How To Have Fun Breeding Ball Pythons In 2025 | New Breeder On The Block Live

t-minus 30 seconds. [Music] T-minus 20 seconds. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Z shout to US Arc and all US Arc members. If you don't know what US Arc is, don't be ashamed. Just go ahead and click the third link in the description below. See what US Arc is all about, okay? You never know when legislations are going to hit your backyard. So that's why it's very important to consider becoming a US Arc member today. These numbers really do matter, and they look at it for consideration when it comes to battling legislation.

So first and foremost, thank you Phil Goss. Thank you to anybody out there who partners up and volunteers with the US Arc organization. Thank you for anyone out there who's a US Arc member. And if you can't become a US Arc member today, please talk about it on your platforms. Let your neighbors know. Let all your pet stores know what US Arc is here for. And it's here to fight for our animal rights. Thank you to every US Arc member and US Arc supporter out there. True. All right.

What up everybody? Number 650, new breeder on the block. Big C in the house. Big E in the house. Really excited to have the one and only David from Watt Exotics on tonight. Bunit fam in the house. Really excited to get to know him a little better. I know he's doing multiple species, so I want to get into that. His ball python projects, everything in between. So, really, really excited um to get started with that. I'm going to do some of the sponsors here really quick, and then I'll bring on Big E and we'll kind of get going.

So, we got here um Blake. You guys know we love Blake with Blake's Exotic Feeders. Hit him up for all of your quail needs. Um, we're always striving to produce or feed the very best protein to our animals. So, hit up Blake if you're needing some quail. Tell them the Trap sent you, and uh go from there. We got none other than the Reptile Super Show coming up uh next weekend with Pom with Pomona. I'll be there. I'll be there. It'll be my first super show. Super excited to hit uh the West Coast and see what's going on over there. There. I've heard nothing but good things about Ramy and how he does his show. So, I'm really excited for that experience coming up.

And then we got uh RGI, so with Rear Genetics for all your shed testing needs. As we've discussed numerous times on this podcast, shed testing is becoming needed for our collections in order to um improve them. Year after year, you know, in order to get ahead, get an edge, you need to do uh shed testing with your animals. And then we'll kind of end that uh with Clutch. Know Amelio's got in. He's really liking it. I'm definitely gonna get it when once I move and get everybody set up again um start using Clutch. I'm really excited for all the new features that they're coming out with and doing a great job of being able to just organize your ball python collections um in a kind of modern, really nice-looking way with the with tags and um everything else on the enclosures to make it easy to follow the incubator countdown, all of that. Able to track um lineage and history too is really great with this. So really excited to to use that. And so with that, I'll bring Big E. We'll talk a little bit and we'll get started.

What's up?

Yo, what's up? How's it going, Big C?

Big C's back.

Yeah. So, uh tell us about your big trip, man. How was that?

Well, I I ended my first Georgia show. Uh got another state under the belt. Uh did phenomenal. Uh, very happy. Met a bunch of new people. Uh, it was great. Made made good money. Very happy about that. That's always nice.

Yeah. Uh, it was great. It was great. It was an experience. So, what was like the thought process on going to Atlanta because I know you've done the the Super Show, which was your first out of state, correct? So, this is your number two state you've gone to. Have you gone out of state before?

This was number two.

Yeah. Uh there was an opportunity. Um I got an opportunity and I took it and it was great. And now we're going to go into Texas. Uh hopefully Utah and uh I mean two cities in Texas which is going to be dope. And uh from there we'll we'll see what else we do. Gota push the needle. You know how I say.

Oh yeah.

And they're all the same. Is it reptilian?

Right. Okay. So, it's the same guy doing the ones in Texas and this in the Utah one.

Okay. Wow. Utah. That'd be that'd be a trip.

Yeah, that's a really good one.

Okay. Okay, cool. So, yeah, that's the plan. Just to keep pushing the needle, get better. Uh we all got to push our boundaries. Um or, you know, push us, you know, no ceilings. That's what I meant. Um just can't keep doing the same stuff. you know, I'm gonna still do all of Florida, but I'm just going to pick and choose, you know, what what makes sense and what doesn't make sense. It's always a way to get to get better. How I'm curious, how did that um compared to the Florida shows you've done like pretty same number of people or was there anything that stuck out to you?

It. Well, it was busy, but what I say is that there's a a a little different demographic. Um, it was it was cool. It was cool to just, you know, cuz anyone that does, let's say we we do a the whole state of Florida, right? Um, we know everyone that that hits the shows. So, here I I didn't know anyone but Chad. you know, Chad came by. We we hung out for, you know, for a for a good bit. Uh it was awesome to see him again. Uh Vun, baby, what's up? Um yeah, it was good. You It's just great to meet more and more and more people in person. Uh build build a you know, new customer base. You know, I like to tell people that anyone that buys an animal from you and they're happy, a good amount of them come back. So,

Yeah.

Okay. Cool. Awesome. Oh, so we switch gears a little bit. So, what do you know about, you know, David from Mo Exotics? He's relatively new in the Vinet, but

Yeah.

Um Dave Dave messaged me one day, wanted to join the unit. I was very happy to to bring him in. Uh guy has a bunch of uh experience with a bunch of uh different species. was in was in before came back and uh he's off and running. He's got he's got a bunch of cool stuff. Diverse collection. Um you know how I feel about that. Um I am it makes you a better keeper. Um looking forward to hearing more about him, his story.

Yeah.

Yeah. Super excited. Yeah. He's been a great addition to the chat and know he does some other species. So yeah, I want to get into that. Where is his mindset? Where's his mindsets? All that. Do you want to say uh hi to people in the chat and then we can hit the little dancy dance song? We got see what we got here. We got Boza. That's my dog right there.

Yep.

We got Joey Vun General Vunet Florida fam too. Joey Joy's gonna be on here in a in a couple weeks.

Oh, cool.

Yeah. Sweet. Guy has had his first few clutches. Great. Has some amazing animals.

Yeah, man.

Freddy, man. Freddy will be on here in a couple years.

A couple years.

What's up, Travis?

Travis, the trapper.

Yep. I met Travis in person. We got none other than Old Tai Chad. Man, let me tell you a story about Chad, bro. Chad was at the table, right? And this has never happened at a show. So he's there badmouthing pides and [ __ ] and this customer is holding a pi and the pi piss is all over the display trying to get to Chad.

No way.

Piss all over Chad.

Animals Animals know they they do. They have

No.

Do you sound crazy?

They have a sense. They have a sense.

Yeah.

Chad Chad was at the table for a good hour with us and uh we were chopping it up. Chad's [ __ ] awesome. Chad will be on here uh this fall as well.

Oh, cool.

Awesome. Looking forward. Yeah, I've met Chhatted a few time. I think Tin Lee and Bob show.

Yeah, I think.

Yeah. So, yeah, he's a good dude. Those pides, man. They'll get them. Do a few more here. We got Eric from Eric's Boore Factory. Hello. Love Eric and his family. We got Mission Morphs. Thanks for tapping in. Big Mike from 77 Exotics. We got Greg here. Trap fam and we'll finish it up with Miss Amanda here. Trap fam and Vunit fam. Yeah, local to me. Excited. Okay, we'll play the little dance. We'll bring uh Dvon go and get and get on the show.

Yo, I don't know. I was told Nicholas Cage watches the show and he

Are you serious?

And he does and he does the dance.

You You're lying.

Who told

Is that Is that real or

That's what I was told, man.

Are you serious?

Yeah. The trap. The trap got some big haters watching, I'm telling you.

Yo, Nicholas Cage put it in the chat. I love National Treasure. That's my favorite movie, man. I love National Treasure. Let's dance. Let's dance.

Yo, good. You ready for do more in the future?

Trap Talk podcastes?

Yes, man. Only only trap talk exclusive exclusive. So stop calling us when I come up with the love it love it or not. I'm hot from the hop to the spot. Get the club the pop when I come up the spot. Get the club when I come up the spot. Get the club when I come up the spot. Get the club when I come up. Everybody, we do it. Everybody, we do it. Do it. Do it. Do it spot. Get the club when I come up with the spot. Get the club when I come up with the spot. Get the pop when I come up with the spot.

What up? What up? What up, Mr. Watt?

Mr. Watt. Big C. Big E. What's up?

Yeah. Welcome. Welcome to New Beer on the Block, bro. Where's Nicholas Cage at? I know he

Oh, he was in Atlanta this weekend. I I didn't see him, but I saw a picture of him in front of my homies uh setup. I heard he was spending big bucks. He's got the bug. That's what that's what I'm going to tell you. So, dope stuff, man. Our industry is unstoppable.

Unstoppable.

So, let's let's get into it.

Yeah. Tell I I was like the general Tay tell us about yourself, how you got into reptiles.

I Yeah, man. from the get the beginning of all this.

Yeah. So, um it started at a really early age. Um for me, um kind of how like a lot of people got into reptiles, you know, it started off when you're a kid. You know, you're just one of those people who's always outside. You know, you're catching bugs, you're catching fish, you're just, you know, really spending a lot of time outside and in nature. Um and I was always just kind of that kid from the get-go. Um then when I was eight years old, randomly um somebody just gave me a stack of reptile books. Um and it was strange like it was just like this immediate click of like this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. This is, you know, this is my whole person personality now. It's just this stack of reptile books. Um and then when I was about 10 years old, we had a reptile shop uh, open up in my hometown. Um, spent pretty much every week, at least twice, once twice a week, visiting the shop. Um, bombard bombarding the owner with questions and bugging him, what's this, what's that, you know, asking a million questions. Um and then when I was 11, I finally convinced my parents to give me a ball python from this shop. Um and so for my birthday, they did that. And right off the bat, I I knew I wanted more. Um so I started doing whatever I could to get more. So I started mowing my neighbors lawns. I started uh picking up extra work from a very young age um to be able to get more snakes and uh eventually I bought a lesser male and in 2013 I was 14 years old at that time. Uh bred my first ball pythons ever. was literally just a normal to a lesser. And from there, got a job in high school and continued to just grow the reptile collection. Pretty much every extra dime I had just went to building this reptile collection and bred ball pythons all throughout high school doing a couple clutches every year. Owned several different species. I had handful of condro. I had Amazon treeboas, short tail pythons. Um, was building this pretty nice size collection. And then one day it hit me that I was only going to be able to expand this so far living at home. And kind of told myself, okay, it's time to dial this back a little bit. I need to focus first on my own career path, buying my own house, doing all this. that way I can actually expand this reptile thing. And so 2018 I made the choice to sell pretty much all the collection. I kept a couple animals just as pets. Um, used that money to go to trade school and then 2019 I got married and then in 2020 bought a house and then got right back into reptiles again. And that's kind of where we are now. 2023 I produced my first two clutches since getting back into it and um I just it was kind of a a quick process of getting out to do what I needed to do to then get back in as quickly as possible.

Let me let me ask you something. Um cuz for me I remember exactly as a child uh what I saw in the first pet shop I went into. Um, do you remember the animals that made real impact on you in that pet shop?

100%. Um, it was actually like right when I walked in in a critter keeper. There was three of them side by side. There was a red neocondro, a yellow neochondro, and a jungle carpet. And from the moment I saw that, I just I couldn't believe it. I was like, "This is I have to have these. I have to have to I have to have a snake." you know.

Yeah. What I remember the most for me um is uh red tail boas babies and scorpions.

Scorpions. That's what I remember the most.

Yeah. I didn't know you were uh it won't even What are even scorpions?

Well, I mean I was I was like I was like honestly I was probably eight or nine years old.

Oh yeah.

But that that's what stayed with me with me the most out of the whole P. Scorpions are cool. I I used to have emperors and those are those are really cool.

Yeah. I I've never I'm not into into that stuff really, but I mean the scorpion's always been an animal that I look at him like, man, that thing is is dope. But I would never have one. But yeah, uh that stayed with me, man. So, and the rest is history. But I I didn't mean to interrupt. I think I think that was good to know.

Yeah. I mean, but that's kind of the the gist of, you know, where I where I'd been and where I'm at now. Um, so now, um, I kind of took I owned a lot of species in the past and nowadays or when I got back in, I kind of kind of jotted down different animals that I had owned and which ones could I not live without again and which ones did I own that I could go, yeah, those were cool, but since I have a fresh start, you know, it gives me an opportunity to try out a different species. And um so that's kind of where I'm at now. I I have some species that I owned before and then I have a lot of new species as well that I I never owned in the past.

Okay. So what are those species that you can't be without that you've decided that you cannot be without?

Uh so believe it or not, ball pythons. Um I thought that wasn't going to be the case.

And uh why why do you say believe it or not?

Well, I mean like when I when I I owned so many different species in the past and when I got back in, I I actually really contemplated it at first and I was like, you know, it's a fresh start. Do I just go fool, you know, Ryan Young and own, you know, 30 different python species and all this stuff? And uh it was actually my wife uh she was like, well, I want a ball python. And in 2020 2020 we bought a a Pied when I was starting to get back into things. And then as soon as we bought it I was like oh yeah definitely still love these full sin started getting back into it. So before I address this do you have any questions for that that I might have I kind of took over a little bit.

No that's okay. I just I just like listening to the story part. I on the flip side, I was also kind of wondering what species you did keep and decided not to get back into and like maybe why.

Just hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me let me go where I'm going real quick with this.

Okay, it's fine.

All right, so believe the whole believe it or not, on the ball pythons. Last week, we had a viewer say that we were a little negative on ball pythons.

Oh, yeah.

Let me reiterate something here. Ball pythons are 55% of the reptile market and that's a fact.

Okay.

Worldwide, I'd say. And second, you no one out there could do what we do with any other species except maybe hogs and and they're not even close. Ball pythons are unstoppable. The things that we do with them, the art, you know, us playing God almost, uh, we love ball pythons. Uh, we were not being negative on ball pythons in any way. Uh, I now have four species or five and I'm going to tell you guys, I will always be a ball py ball python breeder. The things that we could do with them, they're a perfect animal. That's what I have to say to that.

Yeah. No, I mean, I think we just need to be real about it that it's not all sunshine and rainbows, even though they are an easy species, the whole market, the money part of it, it's more complicated. And I think you need to have a realistic view when you're getting into that, right?

Regardless, regardless of how much money I can make off ball pythons, I will always have ball pythons. The things that we could do with them, no, no matter the perceived value is second to none.

Yeah. If you truly truly love them, you won't, you know, get rid of them.

No. And when I I did get back into them, like I said, it's like we bought this first one back in 2020 and it wasn't even I mean it was just a normal pi and just that animal was like, you know, it wasn't the super high dollar animal and it was just immediate like oh yeah, I still definitely love the species, you know. And then it was kind of crazy too because in even just those two years out how much like that whole market had changed um from like 2018 to 2020 like coming in and seeing all the different combos, all the different projects. Like when I was in it, it was mostly um incomplete dominant stuff, bananas, bells, things like that. and then getting and then all of a sudden it was just like crazy recessives everywhere and it was really interesting to see.

Yeah. Going back to that now.

Yeah. I would say shed except with recessives included in in the in it, you know. Um we'll see man things uh the more things change they stay the same. Kind of going back a little bit. H I think it's like about finding the right mix like not so much the stacking part of it. I mean I've seen like a lot of that where you're just people are just going for the triples and quad and it works in some projects but I think ultimately it's going to be like a good mix of those incomplete dominance with the recessives because in my opinion with the shed testing it kind of makes you know things easier on the recessive side as far as hitting them.

Yeah, in a sense, you know, just like a super sort of.

So, what's that project that really excites you right now, Dave?

Um, so for me, for ball python wise or or anything?

Uh, you could name name them all really. We could talk about it all, you know.

Well, so so ball python wise, um, excuse me. Um, I'm a big fan of super chocolate stuff, so I'm working a bit of that. Um, I really want to get acid into it. I want to be able to

Get DG Hypo into it. Um, that's kind of like where I'm headed towards most with it right now. And then I have, um, I'm working Supergraal Ultram Clown. So, that's like one of my ones I'm the most excited for. Um, and then also TriStripe as well. Um, I don't I don't have any visual tri stripes yet. Right now, I'm just kind of in, you know, building pets up right now and working it from there.

I have a question. When it comes to tri-stripe, um, we saw the tri-stripe uh, true ghost this Yeah, it's really nice. That's beautiful, right? But my here's a question that most people ask and it's valid. Where do where do you go now with that animal? Uh, you know the color's perfect, right? Mhm. Where what can we do with that pattern? What are we going to do? Because everyone likes to talk about how monsoon is overpowering and whatnot, right? Yeah. But I'm the type that again when I talk about a gene in a certain way, I'm not hating on it, right? I'm just dissecting it. I get kind of bored with just seeing a a striped animal. That that to me is a little boring. What What can we do with Tri Stripe to change that?

Yeah. Um, I mean, we we've seen GHI be pretty positive. Um, I think also I I think that there's going to be enough jeans out there that'll disrupt the pattern. I think cuz also on the flip side, a lot of people don't like tristripe because they're like, "Oh, it doesn't look enough like a striped animal. It's so inconsistent." And part of me wonders too, like if they if it would have like never been called Tristripe to begin with, would it have like carried off or taken off faster? You know, if someone would would have just come up with like a cool name for this pattern disruptor gene or something rather than calling it tristripe because I think at the same time the name tri-stripe has kind of hurt it a little bit because people were like, "Well, show me the three stripes," and then it's like, eh, not all of them quite have it. Um, but definitely some valid points. I think it will be a tricky gene to figure out completely, but I think there's still going to be plenty of avenues to go down for me. Um, I want to see it in Super Orange Dream, Hypo. Uh, I want to see in Red Head. I think that's going to look really cool. Um, I saw an animal that I think the red head tristripe could look pretty similar to that I think will make it look pretty nice. Um, but we'll see. Only time will tell on that one.

Krista, what's your opinion on on on it? Um, I like the Ultra Mel tri stripes, of course. That's a great one, too. I think a lot's going to have to be um just try and play around with it to see what breaks up the pattern. But I think also from a color standpoint, I think there's a lot you can still do with it because I know with like Ultra Mel stuff like Yes. It's kind of like a similar base color, but when you add other jeans into it, you get a little more like variety of the color. Does that make sense? Like there's different shades. There's like the flame. So, I think you can play around with that and get a different look even though you're trying to still keep the same stripe. Does that make sense? Mhm. Like it still will give some inflection. You can bring something that maybe does something to the belly or brings up the checkering and that just gives it like a little bit of a different dimension, I think, depending on what you're wanting to do with it.

Yeah. Yeah. A yellow belly ultramill tristripe. That looked really really nice. Or like a lace, you know, that would deepen those blacks, but also may bring up some like flaming or pop tristripe white lace, yellow belly.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, I really like the Ultraml, the Hypo, what Hypo does with it. Um, Pastel is very good. Pastel DG. Um, but yeah, you know, I want to see more. It's interesting. I think it's interesting too because like every time I see somebody post on like what pairing they're doing with Tristripe or what clutch they have, I'm always like really interested. I'm always like, "Oo, what's that going to look like?" And then someone else posts another pairing that they it's like what's that going to look like? So, I think there's just still a lot unknown about it.

Yeah, I think it's got potential. I think it just depends on what you want to do with it. Keep the stripe and play with the color or if you want to just really play around, mess with it and add stuff that may shake up the pattern. You know, it's kind of one of those cool ones where if you're want to experiment a little bit, I think it's a good

And then, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't remember. Uh, has a tri-stripe clown been made? I don't remember. I feel like if it has, it wasn't very like memorable if it was. Was kind of underwhelming if it was kind of like the the zebra. If anyone in the if anyone in the chat remembers, uh, let us know. I I I don't remember it. And you're right. If we don't remember, it's because it wasn't nice. Yeah, if you could send you can DM me and I can share it as well. If somebody's in the chat finds it, I can I can bring it up. But yeah, I don't know. That's my thoughts on it. How about um Okay. Any other ball python projects you're really excited about or at the moment?

Um, so I kind of have, you know, all the tri the tri-stripe, super chocolate, ultra male, gravel clown stuff. And then I'm honestly a really big fan of just producing pet quality stuff because I think that's how we get new people into this hobby. I think that's how you build a customer base when you're not very well known. Um, so I have several like simple pi stuff, simple banana stuff, simple bell stuff. Um, and I kind of want to have a good mixture of really cool showing off combos and morphs, and then I want to have that balance to make sure that I'm producing pet quality animals that people can afford to bring the and be able to bring new people into the hobby.

I agree with that. This has been kind of shifted my mind a little bit too with doing more pet stuff. So, keeping like the ultramal um pi stuff specifically to try to hit that. Yeah, actually I have a I have a clutch in the incubator right now to uh hopefully we'll have my first ultramale pides. Okay. S. Yep. Yep. Sam, they're about a month in. So, I got another one a month away and should hit the same. That's cool. So, yeah. No, they're they're pretty. I think it's important to have those combos that you know are are pets. I think we get so wrapped up in the price of stuff, but even selling an I mean, for me, just selling something for like, you know, a couple hundred bucks, man, it's a couple hundred bucks, right? I think we get so focused on the thousand. My opinion on that is you also have to be excited about producing those animals.

Yeah. Absolutely. So, if you're doing that, you know, go a little go an extra layer than most people, you know, put make them better, you know, put something in there that maybe someone's not doing, make them pop, you know, because unless unless you have show access, uh, it's still going to be a challenge to even sell, you know, that stuff. So, got to keep that in mind. You know, I spent I spent some time this past weekend just looking at Pi stuff on Morph Market just to see it's a lot of your like similar genes and just PI like OD YV enti is like probably 75% of it. There's actually like even within pie there's still a lot I think you can add hurricane acid hurricane. Yeah. You don't see a lot of them but it's blackhead you know super blackhead super hot. I mean they're they're out there but it's not a lot of them. So I found that pretty interesting when I was looking through.

Yeah. Um, Dave talk to me a little bit about your somatrans. I know that you are in love with those. Yeah those are my pride and joys. Um, so I actually used to have a pair back in high school and it was a really nice pair um, from Zach Green and the male was from Zach Green, female was from TBC. Um, had them. They were one of my favorite animals, some of my favorite animals in the collection. Uh, one that I knew I had to own again. And but it took a little while to find the right pair. I'm really picky when it comes to Somatrans. I want nothing but the darkest ones possible. And uh I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dan Mona. Um he's a really really well-known Sumatran blood python guy, Somatrons and Bloods, Borneo, all that. Um I mean just he was known for having just some of the darkest ones out there. And he actually got out recently. He had some stuff come up. Had to get out. and I ended up getting an opportunity to snag his holdback female and uh so of course you know I had to and then I had I have a really nice male from that I also got from him but he had purchased from TBC as well. So basically both two really really high quality limebred Sumatraan short tails um that are just ridiculous looking. They're they're amazing.

Dope. Yeah, I held one last week at Bosa's place. Bosa has some. Yeah, I tell you that was uh the most challenging animal, most powerful animal I've ever I've ever uh photographed. He I don't know if it was a male or female, but it was having its way with me. Yeah. It was like leading me all types of ways, squeezing me, moving. Yeah, and you guys see I I I'm pretty good at taking, you know, pictures with the snakes, even the dries, you know, such a flighty animal. I've done well. But let me tell you, those animals, they don't play and they're so hard to get a picture that like act accurately captures them because if it's like there's too much glare, then they look real glossy and just like the lighting really matters a lot too when taking pictures of them. Like I'll spend months trying to get a good photo and eventually I just like I have to post one just because it's been so long. I'm like, "All right, fine. I'll just This is the best I got. I'll post it." But really there's there's the pictures do no justice to seeing it in person.

I don't know too much about them. They're pretty cool. They're kind of like sman. They're kind of like have that blood python body look, right? Yeah. I mean, they're Yeah, they're short tail python. Some are bloods. bloods are short or in the short tail python family. But um yeah, they're they're really cool. They're they're also just like a very like inquisitive snake. Like they're very personal. They kind of match your energy a lot. Um if you're calm, they're calm. Or if you start getting kind of handling them like a ball python, you're going to find out, you know, they're going to they're not going to tolerate being handled, you know, in in any way they don't like. Um, which I think to me I I like a snake that that demands a little bit of a respect.

Yep. Yeah. They they'll quickly throw that fu that fu bomb. Yeah. But but it's really great though, too, because they have this this mutual respect of like you're calm, I'm calm, and we're all good, you know? So, all right. So, talk to us a little bit about, you know, what do you see in the market? how you feel about the market. Um how you're reacting to it. Yeah. How you're going to invest in the market going forward, what you're going to bring in. Uh again, what excites you? What do you what do you want to get in the future?

Yeah. So, the the way, you know, I don't do this. I don't focus too much about, you know, making tons of money into this. Um, for me it's always been about the love of the animals. So, I always try to leave my projects of what's something that I think is going to look really cool um that I don't think anyone else is doing or there might be not a whole lot of people working on it. And you know, for example, you know, the super chocolate, tri-stripe, all that stuff. Um, I try to just not I try to not follow trends. I try to just do my own thing and if it catches on later and people say this is really cool, then great. Um, worst case scenario is I produce a snake that I really wanted to produce. Um, and then to kind of stay afloat during all this, you know, I know especially someone for me who's not super well known, selling the more expensive animals could be I'm I'm already expecting to be semi challenging because, you know, if if you don't if you're not super wellknown, people aren't going to want to drop a lot of money on you. So luckily, I have a pretty good background of selling pet quality snakes that I'm I'm confident that if I can make um you know, bells, bananas, all that stuff that I'm going to be able to stay afloat just fine and I won't have to really worry too much. I'm going to always be able to sell those animals. I'm gonna always be able to bring new people in and build my client base up from there.

Yeah, that's that's the game. That's exactly what uh got me in the door, you know, u that you know, little by little, day by day, brick by brick, you got to build that. Um that's that's a realistic outlook. Especially I think Emil, you've talked about this before, but a lot of those like pet animals, we all know how addicting it is. So when they come back looking for they want to invest or look for a higherend animal, then they had a a good experience with you. So you can kind of reel them back in. So yeah, for sure. Definitely. Um, so what's what's next? And yeah, what are you going to get next? Project species.

So So right now I'm at kind of um I have a few there's some more Tristype stuff I want to get into. Um I I'm getting a little bit into Dreamsicle. I'm just barely tapping in. I don't want to get too heavily into it. Um, that's a project I'm going to work a little bit. Um, and then right now I'm kind of actually focusing on just keeping the animals I have and right now more worried about space at the moment. So, I'm looking into uh hopefully moving in the next year or so. So, most of my extra income and stuff I have to be careful with right now. Um, you know, I have to kind of pause for a second, you know, deal deal with what I have, be able to get a bigger place, and uh and then expand again from there. That's kind of my my goal and where I'm at right now.

Yeah, I'm going to surprise you guys. I want to get more Candino stuff. H I'm like in love with it. It's pretty. It's hard. Do there is there a lot of like pieces out there to buy for that? I mean, I haven't looked specifically for that. I got I got a clutch coming from Sunset Head Pie to Candino Black Pastel Yellow Belly. Okay, that's exciting. But I I want to I really like Candino animals. Um they're they're freaking intense, man. They're crazy. Um and I want more Ultram stuff. So that's that's uh where I want to go. I want some Cosmos down the road one day, Tornado, you know, some of that. Some of them granity jeans. Um, how about you, Crystal? What are you What are you kind of looking at a little bit?

I just want to do my stuff and just keep it. I mean, there's nothing on your radar. I mean, that's that's what I mean, guys. I'm not saying you have to you're buying it in six months. Oh, what's under your radar? I don't know. I mean, the Cosmos and Tornado stuff's pretty cool. I mean, I really I'm focusing more on the Ultraml stuff. So, I think it would look pretty cool in that, but that's whenever that's affordable at some point. But, no, I just kind of want to work what I got for now. But, I like those jeans. I think they would look cool in it. Yeah. And expanding the Ultramale clown stuff, too. Um, like I want to get Blackhead in that project eventually as well. So, that's something I mean probably sooner than later I'll be hopping into as well as I need to get Blackhead in that mix. I think that's going to be the next step after the Supergra Ultram male clown would be to get Blackhead into that. So, I need to already start getting some females to kind of start prepping for that down the road.

Yeah. To Justin at Ozark. Bambino. You're right. Oh, Bambino, too. They have similar genius dope. Yeah, that too. Yeah. Yeah. No, blackhead ultramo looks. I got Yeah, I have one blackhead ultramo female and Yeah, it's yo dark dark dark combo uh clown ultramo stuff is Yep. pretty nice. I'm going puzzled personally with it, but yeah, it look either way I think it'll look pretty nice. Can you imagine? Can you guys imagine? And I know you don't love ghi. Okay. But can you imagine a freaking GHI puzzle? Ultramal puzzle. I think it would look pretty nice. I don't I don't you know I I don't love GHI and Ultraml, but that maybe it's just I mean GHI in general, man. That that's gonna be crazy. I like black pastel, you know, blackhead acid hurricane or black pastel. Yeah. Ultramo puzzle. Yep. Yep. That's eventually with some sunset in there. There's so much meat on the bone. So much to do. Like I spend time just looking at ultramomorph market too and there's like not a lot of different it's like the same base you know entie od you know not a lot of the there's a lot stuff that can be done with it cats like me I don't know I think that's why like a lot of people just jump to the end quad stuff and then there's still so much to do and like this even single gene recessive or even we could just start going down the freaking what do you the rabbit hole right now and it, you know.

No, I mean, one of my favorite animals is a red stripe vulture bell thing. The thing glows. It's crazy. It's just red stripe. Yeah, I love it. I I've I've given you mad props on that animal. Yeah, super red. You do super red stripe, super hurricane, anything. You do everything. Oh, love Trel. Dave, any any uh T positives for you at all? He's good. Uh, I mean, no. I mean, I have no other than not really. Good for you. Well, I mean, I have I have T positive uh uh Nelson milknakes if that counts.

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I I I I like a lot of the T positive stuff in boas and, you know, all you know, ball pythons. I mean, it's freaking awesome, man. Um, yeah. You want to get into some lamp Lampro Peltus?

Sure. Let's talk. Those were um Do you need Do you need the common name? Yes. I'm a noob. Okay. Wow. We got What's the common name? What? Lampro. That's like all your your king snakes. Milknakes. Oh, okay. I know. Pichu. I know that one. But Oh, all right. I have those, too. Um, yeah. So, when I was starting my new collection and I was kind of picking and choosing what I wanted to keep again, what I didn't, um, and, you know, what I could start fresh with, you know, a species I haven't kept before. And, uh, I've always loved colubrids. They're always just such, you know, a classic snake. I think, you know, always growing up when picturing the word snake, I always thought of, you know, colubrids, milknakes, corn snakes, things like that. Um, and so in 2021, I bought an anory milknake and quickly just became one of my my favorite snakes I've ever kept. Um, and it was kind of it's a very simple, you know, simple snake, been in the industry for years. um bought it, loved it, and quickly was like, "Okay, I've got to own got to own more of these." And I think I've always had that mindset of like wanting to have a diverse collection. I was always kind of inspired by people like Ryan Young, uh growing up and things like that, uh collections like that. And now that I'm older and have more, you know, less time on my hands and it kind of the colubrids allow me to own a diverse collection without it being so much work like owning a bunch of different python species. So, it was this nice balance of, okay, I get my fix of having all these different species and variety of colors. Um, but while not having to be

Super bombarded with, you know, taking care of a bunch of green trees and scrub pythons and teamer pythons, like I used to envision, you know, my collection would be. And so, I bought—I have got a pair of Hondurans. Um, I actually have eggs for those right now in the incubator. I'm super stoked. Um, I own a—uh—the variable king snakes. I own the Nelson milk snakes, the black milk snakes, which those are really, really cool. They're really underrated species. Um, I think in a couple years those are going to really, really get popular. Um, and then I have uh—and then bullsnakes as well. I have a really nice pair of hypo still waters from Patrick Holmes. Really, really nice animals. Impossible to photograph, but they're—they're really nice.

Yo, those hypos. Yeah, my buddy has a few. They're incredible. I like—there's albino ones, too, right? I think I like those. Those are pretty. Let me tell you, I've been close to picking up some hypo—some hypo bulls, but I just, you know, I got my hands full. Um, I—I—I love king snakes. I love colubrids. They're—they're a faster, you know, faster animal, you know, much faster, you know, how do I say this? It's a—it's just a faster game, you know, you know, they're—they're—they're living it up, you know, now they're not chilling. So, I kind of like that.

Yeah. It was interesting. Like, first time breeding them was this year. And it's crazy how it's like, you know, I take them off heat for a couple months, don't feed them, and then literally it was just like you pair them, they lock once, two weeks later ovulation, two weeks later pre-lay shed, two weeks later eggs. It was like, dang, I—I can tell you guys my—my MBK females are—they're adults and they're—man, they're freaking incredible animals, man. Hm. Hey, I love how nice they look. That solid black—that just beautiful.

So, I only imagine those uh—all black uh—milks because uh—let me tell you those—those are popular. They're just not—there's not a ton of them out there, right? Yeah. There's not—they—most people that produce them usually sell out. Um, because they're really cool. I'm not sure if you—how familiar you are with them, but they always—they're always hatch out tricolor and then they turn black as they age. Eventually they become jet black.

Yeah. When do they start—when do they start to change color? Um, so like my male is—I think almost two years and it's still has a bit of red left in them. So probably around two—three years—two and a half—three years or so. Okay. I like—I like the MBK. I like the black iridescence. This is cool. It's a cool look. Yeah, it's hard to get that in the ball python world.

I think we've seen that one combo. Yeah, there's—there's a few. Yeah, it's just they're hard to hit. Yeah. And then people kind of stay away from certain things because of the canking and—Yeah. Yeah. Also, desert kings. That's another species I have. I—I've always liked those. They've always reminded me kind of like uh—blackheaded pythons. They have that similar look with the—the stock head and they're always—they're pretty cool.

You—you have um—you have condors? I have—I do have one. Um, I have a biak. Um, really cool animal. I love—love my condors. Um, my old collection I had three. Um, I had a bio, I had a LRA, I had a Cyclops Mountain. Um, they just—I'll definitely be getting more later on. I just have too many other project loose ends to close first. Um, but they're always just going to be a sit back, you know, put in your room, observe. Um, nothing that I want to get too crazy with. Um, I just want to enjoy them for what they are.

Yeah, you got a nice one, man. It's really nice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's—there's a lot—there's a lot to them. I feel like it. Yeah, for me I'm very much want to finish up something before I start dabbling if I'm even going to dabble another thing. But I think that brings back to diversity too that you touched on a little bit—is kind of spoken about this in the chat, but it becomes a lot easier for diverse if things have similar like care requirements, because I think—well—and different career requirements could help you become a better keeper too, but I still think there's like a line of like going too far and then being—having a hard time keeping up with the husbandry with everything.

Yeah. Um, but getting that fixed with similar husbandry requirement things can—um—that's kind of like one of the reasons I don't keep really any lizard species, you know, like that's just a whole new ball game of diversifying your collection and keeping someone with legs versus when you have all these snakes and everything and uh—because it—Yeah, like you're—I used to want uromastics. That's like, oh yeah, I love uromastics. Um, and then I actually had one at one point and it just totally does not work out in a room when you have a lizard that needs, you know, 100 degrees and you're trying to also keep a condor in that room. It doesn't work out very well.

So yeah, the—I mean for me they're the same as ball pythons—temp—they can be in a rack. So, those are a lot easier um—than yeah, your uromastics or bearded dragons for sure. But yeah, I'm a snake guy 100%. I'm a gecko—I—I—I like my geckos. So, yeah, Lette—Lette has a few crested geckos. Um, they're cool. I mean, I have one that I picked out for me, but yeah, I'm a snake guy, man.

Yeah, me—me holding that six and a half foot Texas 10-year-old Texas male this weekend was one of the highlights of the show. Made me regret selling the Texas female I started with. So I might have to revisit that. Dang. Yeah, you have the—the yellow tail creos and then you have the black tails. Yeah. Yeah. I just didn't want to have to have three different pairs, you know. Um, I didn't want to have to get a male, but holy [ __ ] man. That—that Texas male was so beautiful. Uh, I might have to start looking for a Texas female again.

Is it the Texas that there's a lot of like inbreeding issues going on with—No, no, no, no. that—that what's uh—you're—you're talking about the Easterns, you know, it's kind of been a close—Yeah, it's kind of been a little rough cuz uh—there's such a—I mean, and again, I—I—I'm not—I don't know enough to say this, but I've read that there—there just hasn't been new blood, you know, so they—they—they probably need new bloods—new blood in the Eastern. But again, uh—I don't know enough about that to uh—speculate and I'm not going to be uh—a rookie speculator. Rookie.

I—I—I want to say out there to everyone again, I want to repeat, I am a new dry mark on keeper, a rookie. Rookie. Yes. There's nothing bad. There's nothing wrong with that. I was say there's nothing wrong with being a rookie. I think if you just understand that in your, you know, your development and not try to come off like you're not a rookie, I think you're okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really excited. I'm going to produce my first colubrids this coming season. Uh—KBOs, yellowtail creos hopefully, um—MBKs, you know, hognos. It's going to be fun over here at Valerino Reptiles. Diversity, baby. Let's go. Let's go. It's gonna be awesome.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, but this is about you, Watt. Let's go. Uh, how many clutches are you looking at doing like this year? And what's your collection size? I don't think you've touched on—touch on space, but not like how many animals you have. Yeah. So, it's—it's really not too big of a collection. Um, clutch-wise this year, I'm actually only doing six or seven. The range I'm shooting for. And then my collection size right now is about 45 animals or so. Um, next year will be significantly bigger year. Um, I have a lot of females that were just quite not ready to go this year and next year they'll definitely will be. So this year just six and then—Yeah.

Yeah. It feels similar—my collection size—about—about 40 to 45 animals now. So it's—it's for—I like—I mean I know it's going to get bigger but it's very—very nice when you're cleaning everything you get done you're like—ah—you know—I—I've grown it really slow—you know—I had a big collection in the past and then getting back into it—um—especially just like how much the market's changed and everything. Um, I wanted to get back into it really slow. So really, I've only even since getting back in 2020, I've just kind of systematically have picked out around 10 snakes every year to grow it. Um, which I know to a lot of people that's—that's nothing, you know, some people do that in a month.

10 is significant, man. Yeah. Like me, I'm going to tell you, I keep—I keep about 40 animals a year uh—from my, you know, my production and probably buy another 10. Uh, so, bro, I mean, 10 is not bad, you know? I'm keeping 50. Yeah, there's people out there that keep a hundred, but I mean, I don't know. We don't got to be comparing, right? I mean, I think you're—you're doing what you could do. And, uh, bro, it starts to snowball, you know? Yeah, definitely. It will. Yeah. With the whole backs. I mean, I think if they're the right animals, too, that's definitely enough animals to do some damage in your—in your collection. I think it's a way better approach than buying like 50 in a few months, right? And then—Oh, yeah. No. 75 animals in—in three months. Yeah. Yeah. You may—How could you—How could you have made a—a solid plan in three months? I don't know, man. I know it's addicting, but you got to do—you got to make sure you can care for the animals, too. Like feeding gets out of hand.

Yeah. Um, Dave, talk to us about um your feeding practices, uh—frozen thawed, uh—preferred spe, you know, um—preferred rodent. Um—you do—you produce your rodents? Do you buy them? Uh—give us that whole uh—rundown. Sure. Um, so for ball pythons, uh, I'm—anything that I'm keeping, it's live. Um, anything that's going to be for your project animals that you're selling, it's going to be live. Um, if I'm specifically breeding animals that I know are going to be sold to pet market, my collection's small enough to where I'll actually take the time, I get them established on frozen thawed. Um, just generally I've noticed customers are—new customers tend to like that. Um, and I have the—the small enough collection where I have the time to—to do that. Um, it's not too big of a deal for me. Um, and then yeah, all—every other species I own is frozen thawed. Um, and then I do breed my own rodents with a buddy of mine. Uh, it's actually at his place and I go over there every five days. We do a big deep clean. um—help them sort through all of them, set up new groups, all that good stuff. So, cool.

Yeah, I agree with you. There's a—a really big segment of uh—buyers out there that really prefer uh—animals eating frozen thawed. Yeah. So, I did—I did a little bit of that this year um—and the prior year. Uh—it's a pain in the ass, tell you that. Yeah. It takes me—It takes me double or triple the time to feed when I'm using frozen. So, but yeah, I can't—I can imagine with like your size collection, that's a—a whole different ball game. But for me, it's like if I got to, you know, get 20 babies on frozen thawed, that's not—it's not too big of a deal. But—but let me tell you, man, I had—with the way I do it, I had animals that took their third meal. Frozen thawed, man. I—I would—I would like to say I'm pretty good at getting them on frozen thawed. Um—yeah, I was—I was uh—act pleasantly surprised, tell you that—I mean it's most don't do that at the third—the third meal, right? But I had a few that did. That was pretty cool. Hm.

Yeah, I—I'd say for the—I don't know which meal it was, but got them to go over to frozen thawed pretty—pretty easily if they're, you know, younger and a pretty good eater. And I feel like I chose—it did make it—it did make a difference with people asking if they would eat frozen thawed. Now, when you're doing frozen thawed, are you doing it like consistently? Because I've heard also people do frozen thawed for a couple meals and then they kind of go back to live, but then they still say, "Oh, this animal has eaten frozen." Like, have you seen that where if they eat frozen thawed, they can go back and forth or should you keep them on frozen thawed?

If I'm selling them as a frozen thawed eater, I'm only going to feed on frozen thawed. If that—if that's my sales pitch, I have to be living it and feeding only frozen thawed. Um, and normally I don't even—because to be honest, people who are buying pet snakes, they ask way more questions than someone who's not buying a pet snake. Um, they need a lot more—a lot more of your time. They, you know, they're the people who are going to be messaging you after hours asking questions. And I like to just make sure I can give them a really—really established snake to where they're not going to have any problems and it's just going to be an easy pet for them. So I usually don't even sell them until they've had at least five consecutive frozen thawed meals in them and then I just continue feeding that weekly until they sell.

Yeah, I agree. Um, for the most part it's better to keep the animal in the frozen th—rhythm and rhythm with—with the—because they might get a preference to the live. I'm worried about that. That's—Yeah, but there are animals that are so—such good eaters that they'll take both, but you don't want to—you don't want to rely on that, you know. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. Cool. Yeah. I just said—I heard—so I didn't know what your thoughts—experiences were but—makes sense. Okay. So Dave tell me what you love about the ball python game and what you hate about it.

What I—what I love about it is it's the most creative you can get in this entire reptile world. Um—you get to make the coolest combos. you get to make all the crazy colors. I mean, it's just—it's the closest thing to art we have in this industry. Um, and I think that's—and it's never ending. You have unlimited—you would never be able to think of enough combos to make in your lifetime. Um, and you're always getting to see other people's ideas and it's always just really fun to see what everyone's doing and all the crazy stuff everyone's making. Um, my—my least favorite thing about it, I would just say, is the—just sometimes the community. Um, it's nothing really even too negative. Um, you know, just sometimes I—you—I see a—I see people get into it for the wrong reasons and that's a little annoying, but overall it's—I don't really have anything too negative to say about it.

What's amazing um—for me is that I always have something to look forward to. you know, always that next combo, always that, you know, like—much—much like Justin says, the next one, the next one, the next one, right? It's nice to have a bunch of projects where you can say, "The next one." Um, that's what uh—that's what's so amazing about uh—the ball pythons. Um, yeah, I—I want to produce creos and I want to make, you know, some really nice yellows, some really nice blacks, but there—there are limitations, you know. Uh, you do not have those with ball pythons. You do not have those with hog noses to—to an extent, right? Um, that's why those two games are so unstoppable to me, you know.

Um, what—what since you're a coluber guy, what—what are your opinions on uh—hognoses? Because let me tell you, some of the coluber people—much—much like uh—some of the reptile game hates ball pythons. They—some of the coluber people hate hognoses. Really interesting. That's funny. That's funny. Talk to me a little bit about that, David. Um, I like them a lot. Um, I definitely will be getting into them in the future. It's just right now they're not at the top of the priority, but I—I mean, what's not to love about them? They have—They're cute. They're—Yeah, they're—I mean, everything about them. Yeah. Their—their personality, all the different colors, all the morphs. Um, I even just—Yeah, they're cool. What's not to love about them?

Isn't it crazy how people just hate, you know? They hate on the top in the ball python game. They hate on the top colubrate, you know. They hate—they—I mean I—I just do not get how people could focus so much on others and other species. Yo, take your species to the top, you know, make it better, you know? Uh—make people love it, you know. Um—you know, uh—promote it. Promote it, man. You see, you see how much I've been promoting CEOs. I love them, you know. I'm sharing it to the world. They're not these big bad angry monsters, you know. Yeah. Me, it's like Chewies. I love my Chewies. Yeah. Commercial soon, right? What was that? We need to go to commercial soon. Um, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're an hour in, so yeah, commercials. Yeah. Yeah. And when we come back, we're going to talk about more ball pythons, more clues, more of—more diverse topics. Let's go.

Yeah, I like—I like the—the clue. Nothing against them. I just get kind of lost because I'm like—I don't know much about—But here we go. Commercials. Sorry for the interruption, folks, but a quick word from our sponsors. One of the things I love the most about the reptile world is reptile businesses that are family-oriented. I love the Rice Reptile family. Rice Reptiles have made quite the name for themselves over the last couple of years, rebranding themselves and also bringing amazing cutting-edge front-of-the-line ball python projects that you must check out. Again, make sure you head over to their website, ricereptiles.net, ricefamilyreptiles on IG to give them a follow, see what they have coming out. You can catch them vending at all major NBC shows, Southeast Reptile Expo, a lot of great stuff coming from this family. So again, thank you so much, Billy Don over at Rice Reptiles.

If you're in the ball python game in 2025, you know what you should be doing with your sheds, and that's turning them in to get them tested. That's right. No more POS heads, no more 66% heads. We can find out directly through today's sponsor, and that sponsor is Rare Genetic Inc. Thank you so much, Ben and Sean, over at raregenetic Inc. Head over to their website, rargeneticinc.com, and head over to their YouTube channel, and make sure you subscribe to their YouTube channel. They put out a video every Wednesday to update you guys on new current events over at RGI. But I got to tell you right now, very excited to continue my partnership over at Rare Genetic, Inc. Head over to their Instagram account. Make sure you follow them on Instagram, subscribe, hit that notification bell on their YouTube channel. That way, you're current on new announcements and anything that they got to update you with. Again, thank you so much Rare Genetic Inc. RGI. You guys are the best student in the game.

Sorry for the interruption, folks, but a quick word from our sponsors. You know, longevity is one of the biggest things I strive for when it comes to thinking about being a part of the reptile industry. That's why I'm very proud about today's sponsor, Mark Bailey over at Mark Bailey Reptiles. 40 plus years full-time reptile keeper enthusiast. This guy, you can catch all his amazing ball python projects on Morph Market. So, make sure you head over to Morph Market and that's Mark Bailey Reptiles on Morph Market. See what he has available currently. And I got to tell you one thing, he's one of the biggest and most respected ball python breeders we have today in the ball python game. So, shout out to Mark Bailey over at Mark Bailey Reptiles. Thank you for all the support. And again, make sure you head over to his account on Morph Market. See what he has available. Thank you so much, Mark Bailey over at Mark Bailey Reptiles. If you want to be organized and if you want to be cutting edge in the ball python game, then you don't want to miss this. Shout out to today's sponsor and that's Clutch. Number one Ball Python organization app in the game. No better place to start off than by using

this app, Clutch, is an organization app that helps you organize all your Ball Python projects. It also helps your peers and your fellow community members look at what you possibly have coming for the upcoming Ball Python season, what you have currently available on Morph Market. It's so awesome to be ahead of the game by using an organization app like Clutch.

Thank you so much, the entire Clutch team, amazing team over at Clutch. If I were you, I would head over to Clutch's Instagram account. And I would also head over to their website, try it out, see how it works for you. But especially if you're just now coming into this before you build your reptile collection, I would do it organized, and I would do it with Clutch.

Thank you, Clutch, for being so amazing. Excited to hear what Clutch has to bring in the near future. J.

And we're back. I'm so excited to meet Mark Bailey in person. He's awesome. Really excited. Yeah, I think we're Yeah, get picked up from the airport next week. I think OG OG OG, like super OG. Yeah, I'm super pumped. Anyways, back to ball python.

So, we spoke rodent. So, are you just feeding your collection just rats? Rats only, then like Norwegian rats? I do rats and mice. Okay. No. No. No. Okay. Okay. All right. So, um, let's let's talk a little bit more about ball pythons, bro. All right. That's the name of the game. It's the name game. All right. So, um, acid. Talk to me about acid. I'm I can't wait to get some acid into DG and Axantic, um, and hypo. Get get some darker genes in in my uh leopard uh acid clown stuff, man. Again, never ending the stuff you could do with that. What do you want to do with acid?

Yeah. So acid, um, it's one of my one of my favorite incompletes, and really I want to see it in super chocolate, is like really where I want to see it because super chocolate already has kind of a funky, you know, just abstract pattern going on. It's that rich chocolate coloration to it. And I want to be able to put it in the DG and hypo. And really, I'm I'm actually working it not how most most people are putting the clown. I'm actually working it not in clown first. I'd rather be able to make kind of the base combos I want, to that way if they're going to work later on with another recessive down the road, I'm not jeopardizing it by already having clown in the mix. Because once you go clown, sometimes it doesn't mix well with other recessives. Like if I want to add it into a tri-stripe project or a puzzle project, um, I can't do that if clown's already in the mix. So, my goal is to kind of get acid into some DG hypo combos first and then disperse it into other recessives later, like clown puzzle, try things like that.

Yeah, for me, I I want to also get it in um, it looks like I stumbled I stumbled into MLY. I want to get Mley GHI acid clown leopard stuff going with DG. Um, it's going to be a lot. Lots of fun. Very busy, dark, dark, mean-looking clowns. Um, really looking forward to that. Yeah. Yeah, I like it a lot. I have a asset ultra male girl. I think she might be ready to go this coming year. So, yeah, adding that in with the blackhead, hurricane, wrench drive special, spot no stuff would be pretty cool. Um, yeah, you don't really hear me speculating too much on the on what I want to do with the future. Uh, man, there's just so much there's so right, and uh, sometimes you just think about it at the moment, you know. Um, it was easy back in the day to to do five-year plans, you know. Um, now we're looking at three-year plans. Yeah. Uh, everything is so fast now.

So, u what's your opinion on shed testing? It's a good one. Uh, I think it's awesome. Um, I mean, I I use it I mean, I use it for all if if you're someone that I don't even know that well and I buy a head from you and it's has a good price tag on it, I'm shed testing it. You know, you you'll have a guarantee you show me picture of the parents. If I don't know you, I absolutely utilize that shed test and I'll send it out myself. I don't want to waste years just to get scammed or just to um or even, you know, I I even think some of these huge collections out there, it'd be easy enough even for people to mix up, you know, labels. You know, someone can even make a mistake of mixing up a label. And, you know, you can catch that way early on just by sending in a shed and make sure you know, no mistakes were made. And so yeah, I I love it. I think it's a really good tool. Yeah, it's I love it myself. I can't wait to send out these uh these past monsoons. I have about 18 sheds to send out. Can't wait. You can't tell. I'm not even gonna anyway. I don't want to I don't want to talk about that. That was uh yesterday's news.

Yeah. Anyways, no, I think [__] testing and it brings to light the people that are, you know, scamming people and all of that. Like they can't really get away with it like they were able to. So, it's going to weed help weed people out even more. Also, there there's a lot more partho and andro stuff happening out there than what than what then than than what we thought in the past. So, that's going to help as well. um, you know, identify maybe something that you might suspect is partho or andro. Um, that's that's really important as well. So yeah. Yeah. I've heard of th I've heard of those clutches like happening and then it it looks bad like on the the breeder, but they just it's so hard to catch those partho clutches. Sometimes you don't really even think about it. Yeah. I in 20 years I've only had one uh situation that I know of uh and it was an andro h um, seemed rare I think. Yeah. Yeah. I've never had those situations, so I don't know, you know, but it's it's very possible. Yeah. The shed testing. Yeah. I don't know how much more. I haven't used it a whole I've used it here and there. I haven't had to use it a whole lot so far, but it definitely will be going forward. I don't want any like poset situation or anything like that.

So, David, do you ultrasound at all? I do not. Um, what do you think about what's your opinion on it? I think it's really cool. I think um it would help just like ease me if I had one. It'd be more of just um just that that good feeling of oh this this season looks positive and having not having to wait I think is uh I think it'd be really cool. I I would love to own one in the future. Yeah, I think uh I I I didn't use an ultrasound for 18 years, and I'm very happy I have one now. Um, it it allows you not to waste time on a girl if she's not, you know, if she's not going to go. Uh, it allows you not to waste a male's time, his energy. Um, I think it's a must uh for most people. Um, listen, I don't need it. Um, but it's good to have. Uh, I it's definitely on my once I move and everything gets situated. It's one on the top of my list to get one. I've been kind of spoiled cuz I can borrow one from work here, but I want a little more um access to it. So, yeah, I'm definitely going to buy my own. It just takes all like the guessing out of it. But I think it's still good to learn your animals, though, and their uh behaviors and all of that, too. Yeah. So, so no, I'll definitely be definitely be buying one scanning once once a month just to catch stuff and uh go forward on that. Is is that how often you do it? E once a month or what's your Once a month is good. Yeah, because at times I found myself doing it too much, and that's just that's kind of a waste of time. Yeah. It's not like it's not like pairing them multiple times in a month's going to really do anything, and they're kind of going to grow at their own. But then but then you know you have a few animals that they just they show this amazing growth. Um, and they're like what's what's going on here? Um, but yeah, most of them, most in my collection, uh the follicles will grow at a 10% clip monthly more or less, and then it, you know, it starts to really take off later. Then you have a few animals that they just they grow at 100%. So, I mean, it's it's it's good to it's a a good tool to have to kind of nerd out. Um, especially when you you you like, you know, tracking stats and analytics and [__] Um, it's cool, man. Yeah, I'm excited. Plus, I mean, I feel like when you're newer, a lot of these girls you're getting, you know, you don't really know their cycle, right? Once they're on their own cycle, I think it's easier. But if you're getting a lot of these subad adults, you know, or whatever, not so much adults, but they have their own cycle that you don't really know what they're on until you start start ultrasounding them.

Yeah. Well, um, do you want to go to wrap-up topics? Uh, is there something that you want to address? What, uh, Dave, that we didn't talk about? Something you want to bring up? something you want to uh highlight about yourself, uh about where you're going? Uh, we saw you got a new a new logo. I really like it. Yep. Yeah. Props to you uh to change up in the middle, you know. Something that didn't work that wasn't working for you, you changed it. That's great. Yeah, it looks great. I really And I like Yeah, I like that you showed it to us and you know Yeah, I appreciate it. Ask what you think. I thought it was a really good logo. Appreciate it. Yeah. No. Uh, I'm good with whatever whatever y'all want to talk about. So like glow and chill. I just feel like feel like in zen right now. I just like want to want to like light up and just chill.

Dave, what do you love about the Vun? That's good. Plug the Vun. I I love that it surrounds myself with people who are positive about what we're doing. Um, it's really easy to come across people that are really negative about the industry right now. Um, you know, I've had people um in like Facebook groups or old group chats I'm in where everyone's always they're all headed. They're all very, oh, the industry ain't what it used to be. It's blah blah blah blah, you know, this ain't that. And when you surround yourself with those people, you start feeling that way also. And so that's kind of one of the reasons I wanted to join in the first place was I was like I need to get back to people who have the same mindset as me and are actually excited about this because otherwise I'm just going to get you know the life sucked out of me talking to the people that I am talking to. I need to get talking to people who are going to bring the energy back you know and uh be positive about it. So well positive and honest. Yeah. Honest. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'd rather have someone be critical but honest instead of like, oh, it's just rainbows and candy. Well, yeah. I I would say positive or passion, I guess, is what I'm looking for. You know, in a group that's passionate about it and not people who are just stuck in their old ways and people who are feeling down about the industry right now. I like to be I need to be surrounded by people who are who are enjoying it every single day. Um, I think that's really important just to surround yourself with those like-minded individuals. I feel like that I mean, correct me because I'm newer into this, so I may be wrong, but I feel like that's could be one of your pillars of success in the game is who you surround yourself with. Do you agree with that, Amelia?

I think it's like so there's so much stuff that comes up with like life and all of that. And so if you're not surrounding yourself with the right people, you can go into like a really kind of a dark hole. Maybe maybe Yeah. I think you have to surround yourself with like-minded people. People that aren't trying to push animals down your throat. Mhm. I mean, uh it's it's uh don't don't be part of a group that is constantly pushing animals on you. Yeah. using you as as you know to unload animals that they don't want. Um, giving you bad information, you know, telling you to buy the worst incomplete dominance. Like like come on, just doesn't make sense. Um, and that that that's pretty much it, man. Be part of something that's going to help you grow for real. Mhm. You know, something that has had real, you know, a group that's had real success that that values seeing their people grow no matter if they buy animals from you or not. Yep. So, that's that's very important to me. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I I agree with that. Always. And I would say that that's the trap Patreon family and the Bunit. Yeah. Trap's been there's quite a few others out there. Um, some amazing ones, I'll tell you that. Some OGs. They got some real amazing Patreons out there as well. So, it's not just us. Yeah. Um, Christa, your wrap-up topic.

Sure. Um, I had a few of them. I guess I'll give it like a three-year three to five-year timeline, but what's like that one and maybe you've already talked about maybe I can ask a different question, but what's that one combo or in a species? Doesn't have to be just ball pythons, but any sort of species that you'd want to hit in the next, say, three to five years. Doesn't have to be this year, but yeah. Um, definitely the super gravel ultramill clown. Okay. Um, that's kind of where I'm headed towards one of my main projects I'm the most excited about. Um, like I have two girls that are and actually I have a shot at those next next season. Um, so doing that grow, you know, getting Blackhead into that later down the road and then really Tristype is a big passion project of mine. Um, it's one that I'm really excited to see what it's going to look because honestly I don't know what all of it's going to look like because it's such an untapped uh gene, but I think three to five years from now, I think there's going to be some really cool combos coming out. Um, I should be making some myself, and I'm really just excited to see what they're going to look like. And then also, of course, um, and then my Sumatran short tails, they'll be ready. Hopefully have my clutch, first clutch by then. Um, yeah. Awesome. Sweet. No, the super super grabable Ultram remote clown is gonna look dope. Dopey dope, man.

All right, so Dave, pretty much I want to know where Watt Exotic Watt exotics is going to be in the next five years, collection size, uh, are you going to be doing shows? Are you going to be uh, man, really? like where do where do you see yourself in five years? Yeah. So, I'm hoping um ideally in five years um on a different property um and I want to be able to have, you know, the designated uh reptile building. Um, that is definitely uh something we're striving for. And kind of one of the reasons why, you know, we're I'm moving pretty slow right now is I have to be able to, you know, you know, get that building someday and get the new property. Um, but definitely I want, yeah, I will be vending shows. Um, I'm hoping to even be able to start vending by next year. Um, collection size right now, I think I'm already scheduled to pretty much almost double every year for the next three years or so. So, like right now I'm doing like six clutches this year. Next clutch I should be able to hit around 12 and then the next I should be able to hit around 24. So, it's kind of the way where my females are in their age. Um, it's about adding about six more clutches every year for the next um three years. And then from there it's however it however it grows. I don't want to push too much into it. I don't want to uh I don't want to go into business. I just want it to be very natural growth and however that looks like, you know, we're just going to keep striving to make beautiful animals and make, you know, quality animals, established babies, and uh see where it ends up. People, you know, there's nothing, you know, I think you're doing it right. People like to say, "Oh, you're not taking risk by growing slow. I mean, by not you're not taking the risk. You should be growing faster. You should be Here's the thing, right? Forget the money. I don't want to lose the passion. I don't want to be stressed out. I don't want to not take care of the animals correctly, you know, not I don't want to risk losing it all growing too fast. So, I I think you're on point. I think you're you know, you're doing it right. Uh you know, you're you're very very you're you're very grounded. And people that are grounded and have a plan, they last and they grow. And with consistency, you're going to be exactly where you want to be, you know, people that are out there faking it and, you know, trying to look like instant superstars and trying to look like they are um experts and uh trying to look like they have huge collections and all this experience. People read through that, man. People see it. So, I I just think uh I'd hope everyone just slow down a bit and be authentic. be realistic and uh you will get to where you want to be, you know.

Yeah. Facts, facts, all that's can be super draining. So, you just have to kind of block out. It's a lot of noise, and if you don't watch it, it can drain you a lot. So, you just have to kind of filter out all all that noise. And that goes back to keeping your your circle of people, likeminded people, and you know, helps you out there. Yep. Definitely. But yeah, man. It's been a great episode. Uh, we're going to do hot seats now. All right. Uh, Christa goes first. She does uh MJ's hot seats and then I'm gonna I'm gonna do mine.

All righty. So, this is where I get confused. It's It's not the word association, right? He's got hot seats and word association. And I do them all right now. Yes. Okay. Okay. I always do hot seats first and then word association. And then I go, no matter how many of these I listen to, I still like when you're doing it, I forget. And these are off the top of my head. Okay. So, see how I remember with my own little flare. Okay. Red Neo or yellow Neo Condro? We'll go red. Red. Damn, you made that sound like it's hard. Yeah. I I only say that because I used to have a yellow that turned into an spectacular adult. So, it makes me want what I I'm going to go on a little tangent or side quest here. I think it's interesting what I've seen. Like the yellow a lot of people are like, "Oh, yellow as baby." But then then they think the yellows are really pretty as adults, right? Like do people do you get that vibe or no? I have I I get that vibe. They're like, "Oh, look how so pretty. It's a yellow adult." I'm like, "But you don't like the yellow babies." So, oh my god. Well, I think Well, I think most of like the really really I could be wrong, so don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure most of the time the really crazy crazy adults you see came from red neos. Um, it's just in my ex one experience of having a yellow, it ended up turning to a really nice adult. But I think generally the really really crazy bizarre ones you see came from red neos. Okay. Like a yellow adult. Okay. Makes sense. I honestly if I had them I would want red all day every day. The reds are they're cool. I mean that's just a it's just it's a amazing animal. The reds are freaking so cool. I mean I don't know. That's me. I'm not Yeah, I don't have one. But anyways, steak or fish? Steak. What kind of cut of steak? Filet. Oh, filet. I could do filet mignon. Yeah. Alcohol or boo alcohol? Yay. You're like a beer guy or like a spritz? You know, beer. Okay. Any favorite type of beer? Bertilizer. Soul. Soul. I've not heard of that one. So, soul. Not ringing a bell. I'll have to look it up. Yay.

Sports or boo sports? Yay.

What's your favorite sport? Baseball. Oh, baseball. Okay. I was hoping basketball or football. Van Halen or Sammy Hagar? Oh, Van Halen. Oh, Van Halen. Van Halen. See, I didn't remember that one. I don't know who those I don't know who those two people are. So, uh, yay import. Yay.

If you could import any species, what would it be? It's a hard one. Puerto Rican boa. Oh, a Puerto Rican boa. Yeah, I don't think those are really in captivity at all. Oh, cool. I've not heard that, but look that one up.

Um, east coast rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap or west coast rap? Not going to lie, I don't pay attention to where rappers come from. Oh my goodness. Good. That means Hey, that means no rap, huh? Yeah, I I'll listen to a little bit, but I don't pay attention where they come from. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I know. At least um Biggie and Tupac. I know where those go, but Eminem. Yeah, Bobby Schmurda. Anyways, um Canada, right? Bobby Schmurda. Eminem's from Canada, right? I thought he was from Michigan. Detroit. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. No. What the hell? What the hell? I was trying to get you. I was trying to get you, Christa. No, you didn't get me. You didn't get me. I know. What? From Detroit. Dang it. I had one other word association. I forgot it. Milk. Okay. What's the word of cook? Okay. Cookies. Yeah. Oh, no. Milk. Milk. Christa. Crystal. We slaughtered his [ __ ] hot seats, bro. I know. Damn. I wrote I wrote them down. I literally wrote down cookies. I meant to write down pay. I get a pass. Okay. Milk. Snake. Okay. Okay. Coco husk to miss a ball python or not to miss a ball python? Missed. What he said? He asked these things. Instagram trolls. Don't need them. Okay. Here's a new one. Shipping. Shipping. Yeah, that's a new one. I'm adding it. Drama. That's good. Okay. Save money. Save money. Save money. Save money. Coolest reptile podcast in the world. Trapto. Yes. I think that was okay. And that's a fact. And that's a fact. Jack. All right. My hot seats. You got to keep one. Okay. Better than mine. Okay. DG or hypo? Hypo. P or clown? Pi. Black pastel or blackhead? Black pastel. Yep. And I love me some blackhead stuff, but I got Yeah. Yeah. All right. Uh, chocolate or acid? Chocolate cuz of super. Damn. All right. Axanthic DJ clown or super chocolate hypo DG clown? DJ Axanthic clown. Black pastel hypo puzzle or special Pompei? We go black pastel hypo puzzle. Simpler, but I think it looks nicer. I love that combo, man. That's pretty. Um, ultra puzzle or ultra sunset? That's a tough one. We'll go ultra sunset. Yes. Finally. See? No, you're doing good. Keep going. What's going to look better? Orange Dream Ultra Ultra Sunset or Orange Dream Ultra Puzzle? Um, I don't know. See, I'm going ultra sunset. So, I'm just going to put them together long term. I don't know how much is orange dream going to make it make the ultra sunset that much brighter, or is it just going to look I don't know if it'll change that much cuz it's already so vibrant. So, I'm going to go puzzle on that one. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, we'd have to see. Yeah. Um, All righty. Um, Somatan or your best Lampropeltus? Simatrans for sure. All right. Yeah. All right. Emeralds or condos? Condro. Okay. I think that's it. That was that was pretty cool. All right. That's it. Yeah. I made up I made up some of those at the end. I wonder I wondered because I was like I don't remember those. On my toes. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. I I had the one I remembered. Least favorite incomplete dominant. Oh boy. Uh, we talked about what you liked, but least spider. Can't use that one. We're gonna go We're gonna go nanny. Ouch. Nanny. Least favorite recessive. What the [ __ ] I I love it in Ultra. I love it in Ultra Male and and everything else. Don't get me wrong, it's it's not bad, but if I had to pick between the rest over G-Stripe, come on. Over G-Stripe. See, this is where Gstripe don't get enough hate. We never bring up G-stripe. It's always uh Sunset. Uh, G-Stripe not that hot either. Okay. I much rather try to sell a Sunset versus a freaking G-stripe. But you can mix a G-Stripe in anything and it will still semi work for the most part. You can mix Sunset more. Sunset's more limited, I would say. Hey, it better be a G-stripe combo. That's all I'm going to say to that. Or you could have four incomplete dominance, have a hypo g-stripe clown. Still going to look like a G-stripe probably. I've seen one. Looks like a G-stripe. Same. No changes. All that work, nothing. I might have to tell y'all something in the back. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, guys, this has been a family affair and it's been a great episode, Dave. I I think people know a lot about you now. Uh, you you're going to do big things. You're very passionate about the animals, you know, super diverse. I think you're going to kill it, bro. I appreciate it. Yeah. So, uh, tell everyone where they can, uh, get in contact with you. Uh, give them all the info. Yeah. Uh, find me at Watt Exotics on Instagram and Facebook. That's that's it currently. All right. Well, it's been it's been an amazing episode. Let's uh give you a hand of applause. Little rusty at this stuff, you know. Yeah. I'm a little I'm a I'm a little rusty. Yeah. No, but straight up, man. Great episode, bro. Um, keep doing what you're doing. You're great, bro. I appreciate it. Yeah. All right. Have you on? All right. It's good talking. Thank y'all. Yep. Byebye, G. Whoa.