- Hey, good morning everybody
and welcome to the vlog.
I hope this start
of your day is truly incredible.
I'm gonna need your help
a little bit today
and what I mean by that
is I'm gonna need your imagination.
Do you remember when we first started
to think about The Reptarium,
the original one,
and I brought you in
and I kinda shared
that kind of vision with you (air whooshing).
We're gonna have a huge cage
for Bella over here.
That's gonna be absolutely mammoth.
She deserves so much room.
She loves to run around the shop.
I'm gonna definitely do
a big tortoise pan over here
and then we'll have
a middle aisle right here
that comes right down the middle.
That is gonna be back to back cages.
Again, all natural, beautiful setups,
tall enclosures, big enough for everything.
And then ultimately we're gonna
do another row right on this side.
And I'm thinking about building right here
in the very front,
I'm thinking about building another pan
where I can put Bowser
and I want that pond to have clear sides
so people can actually see it (air whooshing).
And how about what we got this building
that was a tattoo shop
and I shared that vision with you (air whooshing).
When you walk through that walkway
and get up to here,
you're gonna see this amazing big huge cage.
It's gonna be absolutely like a little jungle.
And then behind it,
down this center aisle,
again, these walls will be gone.
Down the center aisle
is gonna be a whole bunch of other cages
and stuff like that
that I'll have all kinds of things in it
that I'm super excited about.
Not exactly sure what
the design is gonna be yet,
but we're working on that.
Over here again,
this wall will be set back like six foot,
but there'll be the fish pods right here.
And then we'll do a really cool quarter cage
with a huge glass front
that you can enter.
I think I'm gonna do
a boreal tree monitors in there.
I think it's gonna be
a really cool cage.
Then finally we'll have
like a gift area over here
where we'll have some more stuff (air whooshing).
Bare with me here
because now I wanna talk to you
about what the future is of The Reptarium
or what I hope the future is
and it has to do with
that wall right there.
That's right. What is the future
of The Reptarium
and what I call Reptarium 3.0
and what I wanna do,
and it's gonna start
with the expansion that way (air whooshing).
So obviously we want a very similar opening
to this that joined the old Reptarium
and the new Reptarium.
Basically the same type of thing.
And right now if you look over here,
we don't have a lot of space.
If we move the tortoise out,
we only have this,
so my solution to that is,
is to actually remove
these two enclosures here,
Casper and Sunrise.
These would come out
and they would eventually
go over into the new expansion.
And then I would take Lucy's cage
and I'd move it over to here.
That would basically put me
at about where Novas cage is right there.
Now, I could make this opening
the same size here, right here.
So this would be the opening itself
right here that you would walk
into the new Reptarium,
The Reptarium 3.0,
but that's just the beginning,
that's the least of the (laughs)
things I have to worry about now
because it's not just the fact
that we're going through,
but, obviously we have BHB next door.
So what's gonna happen to BHB?
(air whooshing)
(upbeat music)
- So You guys know Elvis
is a rock star here at Reptarium.
So many kids, adults,
everyone comes and visits him.
You can pat him on the face,
you can pat him right after he eats.
It's absolutely no problem.
But with that being said,
he still does flinch
when we walk by him.
If you make too fast at movements,
unlike Toothless, who's a little more calm
and willing to accept random things
coming towards his face.
So even though he can be
a little skittish around us sometimes,
he is very food motivated,
which makes it super easy
to ball train him,
get him to do tricks,
come up your leg,
run them around The Reptarium
for a nice show for everyone.
However, Toothless is amazing here.
We've never seen him flinch.
We've had him ever since
he was a little baby
and he's not afraid
of humans in the least.
But with him being so calm
and so habituated to us,
he also isn't food driven.
So it makes it a little harder
to ball train him,
get him to do tricks like Elvis can.
But with all that being said,
we are super excited
to see how he's going to turn out
when he is older
'cause he's gonna be
just as big as Elvis,
just as amazing.
But maybe a little less afraid of people (air whooshing).
- So obviously we have all
the animals here at BHB.
Of course the colubrid room,
the gecko room here,
and even the office is up front here.
Obviously this can't be Reptarium 3.0
with all this stuff here.
So the plan is,
is to move all of this stuff
as well as all of the stuff
in the dungeon actually
to the other basements.
So all three units,
The Reptarium, The Reptarium 2.0
and BHB have basements
the same size as the upstairs.
So, the plan is to move everything
from the dungeon, upstairs BHB, the offices,
everything into the basements of The Reptarium
and The Reptarium 2.0.
That way we could have
this basement totally open (air whooshing).
Now, you may be asking Brian,
"Why do you want the basement
"open over at BHB?"
And that's because this opening here
that will be opening going into the 3.0
will not only be an upstairs expansion,
basically the same size
as the expansion over here,
but there'll also be a basement expansion.
But that does lead a little bit of an issue
because you can't have
a basement with the public
with only one stairway (air whooshing).
Take a look at guys, Ben and Jerry's shed out
and I see at least
one head right here in the shed
and do I see another head here,
I can't tell.
Note they always rip them.
That's the one thing
that they always do.
But they did shed in one piece.
They have no stack shed on them.
Absolutely look incredible.
I mean, just look at how beautiful
that snake is right there.
Oh, here's the other head.
Look at that.
The other head's right here.
So we got one head on this side
and one head on that side.
So pretty cool.
Again, other than the heads,
which obviously they have to rip
because there's no way
they could do it with that V right there.
It was a completely perfect shed
and they look absolutely spectacular (air whooshing).
- Well, Brian as usual is always looking
at the next best thing he wants to do.
So Reptarium 3.0 I think
is what he's calling it seriously,
is the next thing on his list.
While I always give him crap for things
and I'm really not
in a mood to start that yet,
I do see the plus sides to doing it.
Ultimately, we love The Reptarium
and what it has become
and then there is potential to expand in there.
I'm not going to encourage it
at this immediate moment
'cause I mean face it,
we're not even open right now.
Well, so how can I be
thinking about making it bigger?
But that being said,
the idea is that we have,
if and when we do
do it are pretty cool
and I think it would definitely
take it to the next level
and kind of blow people's minds away.
So like I said,
"Maybe not right now",
but I could see that being in the future (air whooshing).
- And this is where some imagination
is gonna come in.
Basically right here,
that wall, that-
Hi Beth by the way. - Hi.
- This wall here will actually
be the wall that actually joins the 3.0
to the 2.0 meaning I need
a stairway right here,
right here at this wall.
There needs to be a stairway.
That way I can have a stairway in
and I can have a stairway out
and I can actually be open for the public (air whooshing).
- A lot of you guys may actually not know,
but I love red tailed boas.
It was one of the first things I ever owned
and probably be the last snake I ever owned.
Really, I'll be 80 years old
with a red tailed boas,
but actually the second snake I ever got,
believe it or not was actually a carpet python.
Now I love, love carpet pythons.
Actually anything the Morelia species,
green tree pythons probably,
I mean even this guy right here,
like a central carpet python.
The one thing that I actually
thought was really interesting
that I wanted to show you guys is actually
why they're called Carpet Pythons.
Now, believe or not,
when you look at a carpet python,
they have these really
beautiful aberrant path patterning,
whether it's the Central,
whether it's the Easterns,
whether it's the jungle carpets
and the coastals and stuff.
In fact, people used to think
that they actually look
a lot like middle Eastern carpeting,
so that's why they actually
kind of refer to them as Carpet Python (air whooshing)
So I've actually loves to nip out here for you.
I personally love like just a classics man.
The jungles and the coastals.
My first carpet was a coastal,
but man, there's a reason
people love these jungles
and their gorgeous, gorgeous.
They're very attentive animals.
They move around.
I like the way to pick
their heads up a little bit more.
To me it's just a like
a more semi-arboreal type snake
that just really, really would
just be falling in love with very quickly (air whooshing).
- And yes, this is snow.
Welcome to Michigan (air whooshing).
And before we get into
what's gonna happen in the basement
in the 3.0 with the expansion.
Let's just talk about
when you walk through here.
Again, this enclosure is gonna be over there
it's gonna be an opening tortoises
that are going to get moved.
You'll actually have a stairway,
right where basically
Steve is walking right now.
You can go down that way
or you can go this way
back into the upstairs.
So basically you're gonna have
another expansion similar to Reptarium 1.0
or Reptile 2.0 but you'll be able
to walk through basically
just like I'm walking through here
and there's gonna be a bunch of other cages
and stuff like that.
We'll have more reptiles
and by the way,
I'm hoping we'll have a sloth exhibit
and we may even have another mammal exhibit.
I'm not sure,
maybe a venomous section,
not 100% sure how that's gonna go,
but the upstairs
will just be another expansion.
So essentially we've doubled The Reptarium
when we went to 2.0.
Now, we're actually talking
about doubling again.
Going from two units
to four units with upstairs and downstairs.
(air whooshing) More imagination needed,
so I'm actually in The Reptarium 2.0 basement.
So let's pretend that this is BHB.
We've moved out all
of this stuff out of the dungeon
and this is basically open.
This would be basically right below
the tortoise pan if you get the idea.
So now that stairway is gonna
come down right here
into this entire area.
Again, this would be under BHB now.
So again, imagination guys.
So the idea would is to have
swimming experiences down here.
So you would walk down
and almost feel like a cave down here.
We do it out like with universal rock cave,
be really cool
and what I want is 20 foot long
but probably 15 plus foot enclosures
that you can have Salt
the alligator in here
where you can actually
go swimming with Salt. That's right.
You could book a time
to go swim in the Salt.
I want another 20 foot long aquatic enclosure
that's gonna have maybe
Ivy the Anaconda
or another Anaconda
or maybe a big riddick
that again you could
do swimming with If you want.
Another 20 foot long aquarium
that would actually be a stingray,
saltwater stingray tank
where you could feed
and actually go swimming with stingrays.
And then of course we'd
have a bunch of other cool
enclosures on this side.
This experience will be,
again, more like a cave.
It doesn't have high ceilings,
but it's gonna feel really cool
and stuff like that with
all these cool swimming experiences
and maybe even some fish
to be totally honest with you.
So this will be much more aquatic down here.
(air whooshing)
(upbeat music)
- So that was really good.
You can obviously see my arm
is a little smaller than Bruce's,
so he actually does a little better
when he comes out on Bruce's arm.
But he still came out which is great.
So this is a great interaction.
He's not running away from us.
He's still like,
"Do you have more food for me?" (laughs)
- Holy cow. Salt and Pepper
look amazing, don't they?
And you know,
I just love building a dream.
I wanna build this
into one of the coolest reptile places
you can go in the world.
I just want people
to have amazing experiences
but listen, not gonna lie,
I can't avoid the truth of the matter.
We're not even open right now.
And who knows when we're gonna be open.
We don't know.
So the idea was to eventually
start this expansion in November
and hopefully be ready by,
again, March of next year
with this new expansion
with the fact that
we don't even know
what the future is.
We're obviously not making any income right now.
It'd be silly for me
and all kinds of levels
to put the kind of money
because this would be
the biggest investment
that I would ever
have made into The Reptarium.
To put that money,
to put the sweat equity,
to work so hard at it.
It's just silly.
I mean obviously
I can't imagine this happening in November,
but I really do hope
that maybe by the end of the year
or very beginning of next year,
hopefully we're back on track.
Things are back to normal.
I sure hope so anyways,
that's when we get started.
And then maybe by early summer
we would be done with the expansion.
Not a 100% sure how it's gonna go.
There's a lot of things going on,
but I was just excited
and wanted to share with you guys
what I was thinking about the future
because even though we're
kind of in this shelter in spot,
we're not open,
all this stuff.
It's easy to just not do stuff.
I always wanna move forward.
I want to always be thinking,
so I'm taking this time
to do amazing things
like obviously the virtual tours
and the shout outs are keeping me busy.
I'm always trying to think of ways
to kinda keep going forward
and not get stuck down in the rut.
So I wanted to share
this experience with you
and let you know
what my thoughts are
and I really wanna know
from you guys down the comments
If you think this is a good idea,
a bad idea,
if you'd be excited about it.
What else should I add
to upstairs or downstairs?
I wanna bring you guys
along on the journey
and with any luck,
we get back to some normalcy
and this actually happens
by the summer of 2021.
(air whooshing)
Look at guys,
Ivy actually looks like almost completely normal.
Looks like the lump is completely down again.
Gotta do more maintenance
every single day on her enclosure.
That's the problem with feeding
her a big meal is that she,
she definitely makes a little bit of mess,
but I think tomorrow
I'm actually gonna weigh her.
Remember last time we weighed her,
she was 55 pounds
and when I got her
she was under seven foot.
So maybe we'll measure her
to see how much she's grown
and then weigh to see
how much she weighs now.
What an amazing animal.
Absolutely love her to death.
And I'd like to do more enclosures
like this in Reptarium 3.0.
(air whooshing)
I love the fact that my turtles
are starting to become
a little bit more brazen
and coming up for food
and stuff like that.
They still hide a bunch,
but at least they're starting
to kind of become more social,
which is what I really wanted
to do in the meantime.
And let me know in the comments
what you guys think about this expansion.
Should I do it?
When should I do it?
Are you excited about it?
What you want me to add?
All that type of stuff.
As a matter of fact,
you guys can look through
an entire playlist of us building The Reptarium.
You can also listen to my podcast.
We had a banger this last time over here.
It's called Checking In.
Please subscribe to that one.
Subscribe to this channel over here as well.
I really do appreciate you guys.
Have an amazing day.
Remember to be kind to someone
and I promise I'll see you guys tomorrow.