- Hey, good morning everybody,
and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start of your day is amazing.
I know mine's gonna be pretty amazing.
I'm in the dungeon at BHB,
and that can only mean one thing:
that's right, python eggs, but I tell you what,
this is a clutch that I was really,
really anticipating.
We have a ton of amazing potential
production this year, but this was the one
that I was kinda looking at and going,
"Oh, I cannot wait to see what happens!"
Hopefully she was gonna have a good clutch
and hopefully they'll hatch out amazing.
Let's go ahead and take her down.
And this was actually an enchi pastave
het for clown ball python, so again,
that's enchi, it's pastel, it's mojave,
and it is het for clown, and I tell ya what,
before we pull this clutch of eggs,
I'm gonna show you what male I bred her to.
And here he is.
This is actually a banana clown ball python.
So the fact that it's recessive,
I should be able to produce half clowns.
There'll be banana clowns,
there'll be enchi banana clowns,
there'll be pastel enchi banana clowns,
there'll be pastel enchi banana mojave clowns,
all kinds of different stuff.
This male is a beaut, and the banana enchi clown
is one of my favorites.
Then you get that mojave into it.
Oh, my God.
Let's go ahead and see how many eggs this girl has.
And you can see Mama is definitely fired up.
She has one egg out of the clutch right now,
so I'm gonna go ahead and pull that egg aside.
We'll candle that egg, of course,
trying to make sure the embryo is on the upside,
and then we're gonna try to get Mom out without getting bit.
It's okay, Mom.
It's all right, it's all right. It's okay.
It's all right. Okay, okay.
We'll just get her out.
There are loose eggs right now.
It's not a clutch that is actually bound together,
and for whatever reason, that happens from time to time
where a female just doesn't have a really adhered clutch.
So we're gonna probably candle this whole clutch,
to be honest with you.
So I'm gonna go ahead, pull this aside.
Just pull these eggs that are actually
a little bit loose.
Actually, it looks like the rest of them,
except for this one, is actually together.
So we'll just candle three eggs right now,
these three eggs here, and then these eggs
actually look pretty good.
I take that back, there's another egg here.
So four eggs, and it looks like we have
these three here that are adhered together
and another one right here,
so just to be safe, we wanna candle these.
'Cause this is an amazing clutch.
And of course, we have one little slugger egg here,
which is no big deal, it's just an infertile egg.
So it looks like we've got two, four,
six, eight good eggs, and then one little slugger.
That is amazing.
Think about this, 56, 57 days from now,
we're gonna cut this clutch,
and there could be some bangers in there.
I tell ya what, that is amazing.
I was so excited about this female,
and I'm so happy she laid a good clutch of eggs.
So let's go ahead and candle these eggs,
and just get this day started,
because I tell you what, it's gonna be an amazing one.
Push your problems aside.
Let's have fun together.
(dramatic music)
♪ One day, one day soon ♪
(dramatic music)
Interesting, Ivy here, I'm gonna
get her out of the water real quick.
Come here, girl.
Come here, baby.
(Brian grunts) Is going back into shed,
and of course, I have to do my
daily routine of draining her water
and stuff like that.
I don't know why she's done it.
She went like, three weeks perfect,
and now like every single day,
I've had to drain her water,
clean it out and stuff like that,
but again, I think the fact that I just
fed her such a big pig, you know,
15 pounds, she went really quick with her metabolism.
Obviously she just shed out
just a few weeks ago,
and now she's going back into shed again.
Oh, and remember when we weighed her
and I was shocked that she had only
gained three pounds at 58 pounds?
Actually, some peopled mentioned it,
I went back in the footage.
When we weighed her before,
she was 35 pounds, not 55 pounds,
so she did end up gaining 23 pounds, actually.
So that was totally my fault.
I just forgot.
I thought I had weighed her and she was 55 pounds.
So she did end up putting on 23 pounds in that time.
That's pretty amazing, and and this girl
just wants to get back in the water like nothing else.
So I'm just gonna try to keep her
off of the water, just so I can
get in here and do some cleaning.
So you know, daily routine when you have a big anaconda.
(upbeat music)
- So you guys know we like to offer our animals variety,
so I have mealworms, superworms,
and a couple different sized roaches,
and just like with our veggies,
we like to offer a supplemental vitamin and mineral
to keep our animals happy, healthy,
and getting all their essential vitamins and minerals.
(upbeat music)
- Well, 'tis the season to adapt.
(laughing) As per usual, we have an issue,
but I think I've got it figured out.
Normally we use sphagnum moss for our
lay boxes for our snakes.
I had very little bit, not very much left,
so I'm wracking my brain,
trying to find some because all the nurseries
are still closed right now here in Michigan.
I did find someone had donated
a few boxes of this oak moss,
so I went ahead and I threw a bag or two
in water to see how it was, and actually,
it moistens up really well.
I can squeeze the moisture out,
and I think this'll help,
and I think this will get me by
until I can find more of the sphagnum moss.
- And we've got another ball python clutch.
This happens to be a pinstripe ball python.
Looks like she has a slug or two in here.
It might not be a good clutch.
That might be one of our first
kinda so-so clutches of the year.
And she was actually bred to a super enchi pinstripe.
Now interestingly enough, I've already
gotten one or two clutches from
this particular male here,
and they've all been fertile,
so I know the male is not a problem,
and that happens sometimes.
Again, she might not have as many
bad eggs as I think, but this is a super enchi pinstripe,
meaning the entire clutch is gonna be enchi.
And then with the pinstripe on both sides,
the majority of the clutch is gonna be pinstripe.
So let's go see how much of a disaster
this clutch actually is.
Let's see. C'mon, Mama, get off these eggs.
Okay, well it's not too terribly bad.
It looks about 50% here.
Let's go ahead and pull these eggs real quick.
We've got one egg here, we'll pull these aside,
we've got, let's see, three other good eggs.
So it looks like we've got three good eggs,
and it looks like we've got three little sluggers here.
So 50% fertile, that's not exactly
what we want, no doubt about it.
But for whatever reason, that can happen.
I mean, it can be a female thing,
could be a male thing for one particular thing,
could even be a timing issue.
So that happens. So we'll go ahead and put some
good use to these eggs right here
and maybe find something that will eat them.
Just a little side note that I find really interesting
and I see this all the time, you know,
we've had eight clutches so far laid.
Guess what? One, two, three, four, five of them
have all been right here, right in this section here.
I just find that very interesting, right?
It's like for whatever reason,
even animals that are close together,
like this one and this one,
are gonna usually produce follicles
about the same growth, the same rate,
and ultimately lay their eggs about the same time.
I just, again, find it interesting
that five of the eight actually came
from these ten cages right here.
(upbeat music)
Just getting my girl Ivy filled up a little bit, you know.
In the next day or so, I'm sure this
will clear up really good.
Definitely a lot of work,
and in my mind, I'm trying to come up with
a solution where I can actually clean this a little better.
The draining of the water is great
with the pump, that's 100% fine,
but kinda getting all of the bottom cleaned up,
maybe some kind of vacuum system that
works a little better than the pump that I'm using.
Not sure, I'm gonna work on that
over the next week or so.
I have some ideas how we can
really clean a little bit better
just so it's not quite as much maintenance.
But again, you know, feeding a big
15-pound pig was a lot of the reason
why the maintenance was so high,
but nevertheless, cleaned up, should be good to go.
And I'm sure by tomorrow, it'll be crystal-clear.
I have some kinda unusual things
I'm gonna try to feed today.
You know, again, variety, variety, variety, right?
And last time, we actually let Elvis
and a couple other animals choose what they like most.
We actually have steak right here,
we have fish, we have those slug eggs
from the ball pythons, and then,
it's a little bit gross guys, I know it,
but the guys I got my frozen pigs from
sent me a bunch of pig umbilical cords, so.
They said crocodilians love it.
We'll see if Elvis loves it.
So I'm just gonna go ahead and do the same thing.
I'm gonna set this on the ground right here.
I'm gonna let Elvis out,
and I'm gonna see what he wants to do.
C'mon, Elvis.
So again, last time, it was pretty interesting
to see what he liked and stuff like that,
so this time, he's got even more variety,
so it's gonna be very interesting to see.
And typically water monitors love fish,
so if I was gonna put money on it,
I would say the fish, but they also love eggs,
and I've never tried pig umbilical cords before,
so we're gonna see what he does.
And he's smelling right now.
Come on, Elvis. Come on.
You can see he's smelling it.
He knows there's something interesting,
he's just not sure what to do about it yet.
Ah, now he's got it.
Which one's he gonna go to first?
Ooh, got the pig umbilical cords first!
Oh, I think he loves them! Are you kidding me?
Oh my gosh.
Oh, oh, oh! It's kinda gross, guys, I'm not gonna lie.
I'm kinda grossed out by it, but hey,
we're at least putting 'em to use, right?
I mean, these are things that they just get rid of,
so the fact that he's gonna enjoy it is a good thing.
Let's see what he does after this.
What are you gonna do, Elvis?
Oh, he's just, gosh!
Oh, there, he's got an egg!
There he is, he's got the egg.
Now see if he squeezes it.
He usually breaks it and it's really gross.
(Brian laughing)
Oh, Elvis. There he goes.
He's starting to pop it now.
There it is.
Oh, you're such a messy face monster!
Look at you! Elvis!
The pig umbilicus and the eggs
have kinda reigned supreme so far.
Let's see if he keeps going,
if he's gonna go for the fish
or he's gonna go for the steak,
or if he's just gonna stop.
I don't know what he's gonna do. That's amazing.
And the thing that's really good about this
is it's making him think, right?
That mental stimulation is amazing,
and it looks like he's looking at the fish now,
and he's saying, "Oh, these fish look really good."
There he goes! He got a fish.
It's funny how he's working from right to left.
He's just kind of going around.
I figured he was gonna do something
a little bit different.
Oh, he's got another pig umbilicus! Yup.
Now let's see if he goes back to the fish.
Oh, now he's gonna go to the steak.
Maybe he doesn't like the fish.
I thought he was gonna love the fish.
But lookit, he went right for the steak.
Apparently, he doesn't like the fish.
That's crazy!
He ate one, and then he went right over it
and went over to the steak.
Isn't it amazing to see just the
intelligence of that animal?
What he likes, what he doesn't like.
Loved the pig umbilicus,
didn't like the fish that much,
and now he's going and eating the rest of the steak.
The interesting thing is when he's
done with that steak, will he go back and eat the fish,
or will he just abandon them?
I'm not sure, I'm fascinated by the intelligence
and the thinking process that this animal has.
Looks like he's gonna go ahead
and go back to the fish.
It seems like it's maybe his least favorite,
but he's just deciding to go ahead and eat it anyways.
And there he is.
He finished his whole tray of food
in the order I was not expecting, but he did it.
Elvis, you're such an amazing little monkey.
Next up is my guy Toothless.
C'mere, Toothless!
All right, we're gonna set him down
and let him do the exact same thing,
see what he has to say.
What have you got?
You interested in food, bud?
Toothless, got some food for you, buddy.
There he goes, look at this!
Just like Elvis, he took the pig umbilicus first.
But then he dropped it! What's he gonna do now?
This is interesting.
He dropped the umbilicus, now he's picked up the steak.
Let's see if he keeps eating.
What are you gonna do, Toothless?
It's interesting, he's just kinda looking around.
We don't feed Toothless this way very often, obviously.
We actually hand him food,
so he might be a little bit confused about it right now,
but he definitely picked up the pig umbilicus first,
then he ate a piece of steak,
and now he's just kinda sitting there smelling around.
I'm not 100% sure what to think of it.
So strange how different animals are different.
I mean, he is definitely looking around,
he's smelling, he's very curious,
but he just doesn't seem to know.
Again, this is the first time we've ever fed him this way.
Typically we do it off of tongs
and we're trying to train him,
so he might just be a little bit confused,
but he's pushing around.
And lookit, he took another piece of steak!
So he just shook it around.
There he goes, sometimes movement with this guy
really gets him going.
So it's interesting, right,
that he wouldn't go up to it.
Okay, so I'm not really sure what to say
about the results there.
I mean, all he ate was two pieces of steak,
and he was really interested,
but he didn't want to eat the rest.
So I don't know what that means.
Maybe it's just a behavioral thing,
he's used to being fed a certain way,
he's younger so he's not like Elvis
and more adventurous, but interesting.
You know, again, constant learning about these animals.
I'm gonna try Salt and Pepper with the umbilicus.
I think they're gonna love it.
(Brian smacking lips)
(upbeat music)
So Salty definitely loved it.
I mean, she looks like a massacre over there.
Pepper only took a couple pieces and then that was it,
but Pepper's a little weird.
Now I'm gonna be honest with you,
Pepper doesn't like to feed from me
as much as she likes to feed for Andrea and Bruce,
so that just might be the case
where Salty is my little baby for sure.
So all in all, I think it went pretty well.
I am so excited about those ball python clutches,
and really, everything coming up.
It's gonna be absolutely incredible.
As a matter of fact, if you guys want snake eggs,
right here, playlist, go check it out,
you can see it, we've got a lot coming up.
If you want, you can actually subscribe to my podcast.
I sure would appreciate it.
It's called Checking In right over here.
On this side, you can subscribe to the vlog channel.
Turn the post notifications on.
Have an absolutely wonderful day,
and remember to be kind to someone.
I promise I'll see you guys tomorrow.