- Hey, good morning, everybody,
and welcome to the vlog.
How are you guys faring out there?
I hope it's going well.
I hope that you're staying safe out there,
and let's just get distracted for a little while
with a great day together, if you don't mind.
I have an idea, but I'm going to have to start this idea
with my girl Sunrise.
And I thought about this idea
of saying good pet, bad pet,
and I don't know, if you guys like the idea,
I could do other animals.
I'm gonna go ahead and start with Burmese pythons.
That's right, I'm gonna start with Burmese pythons.
Are they good pets, or are they bad pets?
We'll kinda go through a little
of the pros and cons with them,
and again, if you guys like it,
let me know down in the comments
if you guys want me to do another good pet, bad pet species.
Let me know what it is,
or if you think you don't want to.
I don't know, but anyways,
Burmese pythons have been so special to me.
Everyone knows that my first pet snake ever,
when I was 15 years old,
was actually a Burmese python.
Now, I've said a lot of times,
I think that that was a mistake,
so let's just break down
what makes Burmese pythons so amazing
because, honestly, since I've been 15,
I've never went one minute of my life
without a Burmese python,
so obviously, they gotta be pretty amazing animals, right?
Now, they are a big snake.
There is no doubt about that.
There is no doubt about it,
but if you want a big snake,
retics can sometimes be a handful.
I love reticulated pythons.
They're maybe one of my favorite big snakes.
Well, I love anacondas.
Regardless, they are definitely amazing,
but Burmese pythons are kinda the puppy dog
of the big snake world.
Of course, this is Marshmallow, the ivory Burmese python.
Now, this is a super version of the hypo gene,
sometimes called the fire gene and stuff like that.
It's basically a leucistic, right?
Almost the same things happens with ball pythons.
And by the way, he is in the ugliest stage
he's ever gonna be because he's just starting
to break his shed, looks horrible.
It's gonna look beautiful tomorrow
when it sheds out 100%,
but one of the things that is a kind of pro
for Burmese pythons is that, unlike retics,
they don't typically climb a whole lot.
These guys spend most of their life on the ground.
We know retics love to climb,
so you really should have a kind of tall cage.
When it comes to Burms, you know,
you still want to give them the opportunity to climb,
absolutely, but they don't need that big, tall cage to climb
to keep that mental stimulation going, right?
So that's actually a plus,
is that, oftentimes, you need more surface area
and not as much height, which is always nice
because, when you start talking
about a four-, or five-, or six-foot-high cage,
that takes up a lot of real estate.
Anyone that watches the vlogs knows
that this is Jeffrey, the hypo granite Burmese python,
and it's a ferocious feeder.
That's one of the things I love about Burmese pythons,
is, they're not picky at all.
I mean, they eat,
and they eat pretty much anything you want to feed them.
There's no doubt about it.
As you can see, they come
in some amazing color palettes, right?
I mean, obviously, a hypo granite is one of my favorites,
but even an albino like Sunrise is beautiful,
and when Marshmallow sheds,
he's absolutely adorable, and there's tons of them,
and the truth is
that they're relatively inexpensive, most of them.
I mean, there's a few that get a little bit pricey,
but they're not out of most people's price range,
so the fact that you can get some beautiful animals
in all kinds of different colors,
and the fact that they don't get picky,
like, say, a ball python,
'cause a lot of people that keep snakes
are a little bit stressed out
when their snake doesn't eat.
I understand that.
Burms, the only time they don't eat is when they're deep
in shed, and to be honest with you,
oftentimes, they'll even eat in shed
because these guys are just little garbage disposals.
Like I mentioned, we want to continue
to stay distracted in these crazy times
of isolation, and social distancing,
and stuff like that.
There's actually a Netflix show
that I'm gonna start watching called "Tiger King."
I've heard mixed reviews about it.
I actually know some people that it's about,
or in it, I'm not even sure if they're in it,
but I know it's about them,
so I'm gonna start that tonight.
You guys gave us a bunch of really great options
in Netflix, and Hulu, and all the other stuff,
so, in the comments, let me know
if you've watched "Tiger King," and if you're going to,
or what else we can watch
so we can continue to share how we spend our days
when we have all this extra time not working, or whatever.
Again, I'm still working hard,
but I'll be honest, I still do have
a couple hours extra a day
that I'm not used to ever watching TV.
I just don't do it,
and I'm trying to learn, because it's been hard
for me to concentrate on it,
but hopefully, I'll start the series,
and I'll report back to you guys.
Oh, and guess who's back.
- Yo.
- Jay is back. - I'm not dead.
- He's not dead.
Thank god it was not a more serious sickness.
He took a couple days off, got over his sickness.
- I feel better than ever.
I need to get sick more often.
- I don't want anyone to get sick.
Everyone here is healthy and happy, thankfully,
and people are working as much as they want.
Some of the crew is here a lot.
Some of the crew is taking the time
to kinda relax a little bit.
Jessica and Bruce are taking a much-needed day off,
but they're here every day.
Andrea's gonna be back here tomorrow,
so everyone is doing well here.
Just want to keep you guys updated.
And we are all wishing you the very best health.
We can get through this together, guys.
Oh my god, guys, check this out.
Oh my gosh, cannot wait to see this snake.
The Amazon basin just shed a perfect shed too.
Look at that shed,
and look at how absolutely stunning that snake is.
Oh my gosh.
Of course, this one came from Kevin over at NER,
and it hasn't fed yet,
but of course, I knew it was going opaque,
so now that it's shed,
I'll go ahead and offer it food tomorrow,
and hopefully, this sucker'll eat,
but she looks stunning.
I mean, I just can't even believe it.
Again, a perfect shed.
That tells me that she's happy, the humidity is right.
Like I said, I'm gonna hook up a sprayer on this cage.
We've been manually spraying her every day,
but wow, that is awesome.
Obviously, Burmese pythons have been something
that I've loved my whole life.
Snazzy here is, again, coming out of shed,
much like Marshmallow, but they're amazing.
I mean, they really are incredibly great animals.
You know I love all snakes,
but there's always been this soft spot for me
for Burmese, probably because it was my first snake
that I had forever,
and it was really kinda the animal
that really launched BHB, breeding albino Burmese python
back in the day when I was, like, 18 years old.
I don't know, I love them.
I think that they're amazing,
and if you had the ability to keep a big snake,
don't ever overlook Burmese pythons
because these guys are wonderful.
Now that we've covered all the things
that make Burmese pythons amazing animals,
and what can be a great pet,
let's go ahead and talk about the things
why they might not be right for you,
or really, right for a lot of people, for that matter.
First off, they need a huge cage, right?
This is actually an eight-foot by six-foot cage.
That's a lot of room.
Now, you could probably keep it in a little smaller cage,
but really, that's about the size you want
for a relatively large snake, right?
So you have to have not only a lot of space,
but it also costs a lot of money
to heat and operate a large enclosure like this.
We all know now that Snaz is back on food
that he's been crushing, frozen rabbits.
Well, that is definitely a problem, right?
In the sense that you can't go to your local pet shop,
typically, and buy frozen rabbits,
so getting food for these guys is
a little bit more difficult.
You've gotta find the right food source
and be able to supply it
because, you know, Snaz could eat large rats,
frozen rats, and be fine,
but when they get bigger bigger,
they really do need frozen rabbits,
or little pigs, or something like that,
so the food source is more difficult,
and oftentimes, a little more expensive.
Not to mention, you don't want to see a poop
from an 18-foot python, trust me.
I have dealt with them my whole life,
and I'm here to tell you, it's not the most pleasant thing.
They can be a little bit messy
and a little bit of a challenge to clean
when they decide to pass that frozen rabbit or pig.
Need your help a little bit, guys.
I have just one enclosure pretty much left
that I don't know what to put in.
I've been just kinda grinding thinking.
This is that enclosure right here.
You can kinda get the idea.
It's actually six foot by four foot
by about four foot high right here,
just to give you an idea.
It's got that nice ledge over there.
Obviously, we can put basking spots wherever we want.
We do have a heat pad in the corner over there,
and I'm just not sure.
This cage just hasn't talked to me.
I tell people all the time,
it's like the cages talk to me a little bit.
I know that sounds weird,
but I think, like, that would be cool for that enclosure,
but this one I've been struggling with.
You know, I don't know what exactly to put in here,
so I figured I'd ask your guys's help,
and maybe you'll come up with something really cool,
that, over the next few weeks, whatever,
however long we're closed,
we could maybe acquire that animal,
and get it kinda settled in
and habituated to this enclosure,
so let me know in the comments
what you think I should put in his habitat.
And obviously, these guys get big.
You know, Sunrise is only half grown.
She's about 10 foot.
These guys can get 18 foot, and she's, again,
only about 50 pounds.
I've seen these guys up to 150-plus pounds,
so it's a big snake to handle,
and by the way, we have a policy here,
we don't handle large snakes without a second person.
If you're ever thinking about getting a big snake,
I think you should adhere to that as well,
meaning that, if you have a pet snake
like a Burmese python, you should probably have two people,
which is another little bit of a bummer,
and by the way, with that being said,
I'm gonna do a scale on scale here.
10 being the best possible pet reptile,
I hate to say it guys,
but, as much as I love Burmese pythons,
I'm gonna give them a solid three.
That's right, a three,
not because I don't think they're great animals,
just, I don't think they're a practical pet for most people.
Let me know in the comments if you agree with me,
or what you would rate these guys
on a scale to scale basis.
I mean, maybe I'm a little low.
I'm not sure, but also let me know,
again, what other animals you want me to do.
If you think this is a cool idea while we're on lockdown,
we could do this maybe once or twice a week, I don't know.
So anyways, that is it for Burmese pythons.
So this is what they call optimism at its best,
because, amidst all this craziness
and us being shut down, Lori's still stocking the gift shop,
you know, so that's great.
We just got a new shipment in,
and guess what, this was back-ordered last time.
- How cool is that?
- [Brian] Is that awesome or what?
This is so cute, Lori.
I'm like, I wish people could come
and actually buy it.
- I know, right?
- Look at the eyes, man.
The eyes are beautiful.
- Soon, soon.
This is good.
- Again, here, at the Reptarium,
we're still pushing ahead forward,
and obviously, Lori is so optimistic,
that she's buying stuff for the gift shop.
Oh my god.
Oh my god, that is dope.
- People love these so much,
I had to get a few other options.
- Oh my gosh.
I'm gonna start talking about optimistic things right now.
We're gonna do another big reopening party
when this whole thing is over, so hopefully,
you guys can come visit us when you feel comfortable
being out in public.
Oh, gosh, that is a little sea turtle.
Oh my gosh, that is dope.
So we'll make announcements as things get through,
but as you can see, we're pushing forward here.
This will pass, guys,
we're gonna get through this.
As we're wrapping up the breeding season
with ball pythons, and what I mean by that is
that we have, most of our females are already close
to ovulation or ovulated,
but we still have a bunch of females
that are right on that cusp
that we're still breeding, things are going well.
I'm gonna go ahead and hit a ultrasound really quick
just to see how that's going, right?
So ultrasounded about a week and a half ago.
If we see really advanced follicles
in the animals that were, say, 15 to 20 millimeters,
that will kinda put us over the edge there.
I think we literally have maybe two
or three weeks left of breeding,
and then we'll have our stragglers,
but, for the most part, the breeding season will be done,
and then egg season is coming.
I think our first clutch is probably a week,
maybe 10 days away.
That's exciting.
This is a beautiful snake here.
This is actually a killer bee bamboo.
The bamboo stuff is really cool,
and again, she was at 25 millimeters last time we checked,
which is only a week or 10 days ago.
Again, everything is growing already.
I've only ultrasounded a couple animals.
She's at 33 millimeters, so again,
maybe one more breeding, and she'll be done,
'cause they'll ovulate at about 40 to 45 millimeters,
right at that range, but usually,
if you get one breeding in at 30 to 35,
they'll ovulate within a week or something like that,
so I usually shelf them.
Although this isn't a really big girl,
it looks like she's got a bunch of eggs brewing.
It's not surprising,
when an animal's at 18 or 20 millimeters,
to grow to 25 to 30 millimeters in a week
because they really explode at that point.
An animal like this,
which is actually a Mojave bongo that's het for ghost,
was only at 10 millimeters, so we're gonna see
if we see any growth in these guys
because, if we're starting to see growth there,
there's still even hope.
Now, it didn't grow much,
but I do think there's a little bit of growth here.
I'm just gonna do a quick measure.
Again, it was at 10.
It's at 12 now, so again, not much.
The growth from 10 to 20 is really slow,
maybe two to three millimeters per week,
but once they hit 20, then they can explode,
10 millimeters plus in seven or 10 days,
so I don't know if I'll continue breeding this girl or not.
She just was bred a couple days ago,
so I'll give her a few weeks,
and I'll decide if I'm gonna breed her again,
because, with this slow growth,
she's probably not gonna have eggs
until August or September,
so sometimes, I'll just kinda let a female go for the year,
and wait 'til next year,
get a little more size to her,
but hey, we're still seeing growth,
even in the smaller follicle females.
This one's gonna be interesting.
This is actually a pastel leopard clown being bred
to a banana clown.
It was only at 14 millimeters.
For whatever reason, this one was kinda lagging behind,
as well as one other clown female I have,
so I'm hoping that she'll actually have grown this week.
Again, she was at 14.
I don't see a lot of growth, to be honest with you.
It's probably about the same,
but she just was bred yesterday,
and sometimes, copulation can really cause a female
to kind of explode afterwards.
So, she's at 15 millimeters,
so only one millimeter, but again, this size,
I'm not that worried about it.
I'm hoping that, maybe, in the next two weeks,
I'll see it go from 14 to 20 millimeters,
and then really explode,
but, I mean, she is a gorgeous animal,
and that clutch would be ridiculous.
Just finished ultrasounding,
and I'm gonna be believably transparent with you guys.
I typically don't share a lot of numbers,
but it looks like we have 161 females
that are past the point
that have either ovulated or are in advanced follicle growth
where I think they're gonna go.
Now, there's a chance a couple of them could fall out.
We also have about maybe 15 or 20 females
that could go or might not go,
so it looks like we'll probably be right
in that 160 to 170 clutches this year,
which is crazy, 'cause last year,
we did 130 clutches.
Mary did a great job down here.
I've been excited to be in the tail end
so I can really button it up
and really push some of these females over that limit
so that we can really go well,
so there you guys go.
Unbelievably potentially successful year,
but you gotta remember,
one thing I've learned, you never count your eggs
until they're laid and until they hatch.
Anything can go wrong, so, fingers crossed,
it'll turn out to be amazing.
And remember, guys, we're gonna get through this together.
We will do everything we possibly can.
Doing a daily Instagram live, another distraction.
You can follow me over at snakebytestv.
You can also listen to my podcast.
I mean, that's a couple hours twice a week,
and it's called "Checking In,"
and you can subscribe to that right over here.
Right over here, you can run through a playlist.
That'll keep you busy for about two years or so,
and over here, you can actually subscribe
to the vlog channel.
Turn the post notifications on.
I appreciate you guys.
Have the best day you possibly can,
and I promise, I'll see you guys tomorrow.