- Oh my goodness. - Oh my gosh.
They are so cute.
Look how adorable this little guy is.
- [Noah] Super amped up, oh my gosh.
(whooshing) ("Reminisce" by Da Tooby)
- Hey good morning, everybody and welcome to the vlog.
You may remember that yesterday
I had a shipment of animals that got delayed.
It was supposed to be here yesterday morning.
I was definitely stressed out.
Well, guess what just showed up.
I'm excited to see what's inside
and I'm sure they're gonna be completely fine
but uh, let's go ahead and open these up.
And I went ahead and got Lori
so she can not only see the animals
but also you do all the shipping here.
Like I had mentioned, this shipment actually
got stuck in LA for some reason,
some kind of equipment issue
but fortunately my friend Jeff from El Segundo Pythons
is the one that's sending.
He's an experienced reptile keeper, so he knows.
I mean, it doesn't happen often that a package gets delayed
but what's important about--
- Well, it's important that it's packed right,
that it's A warm enough, B not too warm,
like it's a very delicate balance,
so it does take a lot of knowledge and experience
to know how to package it so it's good either way.
- Yeah and I had mentioned yesterday
that we use like Cryopaks
that actually adjust for temperatures.
If it's hot, it gets cool.
If it's cool, it gets hot.
You know, stuff like that.
So, anyways let's go ahead, open these up,
make sure that they're okay, number one.
I'm super excited about this.
Do you even know what these are?
- Yes. - Okay, I did tell you.
- You did tell me. - Okay, good.
I'm going to open them up.
Like I said, ideally you don't want animals
to take two days to get here
but in this case, I really don't think
there's gonna be an issue,
weather seemed to be pretty good, all that type of stuff.
So, let's go ahead just open these guys up.
Then, we'll get them over to the Reptarium
and get them in cages, as well.
Here we go.
Aw, here's the little babies.
Oh my gosh, they are so small.
- Oh, they are.
I had no idea that these things were so small.
- They're so-- - Oh my goodness.
- Oh my gosh, they are so cute.
- Whoa (laughs).
- And they are packed perfectly good.
Jeff over at El Segundo did a great job of packing.
The animals look fine, the box looks fine
and that's what we got, guys.
Little baby acanthurus or Ackie monitors.
Look how adorable this little guy is.
Aren't these things incredible Lori?
- Oh my goodness, how old are these?
- They're a month old.
He waited for a month before he sells them
to make sure they're in good shape.
So, these guys are about five weeks right now.
Isn't that incredible? - Oh my goodness.
I had no idea they started out so small.
- Again Ackies are a dwarf monitor from Australia.
They come from like Western Australia, Northern Territory
and even into Queensland area
but instead of being a big water monitor
like Elvis or Toothless, these guys stay small.
They only get about two-foot full length
with tail and everything,
so we can keep them in a smaller cage.
For now they're gonna go great in Toothless' cage
because it's important to have
a really big hot spot for these guys.
You want it to be 120-125 degrees
with the cool side maybe about 80-85 degrees.
As you can see, these guys are unbelievably adorable
and super tiny, I mean look at this.
This is gonna be so cool.
Again, in that display, they're gonna have
a lot of room. - Oh yeah.
- You definitely want to have nice thick substrate, too
so they can burrow 'cause these guys are
a burrowing type of animal.
Oh my god, I'm so excited.
I tell you what, I've wanted these for so long
and I'm so excited that we finally have them.
We actually have three, so here's the one,
there's the other one and then I'm gonna put this one back.
These are red acanthurus.
They can also come in yellows
but these are the red ones
which are really quite beautiful.
This one's starting to shed right now
and it seems to be a little bit bigger.
- Yeah, look how red it is.
- Yeah, I mean take a look at how gorgeous.
Like I said, this one looks to be a little bit bigger
and a really beautiful red color.
And these guys will eat stuff like crickets,
maybe little tiny roaches, at this size.
When they get bigger they can actually eat rodents
and again, just like our other monitors,
lots of variety, quail eggs, eggs,
all kinds of stuff like that.
There it is, baby Ackies.
What do you think?
- They're so cute.
- And super intelligent, too.
I mean, think about it, again,
a huge monitor in a little monitor's body.
Super smart, super intelligent.
Oh my gosh, I am so excited to have these
and to see these guys grow up.
So, I'm glad that they obviously came in alive and healthy.
Let's go ahead, get them over at the Reptarium,
get them set up and let these guys settle in.
Just before I'm heading over,
I show Eric and Mary these little guys.
- Yeah, this is so cool.
I'm kind of scared these guys have to be--
That's insane that that's a monitor.
They're so small. - It's a monitor.
- Almost like a lizard. - I mean, it's like
a little anole.
- Like a baby, yeah.
- Yeah.
They're so cute.
I mean literally, this is like
a little anole or something you'd catch.
Man, they're quick, huh?
- [Brian] I know isn't that crazy?
- Oh my god, they are so cool.
They are so cool.
- [Brian] And you can see they just have that same look.
They look at me just like a monitor does
with that super intelligence.
- Micro.
- Look like little hatchlings or something, huh?
- [Brian] They're about five weeks old now.
- Wow.
Oh my gosh.
(laughing) - All right.
All right, I'm getting over to the Reptarium
and setting these guys up.
Quick rundown on the cage before I put these guys in.
This is Toothless' this old cage
but we disinfected the entire cage.
Basically we have here is
about 120 to 125 hot spot right there.
We also have about three and a half
inches of bedding in here.
We're actually ordering some of the ABG
that we can put down, but right now
the coconut husks'll be fine.
They like to burrow and stuff like that.
You want to keep the humidity up
but you don't want to keep it too wet.
If you know what I mean.
They have lots of options for climbing all over the place.
We made sure everything is sealed really well
so they can't can't underneath.
I've got Universal Rock sending me
a nice big water basin that's gonna go here.
That'll be here in the next week or something like that.
They have UV light as well
so they can get lots of UV light.
We'll also dust them with calcium
and D3 vitamin powder and stuff like that.
So, I think this is going to be absolutely incredible.
So, let's go ahead and just release them
and see what they do.
You guys know that this is my favorite thing
out of everything I do here at the zoo,
is releasing animals into cages.
There you go, buddy.
Look right up on top.
Look at him climb.
Look at him over there.
He's just cruising along.
Oh my god, that is absolutely incredible.
You could see what adept climber it is.
That's why it's so important to seal everything
so that they can't get behind anything.
They also are really good at digging,
so everything has to be sealed
or you'll lose these little guys, for sure.
Here you go, little buddy.
Go ahead, little buddy.
There you go, up.
They got so many spots they're gonna be so happy with
but see how this one can get way up here
right by the hot spot but it can also climb here?
Once these guys get used to all their cages,
gonna be absolutely amazing.
Then, the last one, whoop.
There you go, whoop.
There it is.
Immediately, they just wanna go climbing.
Oh my gosh.
The only problem with this cage is the fact
that you're gonna kinda lose them in here.
So, for the first probably couple of months,
look at them both up there.
We're probably not gonna see them
until they start to get a little bit bigger
but they do become very brazen
and what I mean by that
is that I think we're gonna see them out on the rocks
like this a lot, hanging up here a bunch.
They're not one of those real shy lizards
which is really good.
Again, they will burrow but they also come out a lot.
They're very active animals
so if you give them everything they need,
by the hot spot, cool side, lots of places to burrow.
Again, we'll get a big water
just that they can soak in.
They're literally a lot of times, just be out moving around.
They're known as a very active lizard,
so I think it's gonna be great.
I am super excited to see them in their cages.
Look at how cute they look.
Oh my gosh, all right guys, so there you have it,
little dwarf monitors at the Reptarium.
A little nervous right now, I'm not gonna lie to you.
Nova is a male frilled dragon.
Eric and Mary have a female frilled dragon
and we're gonna try to introduce them.
You know, see how they do.
You know, hopefully they'll like each other.
Maybe they'll have eggs down the road.
See how that goes but
these guys are definitely supposed to be able
to be housed together. - Yes.
- Usually, yeah, so. - Usually.
- So, we're gonna go ahead and try.
My only real concern is that
Nova's just such a special animal,
I don't want him to change the way he is,
so we're gonna give it a go and see what happens.
Nova is definitely very attentive right now,
wanting to know what's going on.
- [Eric] You just kinda want to just--
They can see each other, maybe.
- [Brian] We'll see if he like,
how he reacts being in the same area.
- Oh, is that a pretty little female?
Now it's really cool to see the courtship.
I was watching a few videos,
how they'll bob their heads, how they'll kind of throw up.
They can't even actually bite the female too,
to show them, hey I'm interested in you.
- Yeah. - So, it's kind of a--
- [Brian] So far, so good, I mean.
- [Noah] Oh, lookit.
- [Mary] He's checking her out.
- [Eric] Checking her out.
- [Noah] Nova's a handsome boy.
- [Eric] He is pretty handsome.
- [Mary] Oh.
(laughs)
- [Noah] They're looking at each other.
- Now he's looking back at me.
He's giving me that eye like, what did you just do?
What did you just do?
Look at him looking at me like that.
Nova, I didn't do anything.
I just brought you a roommate.
(laughing)
- No one likes to be lonely, right?
- [Noah] No one likes to be lonely.
- We're gonna keep an eye on them for a little bit
but my biggest concern isn't the fact
that they're gonna hurt each other
because I think they'll be fine
and we'll definitely separate them out
if they start to argue at all
but I'm more concerned about the fact
that look at Nova, I mean, he's just so awesome.
You can just pet him, do whatever you want with him.
I don't want him to change that personality.
I don't think it's gonna change
but that's the only kind of reservation I had about this.
In the meantime, I they seem to
kind of be okay together, don't they?
- [Eric] Yeah.
- [Brian] I mean he doesn't seem to really care either way.
So, we'll just keep an eye on them for a while?
- Sweet, sounds good. - Yeah.
- All right, well, we'll update you guys if anything changes
but as for now, they just seem to be
checking each other out.
Oh my god.
Nova's breeding right now.
Nova's oh.
- [Noah] He got her.
- [Eric] Oh my god, oh my god.
- [Noah] He's breeding.
He's getting her.
Oh this is awesome.
- This is cool. - Oh my god.
- [Noah] God, look, look, look.
- She's mad. - She's pissed.
- [Mary] Oh my god.
- [Noah] Look at him, he's excited.
- [Mary] He's like, I'm cool, look at me.
- [Noah] He's like, let's go.
Let's go.
We're gonna have some little babies.
He's super amped up.
(laughing)
She started flying.
She's fighting.
- [Eric] Sorry, there's no consent in reptile worlds.
- [Noah] No. (laughing)
Look at Nova bobbing.
- [Lori] What happened?
- [Noah] This is crazy.
- [Lori] They're trying to breed.
- [Eric] He's bobbing.
- [Noah] Look at him, he's bobbing.
- [Brian] Did you see he's lifting his arm up?
- [Mary] His arm, yeah.
He's like, I'm nice.
- [Lori] Look at her.
She's like, eh.
- [Noah] Oh my god, that was awesome.
- That's crazy.
He definitely mounted her.
I didn't expect that to happen, I mean,
that just blew me away that that just happened,
so, I don't know.
I'm gonna just keep an eye on them and see what happens.
I'm always excited, by buddy Forrest is in town.
You guys know, I'll put all the links
to his Instagram and everything.
Go show him some love, by the way,
if you need rodents this is
where I get all my frozen rodents from.
Cold Blooded Cafe, definitely check those guys out.
Forrest and I were talking about the whole thing
with snake racks and so on like that,
and Forrest is probably going to be involved
in our town hall that we're gonna doing.
I think Emily from Snake Discovery is on.
We're gonna talk to a handful of other people.
But me and Forrest we're just kind of reminiscing
a little bit about what the changes
that we're gonna need to do
and I think that this is
could be pretty interesting. - Yeah.
- I mean, your ideas are really interesting to me
and I'm gonna try the best I can be
to be the trendsetter in doing the things
that you're talking about.
So, just give me the overview of what you're thinking.
- Yeah, I mean, when I seen the video
and seen that you guys were thinking about
kind of having an open forum about
you know, snake husbandry, what we're doing
and the big thing that I was talking with you about,
just a few minutes ago is,
my whole perspective on it is,
why are we doing what we're doing?
You know, if you're gonna keep those snakes in those racks,
if you're gonna breed snakes,
why do you want to breed snakes?
Because ever since I've gotten to know you,
I have so many people reaching out to me
and I'm starting to feel like a
intense responsibility with all these people coming to me
and they want to become reptile breeders.
Why do we all want to be reptile breeders?
Why do you want to have racks
full of snakes in your building?
Is your goal with your love for animals?
Do you want to express that?
Is your ultimate level of expression and passion,
is that related to you wanting to set up a table
at the local flea market reptile show?
Or do you want to be part of the future?
Because I think for us to all be able to
do this in the future
and for us to be able to transcend
the huge gap there is between us
and the animal rights people,
and at the end of the day,
the thing that is is really important to me is
that both sides of the fence,
we both really love animals.
There's this huge controversy and divide between us
in how we're doing it
and I think if we don't look inside ourselves
at the reasons why we're doing it and how we're doing it,
I think we're gonna lose this right forever.
So, I think we need to have an open forum.
We need to be willing to address the hard issues
that there and a lot of those issues are quarantine,
they're veterinary practices, there's--
Us all coming together--
Right now we have this outrage culture
where it's all about ripping people apart
and picking, you know, that's almost--
Some people, that's the most fun part of the hobby
or the lifestyle for them
is going and ripping somebody apart for doing things wrong
but what we really need to do is
we need to be part of the future
and we need to figure out these issues
and so having an open forum on,
hey, how can we do our caging better?
How can we do our quarantine better?
How can we, as a community, come together
and for me coming up in this industry
and making a career and all that all these things,
when I start to look at--
I can't get excited about
wanting to produce tons and tons of animals just to sell.
I think the future is
in keeping them in the best enclosures you can
and enjoying that and then,
if you are gonna breed them,
having a reason for breeding them.
Making a healthier, stronger animal,
breeding something that's never been bred before,
but observing them, learning about them,
reading about them, going and seeing other collections,
seeing them in the wild, eco-tourism.
There's so many different ways
in this animal world, that you can enjoy it
and you can you can find fulfillment.
I want to be able to show people
those different ways of doing it
and I want to be part of spreading a message
that is positive, that does give us a chance
at doing this forever
and having a more positive message to the general public.
- And I tell you, I couldn't say it better.
That's why I want him to do this with Forrest
because it is so perfectly said
and I'm gonna right now make a commitment to you guys.
I mean, Forrest is inspiring me,
I've heard a lot of your guy's talk.
I want to be part of that future change.
I really do.
You know, I've been breeding snakes,
very similarly for a couple decades more.
Maybe it is time for a change. - Yep, it is.
- And I am gonna right now tell you
that I want to be on the forefront of that change.
So, bear with me.
Town Hall, we're gonna try to have people that are like me,
commercial breeders, we're gonna have,
again, like I said, Emily from Snake Discovery.
I'd like to have maybe a pet-Tuber or two involved.
And we can have a really adult conversation.
Not trying to put each other down
but trying to come together at what's best for the hobby,
for the animals, and the future.
I think what Forrest said really is dead-on.
I mean, it's time to kind of take
a look at everything we do and try to make sure
that we're doing right for the animals as well everything.
But we have to do that in a responsible way
that not only is good for the animals
but also good for the overall reptile hobby,
so it's not an easy solution
but I think that the summit that's going to be coming up
if it happens, the end of May,
is going to be a huge step in the right direction.
And like I said, I'm committed to you guys
to try to be the best I possibly can, to lead the way.
Even if financially I take a hit,
I'm willing to do that,
if we all agree that it's the best for the animal.
- And with that being said,
I'm gonna wish you guys a happy morning, evening,
or whenever you're watching.
I promise I'll see you tomorrow.
("Reminisce" by Da Tooby)