- Good morning, reptile army.
I'm gonna start the vlog out with a crazy clutch
that just hatched out.
It was actually a Pinstripe female bread
to a vanilla Pinstripe.
And we have a bunch of combinations of stuff like this.
We have like, you know, pinstripe, redstripe stuff,
which is what we would expect.
We have a bunch of pinstripes.
I mean, there's all kinds of stuff.
And this would be actually here,
what you call a vanilla pinstripe here, so.
Again, nothing too crazy there, right?
And you know, when you start hatching snakes,
you start to go, "All right.
"Well, I think I've got a pin.
"I got a vanilla, I got a redstripe."
What's gonna happen? Well, this is the mystery.
Look it, this snake right here that hatched out.
I don't know what the heck it is.
I mean, look at it compared to the other snakes right here.
What stands out in here? Now again, it's just a pinstripe.
It's just a vanilla and it's just a redstripe.
So you start to wonder like,
"Is there something allelic going on?
"Or is there some like hidden gene going on?"
But I'm tellin' you what,
I'm assuming this is a vanilla pinstripe-redstripe.
But it shouldn't look anything like this.
I have no idea why this snake hatched out.
Why it looks the way it looks.
All right, for it's just that,
if you mix those three genes together.
Typically when you get an allelic animal,
it's like if you mix two genes together,
you get something really different wacky
that you didn't expect.
Maybe it's a case where,
when you mix these three genes together,
you get something really wacky.
But I'm telling you what,
there is no way that I ever expected
this snake to hatch out.
And what a way to start the day.
I mean, think about it.
You know, I opened up the incubator this morning.
I walked in there. I was like, "Hey,
"what's going on in incubator T?"
I opened this box and I'm like,
"What in the world is that?"
I was like, "Ho-holy cow!"
So I am super excited. No idea what to do with it.
That's the only bummer is when you have something like this,
you have no choice but to keep it raised it up
and breed it because you can't sell it.
You don't know what it is.
And, really, you wouldn't wanna sell it, right?
'Cause it's such an amazing animal.
So look at that clutch of snakes right there.
I mean, it is crazy to think that all of these hatched out
and all of them look similar.
But that one little gem is like, "What is going on?"
Let me know in the comments,
what you think is going on and what I should do with it?
I'm definitely excited to find out, (chuckles)
what the deal is it in the future.
It seems like every year that goes by,
I have more and more mystery animals
that I'm gonna work with.
Pretty soon, I'm gonna have a whole collection of stuff
I don't even know what's going on. (chuckles)
But, nevertheless, it's a great way to start the day.
And I hope that your day is absolutely amazing.
(transition effects) In a minute since we updated
you on the Fly River Turtles,
they're doing absolutely wonderful.
Of course, these are just quarantined tanks for all.
They'll eventually get a giant exhibit
at the reptile zoo expansion, for sure.
And you can see we've got all like the pH
and we got all kinds of things
that were just kind of following along.
You know, it is important
to have a little bit of alkalinity.
We also keep a little bit of saltwater in there,
about one tablespoon per gallon, to be honest with you.
So they're a little bit brackish
that keeps the fungal down and stuff like that.
So right now they're eating well.
They're eating algae, wafers,
they're eating some blueberries and stuff like that.
Unfortunately, so far,
we haven't been able to get them to take it out of our hand.
That is what we're shooting for is to make sure
that they get so comfortable with us,
that they'll take food out of our hands.
So that way, when you guys come to see 'em at The Reptarium,
you can have an interaction with them,
where you're feeding them apples or bananas
or whatever the case may be.
But they are doing very, very well.
We actually strip the gravel out of there
to be totally honest with you
because they're having a problem picking up the food
in the gravel.
But we are gonna put some, it's called Tahiti sand,
that's actually gonna be down in the bottom here too.
Which is something that they can kind of bury in it,
actually good for their shell, all that type of stuff.
And you can still see the food when it goes on,
but that's coming here within the next week or so.
But I wanted to update you on these guys,
they're absolutely ripping it. They're unbelievable.
I cannot wait to put them on display here at The Reptarium.
They are some of the coolest animals I've ever owned.
(transition effects) You know, it's always a bummer
when you come to the end of the breeding season,
with the kulu birds and it appears right now
that we're basically done with having any more eggs.
It's the last clutch of eggs was laid the other day.
And this of course is just a beautiful granite max-max.
And all these animals in here,
are now gonna start getting conditioned
to go to sleep basically, essentially, is what's happening.
But they all look so amazing.
I mean, to be honest with you, they don't look very beat up.
Which sometimes happens at the end of the breeding season.
That's just a testament to Lorie and the crew,
working hard to keep these guys going and stuff like that.
And you know, my entire life,
all I've ever really done is worked with reptiles, right?
I mean, that's all I've really cared about.
That is that single thing
that just kind of keeps me rolling all the time.
And it's just really all I've really
ever thought about, right?
And, to be honest with you,
I think that this year in particular,
there's been more pressure on the reptile hobby
than there ever has been
when it comes to laws and legislation.
And I'll be honest with you,
it scares the living crap out of me.
I mean, there is nothing more scary than the fact
of what's going on right now.
So I really encourage you guys to,
to definitely support USR.
Because if you don't support USR
and we lose the ability to keep these animals.
I mean, take for instance North Carolina right now
is facing several laws.
Some of 'em would be complete outlawing completely
of all reptiles in the city of Riley.
The uh, entire state is talking about stuff like,
educational-show bans.
Where, literally like we take these animals to schools
and stuff like that.
And, we wouldn't be able to do that anymore
if we lived in North Carolina if this law pass.
And, and you know, you might think,
"Well, I don't live in North Carolina."
But the truth is, the next one might be Michigan.
The next one might be your state.
You know, it's really important
to get behind organizations like USR.
There really isn't any eggs to be laid yet,
but we still have a bunch of babies.
I mean, take a look at these right here,
these are Abbott Okeetees.
Yep, these are just Abbott Okeetee Corn Snakes,
absolutely beautiful.
And, you know, I just.
I can't imagine life without these animals.
I mean, you like, it would be insane.
I mean, all that we're doing at the Reptarium is based in,
in education, right?
You know, we want people to come in and educate.
We go out to zoo to use, to schools, all that type of stuff.
And this really scary guys, I'm not gonna lie to you.
It looks like this clutch, it wasn't so good,
went kind of bad.
But this other clutch is just a bunch of Albino Corn Snakes.
And some, just one little normal corn snake here. (chuckles)
What is the deal here? Oh, this are Albino Reverse Okeetees.
These are absolutely beautiful.
And then this one is actually an anew touristic
from another clutch, that's this clutch,
only had two good eggs looking at it.
But, but again. (container lid closing)
You know, I sit back and I think about like,
what will happen if 10 years from now, 20 years from now,
we can't do educational shows?
I mean, we all remember that time in school
when the animal guy came in and brought an animal.
And it was just a really special time.
(container lid opening) And I don't understand
what legislators are thinking.
And by the way, look at how gorgeous this clutch is.
This is actually a, uh Okeetee scaleless,
bred to a Het Okeetee scaleless.
And we have a bunch of scaleless, okeetees,
a bunch of het scaleless okeetees.
Oh my gosh. (chuckles)
That's absolutely beautiful.
But you know, again,
30 years ago I could have never imagined the hobby
to go where it is today, right?
I mean, we've grown so much as a hobby tour.
It used to be just like closet breeders, you know.
Like no one even knew it was going on one or two pet shops,
maybe specialty pet shops. Now every pet shop has reptiles.
There are millions (container lid opening)
and millions and millions of people
that are keeping reptiles.
This is just a more corn snakes,
looks like Albino Reverse Okeetees here.
And some okeetee corns that were half albino.
Looks like a couple of eggs
left to hatch here. (container lid closing)
But you know, the hobby has come so far,
in the 30 years. (chuckles)
I've been doing this 30 plus years, I've been doing this.
It's crazy, I could have never imagined this.
But I also can't imagine the fact
that maybe in another 10 years, we won't be able to do this.
That's ridiculous.
And, and listen, (container lid opening)
I'm not like a guy that believes in not having some sort
of regulation.
I can understand that,
maybe you don't want someone that has a,
a king Cobra next year or something like that in your house.
I get that, although I think
that there's reasons for everything.
You know, I'm not an anti-legislation guy.
What it is, I'm a responsible legislation guy, right?
And by the way, these are that Red line Albino Corn Snake
that gets super red.
Not all of 'em have hatched yet,
but I told you they are absolute rippers.
And my point is, is that,
you know we need to be kind of supporting again.
Advocacy groups like USR,
so they can protect the future of the hobby for us, right?
You know, and that we can keep these beautiful snakes
and beautiful reptiles and whatever you have to keep for,
for many generations to come.
And that does mean that we have to be,
really responsible too, you know.
I mean, there are so many beauti--
Look at this snake right here, this Tangerine,
Albino Honduran Milk Snake. I mean, absolute rippers.
And again, (incubator opening)
my whole life has been dedicated to one thing
and that's reptiles and animals and,
and to see this year what's been happening,
has been really kind of ridiculous.
I mean like scary beyond belief
to be totally honest with ya.
And we have to make sure
that we kind of nip this in the bud.
By the way, look at this False Water Cobra.
Look at its threat display right now, ho-ho doggy!
That is an absolutely beautiful snake.
And these guys can get pretty big, six, seven-foot long.
And of course they flatten out
and that's why they call 'em False Water Cobras.
'Cause they almost look like a little Cobra,
but the fact is they aren't have a real, mild venom,
but nothing too major at all.
I've been bitten by this girl a few times
and nothing has happened.
But my point is, I just wanted to kind of tell you guys.
You know, le-- listen, buckle up guys.
We gotta grow together as a hobby,
as a community right now, support USR.
You know, hey reptile army is about supporting USRs.
So go to reptilearmy.com and you can get on that,
we donate money to USR.
We'll continue to donate money to USR, as well.
There are other advocacy groups
and other conservational type stuff.
So, you know, it's,
it's more important than ever that we band together.
And I'm not just talking about you and me.
I'm talking about every other YouTuber,
but we need to be one, right?
We can't be a separate thing
or this hobby won't even be here 10 years from now.
So, I couldn't imagine how it is.
But I tell what, I'm gonna fight as hard as I can
to keep this thing going.
(gentle music)
- So, I actually got a... (water splashing)
Went out in the back and we had a hibiscus plant going
and she just happened to bloom,
a few of her sweet little beautiful flowers here.
If you can actually feed off a hibiscus flowers
to a lot of vegetable-eating animals.
Because they're actually super nutritious
and very good for 'em.
And, and honestly, it's really cute
to see them eat flowers and you know.
So a, uh Dixie, after being such a hardworking mom,
I thought what a great way to celebrate her,
having her first eggs by giving her a beautiful flower.
(water splashing intensifies) Here you go girl.
What a beautiful girl.
Thanks for making such a beautiful eggs.
So being a new mom, she's always, always,
always eating right now.
So she's trying to fight on back to calories
and stuff like that.
So as you can see,
that's not really what we want to happen out here,
but when she's eating as much as she is,
she's gotta poop a lot.
So we gotta, gotta deal with that. So, uh.
Mike, I need your help.
(intense music) (both laughs)
(intense transition effects) - [Brian] And again,
I couldn't imagine life (upbeat music)
without seeing this.
You know, I mean, this is just so amazing.
Now I'll be honest with you. (chuckles)
It's not that amazing
because she laid the eggs all over the place.
But this a Pinstripe female
and she was bred to a black Pewter, Lesser Cypress.
So a lot of really cool stuff,
I'm gotta actually have to candle this clutch
because it's all over the place.
But again, can you imagine the fact that, you know.
We've worked all our life to get to the point
where we can do this and,
and share this with the world and all that other stuff.
And then somehow it could be completely taken away from us.
And I'm not, again,
I don't think that necessarily every legislator
is a terrible person.
But I think as they're just misinformed, right?
So what's happened down in North Carolina,
is there is an irresponsible reptile keeper
that led a Spitting Cobra go, it escaped, right?
And so now the knee-jerk reaction is,
let's ban everything,
because of this one particular situation.
And again, I'm not saying that they shouldn't do something,
you know, I don't know what to do.
I wouldn't want a Spitting Cobra
running around my neighborhood either,
to be totally honest with ya.
But just because one guy is irresponsible,
doesn't mean that you should punish everybody.
And I think what the problem is again,
is the fact that reptiles are just so misunderstood
and this is a large clutch.
But again, so we have
to really educate people. (snake hisses)
Gosh, they just keep comin', look at all these eggs.
This might be the largest clutch of the year, guys.
I don't know. I can't wait to count these things.
But, again, we have to educate people on reptiles
to make them know that they're not monsters.
That if you're keeping a boa
or even a Burmese Python next door,
that it's not gonna endanger your kids or family
or whatever the case is.
So let's go ahead and see this clutch,
2, 4, 6, 8,
10, 12, 13 eggs.
That's right. (chuckles)
That's the largest clutch of the year, 13 eggs.
Our largest clutch so far was actually 11.
Last year we did 12, we did 13.
Largest clutch, that's absolutely incredible.
And again, I just want things to continue on
for generations to come because listen,
reptiles have brought so much happiness.
Not only to myself,
but we see over at the Reptarium when kids come in,
their eyes light up.
They get to hold animals, I mean, it's such a magical thing.
And to think that there would be any chance
that could be taken away is absolutely frightening to me.
And so, like I said, together we have to band together
and we have to educate people
about how amazing and how safe these animals actually are.
So we can continue to do this
for the next 3, 4, 5 generations to come.
I've got this really cool little gift that came in today.
I don't know what it is.
It's actually, let's see it says, "Hi Brian,
"you were part of the inspiration behind this book
"being published by Brad Waters."
So it's obviously a book and um thank you so much
for taking inspiration.
I don't know what I did to deserve that,
but I do appreciate it.
Let's go ahead and see what it is.
(paperbag crumples)
And it's empty.
(paperbag crumples)
Oh, there's gotta be a book in here. (laughs)
- [Man] You like, "What is going on?"
- I was joking. I was joking.
It's just wrapped up in a piece of paper here, so.
All right, let's get this.
Let's get going, come on now.
(paper crumples) All right, so,
what is it then? (paper tearing)
Ooh, it's like a kid's book
and it's called Lucy's lost in the Everglades.
So it's gotta obviously be about a, let's see.
So it's about a Green Tree Python
that is obviously washed down the river
and then it goes into the Everglades, he sees alligator.
It meets a blue hare and a corn snake Jeff.
So it's a really cool kids book, that's really awesome.
I appreciate, as a matter of fact,
we do a lot of these reading things for kids over.
As a matter of fact, if you guys want.
Every Tuesday, link in the description,
is actually a kid's book that we read over
at the Reptarium and do like a 20-minute,
kind of question-and-answer thing.
Really cool. So, maybe we'll include this one, Brad.
I appreciate you.
And uh, I can't wait till it's published
because I hope it's much success.
And thank you so much for, sending it to me.
(intense music)
(crickets chirping) ♪ Do I have, ♪
♪ treats for you? I do. ♪
- [Host] Yeah, let's go.
I'm only giving you one though, okay?
So I'm kind of, kind of lying to you right now.
(mumbles) This way.
She's like, oh, (laughs)
Are we trading dress now? (laughs)
- [Man 2] Hold the flash.
(hissing) Immediately bro? (chuckles)
- [Host] I'm only coming down for two flowers, (chuckles)
not one. (laughs) - [Man] Come on.
- Well, excuse me sir, I would prefer the bouquet.
- [Man] Go, baby. What're you looking at me like that?
Oh? 'Cause Bruce contracts.
- Oh, it's variant. (man 2 chuckles)
- You're pretty, you know that?
Not feeling this flowers, oh maybe you are.
Yeah, you're pretty fine. You're prettier that the flowers.
So this is for me and that's for you, okay?
Just make sure we have a good--
Oh, don't drop that. - [Man] She dropped it
on you, dude. - Don't do that.
- [Man] She's like, "Give me that other flower."
- [Man] Don't eat. Don't do that,
(instrumental music) don't do that.
Hey, look here, look here.
All right, look, smell flowers, okay?
Wha-- with it, with it, did it--
Was it really that bad?
- Holy moly, (water splashing)
take a look at this right now. (chuckles)
Of course, Night Fury (upbeat music)
just shut out, completely perfect.
Doesn't even need a soak or anything like that,
but look at the glimmer on that animal right there.
Unbelievable.
Every time it grows and every time it sheds,
just gets more and more spectacular.
Again, it's getting bigger and bigger.
This is gonna one day be 15, 18-foot long,
this big around.
And it's just gonna glimmer in the sun,
I mean the rainbow effect on that.
I am absolutely blown away at how beautiful is.
And again, that Pied Retic is basically like night fury,
but just with the white blotching.
So all of those spots on the Pied Retic we just got,
will look just like night fury, when it gets bigger too.
Which is coldly (chuckles) absolutely ridiculous.
Listen, guys, I hope that you enjoyed today's vlog
and don't mind that I kind of went on,
a little bit of a rant about potential legislation.
But I really do hope that you guys will help us,
kind of get through this.
Support USR and all that type of stuff,
join the reptile army.
And if you did enjoy this video,
here's a less ranty video playlist,
right over here. (laughs)
You can also do me a favor,
hit that subscription button on this side.
Have an absolutely wonderful day, reptile army.
Remember, be kind to somebody and I promise,
I'll see you in the next one.