Day in the life of a Pet Tuber... | 20+ Pets

If you are new here, hi, I'm Ellie from Ellie's Exotics. I am a full-time content creator and I make content about my pets. I have a lot of them, most of which are exotic, unless you count this little blue poodle here. So I want to walk you through a day in my life as a pet tuber, if you will. I'm going to show you how I care for my animals, but also a little bit of behind the scenes of what work goes into this video that you are watching right now. It's a Monday which means a lot of stuff needs doing in the reptile room and a lot of content needs to be made. So let's get right into it. Now obviously the animals come first, they are the main priority here, so let's get started on some chores. I have a bucket here and I'm just going to fill this bucket with all of their water dishes because they all get disinfected and thoroughly scrubbed on a Monday. So let's grab those. Kiki has shed, unfortunately it did rip as I pulled it out, but it's nice and full. Eye caps and all, which is exactly what you want to see. Let's go take these into the bathroom and give them a good clean. And then I'm going to take my Safe 4 disinfectant. This is the strong one and it is a one-to-one ratio, so it is half disinfectant and a half water. And I'm actually not going to spray it, I just pour a little bit into each bowl, just like this. Then I'm going to take my shower head and I'm going to fill them all up with water. Now I'm just going to let these bowls soak whilst we do a bit of spot cleaning. The main enclosure that needs spot cleaning today is my Dumeril's boa. They drink a lot of water, so there are generally a lot more urates than the others, but I have had a lot of questions asking if Dumeril's boas smell significantly more than my other reptiles, and the answer to that is no. The reptile room pretty much smells like nothing at all, maybe topsoil every now and then if I've just done a substrate change, but yeah, it doesn't really smell like anything. So don't worry about getting a Dumeril's boa, they really don't smell that much. But anyway, let's get on to spot cleaning this enclosure. So after mixing up that substrate, I think down here needs a little bit more leaf litter. So let's add a little bit in. This actually helps retain humidity, but it's also a great food source for the cleanup crew. I also have these little cork bark pieces that I'm going to put in as a few more hiding spots for the isopods. I'll put one back there, and let's put these two just here. That is chai all done, let's move over this way and do Bikki's enclosure, which is very bright right now. I'm just gonna do the exact same thing with Bikki's enclosure, and take out any poops or urates that I see. I'm also not taking the snakes out of the vifs today, just because they did all eat yesterday. Hopefully I won't have to take him out, but he is definitely very food motivated, so we'll just have to see if he's gonna bother me. So here is the man himself, my woma python. He's covered in water droplets, but how cute is he? I love him, even if he is very nosy when I'm cleaning his enclosure. So moving from here to here, we have Kiki's enclosure, and hers really does need doing. But like I said, they all ate yesterday, and I know for a fact that I cannot clean her enclosure without her trying to eat my hand. She's not as a think first as Bikki, she just kind of goes for it. Have you ever heard of a corn snake being more food motivated than a woma python? I think not. But yeah, she will have to wait until tomorrow. So now we've moved on to this enclosure. As you can see, I'm giving it a spray. This is where my baby Mexican black kingsnake lives, his name is Toast. His urates were done not that long ago, so I think he'll be all good for now. Like I said, he's a baby in a four-foot enclosure, so it doesn't get very messy. I'm just giving all of his plants a good water, and spraying any moss that I see too, just because he is about to shed. He is just under there, but I'm just gonna leave him alone for the time being to let him digest his meal, but also he's a bit cranky because he's in shed. There we go, Toast is all done. So those are the snake enclosures spot cleaned if they need to be. I'm now gonna go and scrub all of their water bottles, and then we can move on to the gecko and tarantula wall. These should be all done soaking now, so let's give them a good scrub. Okay, they are all done. Let's pop them back into the bucket and into the enclosures. Back to the reptile room. Let's pop them away. So obviously they need water in those bowls, so I have filled up the bucket with fresh water, and here I have some ReptiSafe. I am not sponsored by Zoo Med in any way, but dechlorinator is super important, especially if you have amphibians like I do. You're gonna meet Big Mac in a second. And it also has electrolytes in it, and it has calcium in it too, so it gives them a good boost. Now let's fill the water bowls up. I'm also gonna give just the outside of the glass a clean. I've got some normal Safe 4 here in an F10 bottle, so let's give it a wipe down. That looks so much better. Nice clean glass. I can actually see my reptiles now. This is the other wall in the reptile room, but it is not just reptiles. I also have all of my tarantulas, my scorpion, my blue death fading beetles, and my three geckos as well. So what I'm going to do with the tarantulas is any of them that are in these acrylic enclosures, I'm going to pop them onto the floor just because it's easier to do them all that way, and then we'll move on to the inverts that are in glass enclosures. So all of these here need watering and feeding, so let's start with the watering. In here we have my Brachypelma smithii. Her name is Morticia, and I'm fully aware that these two enclosures are not the best. I'm about to head to Australia for a month to find some reptiles in the wild, but these enclosure changes are on the top of my priority list for when I get back, as they were working animals at one point, which basically just means that these enclosures needed to be transportable. But now that they aren't working animals anymore, they can go into proper enclosures like the acrylic ones, or I'm even thinking of getting them glass exoterras. These three tarantulas, in particular, also always fill their water bowls with dirt, especially my Grammostola pulchropes. Like, look at that. That bowl is full. She can fill that one all she wants. She is getting a brand new water bowl this time, though. And hopefully she doesn't just fill this one. She can fill the other one with dirt, but leave this one alone, girl. She is just up there. How gorgeous is she? In here, I have my jumping spider. Her name is Tapioca, and she is an old girl. I'm just going to give her a spray. She is just in the corner there. I don't know if that is focused or not. I can't see. But now let's get to feeding. So Ophelia, my Brachypelma mori, is not eating at the moment. She's started going bold, which means I'm guessing she's going into pre-malt. So let's pop her over here. And I'm going to start by feeding Tapioca first. I'm literally just going to pop the bug in. She is a super shy eater, so I don't think she's going to go for it straight away. But let's take a video, see if she's interested. She's just up there. She's having a look at it, but I know what she's like. She is not going to go for that bug on camera. So let's just pop her back on the shelf. We're going to give Pikachu a bug now, though. Oh, no, you don't want it? Hmm. Are you going to go into pre-malt too? You are looking a little bit chunky. Oh, maybe. Usually she's very, very dramatic with eating. Do you not want it? Let's see. I'll leave that in for her. She might take it. She might not. Oh, maybe. I think she's just annoyed at it. Anyway, let's close that up and pop her back on the shelf. In here we have my Grammostola rosea and my Grammostola pulchra, so a Chilean rose and a Brazilian black. I honestly can't remember which is in which because they're always hidden. I'm not even going to bother pulling my phone out to record this one because I know we're not going to see them. But food goes in and it disappears. So who knows? There's a little tunnel there that one of them has made. That one can go right there. I'll pop the lid on and pop them back on the shelf. And then last but not least, we will feed Morticia. She is also usually a very full-on eater. She's a drama queen. There we go. Let's pop her lid back on and everyone can go back on the shelves. Now I need to feed my Vicularia durinensis and my Carabina versicolor. Her name is Ariel and we're not going to see much of her most likely, just because she is always tucked away right in there. But she got her food. Same goes for my C. versi. She is always tucked in this log. You can just about see the locus there in her mouth. And then let's move tapioca over. And I'm not going to feed my scorpion because they are either gravid or in pre-malt. We'll just have to see. They are not eating at the moment. They haven't ate for two weeks or three weeks at this point. This video is filmed way in advance because I'm currently in Australia when you're watching this. I probably would have found out what it is by then. Hopefully if they are gravid, they don't give birth to a bunch of babies whilst I'm in Australia and they leave my pet sitter to deal with it. But I have told her that if she wants one, she can keep one. I'm moving on to the final stages. I am going to give my chameleon gecko a good spray down and my gargoyle gecko. All that needs doing on this wall is just giving Big Mac a good spray. And I'm also going to spray my Kenyan sand boa because these guys don't like it completely dry. They need about 60% humidity, especially because I think Marmite is in shed right now. He didn't eat yesterday, so he'll need that extra boost. And last but not least, my crested gecko. Okay, that is all of the animal stuff done. I started at 12 and it is now 10 to 2. It takes a while to take care of that many animals. But if you're a returning viewer, you've seen all of that stuff before. You know, water bowls, cleaning, feeding, things like that. Now let's get into my actual job when I'm not looking after 15 plus pets. So on a Monday, generally what I like to do is try and find a trend that is trending on TikTok just to grow my TikTok a little bit. Yesterday I did reach 20k, which I am buzzing about, so I want it to be something good. I do get quite burnt out with TikTok, I'm not gonna lie. I think people on TikTok are a bit meaner than people on YouTube, but I still enjoy making content, so obviously I am gonna keep making TikTok. So now let's find a TikTok trend that I can record. Guys, I got distracted. Look at how cool this snake is. Okay, I have found one. I love this girl Remi on TikTok. She is hilarious and she takes such good care of her animals. So we are gonna do this trend here. I think it's pretty funny. Let's go record it. Okay, I've got my phone all set up here. I record all my TikToks on my phone and I am going to grab... should I grab maybe Apple today? I haven't featured Apple much on my TikTok, so I'm gonna grab Apple, my chameleon gecko, and do this trend with her. I've secured the Apple. Okay, that is all done. Let's go pop Miss Apple away. So Apple is now back in her enclosure. I am now gonna go and edit this TikTok and write a script. So let's go to my very professional office, which is my bed. I edit all of my TikToks just on my phone because it's easier than transferring them over to my laptop, so here is a time lapse of me editing a TikTok. Okay, it is all done. You'd be surprised how long it takes to edit. Literally a 13 second long TikTok. Now I'm gonna upload it obviously onto TikTok and also onto Instagram Reels. I don't post YouTube shorts anymore because I found that they were actually doing more harm than good for my channel, so if you want to check out the video then head over to TikTok or Instagram. So now I'm just going to be writing up my script for today's video that I'm going to be filming, other than this one that I'm filming right now. And it's going to be about everything that you need to buy for a corn snake. That'll be out the week after this one. So the script is just going to be a list. It's fairly easy today because I only have five days until I go to Australia. I want to make my life as easy as possible when it comes to editing because that's what takes the longest. Filming doesn't take that long. I can film a TikTok or a YouTube video in 10, 20, 30 minutes, but then it can take me four, five, sometimes I've even spent 10, 12 hours on editing a video. So we're not going to be doing a time lapse of that obviously because that in itself would be so long, but let's get this script finished. Okay, so it is now 45 minutes later, something like that, and my script is all done. I have been very thorough as you can see, mainly because this video about corn snakes comes out just before Christmas and I don't want to encourage people to get a snake for Christmas, but unfortunately it is inevitable. It does happen. So hopefully this video about corn snakes and everything they need will be helpful. It might also make people realize that maybe they're not the best Christmas present because of how much stuff you actually need to buy. But anyway, you'll hear more about that when that video comes out next week. Now I need to get to filming and obviously I need to use my camera for that, which is what I'm recording on right now. So, uh, hello. Second angle on my iPhone. I'm gonna grab my microphone because I use that for sit down videos and then we are ready to go. Also I have yet to buy a proper stand for my microphone or a chair or a table. I filmed them all on my floor. So this is what we're working with. It's just me sat cross-legged on the floor with a bucket, my camera holder, then the microphone, and in the background here we have a UVB tube, more batteries, and a silicone glove. So yeah, there's a, uh, behind the scenes studio tour. It's, uh, so professional, I know. Anyway, let's get to filming. Okay, so that video is all filmed. I have about 40 minutes of footage to go through and now we just need to pose for the thumbnail. And I need to pose for the thumbnail of this video too, so let's do that. I do take my thumbnails on my phone and, to be honest, over the last year I've kind of changed how I pose for my thumbnails. I used to do the whole, you know, shocking thing, but I actually don't think that that works that well anymore. I think a more serious or normal face does better on YouTube now, especially for me anyway. It's what works for me. So, uh, let's take a thumbnail picture. I take off my glasses just because of the reflection and also because they're so dark they can be a bit distracting. And I'm just gonna steal this light from you guys, sorry about that, and pop that in here to make it a bit warmer. Go on portrait. Okay. This is so embarrassing to have people watching me take thumbnail pictures, but honestly it is so funny. Anytime I'm scrolling through my photos with someone next to me, it's just so many selfies of me like, you know, they probably think I'm mad. Anyway, let's get the photo. I think I've got the shot. Let me know what you think. There I am, look at that. I think it's quite cute with the little camera too. That's the thumbnail for this video that you're watching right now. But anyway, I have been non-stop for like the last five or six hours and a lot of it has involved screens, so I need to just take my eyes away from screens, give them a rest, and I'm gonna go walk the dog. So let's go do that. Freddy, do you want to go for a walk? Do you want to go walkies? Should we go walkies? Yeah, go on then. So I am back home now, and all I have to do for the rest of the day is edit two whole videos, and that's gonna take a while. So I am gonna leave this here. I hope you will have a wonderful rest of your day. I hope you enjoyed this style of video. Let me know if you did down in the comments, and I will see you all later. It is more than 24 hours later, and I am still editing the video that you are watching right now, but thank you for all of your support. I couldn't do this without you guys, and I can't wait to make even more content for you all in the future. I'm actually gonna go now. Bye.