long as I can keep it kinda in that direction,
it's not coming after my face, and that's completely fine.
Just because Amazon tree balls are known
for being a little bit more defensive,
doesn't mean you can't get a tame one.
I'm sure they're out there.
But the majority of 'em are pretty cantankerous.
Like this little dude right here and again...
Whoa, see, I also know how far he can strike.
So if I get close enough right here,
where I know that he can't strike as far as my hand,
I know I'm not gonna get bit.
Titan could spring a long way.
This one only has about a third of the body strike.
So as long as I can keep myself going this,
I don't have to worry about getting bitten.
Certainly 'cause it's a tree ball, keep it up in the air.
This is an animal that is really about reading
and making sure you don't get bitten.
Now, getting him off my hands, that's another story.
Come on, Lucky, let me see if we could get you back in here.
In he goes, oh, he's still striking!
He's still like, I wanna get a piece of you.
But there he goes, he's just gonna climb up in here.
I think that went pretty well.
- Did you get bit?
- Nope. - Ah!
- Now guys, I wanna continue to tell ya,
you don't have to get a snake that's gonna be defensive,
that's gonna strike.
You don't have to get a giant snake.
You can get super tame snakes.
I mean, ball pythons, corn snakes, milk snakes.
So many snakes, and even reticulated pythons
are typically really docile.
So I want you guys to understand
that the vast majority of snakes
are absolutely incredible pets.
Speaking of pets, if you're looking for a snake,
the BHB Black Friday sale is coming up this Black Friday.
Everything on the site is gonna be on sale.
So BHBreptiles.com.
And then you've got my girl Lucy, of course.
And I've been working with Lucy for a long, long time.
So I understand a lot of the ways
that she goes about things.
And you can see she's kinda looking at me right now.
If you get too close, I'm gonna probably strike at ya.
Now, she could strike six or eight feet.
But she typically doesn't strike very far.
Whoa, and that's what I'm talking about.
She's gonna strike at me once, right?
The bad news is, is that I'm kind of in a bad spot
'cause I'm stuck in a corner, I can't get around.
To get out of the cage, I have to go right in front of her.
Something I don't wanna have to do.
Hopefully, I can get her to a point
where she's not gonna continue to strike.
I wanna get to that midsection right there.
And I want her head to go the other way.
So I kind of have no choice
but to entice her to strike one more time.
I know this animal, she wants to strike at me so bad.
Whoa, yeah, one last strike.
Now I can try to get over here.
She's got her mouth open.
But I know she's not gonna bite me this way.
Whoa, wait a second, whoa, whoa.
Okay, okay, whoa, whoa!
See that mouth open right there?
She's ready to go.
Come on Lucy, just go the other way, girl.
Go the other way, go the other way.
Gotta get on this side, still striking like crazy.
All right, now she's gone.
And now I know exactly what's going on.
You gotta remember, I've had this girl
for 11 and a half, almost 12 years.
Woo, taking me for a little ride
'cause she is one strong 20 foot plus snake.
Again, it's all about reading the animals,
knowing what's going on.
I know what she's gonna do.
I know how far she's gonna strike, and I know that I'm okay.
I'm not putting myself in danger.
But still, that heart rate gets up every single time.
All right, we're moving one step closer to Titan
with Pongo, the other cow articulated Python.
Now, we hope that this will eventually
get over to the Reptarium and be an education animal.
- Ooh, ooh!
- But it definitely likes to buck.
It has never bit anyone yet. - Yet?
- Yeah, what do you mean yet? - What do you mean yet?
- I've never really handled-
- Whoa, this thing is powered by
the lightning bolts of Thor.
- I've never really messed with this one yet.
I'm being completely honest, I don't know it that well.
- Oh, oh! - You know?
Ah, that's my face.
- Mike, you're doing it again!
Mike! - You're doing it.
- No, no, no, no, I'm not, dude, get me outta here.
God, what is wrong with him?
- There's something going on today.
- [Brian] Seriously, Mike, you need to stop that.
Pongo is definitely a whippy snake.
But once they're done handling this one,
they are definitely one step closer to handling Titan.
- Whoa, whippy? - Whippy?
- Yeah, whippy's an understatement.
- He's so strong!
- Was that?
- Uh-oh, no bueno. (speaks Spanish)
- What the heck are they doing?
- Our pumpkins, man.
Oh my goodness, Mike, yours is terrifying!
They ruined it, the squirrels!
- They took my teeth!
- Oh, they were gonna fall out anyway.
- They hadn't.
Yours is completely destroyed.
- Yeah.
- Look, they took Connie's top.
- This sucks!
- This may be the most difficult snake
I have to handle today, so guess what?
I've got an assistant to help out.
I just want you to handle the snake.
- No, why am I gonna handle that snake?
What's in it for me?
- Glory. - What?
- I Mean, maybe I'll buy you dinner.
So you can see, she's going from the backside
where it can't do, whoa, oh!
But this thing's a springy little dude.
There's no doubt about that.
Look at that, Lori did it.
(Lori and Brian laugh)
Oh!
Okay, oh, geez oh peas.
Crazy, I don't even know how
you got it up without getting bit.
So the idea is obviously most snakes will strike forward.
These guys will strike backwards, sideways.
So you always wanna go from the back end like that
and hope that it won't strike at you.
Ah, it got it me, it got me.
Here you go, Lori, you take it back now.
- [Lori] Nope, uh-uh.
- This guy is crazy!
It's time!
You ready?
- Oh, it's your voice.
His head right there.
- You got this, right, Mike?
- Wait, why do you have a hook?
Oh!
Push his head this way.
Pull him up like this.
Pull him out like so, without getting bit,
something like this.
Got the tail part. - Don't let him anchor!
- Spin around.
Don't need that hook, 'cause hooks are for babies.
- Oh! - Spin, spin.
Okay, not my ankle, not my ankle.
- [Noah] Don't let him anchor, Mike.
- [Mike] What are you doing?
- I'm just supervising.
- [Mike] How do you do this Mr. Brian?
Oh! - Oh!
Oh my goodness, that was really close!
- My quads are on fire.
Shouldn't have ran.
- Whoa, oh my goodness, Mike, you almost-
- Two, three, okay, I'm good.
- So now, how you guys gonna get him?
- I already had him, it's his turn.
- All right, Mike, so this is what you're gonna do.
- No, this is what you're gonna do.
- I already got him. - No!
- Watch the footage back.
- If you post his head over mine, I'm gonna be upset.
Hooks are for babies.
Whoa!
Why wouldn't you love Titan?
- There you go, Mike, you got him, Mike!
- All right, go for it, Noah. - Okay, I touched him!
- Go for it. - Go around.
Go to the box, go to the box!
- Seems like the boys are definitely figuring this out.
Speaking of out.
Hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
If you did, there's a playlist
that you can watch all kinds of videos.
You can also hit that subscription button.
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Have a wonderful day, Reptile Army.
Remember, be kind to someone.
And I promise, I'll see you in the next one.
So the next thing you should do is tickle the snake.
- [Mike] Tickle, tickle, tickle.
Wait, why am I tickling the-