- Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is absolutely incredible.
And we're gonna start today just handling Daisy,
my reticulated python.
She is absolutely insanely cool,
and I always say that one of the coolest things
about my life is being able to work
with animals that almost sometimes
don't even seem real, right?
I mean is it really reality that there's a 20 foot snake
that is just roaming the woods
of Indonesia and the Philippines?
It's crazy to me to think this.
If you didn't know about it, and you just happened across
a snake this size in the wild, you would be like--
You'd probably be running out of the jungle
'cause it's such an insane thing to think about
that there are literally snakes like Daisy here
that are just kind of crawling around.
Of course not this color, but that size!
It's just amazing that I get an opportunity
to work with this animal every single day.
So there are literally times where I'll just take her out
and spend a few minutes just kind of handling her.
Obviously her sister Lucy is a lot harder.
Don't get me wrong, I like to pull her out sometimes, too.
But she's a lot more work
whereas Daisy is definitely very cooperative
when it comes to that.
But ever since she was young, you can see
with the front of her mouth there,
she's got that little tiny overbite
and what happens sometimes is when she rubs that
in the coconut or any kind of bedding,
you'll even get a little bit of muckyness upfront.
And I've seen it many times before
where people have commented thinking
that there's something actually wrong wit her mouth.
I've even heard, unfortunately, that she has mouth rot,
but you can see that she doesn't have any kind of illness.
She's been like this her whole life.
A lot of times when snakes are bigger
and they have a little bit of an overbite,
it actually gets a little bit more exaggerated
when they get a little larger.
You know Moo Moo the cow reticulated python,
I've told you before, has that little overbite as well.
My thoughts are when she gets 10, 12, 15 foot,
she's probably gonna have a similar
looking jaw than Daisy here.
But as you can see, she's completely fine.
And she looks absolutely gorgeous.
Daisy, you're such amazing.
Just look at the color of that head.
That thing is ridiculous.
When albino reticulated pythons
were first produced, it was from Bob Clark,
and this is a pretty interesting story.
He got a male out of Indonesia
and it was just like her: a beautiful lavender
albino reticulated python, but unfortunately,
its back had been broken at some point
when it was being caught,
when it was being shipped, whatever.
And its backend was almost paralyzed.
It could hardly move it.
So a lot of people thought that there was no way
that that animal was gonna breed
and there were gonna be lavender albinos in the future,
but sure enough, the male did breed.
He produced some heterozygous,
and when he finally produced the lavender albinos
for the first time in captivity,
I remember him putting out an article saying, "Living art."
And that absolutely couldn't be more true, right?
These guys are like a Picasso, right?
They are the living Picasso.
Unbelievable.
And now there are so many amazing reticulated pythons.
But really the first real mutation outside
of a tiger reticulated python was the lavender albino.
And that kind of started the whole craze
of these beautiful color mutations
when it comes to reticulated pythons.
So, again, I love working with Lucy.
I love working with Daisy.
I love working with all my reticulated pythons.
There's just something about giant snakes
that are absolutely incredible.
And I'm so glad that my girl here, Daisy,
is really, truly, a gentle giant.
One of my projects for today is of course Lucy
and her poop soup that she always does.
But in a way it's kind of nice, right?
Because she just poops in her water.
We don't have to clean a lot of the rest of her cage.
We just drain it out and clean it.
It's almost like she's using the toilet,
if you know what I mean.
The fact is is that you guys see that a lot of times
Lucy will blow her cage up after she sheds.
Well, we had the same issue with Daisy earlier
to be honest with you.
So we cleaned up her cage.
And the fact is, is that a lot of people will talk about,
which is oftentimes right, is the way a snake sheds
is kind of dictated to their health, right?
So a lot of times when you have a smaller snake,
if it's not shedding in one piece,
it's either not necessarily a health issue,
but it can certainly be a humidity issue.
If you get the humidity up, they'll shed better.
But with big snakes that's not usually the case.
It's really a matter of physics, right?
You've got Lucy over here that's close to 200 pounds,
and then you got this little layer of epidural skin
that is very fragile.
Obviously, you have 200 pounds sliding out
of a fragile piece of paper almost.
It's gonna rip off, right?
So it's really extremely rare for Lucy,
or Daisy, or any big snake over 12 to 15 foot,
to shed in one piece.
In the 32 years I've been keeping big snakes,
I literally have two or three full sheds from a big snake.
And it's just literally a matter of physics, right?
It's just the fact that when they've got all that weight on,
they rub it, it rips, and then it kind of blows out.
But in most cases, shedding is extremely important.
But with big snakes, typically,
they're gonna shed in pieces and that's what happened
with Daisy earlier today.
(relaxed music)
You guys know that I talk about all the time
how my crew is like everything to me.
They are my support, they're the ones that get the job done,
they're here when I can't do the things.
They're amazing and every single person
that works with me is so special to me.
And this crew that I have now is by far
my favorite group of people.
That's not to mean that other people
that worked with me in the past I don't like,
I'm just saying that as a whole,
this group has been so amazing.
And unfortunately, part running a business
is sometimes someone in your crew
needs to move onto the next chapter in their life.
So today, one of our crew is leaving us,
and it is really difficult for me, personally,
but also as a business.
So, let's go ahead and show you who that is.
So like I was saying, my crew means so much to me.
They're so much a part of my family and stuff like that.
And I always want what's best for them as well.
I want what's best for them.
Kelsea has been a huge part not only of my crew,
she's been a great person to be around,
and she's obviously been so responsible
for our success with ball pythons over the last few years.
I hate to say this, but Kelsea is moving on.
I understand, I don't need to know the whole details
other than the fact that she's ready for the next step
in her life and I just wanted to say thank you so much.
And like we've said off camera, you're always part
of the family, always gonna be here,
and I'll miss our ball python pulling clutches.
Like, "Kelsea, what do you got?"
So maybe you'll have to come back next year
just to pull a couple clutches, all right?
Which isn't as fun, but like I said,
I know everyone's always loved you on the vlog,
so I appreciate everything you've done,
and you're always welcome back here any time,
and you're always part of our family.
- Thank you, thank you, that means a lot.
- [Brian] And we'll miss you.
- I'll miss you guys, too.
- All right, well, go ahead in the comments,
tell Kelsea best wishes in the future,
and I promise you guys will see her
and I'll keep you guys updated.
(gentle music)
- All right, today we're going and feeding
all of our new New Caledonian species.
Right here I've got Firefly, our chahoua.
Our female chahoua.
This rack is actually a mix of different species.
We've got cresteds, gargoyles, leachies, chahouas,
and I've even got a day gecko in here.
But they all eat some sort of fruit in their diet.
So instead of actually throwing fruit in there,
because that'd be a mess,
and it wouldn't be meeting all of their dietary needs,
a few companies have actually come up
with a complete diet for them.
So we use Pangea but there's also
a couple other ones, like Repashy.
They're also really well known.
It's basically a powder you mix up with water,
and you pour in a little cup and they eat that.
We feed 'em about three times a week, every other day.
(relaxed music)
- [Brian] What happened?
- (laughing) Nothing.
- [Brian] What happened?
- He can explain it.
- There was an annoying hum that was coming
from the offices before.
It was like a mosquito ring tone.
- [Brian] Beth was humming?
- I was talking.
- And there it is again. - You hear it?
- I don't know what this noise is.
- It's so annoying.
(they laugh)
- What is this thing?
- I honestly have no clue what this is.
But we're about to open it.
- [Man] It's from TerraOrb.
- TerraOrb.
I was thinking doesn't TerraOrb sound something
from like Switzerland or something like that?
- [Purple Shirt Man] It sounds
like something (scraping drowns him out).
- [Brian] Oh, that's a big box, though.
I seriously have no clue what this is.
What is this?
This is actually pretty dope.
Check that out, guys.
It's a terrarium.
But it's like flat packed.
- What does this say?
- What's a flat pack?
- Please enjoy this free enclosure and use it.
If you have any feedback, negative, positive,
whatever, let us know.
If you have any questions we're happy to hear.
Mike, thank you, from TerraOrb.
So this is pretty cool, man.
So all in all.
It's an interesting design.
You've got the little lock key here
so they can't open it.
And then this just basically slides open
to access the animal.
I mean, it's definitely a cool little cage.
There's no doubt about it.
It's really unique in the sense
that it's flat packed, you put it together.
It's relatively easy to put together.
Oh so you can do either this or this?
- And then this.
- [Brian] Oh, and then you can do that way too.
I gotcha.
- [Man] I thought that was for making spaghetts.
Spaghetti!
(lighthearted music)
- I should do a lot of things in life but I don't.
- [Man] There we go.
(crashing)
And it's broken.
- Oh, I see, it's crossing right there.
- This is gonna be a fun edit.
- [Brian] All right, get your rubber washers
with the bottom bolts.
- [Man] Rubber washers?
- Bottom bolt.
I need a screwdriver, I need a screwdriver.
Holy moly, there's a lot of stuff here.
This is the wrong type of screwdriver.
(buzzes)
I think this just goes like this is what it is.
- I'm gonna cover my mouth from toxic air.
- This goes to the back.
Or it goes to the side.
- I think it's on the side.
(background chatter)
- [Man] This is the best video ever, dude.
(lighthearted music)
- [Brian] Is there anything else?
- [Woman] No, that's the end of the directions.
- [Man] There's a lot more bolts. (chatter)
- [Man] Look at that, dude!
Perfect.
That's all you need.
- It's a simple concept.
I think it's pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie.
I was a little skeptical when I first saw it.
But it works relatively well.
Nevertheless, TerraOrb, thank you
for sending this to me.
So there you go!
- What's going on, guys?
We're actually doing some really cool stuff today
with our red ackie monitors.
Ever since we got the really cool cage put in.
Sweet both sliding glass doors.
That's a really huge hit with us today.
So we're actually gonna be pullin' them out,
making a little progress.
Just like with Chicken Strip and any other monitor,
we always kind of have to make little baby steps.
Every monitor's an individual so we have
to treat 'em like that.
There's not a written way to do this.
So it's just kind of have to figure it out.
One of the big things that these guys
have always, always done, is they always like to hideout
under the stuff.
So we like to keep it pretty humid in here.
That's why you see it's all sprayed down.
Come here, buddy.
So they're pretty nervous.
You can even feel him.
He's tensing up a little bit on me.
But I mean he looks super cute.
I have to make sure I don't want him to run off on me
at all, but I mean, oh my gosh, look.
(laughs)
Like yesterday, this guy was like freakin' out
on me earlier.
But I guess a little bit goes a long way with him.
A lot of time what I do is I open up the cage
and I kind of drum my fingers at him,
try to get their little curious minds going.
Rather than being afraid of me,
I'd rather them think, what am I doing?
This is one of the smallest monitors that you will see
in the pet trade.
Now, I don't know necessarily
if they are the smallest monitor
but really are wonderful animals.
I also know a really cool thing about them
is they are also referred to as spiky tail monitors.
That's a really vague term, to be honest with you,
but man, look at that.
You can really see why.
That's a really cool tail.
It's really unique with the monitors we have here
'cause none of the ones we have
have that kind of cool feature.
The big thing with these guys is like obviously
because they're so young, we wanted to really leave
on a good note, we want to really make
a lot of good progress.
A couple days ago, even, these guys were running
like crazy all over the place.
It really goes to show if you put a lot
of patience and a lot of time and measurement
and like I said, take those little,
little, small precautions.
Like I said, I never put these guys in
if they're freaking out and scared.
I try to keep these guys as calm as I can.
If anything, I at least try to get them tired out.
So they're so tired they're not even worried
about being scared.
So then I leave them in there,
and they walk away softly.
They walk away kindly.
Just like I'm about to do with this guy.
Now very often usually they try to run away from me
right off the bat.
But I kind of keep myself sort of slow
and let him do his thing.
And it's just as easy as that.
These guys have been, oh man,
I love doing this, this is so much fun.
(relaxed music)
- So obviously it's a bummer that Kelsea is moving on.
She's been such a huge part of the crew
for the last few years and done such a great job
with breeding ball pythons.
So now Mary's actually gonna move over
into that position and breeding ball pythons.
And she's so attentive. Gonna have to teach her a lot.
It's gonna be an interesting year.
But hey, listen, we wish Kelsea the absolute best.
If you enjoyed this video, do me a favor,
check out this video right here.
Here's an entire playlist.
I really think you guys are gonna enjoy it.
Over here you can hit that subscribe button.
While you're at it, turn the post notifications on,
remember to have an absolutely wonderful day.
And you better be kind to someone.
I promise I'll see you guys tomorrow.
(relaxed music)