- Hey, good morning everybody, and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is absolutely incredible.
Of course, we are going to be checking
for a bunch of eggs today,
as well as the python eggs and stuff like that.
But first I want to head over to The Reptarium.
(upbeat music)
And obviously, you know there's animals at The Reptarium,
so you never know what you're going to get, right.
I mean, you know, there's a million things.
We all know that there's been times
where I've left cages open and stuff like that.
So, that's one of the first things I do
is make sure all the cages, the animals are in there.
Of course, Ivy is chilling out in the back.
I mean, it's so bizarre to see that.
I don't know what she's doing.
She seems to stay away from the water.
Fish are looking good.
And I literally do this every single morning,
where I just walked through,
look in every single cage,
just see, you know, number one,
make sure the animals are fine,
you know, is there a shed,
is there something in the water?
And I start to just kind of mentally tag
as well as making some notes
for Bruce and Jessica and Andrew and stuff like that.
And just kind of really do that first visual appeal.
And I've mentioned before,
it's not just visual,
it's also some times the smell, right.
You come in,
if things smell right,
which they do today,
you know that's a good thing.
If you smell, you know, maybe you left a rodent in
or whatever the case may be.
So, the first thing I do every single day
is just do that visual and mental surveillance
of the entire place,
make sure all the animals are good.
And hey, I'll be totally honest with you,
it's cool, you know,
I love coming in and being here alone
and seeing the animals
and just kind of looking around and seeing everything.
Look at, we've got Kiwi out over here,
I'm sure Mango is hanging out somewhere.
Ben and Jerry are looking amazing.
So again,
I'll just do my kind of walk around,
see what's going on here
and if anything's up we'll address it,
if not, we'll go back and look for some eggs.
Like I mentioned the other day,
my guy Nova here, of course, is just hanging out.
Hey buddy, what are you doing silly?
What are you doing honey?
He's the course doing well.
But Lilith is actually a little bit down too.
She's loaded up with eggs.
Well, I'm not going to make the mistake this time
that we made last time,
where we lost that clutch of eggs
because I don't know if Nola
is gonna be a bad boy again
or what's going to happen.
So, we're going to go ahead
and get a nest box in with her, right now.
She's probably not due to lay for another week or so.
Although I think it is unusual
that she's way down over here,
so maybe she is looking for something, I don't know.
Regardless it's going to make up a nest box next door
and bring it back over here
and make sure we get a good clutch of eggs from these guys.
So, I think this box is going to be perfect.
And what I want to do
is put some reptile prime coconut bedding,
probably like halfway down.
I want her to be able to dig and feel comfortable.
And I'm gonna moisten that up, keep that moist,
I don't want it wet, but I want it moist.
Almost like a dirt consistency,
so that way she has a lot to dig in,
she's kind of impacting,
she can bury 'em and stuff like that.
But obviously, we need to cut a hole in this
just so she can get in and out.
I don't know if this is gonna work,
but we're going to give it a shot.
My handy dandy knife here,
and I'm just to kind of just cut a opening
for her to get into,
so that she can go in here.
Now, ultimately a couple of things will happen here.
Number one, she's going to feel more comfortable,
almost like she's going into a little cave, right.
And then the other thing that happens
when you cut only a little hole in the top
is that it's going to keep the humidity in.
Because again,
we want that bedding to be relatively good.
So, not exactly the most beautiful hole,
I've ever caught,
but this is going to work.
And again, we'll go next door,
we'll get some bedding in here, moisten it up,
and then we can put this little bad boy
in with Nova and Lilith.
So, I have some reptile prime right here,
which by the way,
you guys may not even know
that I have my own brand of bedding,
it's coconut husk without dust in it.
It's called Reptile Prime,
you can check it out, reptileprime.com.
I really never talk about it,
but it's really great bedding,
absorbs really well.
And that's what we're gonna use on the bottom here.
So, we wanna have, again, a pretty good layer here,
you know, that she can dig in
about half the thing.
And then we're just going to take a sprayer
and just mist it down,
we'll mix it up really good,
keep it kind of a little bit damp and stuff like that,
and then putting it in there
and then hopefully she'll find it
and she'll go in here
and feel comfortable and lay her eggs whenever she's ready.
All right, all set.
So, all we have to do is just
put this little guy, right back here.
And we'll put it in this back corner
because that's where Lilith typically likes to lay.
We'll put it right back here
and she's going to be curious.
When she starts getting ready to lay,
much like she's kind of searching around now,
she's going to be looking for the best spot
in this cage, to lay.
'Cause obviously, you know, mother nature
doesn't want her to lay her eggs
where they're not going to thrive.
So, that's going to be the most optimum spot, right.
The temperatures are really good back there,
right about 82 degrees,
they've got that moist so the eggs don't dry out.
It's going to be perfect.
Plus she kind of feels safe,
like she's away from Nova and stuff like that.
We'll just keep a really close eye on Nova,
I doubt he's gonna go in there.
And then hopefully within the next week or so,
I will find some eggs.
Yup, coming up on the middle of May,
Michigan spring,
snow,
beautiful.
(upbeat music)
And it is Couleuvre egg time.
And you know, it wouldn't be Couleuvre egg time
without some help from speedy.
Thanks buddy, I appreciate it,
I'll see you in a little bit, all right.
Let's go ahead and just jump right in.
This is actually a head Scaleless Corn,
but this is from that old group.
Remember how he's told you that
the older group that we had,
the fertility wasn't very good,
so I never expect a lot of really good eggs,
to be totally honest with you,
but we'll see what happens.
Oh, not too bad.
I mean, definitely.
Oh gosh.
Momma's not happy with me today,
she gave me a little bit of a love kiss right there.
That's okay, momma, get in there.
We'll get her some water.
And again, I always try to explain,
we take the water out a day or two
before they're gonna lay
because snakes, sometimes we'll lay in the water.
If they lay in the water,
the eggs are no bad.
Some people have comments like,
why aren't there water in your snakes cages?
We take 'em out, we put the water in right after
they actually have eggs.
So, let's just go ahead
and see what this mixed bag is right here.
It looks like we have four slugs right here,
for sure, these are no good.
And again, that's pretty typical for this old group.
We don't have a lot of females
that we breed from this group anymore,
to be totally honest with you,
maybe about six or eight total
and then all the rest are new stuff
that has really good fertility.
So, we have four good eggs, four bad eggs,
again, about 50% that's what I expect from that group.
I could see phasing them out this year
and probably not even breeding them in the future,
to be honest with you.
Yeah, just keep moving speedy,
always in my way buddy.
And last clutch is actually
this Mexican Black King snake here.
Of course, look at how beautiful it is.
It is funny how sometimes Mexican Black Kings,
after they lay, they look so beat up,
they put so much of their energy into egg production
and although these eggs are very, very much dirty,
it's just from the kind of dirt from this bedding,
they look perfectly good.
There's definitely nothing wrong with the mother
and the fact that they're dirty,
they should hatch completely fine.
So, let's go ahead get these eggs in here.
And yeah, they look good,
everything looks good.
We've got two, four, six, seven, pretty dirty eggs,
but I'm telling you they're going to be completely fine
and they'll hatch out good.
Just roll them around, probably,
in this bedding, right here,
that stains it.
That's a difference of not using Sphagnum moss,
which by the way, we got some Sphagnum moss,
we appreciate you guys.
So, now we can use Sphagnum as our nest boxes.
But that wraps up
the Couleuvre egg collecting for the day.
(upbeat music)
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(upbeat music)
It looks like a pretty good day.
This girl here is actually laying eggs,
as we speak right now,
so I'm gonna go ahead
and just leave her be for a minute.
Let's go ahead and collect a couple of other clutches.
We'll come back to her later on.
Pretty awesome, that we finally have a few clutches
of Ball Pythons to pull.
So, here's the deal guys,
this particular female here,
and I'm going to pull this off right here,
this girl, we've been waiting to lay eggs
for a while now.
She's about eight or nine days after her due date.
I've always said that after the shed,
there are about 30 days where they'll lay eggs.
And a bunch of people have asked me like,
"What happens if my Ball Python's 33 days in?"
This girl is almost at 40 days.
So, every single day Jay and myself
have come down here and been like, "Okay,
"is this girl gonna lay today?
"Is she gonna lay today?"
And she finally laid.
So that just goes to show you
that don't get that stressed out,
30 days is just a general thing,
they'll lay anywhere from like 25 days,
sometimes they'll go as much as 40/42 days.
So don't panic about it
because this girl finally laid.
It's just a small little girl,
but she sure is pretty.
And it's actually bred to
this Banana Extreme Enchi Pinstripe, right here.
So, this is a ripper.
It's got a lot of cool genetics in it.
So, let's go see how many eggs she has.
And again, she's a relatively small girl.
It's okay mama.
Let's go, you're good.
Looks like she has, maybe, one bad egg in there,
but for the most part,
the rest of the eggs look pretty good.
She's got them wrapped really tight,
so she's definitely hanging on,
being a really good mom, for sure.
Definitely rolling the eggs a little bit,
so I'm going to have to candle these.
You always know that I candle them
to try to make sure the embryos on top,
that air bubble, air sack's on top.
Got a little boob here, no big deal.
Looks like, again, when you see the paper, that latch,
here's two on the top of the egg,
that usually tells you it's been rolled,
which is no big deal,
shouldn't be a problem with the egg at all.
We'll just go ahead
and get this thing all candled up.
But she got four good eggs, one bad egg, not too bad.
And again, don't panic if your Ball Python,
or any snake for that matter,
is a little overdue.
It is rare for a snake to egg bind on the first egg.
So, usually an egg binding happens
when they lay one, two, three eggs,
then they bind up.
So, don't stress out.
I mean, in all the years I've been doing this,
I think I've only had one snake ever bind the entire clutch.
Because you got to remember that oviduct issue,
is usually happening further up,
not right down by the event, right.
So anyways, we have two more clutches to pull.
I was so excited about this clutch, right here.
Look at that girl.
This is just an absolutely beautiful Bumblebee Ball Python.
Let's just take a peek at her eggs.
Okay, it looks like again, one little slugger in there,
but the rest of the eggs look really good.
But she was bred to a banger male.
And it's this male here.
This is actually a Pinstripe,
it's a Red Stripe and it's a Yellow Belly,
so those are three awesome mutations put together.
Again, the Red Stripe stuff is really amazing
and it's really something that is unlocked
some amazing mutations,
like the Pompeii Ball Python.
So, the fact that we have this into that female,
that's a Pastel, a Spider, that is beautiful.
That means we have five potential genes coming out.
Let's see how many eggs has.
Again, momma, you did such a good job.
Let's go ahead,
just peel her off here real quick.
Okay, I can see another little slugger in there,
so that's not a good thing,
but all in all,
it looks like a pretty decent clutch.
Let's see what she got.
Whoa.
Not too bad.
Again to little slugs, but the other.
Oh, she just took a little pop at me.
Momma, I know.
She's like, you're not gonna take those eggs away from me.
She's being a good protective momma,
which is what we really want from her, anyways.
Good job, mom.
You did such a good job.
And these are beautiful eggs, right here.
Look at, we've got two, four, six beautiful eggs.
Couple little sluggers, that happens from time to time,
but nevertheless, that is a beautiful clutch of eggs
and a potential for some crazy babies.
I mean, I cannot wait till this clutch hatches.
Again, only 56/57 days, we can cut these guys,
but when they climb out of the egg,
ooh doggy, that's gonna be ridiculous.
- I know that's a big feed,
it's my bad bud,
Ill just cut that down a little bit.
- [Brian] Bruce, just doing a little socialization
with his buddy, Elvis over here.
Looking good hah?
- Oh, yeah.
I definitely need a trim them claws though.
Man, he got a hold of me.
I wasn't too fond of that.
- [Brian] I've lost too many shirts to that exact thing.
- Oh man, oh my gosh.
This is why Laurie bought The Reptarium shirts,
because we keep tearing them up, all the time.
- Good job, Elvis, keep calm buddy.
There you go bud.
(upbeat music)
And this girl looks like,
she's completely done laying, right now.
She's actually just a Yellow Belly.
Ow!
Bit me girl.
Let's get her out of here real quick,
she got wetness on the eggs now
because I just built the water
so I got to move quick.
Oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that.
I don't react that way typically.
Oh, let's get these eggs out of here.
All right, so basically I spilled the water when she bit me.
You could see I'm bleeding just a little bit.
Just shouldn't have reacted that way,
spilled it, got some wetness on the eggs,
so I definitely wanna dry these eggs off with a towel,
just to be really safe.
So, let me go ahead and do this.
But momma is really upset.
Momma.
Slow down, girl, whoa.
That girl is out of control.
So she's a Yellow Belly.
I'm going to try these eggs off, really quick.
(upbeat music)
I'm not gonna lie,
that was a little bit of a rookie mistake.
I don't typically do that.
She just kinda got me off guard there.
So she has two, four, six, eight beautiful eggs.
And you can really see,
look at how this egg looks a little bit different,
and even the feel is different than these eggs right here.
I mean, obviously you can't feel it,
but you can see how my finger is.
This is the last egg she laid
and it isn't completely calcified,
so she probably laid that one
within the last like five, 10 minutes.
Here in the next, probably, hour,
they'll look all the same.
This one's more pink.
This one's more yellowish white.
So these guys will all change.
Now that I have them dried off,
they should be good.
Let me show you the banger male, I bred her to.
And this is the boy here.
He's unfortunately in shed,
he's so beautiful when he's not.
It's actually an Extreme Gene Banana Spider Ball Python.
You can see that reduction of pattern.
When he's not a shed,
he is so gorgeous.
And again, it's a Yellow Belly female,
so I could get all kinds of combinations there out.
So, that wraps up Ball Python eggs for the day.
But I'd say we had a pretty good haul today.
With all the snake eggs,
you know, that's snake egg cutting, is coming soon.
I think we're about three weeks away from our first clutch,
that we can actually cut.
If you guys need your snake egg cutting fix,
right now, you can check out this playlist,
tons of snake cutting there.
You can also pay some attention to my podcast channel
called Checking In.
Right up there, you can subscribe.
On this side, you can actually subscribe
to the vlog channel.
I sure do appreciate that.
Have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember to be kind to someone
and I promise I'll see you guys tomorrow.