- Hey, good morning everybody
and welcome to the vlog.
We are heading to Indianapolis
to my buddy Forrest today
because I felt like it was time for a road trip.
What do you say we get on the road
and go see some cool animals?
(upbeat music)
And we made it down to Forrest's place.
I absolutely love it here, you guys know that.
So today I'm gonna ask Forrest to kind of show us
more of his eclectic stuff
that we haven't maybe seen before,
'cause you guys know I come down here.
I want to show you all of the incredible stuff he has.
Obviously he has these Tree Monitors back behind me
but we've already seen those so I don't know,
maybe we'll jump in and talk about Green Tree Pythons
or Emerald Tree Boas first.
I want to show you really quick.
These are actually Macraei,
which is the Blue Tree Monitors.
These are the ones, remember when I showed you
I wanted to do that big Tree Monitor enclosure
at the new part of the Reptarium?
Well this is actually the new species I'm hoping to get
so these are absolutely incredible
and with any luck,
we'll have a huge enclosure with a bunch of them in there.
It's gonna be awesome.
- So the first Green Tree Python is ridiculous.
It's not really green.
What's up with this one?
- Yeah, it's a Blue Tree Python
and for Green Tree Python people
that's definitely the Ferrari of snakes.
The ultimate designer that we're all trying to achieve,
so this one is a pure Jayapura male,
and so it could potentially represent
a new bloodline of blue/green true pythons.
So there's the Walsh line,
that's been selectively bred since the '70s.
- [Brian] Trooper, yup.
- Then there's antigenic color change females.
So any Green Tree Python when it gets gravid,
can become blue and it can hold that blue
or it can go back to green.
Still very cool, very beautiful.
Just not genetically significant.
Not worth really any more money.
- [Brian] Now are all the blues come from red neonates
or are there any yellows?
- All of the genetic ones do, yes.
- [Brian] Okay, got you.
We're still trying to figure that stuff out
as far as if there's a yellow somewhere down the line.
With the Walsh line stuff, we have pedigrees,
we have numbers and they all come from an animal
named The Legend, to the Tim Morris blue female 6289.
If that's not on both sides of the pedigree--
- [Brian] You don't get blue.
- Well, you can get blue.
You can get true blue,
which goes from red neonate to green then to blue,
that's called a true blue.
And it's just as blue as a super blue most of the time.
But then a super blue goes right from red to--
- [Brian] To blue?
- Yeah and in that instance,
it's gotta be red on both sides.
But you went and visited Dana Collette,
you got to see arctic blue--
- [Brian] Arctic blue, yeah.
- So there's arctic blue, there's this guy,
there's like one or two other animals.
There was the Vinsky line of blue animal.
That's all there's ever been since the '70s
when Trooper and Eugene were going after these guys.
So a blue male is a really big deal.
And I'll tell you what, Collette,
she's got a degree in Zoology,
a very, very astute keeper.
And man, she has killed it with chondros, very impressive.
But, it just goes to show how cool chondros can be too.
I mean look at this, this is a super friendly animal.
- Yeah I know, people think they're just mean
but here you are just handling it like nothing,
that's awesome.
You guys might not realize it but these animals here,
Emerald Tree Boas,
are one of the animals that
really got me fascinated with reptiles.
When I was a kid, seeing pictures of these guys
blew me away and this is a pretty special animal, right?
- Yeah so this is a really special bloodline,
it's called the Miss Willie bloodline.
And they're very special
because of how much white is on these connecting bands.
In general, got a pretty docile temperament
and they're a very large size.
So, very attractive but just like you,
for me, arboreal snakes really, really drew me in.
And a lot of it was the snakes themselves,
how beautiful they were,
how much bad information there was on 'em.
I mean a lot of them, like this animal here,
it's got the longest teeth of any snake,
but it's a docile animal.
And so when I picked this thing up at Dr. Norm Friedman,
he's a dermatologist down in Florida,
walked out at his house
and he's got the thing around his neck.
He'd been working with snakes longer than I'd been alive.
The level of professionals
that were in the arboreal world,
like all of the emeralds I own come from
Rico Walder's signal herpetoculture.
And Rico was a life-long zookeeper.
He was the most prolific breeder of both
Emerald Tree Boas and Green Tree Pythons
to have ever lived.
He bred more than even the guys in Indonesia.
So hundreds of chondros a year.
So I got to meet guys like him.
I got to meet the Chief Editor of National Geographic.
I got to meet and hang out with Terry Phillip,
from my hometown, who runs Reptile Gardens.
A lot less drama because they're so hard to breed anyway
that there's no reason to slander or go bash a guy
over a sale.
We're all kind of rooting for each other.
- [Brian] Doing it for the love of the animal.
So you want everyone to be successful
'cause it carries on the bloodline, right?
So up until a few years ago,
really there were considered just a couple venomous lizards.
Heloderma, of course Beaded Lizards,
and there's a couple subspecies,
but regardless now there's this whole thing with Varanidae,
the Monitor lizards, starting with the Komodo dragons.
And now a lot of people think that all Varanids,
all Monitor lizards, actually do carry some venom.
Regardless, this is a Gila Monster.
Let me tell you something,
whether Varanids are venomous or not,
the fact is is that this is a much worse bite.
When you get bit by a Gila or a Beaded lizard,
they have a unbelievably painful bites.
Your actual blood pressure can drop,
you can pass out, a lot of times, projectile vomiting.
Your hand can swell up like you cannot believe
and I hear it's like a hot iron,
or maybe even a hot nail being hammered in
for like 24 hours.
So these guys you do not want to get bit by.
Now Veranids, typically with Komodos
and stuff like that, when they do bite you,
it's more of a long term infection
and then ultimately can cause other issues.
These guys, immediately once they bite you
and that venom actually gets into their system
and they have these major venom glands right here.
And basically what it is is the back teeth
will actually have little grooves in them
and the venom just kind of seeps into
as they grab onto you.
And they typically don't want to let go
and immediately you start to feel the pain for sure.
So although this guy is absolutely gorgeous
I never want to get bit by any venomous lizards,
in particular any Heloderma.
But actually, Forrest has another Heloderma
that is absolutely a pleasure.
Let's go take a look.
This is sick dude.
I remember when you got these I was freaking out.
- Yeah this is something I never thought I would get.
I think before they came in
this was something that everybody dreamed of having
that appreciate and love Mexican herpetofauna
and especially stuff from the high elevations
and the cloud forests.
These guys are found at the highest elevations
of these lizards.
I think that's a lot of why they have that dark coloration,
to help them through the colder periods of the year.
- [Brian] And this is a?
- [Forrest] Horridum Alverezi,
the Chiapas Black Beaded Lizard.
- [Brian] Geez, this thing is so cool.
- And it's named after Alvarez Del Toro,
who's one of the most famous Mexican herpetologists.
They named it in honor of him.
He did a ton of great work in the Chiapas.
And actually one of the more iconic animals
down there as well, that you've kept, Abronia Lythrochila,
they're actually found alongside these
and Alvarez Del Toro described these.
He described these in 1963 and then Charles Bogart
and Martin Del Campo who also have Abronia named after them.
So it's just really cool
once you get into all the Mexican herpetofauna
and just learning about all these guys
and all the history behind it.
- It's crazy, and this thing is so cool
and you can see how this guy is certainly
an arboreal animal, I mean, that tail.
- I guess you can call it prehensile.
It's not like this.
One of the key differences
of it is that this guy can't kick his tail.
So they can't kick their tails off.
They don't shed in one piece like an Abronia does.
And then of course, you know the toxicology,
they're venomous and all that.
- It's just crazy though, I mean you can just tell
how this guy could climb more than a Gila.
Those back legs, the way it holds on.
It's amazing to be able to hold something like this.
- It's something I never thought I would see.
Now we got guys like Steve Angeli, Brook Bernston,
a couple other people having breeding success.
And then, believe it or not, we just got two eggs.
- You just got a couple eggs?
- Yeah, I don't know if they're good or not.
I was hoping maybe you could look at them and see.
- Let's take a look, are you kidding me, let's do it.
- Let's check it out.
(upbeat music)
- It's interesting that they look kind of white
but they're so malformed.
- [Forrest] Yeah, you think they're too skinny?
- [Brian] Yeah this one's definitely not--
- [Forrest] Yeah, that one's bad.
- [Brian] That one's bad for sure.
- [Forrest] There's a little red on the...
- [Brian] Yeah it doesn't look like there's anything
in this one either.
- [Forrest] See that though?
What's that, is that just?
- [Brian] It's just, yeah, nothing, unfortunately.
- Thanks a lot, Brian.
- Well I'm sorry to ruin your day
but the other things I've seen,
I don't know if these guys have the same.
I've seen Gila eggs and they're more like that.
- Yeah, they're a lot rounder.
- Yeah they're like round.
Again, this might be different because they're Alvarezi
but it's that pointy shape.
- She's only two years old.
- But that's great that you got eggs regardless.
My advice, don't throw those away
until they stink so bad you can't take it.
- That's always my.
- I never throw eggs away period
'cause I've had some eggs that I didn't see embryos in
that have hatched.
- Of course it's a myth that the bad eggs.
- Yeah, go bad, yeah.
- Will cause your good eggs to go bad, yeah.
- No, keep them in until you can't take it anymore.
Hopefully with any luck something will happen there.
- Maybe next time.
- Still awesome though.
- It's so awesome to be working with these guys
and also please go check out the IRCF Conservation Fund
for Guatemalan Beaded Lizards.
They're doing a bunch of good conservation work
down there trying to save those.
They're in really bad shape.
So if you can, check it out, donate money.
- Definitely, I'll put a link in the description guys.
Definitely go check that out.
In case you guys didn't know,
we actually get all our rodents from
Forrest and Desiree at Cold Blooded Cafe.
You run an amazing place here.
- Yeah, no we do our best.
I've been doing it professionally since I was 25.
I'm 34 now.
That's what we do 24/7.
We breed rodents and try to provide the best feeders
for you guys and then we turn around and buy reptiles.
- [Brian] Awesome, I'm gonna take a look real quick inside
and see what this place looks like.
- Coldbloodedcafe.com.
$30 flat rate shipping, anywhere in the United States.
Best product in the industry.
Flash frozen, flat packed.
Look at how clean these rodents are.
Feed the best rodents to your reptiles today.
Coldbloodedcafe.com, $30 flat rate shipping.
Buy them right now.
- This animal that's right in here coming over.
Look at her right there.
Oh my god, I love this animal so much.
This is actually a Caymen project
that myself and Forrest have been working on.
Really Forrest is working on it,
I'm just kind of hanging in here.
She's absolutely incredible.
So with any luck, Forrest, what do you think?
Maybe next year?
- Yeah maybe next year we can make a whole clutch
of at least 100% hats.
- [Brian] Exactly, that's amazing.
She's getting close, but she's a monster.
She is something else.
She's amazing though.
- It's crazy thinking back.
I remember just,
I was back at your place in the back
delivering you mice and hear one of the people at your place
telling me, "Oh Brian heard about this Caymen,"
and just running up there.
That was in 2012, we got it as this little baby.
We were able to get a federal permit to get it
and here we are.
It's sexually mature and ready to go.
- It's super cool but I want to see how this thing eats.
Because Caymen are not alligators.
Let me just tell you what.
As a matter of fact.
Forrest has a bunch of marks to prove what these guys do.
Let's just go ahead a feed her and hopefully with any luck,
maybe we'll have babies down the road.
(upbeat music)
I absolutely love this boa.
It's probably one of my favorite boas.
This is actually a Princess Diamond right here.
I love the fact that they're white
but they also have speckles,
almost like Perdita.
But unlike Perdita,
these guys are born with the speckles
and they don't get more as they get older.
Lori said that I could actually get one of these
if I can find one.
Maybe one day I'll talk Forrest out of this one.
So we're here in the quarantine area,
and tell me first,
how long are you quarantining these guys?
- Okay so, they're probably just going to stay in here.
This is just gonna become a new room.
But at least six to eight months.
- [Brian] Okay, so a while.
- So this is a Miss Willie line female.
See, just a big beautiful female.
And then you can see this is how things are done
in the arboreal world.
And this is a signal herpetoculture pedigree.
So you can see here, that was Miss Willie.
Just look at those huge white connecting bands.
- [Brian] So this is the original line?
- Yep, yeah that was her, that was her.
She just recently passed away.
Rico one year bred 10 pairs of Emeralds
and produced 10 litters.
- [Brian] Oh my god, that's like the Holy Grail.
- That's how good Rico was.
- [Brian] So how many do you have in here now?
- We have eight pairs total,
and every one of them descends from Rico lineage.
- [Brian] Steven, what's it like working with Forrest man?
- It's just a dream come true.
He's just an inspirational guy to be around.
I've had an addiction for Scrub Pythons for awhile.
I had a good collection when I got here,
but he definitely raised the bar
for my Scrub Python collection.
Really just helped me get some amazing animals.
- [Brian] I heard that working for him you get
like free snakes and stuff or something?
- It's really amazing.
- Seriously guys, hit us up, it's a dream job.
No seriously, it's been a dream for me to build a facility,
not to just breed and sell stuff,
but to find up and coming kids like Steven.
Before he worked here,
I had was it, 2.4 Annulated Tree Boas?
That I just had and I was just like,
"Dude, take these, breed them, have fun."
Because he was so passionate about them.
It was cool to almost like sponsor somebody.
- [Brian] Well there's no doubt
you guys work good together.
I mean you guys are both really uber passionate,
super detail oriented.
Kind of obscure stuff, right?
Like you're into the arboreal stuff.
You're into the Scrubbies and Olives
and stuff like that, which is awesome.
It's kind of a match made in heaven.
- Yeah he wouldn't have known any more than
five species of Abronia before he worked here.
And I wouldn't have known anything about Scrubs.
And now I'm super passionate about Scrubs.
So this is one of my favorite snakes that Steven has.
This is a Morelia, is that right?
- Probably should say Simalia.
- So this is one of my favorite snakes of Steven's.
This is a Simalia Tracyae,
so it's named after Tracy Barker.
They found it on the island of Halmahera.
David named it after his wife.
Really cool, so we were actually able
to get our hands on a pair of babies.
And then we have how many adults as well?
- We have an adult pair and then a juvenile female.
- Yep, adult pair and a juvenile female.
These were just bred for the first time ever
by Blake Bauer at the Oklahoma City Zoo.
They had never been bred.
More of a mystery than a Boelen's Pythons.
We were able to start with a small pair.
This one is actually kind of light,
so we're hoping maybe we've got another female.
Might be like hypo or something.
So lots of exciting stuff with rare Scrub Pythons.
So here we have Steven's group of Corallus annulatus.
These guys are absolutely incredible.
You know, I worked really, really hard
with Joe Sadowski to try to get a really diverse
group of phenotypes.
You can see here we have an orange one,
we've got a white one with some white spots.
This thing is yellow.
This thing is like, it goes from orange to white.
It's in shed right now,
so it doesn't look it's full potential.
- It's wild that they're like Amazons
but they're much heavier duty
and they're always tame, right?
- Yeah, I mean you're not getting bit by these things.
- I love these things.
I've been into these for years and years and years.
But this is the first time I think I've ever held
an Annulated Boa, which is really wild.
It's crazy, how many do you have?
- 2.4.
- Oh my gosh, that is amazing.
Of course, live young.
So guys, Forrest, thank you guys.
Steven.
Thank you guys for just hanging out with me.
If you enjoyed this video,
here's another video over here
that I was with Forrest
with all kinds of crazy stuff.
There's an entire playlist of amazing stuff
if you want to roll through some things.
Over on this side,
you can hit that subscribe button
if you don't mind.
While you're over there,
can you hit that post notification?
Remember to have an absolutely wonderful day.
And you better be kind to somebody.
I promise, I'll see you guys tomorrow.