- Guess what, guys.
Today is the day, the pumpkin ball python reveal.
That's right, they've hatched out.
I told you, I was so excited about this project.
I've been working on it for years,
and finally, the first babies have crawled out,
and I am blown away!
I cannot believe how awesome they are.
Remember when we cut this clutch just a few days ago?
Oh, my Gosh.
Oh, whoa, whoa!
What in the fricking world is that?
Wow, look at that one too!
Super reduced.
This looks like the same type of gene as the first one here.
It, guys, it is so clean.
It is ridiculous!
Oh, my gosh, this pumpkin gene is gonna be a banger!
And of course, this is the dad.
I've showed him a bunch.
This is the pumpkin male,
but it's actually a cinnamon pumpkin.
Now, what it was actually bred from
is a cinnamon male that was bred to a pinstripe female,
and when this popped out, I said, wait a second,
this doesn't look like a normal cinnamon to me
by any stretch.
It had that really beautiful kind of orangey look to it.
Now, we actually produce a bunch of world's first,
almost every year we do,
and a lot of people do to be honest with you,
but base morphs are really difficult.
There's difference between combo morphs and a base morph.
With a base morph, it's actually much more rare,
and to be totally honest with you,
the last base morph that we produced
was the sunset ball python.
Now, we actually imported a baby male sunset ball python
way back in the day, cost us $70,000,
and we thought for sure it was gonna be a co-dominant
or incomplete dominant animal.
Turned out that it was a recessive animal.
took us six or seven years before we finally proofed it out.
Of course, right around that same time,
we actually did produce the scaleless ball python
that was a base morph as well,
and that's, again, not something that's easy to do.
So it's been quite a few years
since we actually had a base morph
like the pumpkin ball python prove out.
So we're just super excited to be
kinda pioneering this thing and figuring it out.
That's the fun part, right?
We're still trying to figure out what is going on.
So what do you say we go over
and take a look at these babies,
and we'll go ahead and do the reveal,
and let me know what you guys think about 'em
down in the comment.
And here's all these babies.
And I tell you what, I'm sitting here trying
to figure this all out myself
because there is a tremendous amount of diversity,
but I really think that the pumpkin
really bleeds through with some of this stuff.
And I'm gonna go ahead
and start with this animal right here.
This is actually a Super Enchi
that is not a pumpkin, okay?
It's just a Super Enchi ball python right here.
Now, this is the Super Enchi pumpkin,
and you can certainly see the difference
of that pumpkin influence with this animal.
I mean, wow, that is absolutely incredible
how those two animals are the same genetics,
just one is a pumpkin gene.
And I've got a few other examples in here
that I'm gonna show you.
Take, for instance, this one here is actually
a Super Enchi pinstripe, right?
We've produced these in the past
and they're absolutely beautiful,
but you add the pumpkin gene in and, oh, my gosh,
the orange just pops!
It cleans up a tremendous amount,
and it is really, truly a stunning animal.
Moving onto the same ilk basically.
It's so cool that we have the combos here
that we can show what it looks like with
and without the pumpkin.
This happens to be a Super Enchi spinner right here.
And then take a look at these three right here.
These would be the Super Enchi spinner pumpkins,
and they don't look as orange obviously
but they certainly clean up that animal.
Unbelievable.
I mean, the amount of cleanliness
that pumpkin gene adds to the spider gene,
and that pinstripe gene, and just the contrast.
Oh, my gosh, that is absolutely ridiculous!
So we're really able to see the difference in the influence
of what that pumpkin gene is actually doing.
I couldn't be more excited with the way these turned out.
And then this one is kind of on its own.
This is what I'm almost positive would be actually
a Enchi, a spider, a cinnamon, and a pumpkin.
That's right, that looks like all those genes,
because an Enchi cinni spider actually isn't as clean
as this animal and it has some orange coming through.
So I told ya, we actually rocked it
with this clutch of eggs right now.
I cannot be more happier with what ended up hatching out.
Now the question is is what do I do with 'em?
And I'll keep you guys up-to-date
on the way these guys shed out and grow,
'cause I have a feeling that when these guys get 300 grams,
oh, my goodness, they are gonna be incredible.
But wasn't that incredible to reveal
a brand new base gene, the pumpkin gene?
I tell you what, we've got four more clutches to hatch,
and I am pretty darn excited about it.
And by the way, welcome to the vlog, reptile army.
I hope the start of your day is absolutely fantastic,
and speaking of reptile army, do me a favor,
join the army over at reptilearmy.com.
We're about to drop six or eight new designs next week
hopefully if everything goes well.
So there's gonna be some new stuff for everyone,
and we're gonna continue to do it.
Again, it's all for education.
Reptilearmy.com.
- So we just found out that Mike has a fear of spiders.
The fearless man has a fear.
What the heck?
So we gotta snap this outta here,
because Mikey's so burly, he's so strong,
he's like a, he's like a red oak.
He said that he wants to do the Brazilian Black.
There's no way I'm touching it.
- No!
- [Spider Handler] There's no way I'm touching that thing.
- [Mike] Why, why?
- That thing's fast!
Okay, Mike, here we go.
The Brazilian Black. - I'm shaky.
- If you don't know. - I'm actually shaky.
- You are? - Yeah.
- [Spider Handler] All right, how about you just touch it?
Just touch it.
- No, I don't wanna get hairs on me.
- What do you mean you don't wanna get hairs?
- Just do it. - All right.
Are your hands sweaty?
Because if they are...
- No, it's Nike, just do it.
- [Spider Handler] If your hands are sweaty,
it's not good for the skin.
Here we go.
(Mike groans)
I'm just gonna let a foot touch your thingy.
Look at that. - I don't want it to touch
my thingy. - Dude, it feels
like a cloud, man.
- [Mike] No, stop.
- [Spider Handler] Oh, okay, here we go.
Whatever you do, don't drop.
Ow, my back is spazzing.
Ow, one of my vertebrae is going out of whack.
- Oh, I'm gonna make the other one go outta whack.
- Breathe, remember to breathe.
If you don't breathe, you just pass out.
Look at it, man.
It's like...
- I'm looking at it and it's a spider sitting in my hand,
and I'm freaking out, every muscle.
- [Camera Man] Maybe if you get it further away,
you'll be better.
- Aw, look at that!
- [Spider Handler] There you go.
- [Mike] Oh, please don't move on me.
Somebody take it.
- [Spider Handler] Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.
- I'm not comfortable!
I would pass out by a few more minutes.
- [Spider Handler] All right,
I don't even know how to grab it
honestly. - Just like that.
Take it, take it, take it, take it.
- Yeah, I did. - Look at that.
- [Spider Handler] Wasn't that bad.
What's wrong?
Look at him.
- I hate spiders.
- It's been about a week since we've got Grits,
the white-throat monitor,
and he is just absolutely a wonderful animal.
Love these guys.
There's actually four species of rock monitor.
These guys are the ones that are from South Africa.
I actually had the pleasure of seeing these in the wild
when I was in South Africa once,
and it's absolutely incredible.
Now, these guys are one of the bigger ones.
I mean, they will get really large,
you know, up to maybe six foot,
but most of 'em stay about four, four and a half foot.
And interestingly enough,
their main diet is really more bugs
than it is protein from meats and stuff like that.
And about 80% of their diet in the wild,
believe it or not, is centipedes.
That's right, centipedes.
Can you imagine these guys eating centipedes all the time?
But in captivity, they will eat the occasional rodent
and the occasional meat,
but you don't want too much of it
because, again, they'll get like
the fatty liver disease, right?
They get too big.
And I'll be totally honest with you,
this guy's a little bit chunky right now.
So it's probably been on more of a meat diet
than it actually should have been before we got it.
So we're gonna be keeping it mainly
on a bug diet with the occasional meat.
Maybe once every other week
we'll give him a little bit of meat.
In the meantime, he's gonna be on primarily a bug diet.
So we'll feed him, obviously not millipedes or centipedes,
but we're gonna feed him cockroaches,
we're gonna feed him some super worms,
you know, different things like that.
Regardless, really cool animal, super amazing.
I will tell you, these guys don't smell like maple syrup
like the black-throat monitors.
And speaking of black-throat monitors,
and of course we have Flapjack,
the black-throat monitor, right here,
and he does not like that camera too much.
He's calming down but still not super calm.
Definitely don't wanna get bit by this guy,
there's no doubt about that.
But as it gets bigger,
it's gonna absolutely tame out.
But look at this little monkey right here.
Look at him, he's got such an attitude.
Now this is the largest of the four species of rock monitor,
but unlike the white-throats that come from South Africa,
these guys come up north into Tanzania,
and these are, like I said, the largest.
They can get seven or eight foot long and up to 60 pounds.
And once again, unlike the white-throat monitor,
they will eat some bugs here and there,
but their primary diet in the wild
is actually different animals.
You know, gonna be birds, rodents, stuff like that.
So these guys are primarily on a meat diet,
although we give him lots of bugs and stuff like that
just to kinda keep him calm.
But as he's growing, he's starting to mellow out
a little bit more and more.
I still don't wanna get bit by this guy, that's for sure.
What he'll do sometimes is he'll actually
start hanging onto your hand with his leg
so that when he turns around he'll actually get ya,
which is something I definitely don't wanna happen.
Just like that.
See how he's grabbing onto my hand
so I can't get away from him?
And then if he turns around,
now I'm gonna be in big trouble, right?
And I have a bad reaction
to this particular guy's venom for sure.
So I don't want anything to happen.
But I'm telling you what, when he gets older,
when he's, you know, six foot, seven foot...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Whew, I tell you, he is a smart little monkey.
He holds on with those back feet,
and he's like, "I'm gonna get you! I'm gonna get you!"
It's okay, little buddy.
And like I said, the reason this guy is called Flapjack
is he actually does smell like maple syrup.
Like I said, the white-throat monitors
don't have that smell.
I have no idea why these guys smell like that,
but it's absolutely incredible.
And he is getting so big and so beautiful.
What an absolutely amazing animal.
So it's really cool that we have
both a black-throat and a white-throat,
two of the four species of the rock monitors from Africa.
I tell you what, I love it and I can't wait
'til this guy is as calm as Grits.
Don't have too many colubrid clutches left
for first clutches, do we?
- No, not many.
- [Man] Right, are you gonna, are you sure?
Are you starting to work on second clutches?
- Yeah, some of those first ones
will probably be doing a shed.
- [Man] What's the thing that you're most excited about?
- What?
- [Man] What clutch is like, oh, my God, that was so cool,
or is it just none of them?
- Of the ones that have been layering?
- Yeah.
- There's a few.
Obviously I'm excited for gray bands.
- [Man] Oh, yeah.
That's right, yeah. - It's been a long time
since we produced those.
I have, we have a couple cool corn snake options
that we'll see with the different, you know,
scaleless groups and some different genes in there.
- You know what I'm excited about?
And she hasn't laid yet.
Is she getting close as the Mexican pine?
- Oh, actually she's due any time.
So she hadn't laid yesterday.
I haven't checked today.
- That's, you know, the thing I love about that is that,
you know, we've never produced those before.
So this will be the first time.
That's what I always am excited.
I love producing everything,
but when we produce something that we've never produced,
that's pretty awesome.
And they are cool snakes.
- Yeah, they are. - She looks pretty cool.
She looks good.
- I mean, she looked good to me, so we'll see.
- Fingers crossed.
So keep up the good work.
Hopefully the first eggs are hatching
in less than about two weeks.
That's pretty amazing.
And speaking of that Mexican pine,
let's see if she's laid today.
Here she is right here, and she is due any time.
I see some eggs.
I see eggs!
Oh, my God, I see eggs.
Hey, let's look and see if she's done yet.
(groans)
There's not that many good eggs in there,
but there are a couple good eggs.
It looks like two or three eggs and then a bunch of slugs.
So that's a little bit disappointing,
but let's go ahead and pull 'em anyways.
So like I said, it is definitely a disappointment.
I was really excited about this clutch
'cause we had never actually produced them before,
but we'll go ahead, get her out,
and we'll see how many eggs she actually does have.
Like I mentioned, I don't know.
She's a first time female.
Sometimes first time females have a little bit of an issue,
and they are giant eggs.
So let's go ahead, get her out of here really quick.
We might have to take these eggs out first.
So these are the good eggs right here.
We'll go ahead and set them down,
and then we'll just go ahead and get mama back in here.
It looks like she did good as far as laying all her eggs.
Absolutely gorgeous snake, there's no doubt about that.
Now again, two good eggs.
Look at how big those eggs are though.
I mean, those are giant eggs for sure,
but unfortunately, she had two, four, six bad eggs.
So she woulda had eight fertile eggs
if she woulda had them all fertile.
That would have been an amazing clutch.
In the meantime, hey, we've got two.
If we hatch out two, I will be super excited,
and I would be willing to bet
with another year age on her next year,
she'll end up laying a hundred percent fertile clutch.
So, hey, little bit disappointing, but still,
the first Mexican pine eggs that I've ever produced.
- I know this actually seems kinda weird for me,
especially cause like I've been so slow going
and really, really just trying
to get him used to my presence,
and I'm at a point now where I'm pretty sure
he's used to my presence, mainly 'cause it's like he's,
he's more or less angry about me trying to touch him,
not necessarily about me being here anymore.
So now I'm just trying to touch him and get him used to that
and get him kind of breaking of that.
I also want him to also realize that my hands and my arms
are a place to basically be like a piece of tree.
You know, like an arm, like I don't wanna grip him,
or grab him, or restrain him.
So if he's gonna go, I wanna push him in
and support him in a direction he's gonna go
and not feel like he's gonna hurt himself
or potentially like stress him out any further.
So it's definitely worth all the time and effort.
He's definitely come a long, long way.
I mean, he's still a little bit nervous and stuff like that,
but honestly I have nothing but faith
this guy's gonna be amazing.
- Hope you guys enjoyed today's video,
and let me know in the comments
what you thought about the pumpkin balls.
I am certainly excited about it.
Over on this side, you can watch an entire playlist
of me getting baby snakes.
On this side, please do me a favor,
hit that subscription button.
Have an absolutely wonderful day, reptile army.
Remember, be kind to someone.
And I promise, I'll see you in the next one.