Hi everyone!

Welcome back to the Reptile Room at Animal Wonders! I’m Jessi and this is Waffle the red footed tortoise.

We’ve had some big changes in here over the last 6 months and I’ve been getting asked for updates, so I think it’s about time to give you a tour of what we have going on in here. [CHEERY INTRO MUSIC]. First I should say that while we call this the Reptile Room, we also house amphibians and invertebrates in here too. So a more accurate name would be the Herp Room, but it doesn't have the same ring to it.

So let’s check in with some animals! First up is the tortoises because they always make it fun to film in here. We have 3 red footed tortoises.

This is Yucca, that’s Titus, and this is Waffle. Yucca has been with us for about 12 years, since she was quite young. We rescued Titus about 5 years ago and Waffle about 2 years ago.

If it’s warm enough, these guys head outside into the secure outside yard. But when it’s under 60 degrees Fahrenheit, they stay inside and get the run of the Reptile Room. We also let them roam the rest of the compound when we’re here to monitor them.

So they’ll be wandering around and munching on their food as we continue our tour. So, let’s start on this side here. [SWOOSH SOUND] We recently made some episodes about our newest custom builds for our Chinese water dragon and Savannah monitor. So that’s what we have going on here.

This is Loki the Chinese water dragon, and this is his home! So he lives in a fully bioactive enclosure with plenty of climbing structures so that he... can have a very good and active life, huh buddy? Some of his favorite things to do are coming down to the bottom of the enclosure and hanging out on his soft substrate.

He also enjoys lounging in his water dish and then climbing back up to hunt for some insects! And below Loki is Jade. She's incredibly food motivated but very smart and takes food from tongs very gently.

So I think she's learned that tongs her if you bite them too hard, and so she's very careful about it. Jade can be handled but she can also be a little challenging, so today we're just gonna let her chill. And next to Loki we have our two leopard geckos, Freckles on top and Jelly below.

Freckles is one of the very first animal ambassadors at Animal Wonders. Jelly is newer and she came in as an unhandled adult, but she's slowly gotten used to being held. Both of them make excellent ambassadors.

Above them we have built in a shelf for things like food supplements, cleaner, and first aid supplies. And all the way at the bottom we have our Madagascar hissing cockroach colony. These awesome little guys serve both as ambassadors for their species and feeder insects for the rest of our animals.

So that’s the big custom built section! We can now move to the back of the room. [SWOOSH SOUND]. This section is made up of mostly Animal Plastics and Boaphile enclosures, with a few extras on top.

On the bottom we have Pearl the Colombian black and white tegu. We’ve had Pearl for over 12 years, and she’s been an amazing ambassador. She also enjoys time out of her enclosure having the run of the hallway or going on walks outside on a harness.

Above Pearl we have Freya the northern pinesnake, who has gotten to be such a big gal since we rescued her years ago. Freya is due for an upgraded enclosure, and we have some special plans in the works for her. Above Freya are CS and Saffron the corn snakes, who are just really chill and easy going snakes.

We've had CS for her entire life, and they just make incredible ambassadors. Above the corn snakes we have Puzzle the ball python. She likes to curl up and hide most of the time, but when we do get her out she's really gentle and just a great ambassador.

And on the very top left, we have Taffy the rubber boa. Taffy is incredibly gentle and she's one of my favorite snakes to share with audiences, especially anyone who is nervous around snakes because she's small and I can reassure them that rubber boas don't strike, so there's no fear of being bitten. Super cool!

And next to Taffy is a newbie who just came in last night. She's a gopher snake and she doesn't even have a name yet because she's brand new! So if you have a name suggestion, let me know in the comments, and then we will let our patrons make the choice. [CLOSES DOOR] So I just set this enclosure up yesterday.

It's a Vision Cage and I don't really like the design of these, so we just use it as a backup for temporary housing. She's definitely going to need more space, so she'll be getting an upgrade soon. Oh, I almost forgot these little guys!

We just started a small colony of dubia roaches, so they’re busy growing bigger and we should be getting babies soon. This colony will be another source of food for our lizards, frogs, and arachnids. And this is a custom built enclosure for Daisy the Colombian boa.

I'm really excited because Daisy's going to be getting some new branches to climb on soon. She also recently got some roommates. There are some ivory millipedes and some Texas giant millipedes.

They hang out down in the soil on the bottom of her home. Mostly I have to dig around for them, but sometimes we're lucky and we see them crawling around. And we’ve made it to the other side of the room!

We haven’t gone custom over here yet. But we’ve set up these heavy duty utility shelves in order to handle the weight of the enclosures which are a combination of Exoterra, Zilla, and Reptizoo brands. First up is the top back enclosure.

We have Stumpy! Stumpy is a White's tree frog, and he loves hiding in his foliage. He's always perfectly camouflaged but he's also really chill being held, so he's a great ambassador.

You'll notice that he's brown right now, and that's because he was hiding out in the shade. When he comes out in the sun, he turns nice and green. On the top next to Stumpy is Trevor!

He's a smooth-sided toad, and he is awesome. Trevor is quite young, he's only maybe about a year old, but he's gonna get gigantic over the next couple years. Next to Trevor is Argos the mali uromastyx.

We got him when he was an adult, and he really doesn't like to be handled that much. But as he's gotten older he has chilled out, so he does quite a few shows now. One of my favorite things that I did for Argos was I updated his habitat so he has lots of fun places to hide.

And on the top front, we have Vinny the vinegaroon. Vinny is kind of new to Animal Wonders. She has been an amazing ambassador.

She's easy to be held, but right now she's just chilling on this piece of cork bark, which is totally fine. If you haven't heard of vinegaroons yet, you absolutely need to check them out because they are just really cool animals. And moving to our second shelf, we have Leonard the legless lizard.

He's actually taking a nap in his hut right now, so he's gonna stay tucked away. Leonard is a really weird animal because he's a legless lizard and most people have never heard of one before, so it's awesome sharing him with the public. Next to Leonard is Sandy the Kenyan sand boa.

And she is just a really cool snake. She spends most of her time hidden underneath her substrate. But when we do get her out, she's always a pleasure to see.

One of my favorite things about Sandy is her awesome shape of her head, just so built for burrowing down into substrate. She just goes face first into it! Next to Sandy we have Professor Claw the emperor scorpion.

Professor Claw has a really distinct personality. She's cautious but she does like to explore, so sometimes she gets going really fast. It's fun to share her with classes because a lot of people have a fear of scorpions, but when they meet her, they get to learn more about her which just really piques their interest.

And next to Professor Claw is Fluffy the Chilean rose tarantula. Fluffy looks like she's fluffy, which is why we named her that. But that is not real hair.

She actually has this amazing exoskeleton. I love teaching about her and sharing her with others. Moving down to the third shelf, we have Smaug the red eyed crocodile skink.

Smaug is pretty shy and reclusive and doesn't love to be held. So we've built him a bioactive enclosure where he can just hide most of the time. Next to Smaug we have Carlos the Sinaloan milksnake, who is blue right now!

You can see his white-ish colored eyes, which means that he has a layer of scales that are about ready to separate and come off. He doesn't love being handled when he's blue, so I'm gonna go ahead and put him back. And next to Carlos is Pinecone the bullsnake.

And she just shed! And she's hungry and I pulled her out, so she's not the happiest camper. But bullsnakes are a native animal where we come from, and so it is really fun to showcase these snakes because they are pretty cool. [PINECONE HISSES] That's a hiss!

She's telling me that she has had about enough of me, so I'm gonna go ahead and let her go back. And on the very bottom we have Jabba the African bullfrog. Jabba has been with us about a year, and he has tripled in size!

Believe it or not, he's gonna get even bigger than this. I mean, look at this guy! He's awesome!

I mean, their natural history is awesome too, but just his sheer size is just very impressive. And next to Jabba is Blueberry the blue tongued skink. Blueberry has been with us for quite some time, and she's kind of an iconic ambassador in our local community.

I mean, how can she not be popular with that awesome blue tongue! Blueberry is a special needs girl, and it's been our privilege to be able to give her care for as long as we've had her. And Blueberry is the last one!

We did it! That's our Reptile Room! So I'm always looking for ways to improve, which is why we get excited about upgrades and I really enjoy creating habitats that increase the well-being of the animals.

It can also be challenging as a rescue since we have limited funds and space. We have to balance being able to offer sanctuary to those in need while also ensuring the homes we have to give are good ones. I hope you've enjoyed the tour!

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of these amazing animals in the comments below. You can also check out our Reptiles Playlist, which has more in depth information on some of the animals that you've met today. I've put a link in the description.

And if you'd like to continue learning about all kinds of animals, be sure to subscribe and go on a new adventure with us every week. Thanks, and I'll see you next week! Bye! [BOLD OUTRO MUSIC].