- Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start to your day is incredible.
Or if it's the afternoon or evening,
I hope that's incredible for you as well.
We have a pretty busy day today.
It's kind of a rainy day, which means one thing, right?
That it should be a good breeding day for our pythons.
So let's head down to the dungeon,
and I'm going to give you a little tutelage
on what I'm thinking about where we're at
with the breeding season.
So like I mentioned, it's actually a little stormy outside
which causes a little bit more breeding.
We actually gave our males three days off this week.
And that's one of the things you have to do is
really kind of understand where your animals are.
Sometimes giving them a few day break to breeding
will really cause the breeding to go better
once you get them back in.
So with the fact that it's kind of stormy outside
and we've given a few days,
I'm assuming when I get my males in today,
I'm going to have a really heavy breeding day.
Now the barometric pressure today is 29.9.
I really like to see that about 29.7,
when I see a really big increase in breeding.
Again keep an eye on barometric pressure.
When it starts to drop, that's when you're going
to see a lot of breeding.
And of course, right now we're in that stage
of the breeding season where we're just trying
to get males in with females, period.
It's no real art to it.
There's no real science to it.
It's just literally taking a male from this cage
to this cage to this cage
and continuing to do that as much as we can.
We've been doing that for about three weeks now.
We're starting to enter into the next phase.
And that phase is where we're going to start ultrasounding.
That's when the science comes in,
and then the art is kind of on top of that science.
What I mean by that is then I will stop breeding
just random females, but I'll start to breed
specific females to specific males during certain times.
When I see a female get to 12 millimeters, 15 millimeters,
20 millimeters, 30 millimeters,
I want to get males in at specific times, right?
So then the ultrasounding becomes a huge part.
We'll probably do their first massive ultrasound
at about seven to 10 days from now.
That's when the males will really need
to be in with the right females at the right time.
And then a lagging female gets a male just whenever I can,
in hopes that that copulation will cause her
to start growing follicle growth.
Now, the other thing we start doing now
and we already have started is really starting
to increase the food to the females.
Now really we'll go one, two rats a week on the off season.
Now I'm going to go two, three, even four rats a week.
Now getting males in with females
that are growing follicles, feeding really well,
and that's in this den where you start to see the pops.
I'm also going to pay attention to the actual females
and where they're at in the cage.
If they're on the hotspot, that's a bad sign.
If they're on the cool side, bowl wrapping, cool side
of the cage, that means they're starting to grow follicles,
getting receptive for actually breeding,
all those types of things.
So we're in that stage where the kind of just, you know,
throwing males in randomly is about to end.
And the actual art and science starts
to become where it's at.
That's where that 25, 30 years of experience
of breeding ball pythons really comes in.
So pay attention to your animals,
pay attention to barometric pressure,
pay attention to how you want to rest your animals,
and you're gonna have a lot of success.
This was what I was a little concerned about, guys.
I didn't put a latch on the door for Matilda
and guess who decided to understand
how to get out of her cage.
So she just pushed the door open.
The thing about tortoises, they're so smart
that now that she knows she can do this,
I have to put a latch on it,
'cause she's going to get out every single time.
That's what she does, but I'll just go ahead
and let her walk around for now.
As you can see, I have two really kind of completely
different lights, right?
We've got BHB that I've done for my whole life, basically.
And now over the last two, two and a half years
I've got The Reptarium
which is really a very different thing.
They're both taking care of animals
but they're both really different aspects of it.
One is trying to figure out the best way
to get him to breed, you know,
that way I want him to be happy,
I want him to be clean.
I want him to be productive.
I want to work with really cool animals.
And then on the other side,
we've got The Reptarium where I'm really looking
at behavior and training
and just kind of learning the enrichment of the animals,
getting them super docile
so that people can actually interact with them.
And it's a tricky thing, you know, we wanna make sure
that everyone can hold animals like Sunrise here
but we also want to make sure that she isn't stressed out.
And that's a lot of ways we can learn here,
much like I read the animals over there.
It's the way that they feed, the way that they react,
the way they're laying, when you see them in the cage
and they seem to be really relaxed, that's a good thing.
When they're feeding, that's a good thing
because a healthy snake that's not stressed out
will typically eat really well and act really good.
So we're really doing the same behavioral cues here
as we do over at BHB, the only difference is over at BHB,
we're using those cues to see
when we can actually breed them.
Here at The Reptarium, we're learning the animals
and what can keep them the happiest that they possibly are,
because a happy reptile is going to be a reptile
that's going to be amazing to have an experience with.
What do I spy over here?
It looks like my guy, RJ, is hanging out on top of his wall.
Yeah, he actually does climb up here pretty often.
Hey, buddy, how are you? You don't have to go back.
You can stay, good, stay, right there.
I'm not going to mess with you.
I'm going to walk right by you.
You're okay, buddy, you're all right, it's all right.
He actually likes climbing up here,
and I think it just gives him a different view, right?
He can see things, he kind of enjoys it,
and stuff like that, so I guess Matilda can let herself out
of her cage, so so can RJ.
We have a lot of first-year males this year.
Now they're a year and a half old,
just like this Killer Clown Leopard right here.
And basically getting these guys to breed is
a little bit difficult.
Sometimes they'll breed right off the bat.
Sometimes it takes them a little while.
You can't really give up on them, right?
But I really want these males to be about 6 to 800 grams.
Don't want them to be much more.
This one's about 650 grams.
And this last time he was in with a female
it was the first time I saw him courting.
So for the last three weeks,
I've been popping him in with females
and he's just been laying there.
Well, finally I saw him courting.
That's the first sign that I see that I might potentially
get some breeding from it.
Another thing you can do is you can check for sperm plugs
and I'll show you how I do that right now.
So you can basically see the maturity of a male
and if it's ready to breed to see
if it's actually producing sperms
and you can just actually avert the hemipenes
by popping them out like this.
And you can see there's not very much
in the way of sperm plugs right now.
A little white on the top of those hemipenes right there.
And sometimes people even say young males,
if you avert their hemipenes, maybe once or twice a day,
it actually increases the likelihood
that they'll potentially breed.
And I've seen that happen where
when you start first averting, you can see
these hemipenes aren't like big full adult hemipenes,
but they're kind of in between.
Well, the more you avert them, the more, believe it or not,
they start to grow into adult hemipenes.
I know that sounds weird, but it actually does work.
So it's another little trick.
Check for sperm plugs, number one.
And number two, if you avert your males every now and then
when they're young, sometimes it can get them to breed.
I know that sounds weird, but trust me,
it's a technique that works.
If you like this type of kind of old school vlogs, you know,
where I'm talking about snake breeding and stuff like that,
I know a lot of people say they miss that stuff,
not only will I continue to do that
through this winter so that I can help you guys out
and kind of share all that experience,
but also we started doing a Saturday night solo snake talk,
myself and Jay, and we're talking all about snake stuff
for an hour and a half or two hours literally,
I talk about this type of stuff.
So if you want to get lots of information,
definitely link in the description to checking-in podcasts,
Saturday nights, myself solo with Jay,
I guess they're not solo 'cause Jay's in there too,
but we just talk about a ton of snake knowledge.
So definitely join us over there.
I think you guys will really enjoy it.
You know, just like being into reptile breeding
for 30-something years, you know,
there was a lot to learn, right.
And when I was two years into breeding snakes
maybe I thought I knew a lot.
Now looking back, I didn't know anything,
and I still have a lot to learn there too.
And I remember Jay over at Prehistoric Pets told me
when I was going to open up The Reptarium
that I didn't realize how much
I was going to have to learn, you know?
And he was right, in two, two and a half years,
we've learned so much about keeping animals on display,
letting people hold animals, the experience level,
all the things that we've had to do.
And trust me, 30 years from now when I'm into this,
I'm sure that I'll look back on this time
and think how little I knew too, right?
So we have to continue to keep learning
and evolving constantly, and that has a lot to do
with reading the animals and how it makes them happy.
Like I said, I have no doubt that we're gonna continue
to evolve to better and better keepers
and better and better environments for these animals
over at The Reptarium as well.
And I can't be more excited about the future.
Remember how I was talking about,
I want my females to be at the front of the cage, right?
This girl is kind of leaning to the front.
This girl is totally up to the front.
That's as far away from the heat spot
as they can get, they're actually thermoregulating.
And when the females start to want to cool off,
that again tells me that they're ready
to start producing follicles.
So this is a great sign.
Now, even a better sign, if she's actually wrapped
around a bowl, that means that she's almost, like,
kind of getting cool with the water in the bowl as well.
So bowl wrapping is another thing you definitely
want to pay attention to.
I'm trying to kind of continue to share all those secrets
that I've had for so many years.
This is actually a Woma Lesser HET Paintball Python
which is a really cool animal.
It's one of my smaller younger males, to be honest with you.
And basically what I find is
that in the beginning of the breeding season,
males will eat a lot.
As a matter of fact, every single male
that we're breeding this year,
only one didn't eat this last weekend, it was in shed.
So in the beginning of the breeding season,
males will turn on to food.
The same thing happens with females.
Once you start putting males and females together,
they start going crazy for food.
So I had a couple females that were on hunger strike
for, like, five and a half months.
And as soon as I started breeding
over the last couple weeks, they started feeding again.
It's a great way to go.
Now, one of the things I've noticed is
that once a male, especially a smaller male like this,
that's a year and a half old, and again,
this is the smallest male we have this year
as far as breeding goes, once it goes off of food
I've noticed that you've got about 10, 11 weeks of breeding.
And if you breed beyond that point, you definitely
will have a problem where they start to crash, right?
You don't want to kill your males, right?
So we keep track of when they're feeding
and when they go off of food.
Some males will feed right through the breeding season.
A lot of males will breed for maybe a month or two
and then go off of food.
And then all they're thinking about is breeding.
They don't want to feed any more.
That means you basically have 10, 12 weeks at the tops,
you need to shelf that male,
'cause if you push it beyond that
you could potentially kill it.
So although those two kind of completely different worlds
with BHB and Reptarium are different in some ways,
in a way they're the same too.
And the fact is, is I'm equally as passionate
with both of them.
I think that obviously The Reptarium is where my future is
as far as like, you know, the education, behavior side,
enrichment side, all that type of stuff.
But it doesn't mean that I don't still love
the whole process for breeding snakes over at BHB.
And I feel really lucky that I get to experience
both that side and this side.
And I really want you guys to be successful
if you ever decide to breed snakes.
That's why I share the all these years
of experience with you guys
'cause I want you to do it and enjoy it and have fun,
'cause before you know it,
you're going to have some beautiful baby snakes,
just like this one that we produced this year,
which of course was this
Banana Enchi Mojave Clown Ball Python.
It is so rewarding when you work hard,
again it starts in November, December.
It goes all the way through sometimes June,
breeding every single day,
but in the end you produce amazing animals.
And that is really the key to success.
Not only breeding snakes, but everything, right,
is to be consistent, don't give up.
If you skip a week or two,
probably not going to be successful.
So make sure you do it every single day.
And what the heck, while I'm showing off
a cool Banana Clown, how about this one right here?
This is actually a Banana Leopard Clown Ball Python.
Look at the color and contrast on that animal.
Whoo, doggie, I tell you what, that thing is a river.
And I honestly enjoy the whole process
of the breeding season.
I like, you know, thinking about what males
and females to put together.
I enjoy putting them together. I enjoy the feeding.
I enjoy the progress of follicle growth,
but in the end it is always about the baby snakes, isn't it?
That's what we do this for.
And this one here is a Fire Cinny Yellow Belly Cypress.
And I tell you what, that's it, right?
In the beginning of the year, it's like,
you're dreaming of what you could potentially
hatch out of those eggs.
You know, the possibilities are endless.
And this year we have a lot of really great combinations.
So with diligence, hard work, we're gonna have
an absolutely incredible year,
and like I've been mentioning,
I'm going to take you guys along on the journey
and hopefully help your journey
if you decide you ever want to breed snakes.
So let me know down in the comments,
if you guys enjoy kind of more
of the integral breeding knowledge that I wanna share
with you guys, or you want to see Reptarium,
whatever you guys want to do, or do you want a mix,
let me know in the comments what you guys think.
I enjoy both worlds so I want to make sure
you guys are happy about it.
If you did enjoy this video, you want to learn more
about breeding, right here is a playlist
of a bunch of breeding snakes and stuff like that.
Up here, you can subscribe to that podcast channel
I was talking about where you can learn a lot there too.
On this side, please help me get to three million.
We are getting close, guys, so hit the subscription button.
Turn your post notifications on, everything.
Have an absolutely wonderful day.
Remember, be kind to someone,
and I promise I'll see you tomorrow.