(intense beat music)
- Look at this girl here.
This is actually a Pink-eyed Leucistic Texas Rat
about to lay.
Oh, and by the way, welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is absolutely incredible.
You know, we don't have any Colubrid clutches today.
I was just goin through
and looking at all these amazing animals,
like this Albino Nelson's Milk Snake,
that is in her lay box right now but there's no eggs.
There's also no Ball Python eggs
but as you can see we have a lot of Colubrid eggs
and these ones are about due to hatch here.
We're gonna have a lot of babies.
Geckos are still coming fast and furious but you know,
we're kinda getting to the end of the breeding season
in the sense of egg production.
You know we got maybe about 30 or 40 Colubrid clutches left.
For second clutches,
we probably have about 40 Ball Python clutches,
a few other things and stuff like that.
'Course Rainbow Boas are just coming up but you know,
I thought today,
not only as I'm taking you through this of the day,
I would talk a little bit about the philosophy
of how I run this business
because you see me getting all these eggs but the truth is,
often times we're not pulling eggs like this
Mexican Black King that's gonna be laying here
in the next week.
I'm already thinking about next year
because it's important not to just think about this year.
Any one can have a great breeding season,
if you're breeding snakes or reptiles
or any animal for that matter.
But when you can string 30 breeding seasons together
now that is what makes a successful business.
Well as you can see, Lucy definitely destroyed her cage
and she's sittin' in a good spot right now.
My prediction is that she's gonna be in a good mood today
and not strick at all and she's gonna be a sweetheart.
Jay on the other hand thinks that I'm crazy so,
we'll see who's right
but she's definitely not in the best spot
if she isn't in a good mood.
But I think she's gonna be in a good mood
so what do you say we just give it a shot
and see what happens.
Are ya okay baby?
Oh yeah, she's in a good mood.
You're in a good mood, right baby?
You're okay.
You're all right sweetheart, we're good.
Oh yeah, my baby's in a good mood today.
Look at her.
I told you Jay.
She's in a great mood.
This is the best mood she's been in in months.
Here, jump in.
Just go ahead, just grab her.
- Oh my god. Oh my god.
- So heavy isn't it?
(laughter)
- Isn't she great? - Oh my god.
This is lunacy.
- Look at how good she is right.
I mean she is...
- The best she's ever been.
- She is in a great mood.
Oh no, she's so sweet right now.
(laughter)
- That was, I like that too so far.
- You like it?
Yup, the spaghetti fork move.
Okay.
All right, you guys ready to get her in?
She is...
- [Females Wearing Sandals] I'm getting peed on by Lucy.
- She's not getting peed...
(laughter)
- [Females Wearing Sandals] Yeah.
(laughter)
- [Female Wearing Black Capris] It's not my favorite snake.
- [Leaf Print Shorts] I'm so strong.
Damn she's strong.
- [Video Host] There you go girl.
There you go girl.
I'll tell you what, that was absolutely the easiest
that's it's ever been with Lucy, right?
She was in such a good mood.
I love having my Lucy back to her old self.
Don't get me wrong,
I like to have her a little bit cantankerous every now
and then 'cause it's a little bit of a challenge
but she's...
Today she was a puppy dog.
I think you coulda kissed her on the face today.
- I was gonna do it. - You should. - I almost did it.
- I was definitely tempted to that's for sure,
like aren't you being so sweet.
- But now the work really begins.
Did you see this cage over here?
- [Leaf Print Shorts] Yeah I gotta get headin' back over.
- Super excited to have Sowen here from,
you said from Alabama right?
- Alabama, Montgomery Alabama.
- That's awesome.
Well it's so amazing to have you up,
I mean I can't thank you come... - Thank you for having me.
- No I tell ya, her excitement level was uh...
it made my day.
It literally made my day, so thank you so much...
- I was so happy. - [Video Host] I appreciate it.
We've got a lot of stuff to see,
we're gonna have a good time all right?
- Yes, I'm so excited.
Thank you so much.
- [Video Host] Great.
(Intense Beat Music)
So Eric you said we have a clutch of Colubrids.
- Yeah a couple today.
- [Video Host] A couple, wait a second what?
- Yeah I know kinda surprise clutches.
So I went in there
and I'm like whoa man I didn't put that many mice in there.
- [Video Host] Oh my god.
The first one here... so there's no box in here.
- No box in here. - [Video Host] What going on with that?
You're not doing your job very well. - Well what kinda box?
I know listen, I'm trying.
I'm really trying okay.
We had a box in there for like couple weeks,
never went, never went, never went.
I don't know if she's just a little obese or something
and bam, there she goes.
- [Video Host] So now I've got clutches?
You can she they're a little bit desiccated or dented.
That means we'll pull that clutch right now
get 'em on some vermiculite.
We'll probably put some damp moss on 'em
just to pop 'em out.
They should be completely fine but that happens you know.
Sometimes you just think like you said,
nice and big and fat, they didn't lay
so we didn't think she was gonna go and hey,
a surprise clutch day.
You said we have another one? - I like that.
Right down here.
- Oh you're kidding. - I think it's an Albino Nelson's .
Look at that, right on the money.
- [Video Host] Oh my gosh, the same thing.
Gotta start putting nest boxes in...
- I know I just, I messed them up man.
- Okay well there we go.
- All right well we got two clutches to pull.
Let's get these in.
These one are a little bit more desiccated
so we're definitely gonna have to get some
emergency moisture into them to pop up
but I think we're still gonna be okay.
Again, that's why it's so important to go through
every snake every day because sometimes you miss a box
and you get a clutch on the bedding.
Let's go ahead and see what she's got actually going on.
She's a really beautiful snake.
Again, I'm just gonna pull these eggs aside here real quick
just to see what is happening.
All these eggs look really good.
There's a couple sluggers back there
but for the most part these guys look like a good clutch.
Again, just a little desiccated
'cause she didn't have a nest box
so of course there's no moisture in here.
I just wanna make sure she's done laying.
That's okay.
Momma, what in the heck is wrong with you?
It's okay.
Tell you what, she's definitely upset
so I'm gonna get these guys in an egg box as quick as I can.
Momma's it's... oh my gosh is she fired up.
Corn snakes usually aren't that bad
but she is definitely some... Owe, gesh.
What are you thinking you silly monkey?
Just trying to get you eggs so that they're okay.
And you can see,
I sprung a little bit of leak on my hand right there.
It's all right Momma.
You're gonna be okay.
We'll get these eggs in here and again,
I'll kinda show you what I'm gonna do here.
Once I get 'em up here, I'm just gonna go ahead.
First off I'm gonna count all 'em.
See we've got two, four, six, eight, ten, eleven good eggs.
And then what I'm gonna do after I'm done counting them is
I'll just take some of this damp sphagnum right here
and just put it over the top like that.
The eggs are gonna actually absorb the moisture
and then they'll pop back out
and they should be complete fine.
Let's pull that Albino Nelson's clutch as well.
Onto that Albino's Nelson's clutch and again,
these guys are laid really nice here in the corner.
Should be pretty good.
We'll just pull 'em over here, make sure they're all right.
Momma looks really good so that's good.
We'll get these guys in an egg box.
Again, because these are a little bit more desiccated,
we're gonna put a little bit more moisture on 'em
to be honest with you
just because they definitely need to pop out a lot.
So I'm gonna bury 'em a little bit more in the bedding,
kinda put 'em around, that's gonna help
and then just like the other clutch,
I'm gonna just take a little bit of damp sphagnum like this.
I'm just gonna put it right on top of these eggs like this
and they should pop out just fine.
We'll keep and eye on these over the next four or five days
just kinda continuously with the add water, we add water.
If we have to reduce and make a little drier
so they don't over wet we'll do that
but that's just egg management.
That's something that we do every single year
but all in all,
we didn't think we had any Colubrid clutches,
it turns out we had two today.
Getting back to kinda thinking about next year,
take a look at this Scaleless Texas Rat Snake right here.
She's actually laid her second clutch already
and you can see she really looks good as far as
body weight goes
and that's something that I'm always kinda aware of.
You know you remember when I'm pulling clutches
I'm saying like, I'm checking the females out,
looking how she is because I've gotta start thinking ahead.
You know, it's really easy
to kinda be excited about eggs this year
and not think about next year.
The last thing you wanna do
is take an animal that shouldn't have a second clutch
and breed it.
This particular Albino Nelson's here
laid one clutch of eggs about three weeks ago
and we decided not to rebreed her
because we just thought she was a little bit thin.
And if she put that kinda energy into a second clutch
she'd probably be no good next year.
So I thought to myself,
let's give her the rest of the year off,
put a bunch of food into her and then next year,
maybe she'll give me two clutches.
So it's about stringing multiple years together.
This Brooks King's here is another perfect example of that.
She was a first year female plenty of body weight.
She laid a beautiful first clutch
and we decided not to breed her the second time.
Again because she was a first year animal,
I knew I could put some size on her
and she looks absolutely gorgeous right now
and next year she is gonna be in great shape.
So again, I do the same thing with all my animals,
Leopard Geckos, Pythons, Boas, Colubrids,
everything like that.
I'm always thinking ahead you know,
don't just think about this year
because I've seen so many people that breed reptiles
have an amazing year one year
and then have a complete flop year the next year.
So trying to always be proactive
thinking about the following year
is what's really gonna continue the success
year after year after year.
So now the works begins.
Lucy definitely destroyed her cage tremendously.
We're gonna do a complete breakdown of her entire cage,
ripping out the whole cage, take all the bedding out,
disinfect everything, put new bedding in,
obviously clean her water up and stuff like that.
But it's something that we wanna do everyone once in while
anyways so it's a good opportunity, she was in a good mood.
Let's just go ahead and I'm telling you what,
if you guys had Smellovision right now,
that is something else
but I will say that someone did send me this strainer
which is absolutely fantastic for getting' all the heavy
stuff out before we drain it so all right,
we have our work cut out for us.
Let's get started.
(intense beat music)
Earlier I am came down to just kinda check out,
to spend a little time with RJ
and he came jumping up like he wanted to eat so,
I have a feeling for the first time
he may actually want to feed from me.
Let's see where he's at here.
Arg?
Oh yeah, I think he is.
It's been a year since he's eaten for me so,
I'm pretty excited about this.
Let's see what we can do.
All right, the moment of truth.
Arg, you ready?
Oh yeah, he's ready.
Here ya go bud.
There ya go buddy.
There is it.
Oh my gosh, RJ ate for me again.
I cannot believe it.
After a year of him saying Dad,
I don't wanna eat in front of you,
he is finally eatin' for me.
You wanna eat again bud?
You wanna eat again?
Oh yeah, look it. He's ready.
Come on monkey.
Hungry?
There we go.
There we go buddy.
Oh my gosh, that is so awesome.
I love it.
It's been so long since I've fed him that it's exhilarating.
It's almost like the first time I've fed him ever.
Look at that guy crunch over there.
Oh my gosh, I love it.
And I love when alligators do that little 'u'
where their tail is kinda up in the air.
Oh my god, that is so frickin' awesome.
So for whatever reason,
he didn't wanna eat from me for a year
and now he's back on food for me.
Now we can start some of our training again
that I had to kinda abandon
because he wouldn't let me feed him.
So we'll just keep on trying.
Maybe we'll feed him one or two more rats, huh?
Wanna try again?
Try again?
Here Arg.
Come on bud.
Come on.
Come on up.
Up buddy.
There it is bud.
Good job.
Woo doggy, that is awesome.
So Lauri, what are all these pillows all about?
- Well it's actually something I'm super excited about.
Is a new event we are going to have at the Reptarium.
It is called Reading to Reptiles.
- Is this that one where kids like read to the reptiles?
- Yes exactly, the kids bring a book in,
they get to sit right in front of the cage
of the animal they choose and they can read them a story.
- I'm not...
I'm don't know that I'm that convinced
that this is gonna work.
You think it's gonna be good.
- Okay well obviously you're not a reader and...
- No, I've really never read anything.
There's Audible.
- I am a...
- [Video Host] That's why I have Audible.
(laughter)
- True. Good.
Nice.
I am an avid reader and I loved reading with my kids
and I think this is a great idea because it gives them...
I lot of kids are like nnn don't wanna read to Mom and Dad
but on the other hand they love animals.
And so they will actually sit and do it
and I've seen different ones where they do it with like dogs
or cats and different stuff like that.
- All right so basically the kid can put the animal
and pick the book to reach and then the pillows are to sit
and read in front of it.
- Yeah, this so they don't have to sit on the hard floor.
They can sit on the pillow
and they take turns reading to the reptiles.
- Let me know if you guys think this is a good thing.
I mean, I'm on the fence.
I mean, I'm gonna go with it
but I don't know if it's gonna be any you know.
So let me know in the comments what you guys...
Would you read to a reptile or is Lauri crazy?
- Yeah I guarantee you, all of the Moms out there
with younger kids are gonna be like oh my god,
this is such an amazing idea and if I'm anywhere close,
I'm gonna bring my kids to do it.
Because I talked to several moms at the Reptarium
and that's how the idea came to be.
- Okay we'll see how this goes.
Let me know in the comments what you guys think.
So we just shot a really fun video over on Noah's channel
where we took Jay of course from New Jersey down in Florida.
- Don't say that too loud. - Yeah I won't say that too loud.
We took him around and did a bunch of Michigan tasting.
We ended with this which is a pasty which is a you know,
some sort of meat pie.
We got Faygo, stuff like that so,
I'll put a link in the description over on Noah's channel
if you'd like to check that out and I'm wondering,
I mean what's really unique to your area.
Let me know in the comments.
We have... Again we have Faygo's soda,
we have Vernors, we have all kinds of stuff.
The meat pies, we have to try pizza,
all kinds of different stuff
So we tried a bunch of stuff.
Let me know in the comments what's unique to your area
and what maybe I'll try if I ever come to your visit area.
And definitely check out Noah's video
because it was pretty awesome.
As I'm kinda wrapping things up here,
I'm gonna wrap my thoughts up when it comes to
kinda thinking ahead because again,
I just think it's important
and I never wanna preach to you guys,
I just always wanna kinda inspire you to realize
if you wanna run a business, whatever the business is,
you gotta be forward thinking.
Don't just think about today but think of tomorrow
and often times when you're breeding reptiles in particular,
you gotta be thinking three or four years ahead
Because you're gonna be like hey,
what animals do I wanna raise up
so that they're ready to breed.
So you can kind of predict what's maybe gonna be popular
or something like that.
And the other thing I wanted to tell you guys real quick
is that,
I'm trying to continue to kind of lift the veil right,
so that you guys can see what we're doing here.
Not just like hey, I'm just showing you an animal
and then the next vlog I'm showing you a different animal
but kinda make it to where you guys understand
the whole process of what we're doing here
and show you guys again the crew and Lauri
and all that stuff.
Let me know if this is working and if you like the idea.
That's kinda my vision for the future of the vlog,
is to make not only
and hey we're gonna show you a bunch of cool stuff
but we're also gonna take you on the journey of all aspects.
Not just my view but everyone around...
I wanna make sure you guys like that.
Let me know down in the comments.
As for now have a wonderful day.
I love you guys so much.
Be kind to someone and I promise I will see you tomorrow.
(intense beat music)