- It's actually starting to eat my finger now.
- [Brian] Oh my god, it actually does have your finger--
- Yeah.
Oh my gosh, that is a huge clutch of Nigritis!
(upbeat music)
Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the vlog.
It is time to take down my screen here,
and see what exactly is going on with my girl Lucy here,
because I'm not gonna lie to you.
There's a little bit of bad news, and what I mean by that
is if you notice, it looks like Lucy is going into shed.
So, I'm actually gonna go inside,
get a little bit of a closer look.
I talked to my vet the other day.
She's actually coming tomorrow to take a look as well.
We're just gonna see what's going on.
Now, typically, what happens is when snakes go into a shed,
it's almost like they're trying to repair something, right?
Like, if they get a wound they'll go back into shed.
The fact that Lucy is going opaque again tells me that,
unfortunately, she is absolutely egg bound.
I mean, for whatever reason she didn't lay
the rest of her clutch.
So, we're gonna go inside, get a little bit of a look
at what's going on, try to problem solve this,
and tomorrow my vet will talk about it,
see what our next steps are,.
Maybe our next steps are just to wait to see what happens.
Sometimes, snakes just stop.
Sometimes they twist their oviducts.
Sometimes they tear their oviducts.
Sometimes there's a fold in the oviducts.
We don't really know what's going on,
so I'm gonna go and take a look.
I'm gonna get Eric and Bruce
to help me out a little bit here.
Guys, this is like worse-case scenario.
This is almost exactly why I didn't wanna breed Lucy,
is because I didn't want there to be complications.
Because, if my vet says that here in another week or
two we may have to do surgery on her to get those eggs out.
Let's go inside.
She is not gonna be in a good mood,
but let's just check it out.
(keys rattling)
So, no time like the present.
Let's get in here and just see what we can do.
(ominous music)
Come on girl.
Oh, she is--
Whoa, whoa, oh oh ho!
Oh my gosh, I don't know if this is gonna work.
I don't know, I was originally thinking,
if I could maybe get her--
so where I can see what she's got going on,
but to be honest with you, she does not look like
she's gonna allow that at all.
I've gotta somehow feel what's going on with those eggs.
See if they're close to the vent, or if they're pushed back.
Because, if they're close to the vent,
we might be able to aspirate them out.
But if they're closer up, wha--
Oh my gosh.
Guys, can you get me a paper towel roll?
I'm gonna get the old handy-dandy paper towel roll here,
just as protection because she is so fired up right now.
Oh my gosh.
(dramatic music)
Holy-moley.
Come on girl, you've gotta go that way.
(dramatic music)
Jesus.
This is so messed up.
Okay, let's see what she's got going on here.
See if there's any way that I can get her.
So, I might be able to keep her in her cage,
and actually feel around for her--
Ope, wah, whoa oh oh.
(dramatic music)
(snake spitting)
Oh my gosh, I tell you what.
This is crazy.
I don't know what I'm even gonna do here.
(panting)
Come on girl, come on girl.
Just calm down for me, baby.
I tell you what, when she's like this--
I mean, this kinda goes to show you.
How are we gonna anesthetize the snake
if we have to do surgery?
I have no idea what we're gonna do,
but I'm getting a closer look over here.
You can see, she is just fired up like no other.
(panting)
Wow, tell you what guys, this is next level.
I mean, I've never seen her like this at all.
But again, I've gotta feel those eggs.
So, I've got no choice but to keep going,
and hopefully I don't get bit.
We'll have to just--
We're gonna have to see what happens, I don't know.
(pole banging)
I don't even know what to do here.
I don't even know how I need to attack this thing.
(dramatic music)
(sighing)
Okay, girl, it's okay.
It's okay, come on, come on.
(grunting)
(snake spitting)
Okay, okay, okay.
Okay. (grunting)
(snake spitting)
Agh! Okay.
Jeez, come on!
Help me out here, girl!
Help me out here girl, come on.
(grunting)
Okay, got her tail end now.
Can start to feel what she's got gong on here.
Whoa!
(dramatic music)
Okay, okay.
(snake spitting)
Okay, (panting) all right.
So this is the deal, guys.
I could definitely feel that the eggs are close to the vent.
I can't tell if they're right at the vent or not.
But you can see how swollen she is, right here,
which tells me she's pushed all her eggs right down here.
I think it's a good sign, to be honest with you.
But, the fact that she's in shed, tells me,
again, that she's definitely egg bound.
Get a little bit of opinion from the vet,
but look it, she's just mouth open, ready to roll.
If I get any closer, it's just gonna be ridiculous.
My hook is down here, and I think for now guys,
that's where I'm gonna leave it.
I mean, I got a good feel for what's going on in there.
They're definitely still soft, which is a good sign.
So, I'll be able to at least update the vet tomorrow
with what I felt, get her opinion on what
the next steps are, and hopefully with any luck
my girl will start to plop an egg out here or there.
The clutch is gone, it's not gonna be good at this point.
Completely gone.
This is exactly why I didn't really
wanna breed Lucy last year,
and was reluctant this year.
Again, is because, you know what?
I don't care about the clutch of eggs.
I don't care about the babies.
What I care about is her life.
I don't want anything to happen to her,
so let's hope she'll pass those eggs.
Maybe getting her moving like this
will actually agitate her enough
to start pushing those eggs out.
(sighs) I don't know.
And guys, again, egg binding happens with snakes.
It's not like she didn't like the cage.
Moving her to her old cage would have been the worst thing,
because it would have stressed her out that much more.
I mean, she had a spot where she would certainly lay,
which is similar to what they would lay like in the wild.
So it's not a cage thing or an environment thing.
It's just, this is what happens.
Sometimes, when you breed snakes,
they get egg bound and we don't know why.
Until she either passes the egg or we go in there
in surgery and find out what's going on,
we won't know what the actual cause is.
But as for now, I'm gonna leave Lucy alone,
and we'll wait for tomorrow and we'll talk to the vet.
It's that time again guys!
Collecting some Colubrid eggs!
We're gonna start with this het albino scaleless
corn snake that is bred to an albino scaleless corn.
Let's see what she's got.
Oh my gosh, that is a gorgeous clutch of eggs.
Oh my gosh, I love it!
I tell you what, it's such an amazing experience.
Every time I open up a box and see a clutch of eggs.
I just love it to death, and it never gets old.
But, you know, I wanted to spend a little time with you
as I'm collecting several Colubrid clutches today,
talking about what kinda inspired me to get started
with breeding snakes.
Now, I've told the story a little bit,
so for those of you have heard it, all right.
You can hear it again.
For those of you that haven't,
you guys will get to know me a little bit better.
But anyways, let's go ahead
and count these eggs really quick.
Two, four, six, eight, 10, 12 beautiful eggs.
No slugs from that female, that is absolutely
a great way to start my day.
Eric, what are you doing again?
Every time I come out here. - Oh, just hanging.
Yep, it's actually starting to eat my finger now.
- [Brian] Oh my God, it actually does have your finger
kind of all the way down. - Yeah, it's--
- [Brian] Is this a female?
Has she laid or she's just--
- Yeah, it's a female.
Let's see here, no she hasn't laid yet, so.
- [Brian] Oh my God.
Well, it looks like she needs a little food.
- Good protein.
- [Brian] How's that feel?
- It doesn't feel good.
- [Brian] It doesn't feel-- (laughs)
What're you gonna do now?
- We'll probably take it over, run it under
some cold or warm water, and it should let right go.
Hopefully.
- [Brian] Okay, well get that off.
That poor snake is gonna eat your whole finger if you don't.
- I know, I can't believe I taste that good, huh?
(laughing)
- And here's the first Arizona Mountain
kingsnake clutch of the year.
This is actually just a normal that's bred
to an albino Arizona Mountain king.
Let's see what she laid.
Oh yeah, I love it!
That is great!
Last year, we didn't have a really good
Arizona Mountain kingsnake year.
So, the fact that we have the first clutch being really good
is truly an amazing sign, and hopefully one that means
that the rest of the year will be incredible, too.
Let's see how many eggs we have.
Two, four, six, seven good eggs!
That is a really good clutch.
And basically, guys, it's not that I just wanted to breed
snakes because I wanted to create
a business or make a ton of money.
Really, what it was is, I just wanted to work with animals.
At the time, it was just an opportunity.
You gotta remember, that goes way back into the late 80's
early 90's, when there really wasn't
a reptile business, per se.
It was just kind of a fledgling hobby.
In the entire state of Michigan, where I grew up,
there was like two pet shops that carried reptiles.
All the other pet shops didn't carry reptiles
or any reptile supplies.
This was before Zoo Med, before Exo-Terra, before Zilla.
All the companies that made all these products.
So, obviously there wasn't a market there.
I just thought, "Hey, maybe I could make a few bucks
so I could continue to work with animals,
and then eventually, maybe I become a zookeeper or a vet."
I didn't know what exactly, I just knew that reptiles
were an opportunity to maybe make a few bucks
to pay my way through college, and then hopefully
an opportunity would arise that I could work
with animals the rest of my life.
We actually got two Mexican black kingsnake clutches.
So you guys know you love the Mexican black kingsnakes.
Let's see what we have here.
The first clutch is a nice clutch here.
This is a little bit of a smaller girl,
so she laid a beautiful clutch of eggs.
Take a look at that, there's two, four, six beautiful eggs.
Let's go ahead and take a look at the momma.
Make sure she's okay.
Good job, mom, you did so amazing!
Definitely is gonna need a little bit of food.
She looks like she's pretty wore out,
but again, kingsnakes do that.
So it's really common
for them to look really kinda beat up.
After a couple meals, she is gonna look just
as right as rain, and hopefully, with any luck
we'll breed her again.
So, basically, again, it wasn't like I set out
to breed snakes for a living.
I just set out to do something that I could do,
that could continue to let me do what I love,
which is working with animals.
And I really never thought, in a million years,
that all these years later I would still be breeding snakes.
I always thought that I would move on
to something else in the more traditional animal world.
I didn't even think about TV or anything of that,
back in the time, because that was pre-Internet.
So there wasn't YouTube, and there was none of that,
so the opportunity to do television
was really, really small.
I mean, there was a couple TV shows that were wildlife.
Like, Mutual of Omaha and stuff like that.
It was even before Steve Erwin,
so the opportunities really weren't there.
I just thought I'd eventually, probably,
find my way into a zoo to be honest with you.
Then, this next Nigritis is absolutely a huge female.
Look at the size of her!
She doesn't even look that bad,
but oh, I tell you what, she is feisty right now.
She is ready for a meal, so I definitely
wanna get a meal into her right away,
because the sooner I get her some food,
the quicker she's gonna rebound
and hopefully produce a second clutch.
With the way she looks, oh yeah!
She is definitely ready to go.
Let's go ahead and see how many eggs there are.
I'm expecting a really good clutch.
Oh my gosh, that is a huge clutch of Nigritis!
Whoo doggie, two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 13 eggs!
Wow, that has to be a record for me.
I don't think I've ever had a 13 egg clutch before.
That is truly incredible, but I guess the reason
I was talking about this adventure of breeding snakes
and stuff like that, it's about
kind of capturing opportunities.
I kinda liken it, in a weird way, don't get me wrong,
it's not exactly like this, if you bought
into Amazon stock when it first opened.
You just were in the right place at the right time,
and that's kinda what happened to me
with the reptile world, right?
I was in the right place at the right when it was a hobby,
just starting to become a business,
and I just saw the opportunity.
Like, "Oh my god, I love working with snakes.
I love breeding and hatching snakes.
I've always loved that, so why not make this
into a potential business?"
And as my hobby grew into a business,
the hobby itself exploded in popularity.
I was really just in the right place at the right time.
Now, don't get me wrong.
That doesn't mean I didn't work my butt off,
because the one thing everyone has kinda said
about me, that knows me, is that I'm always (chuckles)
one of the hardest working guys that anyone met.
This happens to be a het strawberry diffused corn bred
to a het strawberry diffused corn.
Let's see what she has here.
Oh yeah, beautiful eggs.
Looks like one little slugger.
That's the first slug of the day,
and this is actually the last clutch of the day, too.
So let's go ahead, get this female out of here,
see what she's got going on and see what we ended up with.
Again, it looks like there's only one bad egg,
but let's go ahead and pull this clutch really quick.
Okay, not bad at all.
We got two, four, six, eight, 10, 11 good eggs
and one little slug.
And again, you can really see the difference.
That's a real kind of like gummy type of thing.
Let's check the female out, make sure she's in good shape.
There you go girl, all right sweet heart.
You did so good momma, way to go!
Not a bad way to end the day of egg pulling, too.
Again, I just wanna continue to always inspire you guys
that, when opportunity arises, it's all about (chuckles)
taking that opportunity.
The same thing with YouTube, you know?
We started YouTubing in the very beginning, when there
was really no other reptile channels on YouTube, really.
So we just said, "Hey, that's an opportunity."
We did the same thing with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
All that type of stuff.
And I think it's just one of those things that
you go after things that you're really excited about,
and you hope that they all work out, right?
In this case, it worked out
because three decades later,
here I am, still doing it.
Now, the reptile business side of things isn't as big
a part of my life when it comes to
the actual business side of it,
but it's certainly a big part of my life
when it comes to breeding.
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I enjoy this part of breeding,
hatching, all that other stuff,
so much more now that it's not my living.
Now that I don't pay my bills with it,
because now it's almost just like a glorified hobby.
I absolutely love this, and with that being said,
that concludes the story time of this vlog,
as well as the Colubrid egg pulling of this vlog.
Ball python clutches keep on coming, that's for sure.
But, I've never quite seen this before.
I'm not exactly sure (laughs) what kind
of a coil that is right there.
That is one crazy thing.
I don't know what momma's doing there.
Definitely gonna have to candle that one,
because I can guarantee you that the embryo isn't
on top here, and it's literally adhered and everything.
That is so weird.
So, anyways, this is obviously a pastel.
What was she bred to?
- A firebee. - A firebee.
So, of course, that would a pastel, a fire, and a spider.
So we could get some killer firebees
and all kinds of different--
- Whoo!
- Oh! That egg just dropped a little bit.
Oh, that's a nice clutch right there.
It was a much larger clutch than I expected.
Because the female was kinda laying down on it,
didn't really see it.
Wow, that's a nice clutch!
Obviously, this one right here
we're definitely gonna candle,
just to make sure that, that's okay.
But I'm pretty sure that's where it's gonna be,
the actual embryo right there.
Kelsey's just kinda getting these guys
off of the paper right here.
Got a nice clutch here.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Good job mom, you did really good.
And we ended up with--
- One, two, three, four, five, eight!
- Eight beautiful eggs, and that's
the last clutch of the day?
- Yes.
- Okay, good, and lots females to come.
So, eight more eggs added to the incubator.
I tell you what, guys, I'll go ahead and end the vlog here,
and I will keep you updated on Lucy
and everything else that's going on.
Again, my vet comes tomorrow.
I don't think we're gonna get any major answers,
but we're gonna kinda start to work our way through it,
and hopefully there'll be a good solution
that ends up keeping Lucy healthy.
That's it, I will never breed her again.
I'm not gonna even take that risk.
I do not wanna lose that animal.
So, fingers crossed.
Continue to send positive vibes to me.
As for now, have a wonderful day.
You guys are absolutely incredible and I love you so much.
Be kind to someone, and I promise I'll see you tomorrow.
(upbeat music)