- [Blogger] Hey, good morning, everybody.
And welcome to the blog.
I hope to start your day is incredible.
Of course, we are starting it
with Ben and Jerry here, my two headed snake.
And you know
it's pretty awesome to have a two headed snake.
You know, I'm not gonna lie to you.
We've had Ben and Jerry
for almost two years now, which is pretty good.
He's about four years old now just shy of four years.
And typically when a two headed snake is born
it is pretty tough to keep him alive.
I'm not gonna lie to you, but then once they hit adulthood
like Ben and Jerry, they typically live a full life.
I mean, I've heard it too.
Edit snakes that are 20, 25 years old.
So I'm hoping that Ben and Jerry are going to
be around for another, you know, maybe 15, 18
20 plus years because people absolutely love him here.
But trust me guys, getting Ben and Jerry
and going on this journey definitely was not an easy one.
And one point of that tragic journey actually ended
up right here with the two headed snake in alcohol.
But the journey started many, many years before that.
And to really understand the entire quest I've had
for two headed animals, we have to go back
to when I was just a kid and I was just obsessed.
The first time that I saw a two headed snake.
Well, when I was 20 years old
I had an albino black rat snake
just like this one here that actually proves again.
I was only a couple of years into my career
probably produced maybe 50 clutches of snakes that year.
And I had my first two headed albino, black rat snake.
And I was over the moon.
I mean, again, these were $25
for albino black-grass wholesale at the time.
And a two headed snake was worth like 15 grand.
Well, you know, I wanted to keep it so bad, but again
20 years old, 15 grand is a lot of money.
Someone offered me that money for it.
And reluctantly, I sold it thinking that, you know what?
I produce a bunch of snakes.
I'm going to produce a ton of, to edit snakes in my career.
I can sell this snake and not worry about the next take.
I'll keep right.
So I thought that's what was going to happen.
Well, honestly, over the last, you know, 30 something years
since then I have actually approved six or seven
two headed snakes, check this out.
This is fricking exciting.
These are just T positive and albino Nelsons.
But this one is definitely got a little extra
special thing going on with it.
You see that guys there's actually two heads.
That's right.
It's a two headed T positive albino, Nelson.
But not even one of them has lived more than a month.
Most of them have lived one or two days in die.
So back when I was 20 years old
and I thought that, Hey, I produced another one.
It was a sad story.
And I never produced another one.
I lived in, by the way, that animal ended up growing
up and living for like 20 years, it was on animal planet.
It ended up all over the place
with sold like five or six times.
I think the last time it was sold to the Venice freak show.
And I think they paid $50,000 for it.
So, yeah, I was regretting that decision
in that might've really spurred
on my obsession to replace it with another two headed snake.
And like you saw over the years, I produced a handful
of two headed animals, but again, they just never lived.
And it was really a bummer, you know
but my quest for the two headed snake didn't end there
about five and a half years ago, someone reached
out to me and they a Mexican black King snake
just like this one right here.
The only difference was it had two heads.
I don't know how it was even packed.
So I don't know
if I'm going to see it right off the bat or not.
Once you know it, it's a bunch of, yes.
Kill me with anticipation.
Oh, there he is.
Oh my gosh.
That little monkey.
Oh my gosh.
Laurie, look at that cute or what?
Oh my God.
I know I'm going to try.
Guys I'm like, I think I'm going to start to hyperventilate
and he's like, what'd I do with my razor blade.
Wow.
I literally I'm shaking right now.
Oh my gosh.
I, you know, I'm going to cut my I'm going to yeah.
Snake breeder dies
from self-inflicted razor blade wound cutting open a snake.
Hey, come on.
I want you guys to see this right as I'm opening it.
Oh my gosh.
Look at that.
Look at this thing.
Now it was only a few months old
but it had been feeding on its own.
Now I just thought let's jump into it.
Let's do it.
I wanted it to at, at stake so bad
that I went ahead and I purchased the animal.
And I'll be honest with you.
It's eight for me right off the bat.
And it seemed to be doing well.
And that even made it
onto the IFL science page, believe it or not.
But unfortunately just like so many
of the two headed snakes.
Again, the mortality rate is so high.
After a few months
it just literally one day open the cage and it had died.
It literally broke my heart.
And I often wondered at that point, was
that the end of my quest for a two headed snake?
I didn't know if I was ready to step
up and do it again, to be honest with you.
For the next few years, I'll be honest with you.
I was almost thinking about giving up
on my dream of having a two headed snake.
It was just really emotionally damaging to
be totally honest with you.
And then I got a phone call about Laverne and Shirley.
Ah! Oh my gosh guys, take a look.
And I know you guys are saying
like you bought an albino corn snake.
Well, the truth is this albino corn snake
is a little bit different than a normal albino corn snake.
Take a look at this guys.
Whoa. Oh my God.
It is the most adorable little thing I've ever seen.
That's right guys.
It's a two headed snake and I've actually been working
on getting this guy for the last like four months.
So this has been a long time in the making.
And I always try to tell people to try to take the emotion
out of business.
Right. But I'm going to be totally honest with you.
The emotion got the best me on this one.
I went down to Texas to get that animal.
And I saw that it was eight months old.
And you could see it's not much bigger than a baby, right.
And that should have told me, Brian's take away from it.
It was $15,000.
Like I said, there's typically between 15,000 and $30,000.
This one was 15 grand.
And I should've just walked away from it.
But I was like, no, I want this animal.
And I just couldn't walk away.
I ended up finding the animal, got it back here.
And I'll be honest with you.
The first time we offered a food three or four days later
it ate, unfortunately, literally 10 days after I got it
I opened up the cage and they were dead.
So here it is.
I mean, how freaking exciting is that she ate, Oh my God.
I've always said that that first meal is so important
with any animal that you're getting into.
Especially at two headed animal
I was told she ate, but you know what?
I was still nervous.
I thought I wanted, she doesn't eat.
And when I first offered to you as a little reluctant that
Oh no, it's going to be horrible.
But then she ate.
And how incredible was that?
And I'm going to be honest with you guys.
I still don't know why that I preserved these guys.
I've never preserved any animal ever in my entire life
but the first thing had happened.
I was so just like distraught.
I was like, I've gotta have a saved these somehow
just so I could keep looking at it.
And now a few years later
it's kind of the first time I've taken a look at them again.
I'm not going to lie to you.
The pain is hurt so much.
I just didn't even want to look at them
but it is kind of cool that now I can actually put
them maybe on my desk or stuff like that and look at them.
Cause it is pretty cool.
Don't get me wrong.
I wish they would live.
And I wish they were adult
but at least I have some memories of them.
And honestly guys, at this point
I really did think the two headed quest was over.
I'm not sure how I continued on
because to be honest with you after Laverne and Shirley
I really did truly think I was done.
And what I had basically said was I would never
buy a baby two headed snake again.
I said the only two headed snake I'd ever buy was an adult.
Now I did have a friend that hatched a California King snake
that you guys might know the name of
by any chance that was about a year and a half old
but he was refusing to sell it to me.
And I thought that unless he did it or someone else came
up with an adult two headed snake,
I wasn't going to go
through that pain and tragedy again, of buying a baby.
And then someone reached out to me with a high white
black and white calking that had two heads.
Now it didn't really have a lot of potential.
To be honest with you, it had some Kings, it had not fed.
But the difference was is that
like I had mentioned the typically 15,000 to maybe $30,000
in this case, the guy was like, listen
I'll give it to you for $1,500.
If you want to take the chance.
Now I'm not saying that $1,500, isn't a lot of money
but I thought, well, if it lived, that would be a steal.
And if it died, it would really suck.
But at least if I gave it a shot
he had to decide was could I actually fathom
having someone else buy that snake in two or three years
from now seeing cookies and cream as an adult.
And it wasn't mine.
So you know what?
I took the risk and I went ahead
and I went and bought cookies in cream.
Let's go ahead and take a look at sure is a beauty.
Huh? Look at that little guy.
Oh my gosh.
I tell you what they look absolutely amazing.
I mean, it's a beautiful snake with just one head.
It would be a beautiful snake.
You could definitely see
that the heads are pretty close together.
And this one on the left seems to be a little bit tilted
down into the side.
I think my only concern is is that, you know
their heads are so close together will be able to eat
took an initial look at the animal.
I mean, it, it, number one
it looks extremely, extremely healthy.
I mean really good tongue flicks.
The heads are a little bit closer together
than what I would like to be totally honest with you.
They have a slight tilt down
but there doesn't seem to be any really major deformities.
Again has not fed.
Do you take the risk?
I'm going to do it.
But like I had mentioned cookies and cream
literally I thought had a 99.9% chance
of not surviving because of the Kings.
The way the heads were too close together
the mouths were almost joined together.
Thought there was very little chance
but I was willing to give it a go.
It never ate.
Even when I assist fed it, it would regurgitate it.
And it really didn't last long.
So it wasn't that much of a surprise, but just
another tragedy in my quest to get a two headed snake.
I'm really not sure that there's a difference
between perseverance and being really stubborn.
But the fact that this is
that I wanted a two headed snake
or any two headed animals for that matter.
And remember I told you
I had a friend that hashed out a two headed cow King.
Well that's right.
It was Ben and Jerry.
And what ended up happening was
that he didn't want to sell it.
Not because he wanted to do anything with it.
It was just his pet.
He hatched out and he loved it
and it was just sitting in his office.
But what happened was when he stopped pictures
of the rep terrarium, when we first opened up
he called me up and said, Brian
I know you've been trying to buy this for almost two years.
Now. I saw pictures of the rep terrarium.
I think it belongs at the rep terrarium
and we worked out a deal and I went
down to Ohio and I finally picked up Ben
and Jerry and ever since they have been doing amazing.
And they've been warming the hearts of children
and adults that have come to the rep term ever since
but more importantly, they have warmed my heart
because now having it for almost two years
without a tragedy, it's been pretty fricking awesome.
And you guys probably remember that my obsession
for two headed snakes didn't stop with snakes.
It also was two headed turtle.
And I had my share of tragedy with those guys too.
I ended up with Rick and Morty that actually did very well
but then ended up with a tragedy with a filter insurance.
And then I had a couple other two headed turtles
that just didn't thrive.
Well, finally, we ended up getting chopsticks
and chopsticks was a pretty, well-established two
headed turtle.
And we ended up keeping that VHB for about six months to
make sure that they got big and they've
about doubled their size and they are thriving.
And in the last few weeks we moved them over
to the rep terrarium.
And I'm telling you what they have been doing so well
over here and kids and everyone marveled when they come in
definitely two headed turtles are as much
of a hit as two headed snakes.
In the end, you might ask them
Why have an obsession
with two headed snakes to head, to turtles
To edit lizards.
If I ever get the opportunity to buy them
in it's really about education, right?
Number one, I think there are amazing animals
but number two, it really breaks the ice.
You know, when someone comes into the rep terrarium
where I'm doing an educational type of event
and I show them a two headed turtle or a two-headed snake
even people that might not be interested
or like what that has two heads
and it starts the conversation, right.
I can start talking to them
about reptiles and they are paying attention, right?
And it's a way to get people to kind of
start loving reptiles.
It's again, it's just, it's an attraction, right?
Both Ben and Jerry
and chopsticks are an attraction that people come to see.
And then ultimately, even when they're not
that interested in reptiles, they become more interested.
That's the reason I get those.
And that's the reason that I want all kinds
of really interesting animals is ultimately just
to get people to love these animals as much as I do.
And there you have it.
I hope that I'll have these two headed animals
and more two head animals for the rest of my career
Certainly Ben and Jerry
should be around for another 18 years
or something like that and so should chopsticks.
So it's pretty amazing.
If you enjoyed this video, here's a playlist I'd love
for you to just click one
or two videos that helps me tremendously.
Please do that for me.
You can also subscribe
to my podcast channel right up here, checking in.
I hope that you'll enjoy that. On this side.
We were getting close to 3 million.
Can you hit that subscription button for me?
Turn your post notifications on
have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember, be kind to somebody and I promise
I'll see you tomorrow.