- And here comes Taz!
Again, never seen anything like this before.
In all the time I've had him, he has never wanted
to come out of his cage ever.
(upbeat music)
Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the vlog!
I hope the start of your day is absolutely incredible.
For you that have been opining for BHB, you're gonna get
your fill today 'cause I'll be at BHB a lot today.
We will check in at the Reptarium for sure.
What an absolutely gorgeous py.
And you may ask yourself,
Brian, why are you holding that py?
Well, today we're gonna actually be doing ultrasound!
I promised you guys that yesterday.
And I'll not only explain what we're doing
but I'll explain why we're doing it and keep on moving.
Hopefully with any luck a bunch of these females
will have some nice follicle growth,
and I'll explain what that means.
Let's go ahead and get started.
Before we get started let's just go ahead
and talk about what an ultrasound is.
This happens to be an ultrasound CTS 3300.
There are all kinds of different ultrasounds,
they can start as low as a thousand dollars.
This particular one, I think, was about 13, 14,
maybe 15,000, I don't really remember.
Regardless, they actually use high frequency sound waves
to actually bounce an echo off an image inside of a body,
and then actually you can see the image right here.
So what we're doing is actually looking for
the actual follicles, and what we start by doing is
finding the gallbladder, which is a big black spot,
you guys are gonna see that in a minute.
And then right off of that you're gonna see the oviduct.
And that's actually where the follicles grow and develop
and all of that type of stuff.
Regardless, we use this gel right here, which just helps
the sound waves actually move through a little bit better,
and that's about it.
So there's no radiation, there's nothing that can actually
harm an animal, so that is what an ultrasound is.
Let's go ahead, get Kelsey, and we'll start ultrasounding.
We're gonna start with this Mojave ball python.
A nice big female ball python.
And essentially, again, what I'm doing is I'm just going
kind of two thirds the way down their body,
and I'm looking for, well, in this case
I found some really big follicle.
But typically what I'll do is I'll look for
a big black splotch, which is actually the gallbladder,
and then I follow the line down after that.
But this girl has some new big follicles in her right now,
so let's go ahead and see what they are.
There is, and I just basically measure from side to side.
They're 18 millimeters.
So basically what happens, again, at about one centimeter,
which is 10 millimeters, that's usually
kind of the jumping off point when
you want to start breeding ball pythons.
And they typically grow anywhere from, like,
one to five millimeters per week.
Ultimately you stop breeding them at about
35 to 40 millimeters, and then they actually ovulate.
So we have a ways to go.
So the fact that she's at 18 millimeters is amazing.
She has been bred twice, which is pretty cool as well.
Next up is py.
And again, I can kinda just see with the way the body's
shaped, that this doesn't have a lot of body weight.
Even though it's been feeding it hasn't been feeding
as aggressively as the other guys.
Hasn't been bred at all.
So, again, with the fact that the triggers were
not feeding really well and not breeding,
basically those are two of the three triggers, right?
I highly doubt this gonna have much follicles in it.
And then I'm looking.
And we'll see we have, yeah, again, you know,
probably about eight or nine millimeter follicles.
So she's probably not quite ready.
Oftentimes once they do reach that 10 or 12 millimeters,
get bred, then they start feeding really well,
and then you kind of complete the loop of all three
of those triggers, and then hopefully you have success.
Taking a quick break from the ultrasound,
because obviously when we're breeding snakes
and producing snakes we have to sell snakes.
So I'm gonna help Lori pack a few things, starting with
this absolutely gorgeous female Suriname ball.
We didn't actually produce this animal, but they're
doing really well, and, oh my gosh are they incredible.
Just take a look at this little monkey.
And then there's actually a male Suriname red tail ball
going out too, and if you remember when I unpacked it,
this was one of the one's I was like,
oh, I should really keep it.
Because it has those connecting saddles
that look so amazing.
Now on to the ball pythons.
And hoo doggy, that thing is gorgeous.
This is actually a super pastel calico ball python.
Oh my god, that is a gorgeous snake.
This next one is actually a cham-pin,
or a champagne pinstripe.
You know the champagne gene is a pretty overpowering gene,
but it really does some really cool things,
so it's a powerhouse animal to have.
Especially when you start mixing into certain things
that get really high ringers on 'em.
Entry stuff is amazing, so there you go, a cham-pin.
I absolutely love this girl.
This is that puma ball python that is just so weird.
Now she is a really nice size animal.
I would suspect that she has some follicles.
Until we check we never really quite know.
But they're definitely not big follicles.
I mean, this guys have about, maybe,
eight millimeter follicles, so she still has a way to go.
For that we just gotta feed her, continue to try to get
males in with the breeding, 'cause again, sometimes
the breeding can spur follicle growth and then ultimately
spur feeding and you start to have good success.
Now this girl's a big fire and she's got
some really good body weight, so hopefully that means
that she'll have some follicles in here.
Oh, yeah, there they are.
Look at that.
Whoo!
That's nice.
That's what I wish every animal would have.
Let's go ahead and measure these up.
We get 15 millimeter follicles on, that's well on the way.
This is actually a cinape, which is
a cinnamon and a spider mix.
And actually another cinape female going out,
so that's two going out.
They're absolutely wonderful.
And then we have a pied going out.
This one's got a really interesting marking right here.
Look, it almost goes, like, ooh!
It almost goes, like, halfway down his,
a little bit of a smiley face, a little bit.
But it's just strange that that circle,
it's actually got two different tones.
And it's a little feisty monkey.
Again, this is a GHI Mojave right here, which is just
absolutely one of my favorite types of snakes.
She's definitely a smaller animal, so probably not much
going on, but maybe just the start.
And sure enough, that's what I expected.
About eight millimeter follicles, so.
And if we put another 100, 200 grams on her,
good chance is they'll grow to 10.
Plus, start breeding, and then we're good to go.
Here's the forever and always popular banana ball pythons.
Like I always say, we just can't get enough of these guys,
they're just so amazing.
Actually remember when we hatched this.
This is a double het albino clown.
It was an albino clown male that was
bred to a het clown female.
It produced some clowns that were
het for albino and so on like that.
So that's a pretty animal.
And then another male banana ball python.
And then we packed that super pastel calico.
This would be the other version of calico,
which of course is a sugar ball python.
And a lot of people feel that the sugars are just
a little bit higher expression of white.
Some can be that way.
This one is absolutely beautiful.
All that pink is gonna eventually turn into white.
And finally, ooh, doggy, this is beautiful.
This is actually a pastel sugar.
So, again, just like the other one being a sugar,
this just has the pastel gene on it
and is absolutely gorgeous.
So there are a lot of really beautiful snakes
that are going out to new homes.
I hope that everyone that gets me will absolutely love 'em.
We sure do appreciate all your support.
Now, back to ultrasounding.
Next up we actually have an enchipastavy,
which is a pastel, a Mojave, and of course, an enchi.
Let's see what she's got going on, if anything.
Yeah, just little tiny ones, about seven millimeters or so.
And basically what we've got going on is
this is what I call our base line, right?
So once we ultrasound everything we know where they're at,
then three, four weeks from now, five weeks,
whenever we decide to ultrasound again,
we see if they start growing.
Growth is gonna tell us that we need to breed more,
not bred more, you know, when we can
shelve an animal, so on, like that.
Now this girl is beautiful.
I hope this girl goes.
This is actually a pastel lesser clown ball python
being bred to a pastel leopard clown.
So, oh my gosh, I hope that she goes, but,
but she's still small, she's about eight, nine millimeters,
so very much in the early stages of breeding,
but she looks fantastic.
What we have here is a banana spinner, which is just
a banana, a pinstripe, and a spider.
Let's see what she's got going on.
Little guys, I mean, nothing too major.
About seven millimeter follicles right there.
So, again in the very early stages, you know.
And I noticed that, like, groups of animals
will typically do about the same.
Almost like if a female is growing follicles
females around her grow follicles.
So when you hit a patch that they're all like, seven, eight,
seems like that whole patch will be seven or eight.
Just kind of an interesting observation
I've had over the years.
Next up we have this nice spider girl.
And the fact that she kinda looks a little bit light
in the way she's going, I'm assuming
this is gonna have some follicles in her.
You can kinda just tell overall if any animal does,
and sure enough, right as I suspected.
Nice big follicles.
And again, that's just years of seeing this animals
and measuring follicles and all that other stuff.
You can actually see when
an animal looks like it's expanding.
This one has 17 millimeter follicles.
I had to take a break from that kind of
boring ultrasounding, I'm not gonna lie to you.
As much as it's exciting to know what's going on,
it's, you know, there's not a lot of excitement
when you're ultrasounding stuff.
Unless you find big follicles.
So I figure if I'm bored, come talk to these guys.
You guys are always exciting. - Yeah.
- Action packed.
- [Brian] What do you have going on today?
- Today we did our annual, our annual,
bimonthly, I would say.
(laughter)
- That wouldn't be, that would be monthly, not annual.
- Yeah, but I wanna change
the definition of Old English, you know?
I'm gonna jazz it up a little bit.
- I don't, I don't, I still don't know what's going on.
(laughter)
- So we did our annual, if you will,
reptile morph guessing game.
It's where--
(overlapping voices)
I know.
- [Brian] It's been a year.
- It's about a year, right?
Hasn't it?
- No way, it's, no way it's been--
- Oh no, 'cause, Taz, when I feed Taz out of my mouth.
- That's true.
- What was that, four or five months ago?
- Maybe six, maybe half a year.
- Speaking of Taz, I wanna go over
and show you guys Taz in a minute, but go ahead.
Keeping going with your story.
- So we did that morph guessing game,
and then also I kinda hijacked Eric's brain
and made him do something that he didn't want to do.
- That's true.
- [Brian] Oh, mind tricks?
- Yes.
- The mind tricks thing, that stuff is trippy.
There was that show, that was like a science channel,
something like that, that stuff freaks me out.
- I think I sees it, yeah.
Something like that, yeah. - That stuff freak me out.
So, you guys can check out of the antics.
What was the penalty if you guys lost on the game?
- Just say somebody, I'm not gonna spoil it,
but somebody or something had to eat some mealworms.
- [Brian] Somebody or something.
- That's what we're gonna say.
- And by that, probably Eric.
- Probably Eric. - Maybe.
- Someone was a poor sport.
(laughter)
- Okay, I'm gonna get back to my boring life,
but I do wanna show you Tazzie.
He's acting really weird.
Here's the deal, I've had Taz
for a year now, an entire year.
So we've had him through every season and everything else.
And I thought that I really understood this animal.
To be totally honest with you, he's a pretty lazy lizard.
I mean, he just kinda hangs out like this,
doesn't do a whole lot, just like that.
Today he was going crazy.
He was all over the cage, I've never seen anything like it.
And typically when I let him out on the ground over here
he'll walk around in, like, maybe a circle,
one, two times, and then right back to the cage.
Today, he was all over the place.
He wouldn't go back in his cage, he walked
all the way around the entire Reptarium, and then
when I put him back he was clawing to get out again.
Tazzie, what is going on, buddy?
What is your deal?
I mean, he just doesn't ever act like this.
It is so bizarre.
I don't know if it's the weather,
because it's really warm outside right now,
or what the deal is, but it it is crazy.
I just thought I would share with you.
Tazzie, what is going on, buddy?
And here comes Taz.
Again, never seen anything like this before.
In all the time I've had him, he has never
wanted to come out of his cage, ever.
He has always wanted to just hang out and
just do nothing and here he goes.
Look at him.
What, I don't even understand what's happening here.
Tazzie, what is going on?
I mean, I know he's starting to get closer and closer
to maturity, I don't know if it's a mating thing.
Maybe he's, like, looking for a female.
I don't know, but I've never seen him
move that fast the entire year I've had him.
Look at, he is on a mission.
There he goes!
Bye, Taz.
Bye, bud.
Have fun.
But before I get back to my boring ultrasound,
if anyone has any experience with tegus,
tell me what you think is going on,
'cause I honestly have no clue.
And I know I talk about, like, the boringness
of an ultrasound, and I always tell people, like,
it's not that it's boring to us, I mean,
we're excited to see things grow
and follicles producing and then eventually eggs.
I mean, this is all the processes that it goes through.
What I'm really trying to do is help you guys
understand the thought process behind breeding ball pythons,
and it really equates to every other snake as well.
You can see here, we'll make breeding, right?
So this one bred January 10 and it's 14 millimeters.
This one bred January 24, 21 millimeters.
That's basically the triggers that I'm always talking about.
When you start to get breeding, the trigger's
follicle growth, and then as follicles grow, it triggers
breeding, which also triggers more food going on.
Typically females will go off of food
at about 22 to 25 millimeters, but from 10 go 25
they really get aggressive about eating.
'Cause again, I always talk about
calories in, production out.
So if there's a lot of food being had,
then there's a lot of production to be had.
Let's break it down this way.
If you're a female snake in the wild
and there's abundance of food, your mind is gonna say,
I can produce eggs, because my babies
are gonna have a lot of food.
On the other side, if you're a female snake
and there's hardly any food, chances are you're not
gonna produce because your babies are gonna hatch
and then they're gonna potentially starve to death.
So that's kind of the way we think when we're
actually doing these triggers when we're wanting to trigger
not only breeding, follicle growth, and food consumption.
The moral is, we're gonna go through
and just ultrasound all the females.
It'll probably take about three or four hours
to go through everything, but just checking
this female pastel yellow belly right now.
And I tell you what, it's actually really exciting
just to kinda see things going.
And listen, you don't need an ultrasound machine
if you wanna be successful breeding snakes,
that's not what it's all about.
But the deal is that it's just another tool that helps me
try to figure out when to breed animals and when not to.
Ooh, she's a cheeky little monkey, isn't she?
And it looks like this girl's at about
13 millimeters, which is really good.
So rather than bore you any more, I am gonna go ahead
and just continue to ultrasound.
If you have any questions, go down the comments,
I'll be able to go through the comments section
and answer anything you might have about these guys.
Night fury judge head.
And oh my god, take a look at that snake
and the iridescence on that thing.
Hoo hoo, doggy!
Every time it sheds and grows it gets more and more insane.
I am blown away by this snake.
And these guys, the motley golden childs, actually
get darker and darker as they grow.
So he is just getting more and more black.
What an absolutely incredible snake.
Then on the polar opposite spectrum, Casper just shed too!
Oh my god, he looks incredible as well.
Just look at how gorgeous that snake is right there.
Again, I think it's amazing that we have this
just stark pure white reticulated python and then
that jet black reticulated python as well.
What an amazing contrast.
And again, my buddy Jay over at Prehistoric Pets
is really the one that inspired me to do this.
He has a white one and a black one and I always thought
oh my god, I'm so jealous.
So now it's awesome to have 'em.
And the fact that they shed
the exact same day is pretty incredible.
With that said, guys, I think I'm gonna go ahead
and end the vlog and kinda just leave it where it is.
Let me know if you like the ultrasound stuff,
are you interested in it?
Do you want me to talk more about
the intricacies of breeding snakes?
And all those things that I've kinda learned
over the last 30 years, again, I wanna
kinda edu-tain you, so to speak, right?
I wanna educate you, but I also wanna
entertain you, so let me know.
I just don't want you guys to stop watching
'cause you're thinking it's boring, because
I love you guys so much and I wish you an amazing day,
evening, whenever you happen to be watching.
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, which is every single day
at nine o'clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time.
Make a comment down below, because I love
reading about your beautiful faces.
Be kind to someone, and I promise,
I will see you guys tomorrow.
(upbeat music)
(child laughs)
(upbeat music)