We
are private reptile breeders and authors who have worked
with and bred dozens of different reptile species
(
see my reptile story below) over the
past 30 plus years. We support captive
propagation*. We currently maintain and breed
ball python and dwarf boa
constrictor mutations, morphs
and hybrids.
* We are
totally against wildlife exploitation and
thus do not deal with wild caught
reptiles. We strongly encourage
people to only ever purchase reptiles from a
reputable private breeder or specialist reptile pet
store. We do not believe its necessarily to
import farmed ball pythons, boa-constrictors
or most other boids as sufficient are now
captive bred.
********************
My reptile story (John) I’ve had an active interest in
wildlife and reptiles since
childhood. Growing up in South Africa gave me
the opportunity to catch, keep and breed
numerous Southern African reptile species, both
venomous and non-venomous (I had very
understanding parents!).
As a teenager I spent most of my free time
working and improving my herpetoculture skills at
the Transvaal Snake Park (TSP). At the time TSP housed one of
the largest and finest collections of captive
reptiles in the world. I eventually joined TSP as a professional herpetologist. I spent several years "milking" venomous snakes (Puff Adders, cobras,
mambas and boomslang), educating the public at
large and caring for and helping breed numerous
reptiles from all over the globe. This was a fun
job !
During my
time at TSP we had several notable captive breeding
successes, including the first ever captive
breeding of Angolan pythons (Python
anchietae), Lesser African Rock pythons (Python
sebae natalensis) & Madagascan Ground boas
(Acrantophis madagascariensis) among
others.
My
travels then took me to the Nordhardzer Schlange
Farm in Schladen, Germany, a private reptile
park that provided snake venom to medical
research facilities (more cobra & viper
venom extraction !!)
After 18mths in Germany and wanting to travel to
the Amazon, I needed to raise additional funds. So I
attempted to beat the then 64 day world record
“snake sit-in”. T
his
consisted of living in a room with 24 venomous
snakes. My good friend, Austin Stevens (of Animal Planet
and Discovery TV fame) held the world record at that time. I
spent 69 days at Dudley Zoo, UK in my “snake
room” to claim the crazy title, sharing my space
with 12 Asian Cobras (Naja naja),
4 Egyptian Cobras (Naja annulifera) and
8 large Puff Adders (Bitis arietans).
At the time it seemed like a good idea, looking
back I wouldn’t recommend trying it! (If
you work with venomous snake, I strongly urge
you to consider where you will spend eternity
.. accidents can and do happen !! )
After several more years of travelling to
wild places, I switched gears and started
working in the IT software industry. I've
spent nearly 20 yrs as a software company
executive working for several different
international firms (In addition to be involved
with a number
of technology start ups). Lots of fun but too
much business travel! (airports and hotels all
look the same no matter where they are in the
world). During this time however I was fortunate
enough to travel the globe and to study, take
photos of and capture reptiles on several
continents during my all business travels. (plus
do a bit of scuba diving along the way :-)
During the early 2000's now living in the
USA, I together with my wife Mel, started to
build our reptile collection again with a focus
on ball python, carpet python and dwarf Central
American boa morphs. In 2004 not finding a
decent overall book to all the popular python
and boa morphs we were working with, I decided
to write one. The result was in 2006,
Designer-Morphs was published. It went on to
become the best selling morph guide for ball
pythons, carpet pythons, blood pythons, boa
constrictors and rainbow boa morphs in over 20
countries and selling out very quickly. Since
then we have contributed to and written articles
for numerous publications with a focus on python
and boa morphs.
Now in addition to keeping and breeding our
own high-end collection of snakes, we are
currently engaged in writing an updated version
of Designer-Morphs, 2nd edition (due to be
published by Chimaira of Germany in May 2010).
Additionally we are full time parents to two
daughters, run a separate business, speak at
conferences and are writing two other books to
be completed in 2010.
cheers, John & Mel
********************
