- Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to the vlog.
Walking around in this place is never gonna
get old for me, that's for sure.
And I hope the start of your day is absolutely incredible,
as for me, it is gonna be an amazing day.
And what I mean by that is Diddy and Dixie
are finally going in that big enclosure up front.
Now, it's a little bit stressful for me,
because I realize that there's a chance
that they could get a little stressed out,
and not be as personal, for a little while,
but they will absolutely come around to it.
I promise you, they'll get used to that
within the next week or so.
Remember when we even just switch a water bowl with Bella
she freaks out, so it's gonna take them a little time
to adjust but once they do it's gonna be amazing
having that large enclosure for these guys,
'cause they're definitely getting really, really big
and Diddy is amazing, so let's go ahead,
work on that enclosure, get these guys moved,
and start to clean this enclosure for the new thing
that's about to show up.
Obviously, we're gonna do a lot of foliage in here,
but right now I just wanna get these guys in it.
And one of the big challenges
that we're gonna have with glass in the front,
and glass here is we know that rhino iguanas,
well all iguanas, will sneeze out sodium, right?
So they kind of mess up their window a lot.
So Fritz actually sent me this, a glass and acrylic cleaner.
And basically it's almost like
you know that Rain-x stuff
that you can actually spray on your windshield,
and it will actually kind of protect it
from water spots and stuff like that.
So I'm gonna go ahead spray this all over, wipe it off,
that way it's easier to clean, to keep this clean,
'cause that will be a little bit of a challenge.
Then I'll get some bedding in here, some water in here
and then we'll just go ahead and release them
and hopefully they'll enjoy it.
So first things first, let's give this product a try.
(upbeat music)
I know they're gonna probably be a little stressed,
which is understandable with this new huge enclosure
but I think it's gonna be amazing
once they get kinda the hang of it.
Come on you two monkeys, let's go.
You ready? You ready?
Come on.
Come on, Diddy, Dixie what are you doing silly?
Oh my God, Dixie, Dixie.
Now I'm in trouble, I'm just gonna crawl in here
and hope that it will come off.
Come on guys, let's go.
come on, get, get, get,
go ahead, go ahead Dixie, there you go, sweetheart.
She's not letting me go.
Oh, Diddy's already off, hey guys,
so I'm gonna just step out real quick
and I'm gonna let them just kind of be in here
and kind of get used to the new environment
but look at how amazing they look,
I mean how cool is that, they are gonna love it
and I'm hoping that what happens is
that they get really comfortable,
just like they were in the other enclosure
and that they'll come down right to here
or even over to here for pets and we can take them out
and feed them and stuff like that,
people that wanna come in and interact with them,
they'll come right down, so I tell you what,
this is went way better than I expected.
I thought when I put them in there, they're gonna freak out
but they seem to be really calm and seem to be enjoying it
so again, I'm gonna take a little bit of time
and enjoy this, then I'm gonna break down their habitat
and then we'll get the new animal that we'll hunt first
that goes into that habitat,
it's gonna be absolutely incredible.
(upbeat music)
- A couple days ago, we had another little
crested hatch out.
- [Man] Oh my God, look how small!
- [Woman] This one looks like a nice little Harlequin.
- [Man] So how do you know it's a Harlequin?
There are two that look really similar,
Harlequins and flames.
Now I won't be able to 100%
tell this one because I'm a little bit
newer to this until it gets a little
more size on it but I think it's gonna
be a Harlequin 'cause if you look,
it's got those little spots on the side.
- [Man] Oh, okay, that's what Harlequin is.
- Yep, so the flames don't have any side pattern
or very little side pattern, and then
the Harlequins will have at least some
and then there's something called extreme
Harlequin where it almost connects to
the dorsal patterning.
- [Man] Gotcha, gotcha. Very cool.
- So I actually have another set
of eggs to collect from the mom of this
one today there's Columbia in there
she's a Dalmatian so she looks way different
than the baby that popped out, actually.
You could kind of see how
variable they are their genetics are
called polygenic.
- [Man] Wow, that was so quick.
That's a master right there.
- Yeah, they barely cover their eggs.
Those look perfect so I'll set them up right here.
- We're gonna go ahead and clean this cage,
I've gotta prep for another animal
I'm actually not even sure what animal
is gonna be put in it yet,
but I know there's gonna be a lot of really
cool things I could potentially come in
here and actually potentially go in here.
So I'm gonna make sure things are really
really clean, really, really nice
and sanitary so whatever is moved in here,
this will be a really, really good home for them.
(music)
- Here that animal is, guys, I tell you what.
There's, I think I say this a lot
that dream animal, I guess they all are, really.
But this is an animal that honestly,
ten years ago, I thought that there was no even chance
to get this animal my entire life.
Not because I couldn't afford it, or not because of
the fact, it just wasn't available
and I cannot believe that I am about to add
this to the reptarium, it's crazy to me.
So let's just go ahead, jump into it,
and see what this little dude does.
Oh my gosh, I can't see, it's in a bag.
It's really nice and warm.
Oh my gosh, it's very warm, actually.
So I am going to
just get into this and like I said,
I had the pleasure, I'm gonna let it out of the bag
a little bit here, literally and figuratively.
But I had the pleasure of working with these guys
when I was in Australia the very first time
and I remember just being blown away
and just going, please one day let me have
this animal and here we are just seconds
away from getting my first eyeballs
on this thing, if I can ever get this open
without cutting myself.
Oh my gosh.
You have to be kidding me.
I am flipping out right now guys, you ready?
Here he is!
It's okay buddy, it's all right, it's all right,
it's all right, we're friends, we're friends
we're friends, we're friends, we're friends
just got to get him to, actually he's pretty hyped up,
of course a bells phase lace monitor.
This was actually a bells to bells
And unbelievable, but of course after the shipment,
he's kind of freaking out.
These guys can be very socialized and very habituated
and I just got to get him out of that
kind of freak out mode into intelligence mode.
A lot of times, just holding them up a little bit
and just letting him get out of it.
It's okay, buddy. There you go.
You're starting to calm down now.
Look at that animal, and again,
these animals weren't available at all
in the United States so I never thought I would
have an opportunity to ever even see one
in a private collection, now they're being
bred pretty regularly, now the bells
and even the super bells like this one
are being readily available, I mean they're
still not easy to get, but you can get them
and there are people that are really working with them
but this is like honestly one of the coolest
monitor lizards in the world in my opinion.
Again, never expected to ever be holding one
or potentially adding it to our collection
here at the repterra, it's crazy.
I mean this is outrageous, just look at that animal.
Look how intelligent it is, look how it's looking around.
It's wanting to figure things out, and again,
you can see, now that it got into intelligence mode,
that tongue has coming out, he's looking around
trying to figure everything out.
You can see he's no longer freaking out
at all, it's just a beautiful animal and
again this is a male bell phase,
I'm gonna ask you guys what do you think
I should name this, I love it,
I think I absolutely love it, I mean like
I'm in awe right now, I can't even believe that this animal
is gonna relive its life with me right now
on, there you go buddy, you can hang out up there.
It loved to climb, and that's the thing.
Whoa!
There you go, buddy.
You did a kamikaze on me, oh my gosh,
that is amazing.
Again, we'll continue to socialize and work with this.
I couldn't be more happy with it.
So what do you say we introduce them to his new habitat?
Of course, Dixie and Diddy's old cage.
and I'll tell you what, I've got a couple crew members,
I think they're gonna be pretty excited about this one.
Now they have some pretty sharp nails, so just be prepared.
He's pretty chill though, it's a boy.
- Oh my god, he's way bigger than I thought he would be.
I thought he'd be right out of the egg.
Oh my god, look at you.
- It's pretty chill.
Isn't that ridiculous?
- You a little nervous?
- He stole my heart. It's so cute.
I don't know, we've been working so hard
with the water monitors and the Nile monitors,
you don't realize how long of a neck this thing has.
- That's such long neck, crazy.
And then that tree monitor side,
of just those sharp nails are just ridiculous.
It's pretty socialized already, it's actually really--
- It's not freaking out.
It's a little nervous.
- He's a little nervous, he just
doesn't know what's going on yet
but I have a feeling it's gonna be a really good animal.
- Oh my God, oh my God, oh my freaking God.
- Yeah, and this is the bells to bells
so it should stay more clean than a normal bells
because sometimes bells--
- [Woman] Does it stay yellowy or does it cream out?
- It'll get more white.
- So typically when we have this setup with
somebody wanting more of...
Are we leaning more towards
an arboreal set up with this guy?
- Absolutely arboreal, that's why I was gonna put him
in Diddy and Dixie's, so that he can crawl up on that
where branches get close to the light,
he's got lots of climbing room.
Eventually, obviously gonna need a big cage
that will have lots of climbing branches
but for now, I think Diddy and Dixie's cage
is gonna be good.
So you guys want to release it?
- Let's do it!
- Let's go, let's go.
- Dude, oh my god.
- It kind of reminds me of a little grass monitor,
the way it looks around.
- [Man] It does look like a grass monitor.
- It is really, very, very attentive.
Like when you present your hand to it,
usually even the water monitors
won't tip their head down to look at it first.
- Let's do it.
- Especially for an out of the box, you'd think he'd be
freaked out. - [Man] No, he's happy.
- I'm excited.
- [Man] Okay, so are you ready?
- Here you go, buddy.
- Now you can climb all you want.
Bucket list.
Check, check off the bucket list right there.
That's badass.
Just keep climbing.
Ridiculous, man.
(upbeat music)
Getting the gift shop ready and we got a ton...
So look at his, oh my God, a tarantula.
Of course, these are all the little plushies
that Laurie ordered.
Oh my gosh, oh, a little Bowser.
Oh my God.
They're so much bigger than I expected
when you showed me, Laurie, that's crazy.
We've got all these snakes, look at these things.
Oh my God, that's gonna be so cute.
I'm excited about it. - You can't have them all.
- Oh my God. - I know you're gonna
wanna keep them all.
That is so cool.
And all these boxes here, are all..
Oh my God, a cobra!
Oh my God, how cool is that?
Oh my gosh.
- How cute is that?
- Crikey.
What a ripper.
Oh my god, that is so dope.
So all these boxes are plushies, obviously we've gotta find
spots all over the place for this stuff
so it's so exciting guys, I mean literally
we're talking like, I think six days til we open, the 13th.
Oh my gosh, we have a lot of work to do
but it is crazy, and this is exciting, I can't wait
to see what else Laurie has.
(music)
Holy cow, I mean just watching this lace monitor move around
totally different animal compared to say,
the water monitors or Nile monitors more
inquisitive, really, really receptive
of what's going on, so I'm enjoying kind of
learning the behavior, it's gonna be a
long process of really understanding
what's in that thing's mind, but it's incredible.
I couldn't be more happy.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this video.
I appreciate you watching, I have a podcast channel
called Checking In, I think you guys will enjoy it.
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Have a wonderful day, remember to be kind to someone
and I promise I'll see you guys tomorrow.