- So you wanna open up your own reptile zoo?
I'm about to tell you how.
And you guys know
that I spent about $1.5 million to open up the reptarium.
Obviously, not everyone has that kinda money
but doesn't mean that you can't have your own reptile zoo.
I'm gonna show you what I think you really need
and how you can potentially do it.
You can certainly start small,
but the one thing you're absolutely going to need
is animals.
So I'm gonna to give you a list of animals
that I think are a must when it comes to a reptile zoo.
The first one being a nice big snake like Sunrise
and now bio burn is perfect by the way.
And you can take out
and actually have people around their neck
or something like this.
This is the education ambassador animal,
and everyone needs their Britany moment.
Again, not everyone's gonna be able
to have an extravagant enclosure like Lucy's here
that costs a lot of money.
But I do think having a really giant Python
is a great thing.
Even if you can't take that Python out,
just for people to come in and look and say, oh my gosh,
there's a 20 foot snake.
I mean, it is a game changer
when it comes to getting people into the reptile zoo.
Mike, what the heck are you doing?
- I'm a gecko.
- I think every reptile zoo
definitely needs a tame monitor lizard.
I really think that either a black-throated monitor
or like Elvis here,
the Asian water monitor is the way you go.
The big thing is, is to get a captive bred one
If you can get an F two, F three generation
on the wild captive one, they become super tame
and super habituated.
'Cause listen, when you take out an animal like this
and it's like a pet dinosaur, people really freak out.
Elvis is definitely one of the animals
that turns more heads when it comes to kids.
They're like, oh my gosh!
It literally looks like a dinosaur.
And he's super, super docile.
So definitely like an Asian water monitor,
or a black-throated monitor, that's gonna be super tan,
big and really impressive.
It's an absolute must.
- When you're opening up a zoo,
if you're really determined you have to have wet floors
all the time, no drainage in any of the cages,
you have to hand get all that stuff out.
That was a really bad motion.
All of your employees have to wear bright color
so it stands out.
- Hazmat suits is preferable.
- Yeah.
- We just don't want any more viruses being spread.
- True, you could just put a mask on.
- Safety is number one option
when it comes to opening a reptile zoo.
- Well, I think number one's actually the animal's part,
but-
- And the wet floors. - Yeah
- Ball Python. You've gotta have a ball Python, right?
They're nice, bigger size animal
but not too big that kids can't handle them.
Helen here is amazing.
Obviously, she's a no idle ball python.
You're not gonna be able to get something like that.
But any ball python is really amazing.
It's gonna draw a lot of people in.
You can definitely break that fear down
with the ball python on, right?
Because they don't move fast.
They're just absolutely amazing.
Ball pythons, a must for any reptile zoo.
- You know what else we need, Mike?
- What? - Lots of lizards.
Lizards that walk like this?
(tense music)
- No, no, no, no.
We need lizards that walk like this.
(tense music)
- No, no, no, lizards that walk like this.
(tense music)
- On a completely different side note guys,
we actually launch this merch.
You can go over to reptilearmy.com. That's right.
An entire danger noodle line.
Again think impressive animals.
Animals that people are gonna come in
and go, wow, that is amazing.
- Tegus are a great option, especially Argentines.
Whether it's black and white,
blue Argentines or red Argentines or albinos.
Whatever the case may be, they're just incredible.
They'll walk around, kids can pet them, they're really cool.
They're super social animals
and they're just really impressive.
The largest lizard in South America of course.
You can usually train him to go back home on his own.
Go back home, Terrence.
Yeah, every zoo needs one of these.
A friendly tarantula.
I know tarantulas aren't for everybody.
This happens to be a Brazilian black tarantula.
You can get a rose hair, a red knee, whatever.
You just gotta make sure that it's a mellow animal.
But we have some tarantulas that people can look at as well
that are really cool too.
Tarantulas bring a lot of attention.
There's no doubt you need something that's really amazing.
So get a tarantula wall.
Hey, the more tarantulas, the better.
- The desert part.
The desert part's gotta have snow.
- Desert's gotta have snow? Typically a camel or two.
- The horses where in the desert.
- Horses can't go in a desert.
- When you walk under the trees,
there's gotta be animals hanging from the trees
like monkeys, they're stealing stuff outta people's purses
running back up in the trees.
- Spiderwebs, real life spiderwebs.
You're gonna have an arachnid wall,
make it an interactive environment
just camel spiders in the desert area.
- Again, everyone's gonna have a different budget.
You can start smaller if you want to.
But if you can afford a cow reticulated python
it's an amazing animal.
I mean Perdida is one of the most popular snakes
we've ever had.
There's something about that kinda white on a snake
that makes people wanna hold them, right?
When you see a black and white snake
or something that has that pattern
people are like, "I wanna hold it."
We literally have people come in that are afraid of snakes.
That won't hold anything.
But then when we pull Perdida out,
they're like I'll hold that one
even though she's a 10 foot snake.
So definitely if you can afford a cow,
it's a great investment.
But if you can't afford a cow reticulated python,
'cause I realize,
hey we're trying to keep you guys on a budget.
We want you to fulfill your dream
of opening up your own reptile zoo.
You can actually substitute for a piebald ball python.
These guys are, you know, like $400 or something like that.
And they still have that white, they have that contrast.
It's another snake that people look at and go,
"oh my gosh! I've gotta hold that snake."
And that's the whole idea, is getting people excited.
Whether they're holding or even just looking at it
through a cage.
Not every reptile zoo you're able to hold things, right?
You wanna have animals that people are drawn to.
So pieds are great options.
- We get lizards that go backwards.
(tense music)
- No, no, no.
This is how you gotta get the lizard to walk.
(tense music)
- I don't know, I think it's time for ice cream
- Take a look at files, the alligator snapping turtle.
This is an impressive animal.
You know, and again, this enclosure costs a lot.
You don't have to spend this much money on an enclosure
to have a really awesome enclosure
for an alligator snapping turtle, but I'm telling you,
I'm just giving you a list of the animals
that we get the biggest ohs and wows outta here.
When people come into the reptarium,
the alligator snapper, everyone seems to love them.
So if you can get one, go ahead and get one.
And you guys have to meet the newest lizard
that we brought here.
The ice-cream eating Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Look at these little monkeys here.
Of course, this is my alligator enclosure.
Listen, an alligator is a really impressive animal.
If you have the space, the time, look at these guys.
Hey, what are you doing over here, buddy?
They're are so funny.
And if you have an opportunity to work
with maybe at Gatorland or another type of zoo
that actually can give you small alligator
and then you can exchange them out when they get bigger,
that's really cool
because I always wanna keep a bunch of small alligators
on step so that people can actually feed them
and do stuff like that.
Crocodilians as a whole is amazing.
And alligators are definitely the puppy dog
of the crocodile world.
Get back in there, you silly monkey.
- Hey guys, the other thing when opening up a zoo-
- There's a few animals you have to have.
- Monkeys
- Spoon billed duck-
- Slew-footed movies.
- Giraffes, - Lions.
- Scooby serpents.
- Mermaids- - And a dodo bird.
- No, you can't have that one. Birds stink.
- No, they're extinct.
- That's what I said. Instinct.
- Makes sense? - Sure
- Definitely tortoises. The bigger, the better.
And listen, not everyone can afford an Aldabra tortoise
'cause of course you know, they're thousands of dollars.
I mean something like Matilda might be 20, $25,000.
So that's expensive.
But hey a sulcata can actually work.
And they get relatively big.
They get almost the size of Matilda right now.
Just a little bit smaller than that
and are super impressive.
There's just something about tortoises that kids love
and everyone loves.
So have tortoises. There's no doubt about it.
And if you can afford a big one, get a big one.
You know, everybody has to have a cool bearded dragon.
The cooler the bearded dragon,
the better the bearded dragon.
Of course play in flaming hot Cheetos is an amazing animal.
He's a great animal ambassador.
So you can kinda start to see
how I'm building out the zoo, right?
I want things that are gonna be huge attractions
that are gonna look really good.
Draw people's attention.
Whether you're having people hold it,
or they're just looking behind an enclosure.
That's how you get started
with a really successful reptile zoo.
- Obviously most important, no locks
- No locks on any enclosures.
You do not want your animals to feel enclosed
or trapped in their environment.
- At least we can agree on that.
- Obviously Ben and Jerry
is something that most people can't get.
I mean, there's only a few of them in the world.
So even if you wanted one,
you really can't get one definitely.
The fact is if you could find something
that's really interesting, a little bit weird,
a little bit of a draw, think about that.
It might just be a really cool colored animal.
Whether it's a lizard or snake.
Something that people are gonna go like,
oh my gosh maybe it's a Piebald ball Python
with a smiley emoji on it.
So you can be like, oh my gosh,
look at this ball python had a smiley emoji.
So whatever your budget dictates, you can actually fill out.
So you don't have to be rich to start a reptile zoo,
you just have to be really innovative.
Educational shows are super important to any reptile zoo
because they bring in revenue.
After all, you have to feed all your animals,
you have to keep everything going.
Bringing revenue through birthday parties,
tours and any educational event is a huge part
of making a reptile zoo successful.
And as the money starts coming in from all your sources,
you can actually upgrade and do better things.
Hey, reptarium 1.0.
These enclosures didn't cost us a whole lot of money
to be honest with you.
Then 2.0, we actually spent a ton of money
and of course 3.0 and 4.0
I guess is gonna cost and more money.
So get that revenue stream going
and build your dream reptile zoo.
- Oh shore, like seashore.
- Oh, we're having sharks.
- No, it doesn't smell like farts.
- But it smells like sharks.
- You gotta have sharks- - And shells.
- That's for shore.
- Don't look at someone like me
and think that you have to have a ton of money
to fulfill your dream, 'cause that's not true.
You know, my whole life
I've been working towards this dream, right?
The fact is that what you really need is passion.
And of course a Laurie.
- Yeah, without me, this place would fall apart.
- Get creative.
The more money you can save by doing things on your own,
the better you're gonna have a place.
Remember when I built this water,
this only costs me like $8.
We got this bird's nest at a craft store, which just easy.
These plants come from craft store, save yourself money.
You know, try to do things as cool as you can,
make it look as cool as you can within your budget.
Don't allow yourself to stop doing something
just because you don't think you can afford.
And remember, if you build something really amazing,
people are going to come, I promise you that.
- I'm gonna come.
(audience laughing)
- Hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
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Have a wonderful day reptile army.
Remember, be kind to someone
and I promise I'll see you in the next one.
- Hurry up.
- Hurry up, you can't stay here all day.