- African spur-thighed tortoises, they'll be
Ow!
It just bit my finger!
The big thing about monitors is that if you lose
trust with them, you're never gonna gain their
trust back.
(upbeat electronic music)
Hey, good morning everybody, welcome to the vlog.
You know, I do have to ask myself every now
and then, how do you actually tame a dragon?
I mean, isn't it amazing to have a lizard like
Elvis here that's just an absolute pleasure to
work with?
And its like I've literally said in the past,
he literally is like a dragon or a dinosaur pet.
I mean I absolutely love this guy, he's so
absolutely amazing, but you know you do have to
spend some time habituating these animals.
And you have to ask yourself, is it because of
the way that they're immediately habituated to
humans, or is it something that's domestically
bred a little bit?
There's actually this interesting thing, think
about domesticated cats or even dogs.
These were once wild animals, and over time
through breeding you've actually made them more
and more domestic.
So basically what that means is that over time,
you're basically not only breeding an animal,
but you're kind of breeding the tamest animals.
'Cause often times we're gonna keep like the
coolest animal back each time because its an
amazing animal, you're like oh my god this is
a great animal, I'm gonna breed it, and then it
can actually pass on behavior.
So each generation in, often times it gets tamer
and tamer.
And there is absolutely no doubt that
reticulated pythons are a perfect example of this.
When I was a kid, and even now and then when I
run across people that used to keep reptiles
20 or 30 years ago, and then they come to,
say, The Reptarium and they see these beautifully
tame reticulated pythons, they're always like,
what the heck?
Aren't retics extremely mean?
The fact is is that 20 years ago, the retics
that were either wild caught or F1 generations
right out of the wild were extremely aggressive.
Or you could say extremely defensive snakes.
Regardless, they definitely like to bite.
But now that all these years have gone by,
and we're into F3, F4, F5 generations of retics,
you can see the majority of them are
puppy dog tame now.
So basically, we bred out a lot of that
aggression, and I've said that sometimes when it
comes to color phases.
You'll have a particular color phase, let's say
a ball python or a retic or a Burmese that seems
to be a little bit tamer than the other animals,
and for whatever reason when you start to
breed them, the offspring are often times tamer too.
And what I think it is is that behavior can
actually be bred.
And like I mentioned earlier, often times we're
breeding the tamest animals because they're the
funnest to work with, and then their offspring
are inheriting that amazing behavior.
But there is no doubt habituation is
really important.
Kevin McCurley over at N.E.R.D kinda led the way
when it came to monitors, and that is exactly
where Elvis and Toothless is from.
And as soon as these guys are hatched, he starts
to interact with them, literally right
out of the egg.
It's almost like a bonding thing with like birds,
you know, almost like the first thing they see is
a person
- First creature they come into contact with,
that's it, helps them to trust me.
- And then maybe they're just a little bit more
habituated to it.
Take for instance Toothless here, the black dragon.
This is a great example of both captive breeding
that causes tameness through generations and
habituation, again Kevin McCurley produced
Toothless and he worked with this animal and
every monitor that he's ever produced, right as
soon as they're hatched.
He starts to interact with them, he starts to
work with them so that they're not afraid of
human beings, and as you can see Toothless is
absolutely incredible.
And we try to work with this animal as
much as we can.
And what I find interesting is kind of what I was
talking about before, is that black dragons have
now been being bred in captivity for two, three,
four generations, and they're all extremely docile.
I mean, its very rare to see a black dragon
that's not as habituated as Toothless.
And I really believe that that's just the
domestication of these animals.
Kevin actually calls these guys urban dinosaurs,
and I couldn't agree more, I mean this is
truly a dinosaur, that is as close to a
domesticated pet as you possibly can be.
But we're spending a lot of time with Toothless
not just handling him, but also even feeding him.
I want him to be extremely comfortable with
everything we do, so that way when he gets five,
maybe even six foot long, he is just a puppy dog
tame animal.
(upbeat electronic music)
Another day, another feast for the tortoises.
Well guys, you only have like two days left
if you're looking to get some of your RJ merch
and then they're gone forever, and you can get it
for Christmas or its a great Christmas gift.
Look at this shirt here.
This thing is absolutely incredible, take a look
at this.
See?
It's even magical.
You guys can buy it and do magic tricks, so go
ahead, go ahead the link is in the description,
brianbrianbshop.com, again only two days left
to get your merch, you can even get a coffee mug.
You know what's crazy with all the tortoises that
we have, each one of them has a different
attitude and personality, and Savvy is crazy.
I mean, this is the one tortoise that I just
think is just the most personable tortoise of all
of them.
In a way it should probably be over
at The Reptarium, but the problem with Savvy is
it doesn't get along with the other tortoises,
like leopard tortoises.
But just look at how he just like stands really
high up, its not like he just likes this stuff,
he's like give me some more!
Give me some more food!
He is just a monster, he is super cool.
And a lot of times, especially
African spur-thighed tortoises, they'll be
Ow!
It just bit my finger!
Oh, now I know how it feels to get bit by this
little dude, its really not that bad, but a lot
of the sulcatas are actually a little bit shy,
and Savvy is far from shy.
All it wants to do is come up and hang out
with you, its always like right up on your feet
and looking up at you, saying where's my food?
I'll tell you what, you got some pretty good
chompers there, buddy.
Not all monitors are really tame, and you have to
remember that Chicken Strip,
the albino Nile monitor, is out of the wild.
It was hatched over in Africa, so number one,
Nile monitors are typically just a little bit
more nuts and crazy than say, a Savannah monitor
or water monitor, but on top of it
it is a wild animal.
So it doesn't have any generations for calmness,
so maybe five or six generations down the road,
Nile monitors will be as tame as water monitors,
I'm not sure.
But let me show you how I have to hold Chicken Strip.
Its a little bit of a process, and when it first
comes out it gets a little bit crazy.
When he's first out, sometimes he can get
a little bit nuts, but as you can see I'm never
going to actually restrain him.
The big thing about monitors is that if you lose
trust with them, you're never gonna gain their
trust back.
So what I have to do is just let him kinda crawl
through my hands and get to the point where he
kinda almost tires himself out a little bit.
But again, I'm not restraining him, I'm not
grabbing him, I'm not trying to make him feel
like I'm holding him tight.
I'm just letting him crawl through my hands,
and the longer I do this, sometimes it can take
up to five minutes of just kind of walking him
through my hands over and over and over and
over again, and every now and then I'm gonna be
totally honest with you, he'll even bite me
sometimes.
But then, within no time, you'll see he'll start
to calm down,
and he just kinda slows down a little bit,
he gets it going, and this is all about building
a relationship.
Again, water monitors are just more naturally tame,
not to mention they've been bred
generation after generation.
When you've got something that's fresh out of the
wild, number one, and also a species that's known
to be a little bit crazier, you have to work with
them a little more.
My hopes are, is if I can work with Chicken Strip
like this every single day, he'll continue to
realize that handling isn't as bad, and I can
tell you what guys, it is so much easier to
handle him now than even, say, a month ago or
two months ago when we first moved him into
The Reptarium.
Now he's gotten comfortable with his habitat,
and then also being handled tons.
Look at already, I mean he's totally chilling out.
And now that he's out, I can keep him out for
like an hour and he'll just kind of hang out
with me, not fight me or anything.
And this is how you build relationships with
these monitor lizards, or what I like to call,
real life dragons.
- And then, she said she loved the bananas.
- Hey, guys!
- Oh my god.
- Guys, man, I am starved.
What about you guys?
- I'm always hungry!
- You guys wanna order a pizza?
- Heck yeah, I'm hungry.
- You paying, though?
- Yeah, no, I'll grab you.
(men cheer)
- Yeah hi, can I get a large cheese and pepperoni?
- Can we get green peppers on it?
- Can I get green peppers on that as well?
- Oh, wait.
Onions, onions too.
Add onions.
- Yeah, could I get onions on that as well?
- Dude, I'm so sorry.
You have to get sardines.
Sardines.
(intense music)
No wait, wait!
No, no, have mercy!
- Get in there!
Get in there, it barely fits.
- Wait!
- Hey, you stay in there.
(intense music)
- Yeah, cheese and pepperoni will be fine.
- Oh yeah!
- Bootsy is looking amazing today, and Noah,
by the way, what do you think, isn't this cage
looking real comfortable?
- I'm thinking that if I hit 100,000 subscribers
I'll do a 24-hour challenge in here, that's what
I'm thinking!
- [Brian] Oh my gosh, hey listen, we will be
extremely protective of not only Noah but also
of Lucy if he does it, do me a favor,
Noah's getting close to 100,000 subscribers
over on his channel,
please go to BadChoiceNoah, link in
the description, let's get him to 100,000
and then you can see him spend 24 hours
in Lucy's cage.
And just so you guys know, I will stay here
with him the entire time so he's safe as well as
Lucy doesn't get stressed out or anything else.
- I don't wanna die.
- [Brian] No, you'll be fine, you'll be fine.
But there's plenty of places for you to sleep
- [Noah] Yeah.
- [Brian] Like, you could sleep right,
no, you can't sleep there.
- [Noah] No sleeping.
- [Brian] No sleeping, you're gonna be up for 24 hours?
- I think last time I just brought waters,
this time I might bring some red bulls.
(Brian laughs)
- Do me a favor, go show him some love, let's
get him to 100k, and lets have some fun with
the Lucy challenge.
What's interesting is I've really looked at
behavior in reptiles when it comes to success of
my breeding company, BHB Reptiles.
I always say that you can read all the books
you want, you can talk to as many people
as you want, but the snakes or the reptiles
there self really tell you what's going on.
So its the way they behave, again, the way
they're laying, the way that they're on the heat
or the cool side of the tank, the amount of food
they take, all those things are triggers
and tells to where they are in the breeding cycle.
So for all these years I've been looking at the
behavior of animals, really more from a breeding
standpoint, whereas now I think I'm more
interested in the behavior of the animal when it
just kind of comes to the interaction they have
with human beings.
Not only myself, not only my crew, but also the
patrons that come into The Reptarium.
I think its just amazing to kind of habituate
them to being handled and starting to really look
at the behavior and how they are being handled,
and really react to how the animals are reacting
to being handled over at The Reptarium.
So again, I think its maybe a little bit of an
interesting combination, of both heritage being
bred to being tame, and also kinda that
continued again habituation they have to being
handled to the way they are.
We've seen animals go from kind of a little bit
touchy when it comes to being handled, to being
puppy dog tame, i.e. the blood python next door
at The Reptarium.
And I think its just amazing that we've been able
to kinda use our knowledge of behavior when it
comes to the breeding side, and start to apply it
to the animals over at The Reptarium.
But like I've mentioned before, I don't ever look
at myself as an expert on any level, and I'm
certainly no behavioral expert when it comes to
reptiles, I'm still learning and I'm still kinda
trying to figure this whole thing out, but I am
absolutely loving this kind of new direction
in life, I'll still continue to love the breeding
side and use all that knowledge and experience
that I've gained over the last three decades,
but now I'm really excited about this new thing,
about learning about the behavior of animals
and to habituate them to be amazing, just like my
girl Salt here.
Speaking of Salt, what do you say we weigh her
and see if she's put on any weight?
She is so cute!
The last time we weighed her she was actually
67 grams, so lets see if she's put on any more
weight here, oh my gosh look at that, 74 grams!
My girl is growing!
She's eating and she's looking
absolutely fantastic.
And pepper was 115 grams and he is chunky,
I've got to imagine he's been growing 'cause
he's been eating like a pig!
Look at that, 135 grams!
So he gained 20 grams in just about a week.
Oh my gosh, Pepper!
You are getting so chunky monkey!
And with that said guys, I think I'm gonna go
ahead and end the vlog here, and maybe spend the
next hour or so, just some quiet time here in
The Reptarium, as you can see it is nighttime
outside, so it is a perfect time for me to just
shut the lights out, hang out in my Reptarium,
enjoy the animals for a little bit, get a little
peace and tranquility, I definitely need that.
We have some travel coming up here in just a few
days, heading down to Florida, gonna have an
absolutely epic time with my buddies Foors,
Noah is coming along, Miguel is coming along,
so its gonna be absolutely crazy.
I can't wait to bring you guys along
on the adventure, and as for now I am going to
wish you an amazing day, evening, night, whenever
you happen to be watching, you're support means
the world to me and I truly, truly love you guys
so much.
Do me a couple favors before we get out of here,
can you smash that like button, turn those
post notifications on so you know when I upload
a video which is everyday, seven days a week
at nine o'clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time,
leave a comment down below so I can read about
your beautiful faces, be kind to someone,
and I promise I will see you guys tomorrow.
And come on guys, you know the routine by now,
you know I'm not gonna at least give you guys
a little bit of a tour, here at night.
I love this, I tell you what, I could stay here
all night long just looking at cages.
I am so happy at night when I'm here alone
and the lights are off, I just love it!
Oh my god,
I hope that you guys have an absolutely amazing
day, and as for me and my girl Lucy here,
we will see you tomorrow.
(upbeat electronic music)