- Welcome to the vlog, everyone.
I hope that you're start of your day
is amazing, Reptile Army.
African mole snakes, absolutely incredible.
And I have an affinity
towards the things from Africa,
i.e, my entire arm of tattoos
that is dedicated to Africa.
Of course, my left arm is dedicated to Australia.
The fact is, is that
my time that I've spent in Africa
has been absolutely amazing
and all of their animals from black mambas
to you name it,
like the mole snakes
are just so absolutely incredible,
but there's one snake in particular
that I've always been super fond of.
It goes back to the time I was down in Durban
and I actually visited my friends over at
Ultimate Reptile Supply.
They actually showed me their collection
and there was this one species of snake
I was blown away by.
I had seen pictures of it
and I never was overly enamored by it
until I saw it in person.
And I was like, oh my gosh,
now that was years and years and years ago.
And ever since I've been trying
to actually add them to the collection,
but there's only one or two people
in the entire country
of America that's actually working with them.
And there's only a couple
that are being produced each and every year,
so there's none available.
So I was like, "Please. let me get it."
So my friends, my same friend that got me these
beautiful African mole snakes
actually hooked it up
and got a group of animals and believe it or not,
there's actually two species of animals
that I was on the hunt for that he just imported.
And they just came into the country
and he sent me them today. So what do you say we go over,
unbox these things.
Hopefully I won't have a heart attack
as I'm so excited about it,
but we're about to add a couple bangers for sure.
So here's those iconic African snakes
that I have been in love with.
Now, seriously, since that early trip,
when I went to South Africa
and saw them in a handful of collections,
I mean, I didn't even realize, I mean,
I heard about these snakes,
but man, I tell you what,
they are ridiculous.
Like no other snake I've ever seen
and honestly, they're very, very difficult to get,
there's only a handful of them
in the entire country.
And I think one or two people
have bred them in the country,
but they're like typically unavailable.
I mean, you can never ever find them
so my buddy from South Africa
that now lives in America
actually did me a favor
and hunted these down for me.
He said it was not easy
to talk this South African out of them
because the biggest thing is is that
they sell so well over there,
I mean, literally, they're one of the most
popular snakes when you have to produce them.
So basically what happens is that
they don't want to ship them over.
They're like, "Why would we sell them to you
and have to ask for
when we could just sell them here?"
It's much easier,
kind of like how I do with my snakes, right?
But the fact is is that
I cannot wait to show you
what these things look like.
They are ridiculous.
And here is one of them right here, oh my gosh.
They are so bizarre,
so weird,
so unusual.
These are what they call Cape file snakes.
Yep, that's right, Cape file snakes.
And they are like no other snake I've ever seen.
The heavily keeled scales.
I mean, like when you feel them,
it feels like you're like feeling
sandpaper or something like that.
Again, like no other snake
I've ever felt in my entire life.
There's actually something
that's called a dragon snake
and that's what they kind of remind me of
is a South African version of a dragon snake.
They're not like a constrictor
so they kind of just eat their prey life
in the wild,
to be totally honest, they eat snakes
as one of the primary diets.
They will eat some small invertebrates
like mice and so on like that.
In captivity,
they switch over to pinkies
and ultimately by super easy,
they typically have anywhere from six to 10 eggs,
they can double clutch
so they're a colubrid snake
and they are just so unusual.
I wish you guys could feel,
I wish we had "feelo" vision
because they feel so absolutely bizarre
and they look just like this as adults.
I mean, it's almost like a Cal king,
if you look at them from a distance,
it would look like a striped Cal king,
but the fact they have like a triangular mount,
it's just really bizarre.
And like I said, these really weird
keeled scales, unbelievable,
the first time I saw him, again,
I was blown away, I was like,
"What in the world? These things are so incredible."
And I always knew I wanted to get them,
but like I said, there's only a couple people
working with them in the entire country
so they're very hard to get.
And let's see, this is a little female here.
And we ended up getting three males
and two females so here's
another little male right here.
Unbelievable and again,
they almost look like they're always
in shed a little bit
because they're a little bit, like, cloudy looking.
They're interesting, just a weird, weird animal.
These guys, again, are kind of native
to South Africa, but they'll go up into, like,
Namibia and the Mozambique,
you know, those types of areas too,
but it's all that kind of South Eastern
part of the continent of Africa, unbelievable.
I am over the moon,
I'm telling you what, those years ago when I saw,
I never thought I would end up working with them.
I actually was begging my friends, like,
"Could you send me some," everyone's like,
"There's just never any available."
So the fact that we're able to
get these file snakes are absolutely ridiculous.
I am over the moon happy about them, so weird.
I can't wait until they get big enough to breed.
And again, hopefully we'll have some success so
it's cool, I mean, I know they're weird.
They are bizarre,
but these things are absolutely
one of the coolest snakes
that I work with to this point.
But guess what guys,
that's not all that came in the shipment.
And then the next ones, and these guys are big,
I thought they were babies to be honest with you,
but these actually have some size.
Now, I love house snakes, you guys know that,
I think house snakes are some of the most
underappreciated snakes in the pet trade
to be totally honest with you,
but these ones are incredible.
These are what they call Aurora house snakes.
And again, these are endemic to South Africa,
found a lot of places in South Africa,
not so much on the Cape,
but pretty much a lot of the other areas.
And they've got this greenish look to them,
they've got the orange stripe down
and they've got the weird
eyes kind of towards the top of their head.
Just a very interesting house snake,
now house snakes are extremely polymorphic
depending on the locality.
There's a bunch of different subspecies,
there's a bunch of color morphs
of the normal brown house snakes,
which are really, really cool.
Of course, there's the black house snake,
I mean, it goes on and on,
but my favorites have always been
the Aurora house snakes.
But again, not too many people work with
the Auroras in the country.
A lot of other house snakes are being worked with,
but not the Aurora.
So we ended up getting
three pair of these guys too
and I am over the moon happy about that as well.
I mean, I got the file snakes,
now I got the Aurora house snakes.
I mean, look at how cool that snake is.
I mean, I, you know, Lori wasn't as happy as I am.
I'm not going to lie to you,
but I am super happy about this.
And again, they're way bigger
than I expected them to be.
House snakes are born really, really small
so these are definitely yearlings
and here's another one just like it
and they're all pretty similar.
I mean, there's a little bit of polymorphism with them,
with the greens being a little brighter,
a little bit darker, stuff like that.
But the fact is they all look pretty similar
and I cannot wait to eventually
produce these guys too.
Again, the file snakes and the house snakes,
probably still a year and a half away from it,
I could potentially breed them,
but we just added a couple bangers
to the colony, I'm excited.
And some of these definitely will be on display
at the Reptarium in the future too
'cause it's just so cool.
I mean, I think people will
love the Aurora house snakes
here at the Reptarium
and then the file sakes, like I said,
when you feel them,
texturally, they are like no other stakes.
So they're definitely going to be
really good animal ambassadors as well.
I don't know guys, I'm jacked about this one.
Hoo, again, there's something so interesting
about African snakes.
This is another really weird one here.
This is the African egg-eating snake,
Daisy (indistinct)
and look at this cheeky little monkey
striking, striking, striking,
it's okay, little monkey,
and look at how they'll move like this.
So actually go like that
and it's almost like a saw-scaled viper,
very interesting animals.
And again, the same friend of mine got me these ones,
which were kind of a dream animal.
Now, these are much more common,
they come into the country,
but captive born ones
don't come in as often because they're born
super small and are a little hard to keep alive.
These are actually captive ones.
So they're kind of on the rare side,
but this little monkey is so funny.
It's absolutely incredible.
There's just something magical about
African snakes and there's something magical
about the continent of Africa.
There's a saying that says, once --
look at this, look at this, unbelievable.
There's a saying that says,
"Once your boot has touched the ground
in the continent of Africa,
you can never get the dust off,"
and I'm here to attest to that.
There's something special about it,
once you've gone,
you just want to keep going back
because it's so amazing.
I can't wait until I can
finally travel over there again,
but look at the movement in that snake.
Absolutely wonderful.
Reptile Army, guys,
until Christmas, I've been mentioning,
if you go to reptilearmy.com, you buy any merch,
you're going to get a personal video thank you
from me until Christmas so
anything you buy at reptilearmy.com,
a personal video shout out from me to you.
I appreciate you guys so much.
Join the army, got some really good Christmas stuff,
we'll have some new drops
coming here in the next month.
- [Brian] Guess what?
I got some presents.
Did you see these?
- I did look at the box, yes, I did.
- [Brian] You looked at the box?
- Yeah, they were set right there.
- [Brian] Well, take one out.
Take that out, that's the file snake.
- [Lori] Do they bite?
- [Brian] No, they don't bite at all,
but they just feel weird.
They're, like, real bumpy and they're just cool.
They're like no other snake
we've ever worked with before.
- They are very weird.
- [Brian] Isn't it bizarre?
- Yeah, it's almost like a emery board.
- [Brian] Exactly, yeah.
Yeah, they're cool, they look like those --
- Why do they call it a file snake?
- [Brian] I don't, I guess maybe cause if you,
you could use it as a file.
You could file things down.
It's almost looks like those dragons snakes, right?
- So are these the actual color
or are these anerythristic?
- [Brian] No, these are the actual color
that they come from, yeah, just like that.
- 'Cause at first, honestly, I thought
these were the same this was just like --
- [Brian] No, those are the Auroras,
those are the Aurora house snakes.
Those are cool too, right?
I know you're weird on the house snakes thing,
but those are cool, aren't they?
- They don't look like a house snake.
- [Brian] Right, that's why --
- So are they technically really a house snake?
- [Brian] No, they're house snakes, yeah.
Same thing.
- Why do they look so different?
- I don't know,
'cause they're just a locality, I guess.
But they're cool, huh?
You like them?
- What kind of family are these in?
- [Brian] They're colubrid,
they're like in their own thing,
like, they're not related to anything else, no.
But yeah, it's interesting, cool.
Well, she doesn't seem to hate them
so that's a good sign.
- [Brian] I think they're aware.
So, okay, so --
- It's not a good sign.
(laughing)
- [Brian] So anyway, so do me a favor,
get those set up for me, all right?
- Yeah, whatever.
- Just a little reminder,
if you're traveling during the holiday season
and you want something to do,
maybe you're up in the Michigan area,
you wanna come to the Michigan area,
in between Christmas and New Year,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
we're going to be open cause (indistinct)
we're going to be closed
on Christmas and New Year's on the weekend.
So we're going to actually be open
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
the week between Christmas and New Year
so I'll go ahead and put
a link in the description to reptarium.com
and you can book your tickets
if you want to join us here in this kind of
special event during the week.
So our first basic week of breeding
is done with the ball python
so today I actually have to remove all the males
to get some feeding in, right?
So obviously you got to get the males back in their cage,
give them a couple of days off, give them some food,
give them some time to rest and breed again.
Went really well,
I would say about 50% of the males
locked up with at least one female this week.
Some locked up with a couple of females
so for the first week,
I'd say it's pretty successful.
Again, it's a long process
so we're talking about
months and months and months going on.
Probably ultrasound here in another
three weeks or something on that lines,
but for now I have to literally
take out all of these males
and you got to remember
that every time a male copulates,
that's kind of really encouraging females
to produce follicle growth.
So it's kind of a dual edge thing, right?
Males copulate, females grow follicles
causing males to wanna copulate more
and so on like that.
So, you know, basically this first breeding
is really more about just getting the females
going to be honest with you.
It's not really as much about
the actual production side.
So I got to get all these males pulled out,
we'll feed these girls here, give them a couple of days off
and then start the process all over again.
(upbeat music)
And again, it's all about that organization,
I mean, the fact that we organized properly
made it really easy.
Only took me about 20 minutes to get males back in,
whereas if I didn't to reorganize them,
it might take me two hours so
first week down,
many more weeks to go until we get eggs.
24 hours since I did the cement in Brillo's cage,
it just kinda came back
and actually turned out really well.
It's really, as they would say,
hard as a rock over here.
And that's where he was really digging
basically all around. What I'm going to do is
basically come back just with a little cement
and do a little bit of a touch up.
You know, it turns out to look okay
when there's bedding in here,
it's going to look pretty decent.
I think it's kind of blended relatively well,
I don't think anyone's going to look at it and go,
"Oh that looks like crap,"
but, so I was really nervous about it,
but it ended up turning out pretty good.
So we're just going to do a little bit of touch up here
just for whatever,
let that dry for another 24 hours
and then Brillo can go back in his enclosure
so that, so we have him not burrowing out.
I tell you what,
you know, it's all a learning experience, right?
Every time we get a new animal,
like we got Drogo, now we've got Brillo.
It's a learning experience,
we have to learn what to do and trust me,
we learned the hard way when he tore
this enclosure apart so
I think everything turned out better than expected,
I was a little down on myself,
so definitely worked out well.
So I'm going to do just a little touch up here
and he's going to be ready
to go back in his enclosure tomorrow.
(upbeat music)
Cape file snakes, Aurora house snakes,
I mean, I tell you that is a good day.
I hope that you enjoyed it
'cause I certainly did.
If you did enjoy unboxing, for instance,
there's an entire playlist of unboxing,
I seem to unbox a lot lately,
there's no doubt about that,
but you do me one favor,
can you hit that subscription button?
Turn your post notification,
I guess that's two favors, regardless,
have an absolutely wonderful day, Reptile Army.
Remember, be kind to someone and I promise,
I'll see you in the next one.