- This entire wall here is female piebalds.
Oh my gosh, take a look at this big male veiled chameleon.
(whooshing)
Hey, good morning everybody.
Welcome to the vlog.
Today is a pretty special thing, at least for me,
'cause we're able to tour a facility
that you typically don't see.
Now, bear with me for a few minutes as I explain this.
And then we'll get into some really cool animals
and stuff like that.
So basically, you have three really large production houses
when it comes to supplying the pet trade.
And that would be Reptiles by Mack,
The Gourmet Rodent, and Reptile Industries.
These are facilities that literally produce
tens of thousands of pet reptiles
that go out to all not only the chain stores,
but also the mom and pop shops,
and even to some retail-type of stuff.
Regardless, it's very rare to see
the inner workings of these companies.
Typically, they just don't want people in.
Thankfully today, I was heading down
to Reptiles By Mack, to pick up my two-headed snake.
And he said that he would let me film.
So we're gonna go ahead and take a tour of his place
and kind of give you an idea
of what it's like to be in a facility
that literally has tens of thousands of animals.
So again, for me it's a big treat.
I've known John and Amy from
Reptiles by Mack for over 25 years.
So I really appreciate they opened up their place
and trusted me to show you guys.
So what do you say we just jump right into it?
So I made it down to John Mack at Reptiles By Mack.
And just to give you an idea,
those of you that have been following me
for all these years.
I used to have a really big place
that was pretty much about the size of this building.
So this is a brand new building,
just an addition to what he already had.
And this is gonna be a bunch of leopard geckos,
and chameleons, and crested geckos,
and all kinds of stuff like that.
So you can imagine a space like this gonna be filled.
And again, this is just in addition to what he already has.
We've got racks over here.
Look at these tubs.
You guys got to take a look at this.
Look at these tubs.
(chuckling) For those of you guys
that have maybe a rack of snakes or something like that,
just think of this, this is just extra tubs.
You know, these aren't even in use yet.
So we're gonna have a great time looking around
and seeing what the heck is going on
down here at Reptiles by Mack.
And another big building that's just gonna be actually
for like the dry goods stuff that they use,
you know, bedding, obviously shipping boxes, tubs,
(chuckling) all kinds of different stuff.
I mean most people would love a
building like this for anything.
And this is just for the extra stuff that they have around.
I love it, I tell you what, I come into places like this
and I just get giddy because I love the feel of it.
And I look at all the opportunity.
I'm like, oh my God, this is so cool.
Look at the Timothy hay.
Oh my gosh, my tortoises would love that.
You know, there aren't a lot of things in life
that I get blown away by when it comes to reptiles
'cause I've been around, I've had huge collections.
I've visited huge collections.
But this room is absolutely incredible.
Take a look at this.
All of these aisles here, all the way down.
Guess what's in here?
That's right, ball pythons.
I mean, just a bunch of absolutely gorgeous ball pythons.
I mean, just as far as the eye can see.
And I tell you, it's kept so well.
I mean, every cage you open up is just completely clean.
The animals are all really big and healthy looking.
And take a look at these.
Leucistic ball pythons.
Just like tub after tub of 'em.
One of the things that blew me away
probably more than anything is this wall here,
and the wall down here.
(chuckling) I've gotta show you guys.
You guys are gonna be blown away.
Take a look at this.
All the way from here, all the way here,
all the way over here.
And guess what's in here.
Piebald.
(chuckling) Piebald.
This entire wall here is female piebalds.
Just female piebald ball pythons.
I mean, a lot of these are low white.
But again, with pieds it doesn't matter
if they're low white or high white.
They all produce exactly the same.
But literally, every single one of these
is a female piebald ball python.
(chuckling) Can you believe it?
It's crazy.
So it gets better.
Again, oh there's--
This whole wall here is also piebalds.
I didn't even see these earlier.
Look at this one here.
Oh doggie.
That thing is absolutely incredible.
But again, pied.
Pied.
Oh, that even looks like a pastel pied there.
But again, so that's, I don't know.
That's gotta be 60, 70 female piebalds.
That is incredible.
But this also kinda blew me away
because guess what this whole rack is here?
Guess what?
Banana pied.
Banana pied (chuckling).
That's right, this whole wall here is
nothing but male banana pieds.
There's a couple females in there.
But mainly male banana pieds.
So there's gotta be like, I don't know,
maybe 30 male banana pieds
and at least 60 or 70 females pieds.
Oh my God.
And it just keeps going guys.
I mean, all of these snakes here are unbelievable.
I mean, there's albino ball pythons.
There's heads, there's pastels,
there's lessers, there's look at this.
This is an albino pinstripe ball python.
And again, the care of these looks amazing.
I mean, there is a lot.
Look at all of these snakes in here.
And they all look like they're being taken care of so well.
(chuckling) They're clean, they're fat.
They look absolutely incredible.
And listen, as I'm going through I'm just smoked.
I mean again, aisle after aisle of snakes.
Look at this honeybee right here.
That is one huge honeybee.
And that's one thing that is certainly the case
every single drawer I open.
Looks like these animals are being fed like unbelievable.
I mean, they're just perfect condition.
I am blown away, this is an impressive room.
And of course every good reptile building
needs one of these.
Oh my god, it's like a dishwasher right here.
You just kinda come up like this,
they come through, how freaking cool is this?
Oh my gosh.
Look, Laurie, why don't I have one of these?
Why do we not have one of these?
- Don't act like you ever wash dishes anyway.
(laughing)
- I know, but I would wash dishes
if I could do it like this.
- You would not.
One time, that's it.
- One time, yeah the first time, but after that I wouldn't.
- Exactly.
- But you guys are awesome.
This is so cool, man.
I'm having a great day, it's awesome here.
Guys, take a look, they even have these
really cool bamboo rat snakes.
These are actually porphyracea.
They've got coxi, they've got pulchra, laticincta,
I wasn't expecting to see this when I came here.
This is unbelievable.
Look at these things, oh my gosh!
And Laurie, you're gonna let me buy some, right?
- We'll talk about it.
(laughing)
- No, no, no, no, no, no, we're buying some.
Yeah, we're gonna buy some, this is awesome.
- We'll talk about it.
(Brian laughing)
- Now we're in a room that I absolutely love, of course.
This is the couleuvre room, and again,
just like the other rooms,
you've got aisles and aisles of them.
But what John told me that's really interesting
is that as they're growing stuff out,
they do it kind of by size.
So this would be the very start here.
So this obviously is an amber corn snake here.
And then as it gets bigger,
it moves up to the next size, and the next size over.
Just to kind of simplify the care and stuff like that.
Again, you look at a really beautiful corn snake here,
you've got, you know, a Pueblan milk snake.
So rather than putting them in groups of like what they are,
like Pueblans, corns, kings, whatever,
they put them in groups of like the sizes.
So this is the beginning size here,
and then as they get bigger,
they go up into a bigger tub like this.
Of course that's a Pueblan milk snake right there.
We've got a tangerine hypo Honduran milk snake there.
Mexican black king snake, here.
And then they just continue to grow out, grow out, grow out.
And then ultimately they end up in these tubs here.
Like this albino Honduran,
or like the Nelson's milk snake right here.
So it's a really great system,
where, you know, basically you're simplifying,
like all right, we're gonna feed hopper mice here,
then we're gonna feed, you know, weaned mice here,
and then ultimately bigger and bigger and bigger.
It kind of takes the guessing game,
and when you have a big collection like this,
that's what's really important,
is making sure that the animals are cared for
the best that they possibly can.
And once again, I mean these animals look unbelievable.
I'm just randomly opening up boxes.
I mean, things look incredible.
I mean, oh my God, look at this animal right there.
Of course this is a Motley corn snake.
I mean, oh my god, I love couleuvres, you guys know this.
This place is awesome, and he has a lot of them.
These are all Russian tortoises.
Oh my gosh.
And, you know, they all look nice and beefy.
I mean, look at how much food there, they're clean.
Oh my god, this is awesome.
You guys know I love tortoises,
and really the Russians are kind
of the best pet trade, right?
And you've got to remember that they're really keeping
stuff for the pet trade, you know.
That entry level stuff that's gonna go into the stores,
and ultimately be probably someone's first pet,
or at least entry level pet.
So these guys look absolutely incredible.
And of course, you want them to be a little bit bigger.
So like a sulcata, number one, is gonna be small,
and can't really go into a pet shop.
Number two, you don't really want
that many people buying sulcata,
'cause they're so cute as babies,
but they get really, really big.
Whereas these guys stay nice and small,
so that's pretty (chuckling) absolutely incredible.
I mean, how crazy is that?
Again, the innovation is pretty amazing.
What you have to remember when you're dealing
on a big volume like we kinda sorta did,
we were never this big.
You have to be really innovative.
And aisles like this where you can keep snakes
really healthy, really clean,
water's clean, feed them easily,
that's what makes a successful or unsuccessful business.
And you have to remember, a company like this
not only wants to supply animals to the pet trade,
but they wanna supply healthy animals to the pet trade.
Because not only does the pet trade need
to have good animals but let's face it,
if the customer buys something and it doesn't do well,
they're not gonna be a repeat customer.
So it's pretty cool to see this place.
I've known John and Amy for year and years and years.
So it's really cool to kind of see how far they've come.
And I mean, it's really impressive here.
You know, the backbone of any company,
especially an animal company,
is the people that work for them.
You've gotta have great people.
And I just met you, and you said you just
literally got your first snake bite.
- Yeah.
- Just now!
(laughing)
You've gotta be kidding me!
- I'm crying.
- Oh my God, well it's so good, it is so good to meet you.
Keep up the good work, seriously
- Thank you.
- Work hard, take care of these animals incredible,
and get lots more bites for me, okay?
- All right, thank you.
(laughing)
- I think he needs to prelude the fact
she was not that upset about the bite,
it wasn't that big a deal.
She was excited to meet Brian.
So I was watching this thinking you guys are gonna read like
she's like "oh my God," I'm like no.
- Oh yeah I had--I'm sorry, I was just in the moment guys.
She wasn't upset about a snake bite.
It wasn't that bad, right?
- No, it felt like a stapler, like that's it.
Just like if you stapled your arm or something.
It's not like a big deal.
- And my prediction is, going down this aisle,
you're gonna get bit again.
(laughing)
- Don't tell her that!
- Oh my gosh, take a look at this leachianus, oh my God.
Are you in love, or what?
- Oh my God, they're so cool, it's so big!
- I know, I can't wait 'til ours get this big.
(laughing)
Oh my gosh.
- Wow, that is crazy.
- Oh my gosh, that is awesome.
- Oh my gosh, I can't wait 'til Big Bertha is this big.
(laughing)
- I know, look at that cute little face, and those eyes.
Oh my gosh, that is awesome.
And then we have all the veiled chameleons here.
Take a look at that dude back there.
I mean, these things are incredible.
Look at that.
Oh my gosh, this is so cool.
Oh my gosh, these are all so beautiful.
Oh my gosh, that's a lot of chameleons there.
Look at this.
(relaxing ambient music)
Oh my gosh, take a look at this big male veiled chameleon.
Oh my gosh, he is unbelievable.
That is one beautiful animal right there.
Oh doggie, oh my gosh.
(relaxing ambient music)
(chuckling) So there it is, guys!
I mean, it really is an extreme treat for me
to be able to be in a place like that,
because again, the big three producers don't let people in,
because they just don't wanna have exposure,
'cause they're kinda quietly just
doing their wholesale thing, and stuff like that.
So for me, it was amazing, and it was also amazing
to see how well their stuff was taken care of.
And like I mentioned, I knew John and Amy for 25 years,
so I knew their place was gonna be good.
But seeing it by myself was really amazing.
And their future plans,
and those buildings that they're expanding out
are gonna be absolutely incredible.
Let me know in the comments how you liked it,
what you thought of it, all that other stuff.
Again, thank you guys as always for tuning in and watching.
You guys mean the world to me,
and I truly do love you guys so much.
Can you do me a couple favors before we get out of here?
Can you smash that like button,
turn those post notifications on,
so you know when I upload a video,
and like I mentioned, make a comment down below,
because I love reading about your beautiful faces.
Be kind to someone today,
and I promise, I will see you guys tomorrow.
(electronic music)