How a YouTube Channel Sparked Our Family’s Reptile Obsession

Jan 30

The Spark: Eggs, Incubation, and Hatching Baby Snakes

Kiley was immediately captivated. Eggs, incubation, and the miracle of baby snakes hatching became her new favorite topics. Regardless of how many times we told her our chicken eggs won’t have an embryo because we don’t have a rooster, she was adamant about candling the eggs to check! It wasn’t long before she began teaching us new things we had never even heard of—like brumation. For those as clueless as we once were, brumation is essentially the reptile version of hibernation. Imagine our surprise when our kindergartener casually dropped that term into dinner conversation! Mom and Dad were completely dumbfounded.

The Hognose Fascination

One of the channel’s unexpected gifts to us was the shared love of hognose snakes between Mom and Kiley. These adorable, dramatic little snakes wiggled their way into their hearts thanks to Emily and Ed’s educational videos. Suddenly, they were scheming and dreaming of the day we could welcome a hognose snake into our own family. That will be another story as, contrary to Dad’s “no thanks” snake mantra, one has made its way into our household!

Enclosure Build-Offs: A Family Favorite

One of the highlights of the Snake Discovery channel for us has to be the yearly Enclosure Build-Offs. These competitions bring together various YouTube personalities to build creative and functional reptile enclosures. Between the fun games that give competitors advantages and the excitement of seeing who takes home first prize, it has become a family tradition to gather and cheer for our favorite builders. Not to mention it has given us all a passion for designing and building our own enclosures at home!

Meeting Emily and Ed: A Future Goal

Emily and Ed’s popularity extends far beyond YouTube. At reptile expos, lines to meet them stretch for hours, yet they make time to chat, take photos, and graciously accept gifts ranging from homemade art to snacks. Their genuine kindness and passion for reptiles’ shine through, making them beloved figures in the community.

While we haven’t yet met them in person, it’s on our bucket list. Whether it’s at a reptile expo or a trip to their Minnesota zoo and shop, meeting Emily and Ed is a dream we’re excited to chase.

A Little Bit of Buc-ee’s Obsession

A fun odd fact about our Snake Discovery stewards: It turns out Emily and Ed share a fascination with Buc-ee’s a phenomenon we’ve yet to experience ourselves but are convinced we’ll love when we do. If it’s good enough for Snake Discovery, it’s good enough for us! Kiley already gets ecstatic when she see’s someone in a Buc-ee’s shirt or that silly logo on a bumper sticker!