Welcome to our news blog where we chat about our snakes, environmental issues, movies, etc and whatever else we are thinking ...

You can also following our latest reptile updates on Twitter  http://twitter.com/JBerryReptiles

cheers, John & Mel

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Over the weekend, a UK keeper suffered a tragic fire in his snake room. It looks like a live rat may have escaped and eaten through a thermostat cable thus allowing his heat cables to melt his plastic vision rack and start a fire. (see link below for full story).

http://www.captivebredreptileforums.co.uk/ball-royal-pythons/36251-reptile-room-fire-warning.html

While this is a tragedy, we can at least learn from it.

1) Ensure you have good thermostats on all your heat cables (like these :http://www.bigreptileworld.com/thermostats-22-c.asp)

2) Have a CO2 fire extinguisher outside your reptile room

3) Fit smoke alarms inside and outside your snake rooms. We are installing wireless smoke alarms with a remote sensor in my home office as an extra pre-caution.

4) Don't overload plugs. If in doubt ask a qualified electrician to look over your plugs, wire and all electrical heating.

cheers, John

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We are continuing to get great feedback for our new Designer-Morphs book ...

"In my opinion the best ball python and boa book ever written! It’s a must have for anyone that is even thinking about breeding those two species." Brian Barczyk - BHB & Snakebytes.tv

Hey we agree !!

USA & Canadian sales: We will have books available in the USA in early August. We are accepting pre-paid orders now. $68.00 shipped from our warehouse in Michigan as soon as the stock arrives.

• Paypal payments to: sales@bigreptileworld.com

cheers, John

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Been a bit too busy to take photos of hatching babies but found these guys in the incubator today so grabbed the camera. They are siblings, same mother, same clutch but different dads - an Enchi / Mojave and a savannah (Mojave x cinnamon), nothing too spectacular but still nice. (click on the pics for bigger images).

cheers, John

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Ok, so after a few delays we opened our new online supplies store (with free shipping on all orders over £50.00 ... PS that's UK mainland only), see www.bigreptileworld.com

We will be adding a lot of new products over the next couple weeks and months. If you want to be kept informed of new products, specials as well as other snake morph news, just sign up on our mailing list ... we won't spam you :-)

cheers, John

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One of the most common requests on reptile forums is "how do I get my ball python to feed", so here is an updated article I wrote covering the how's and why's of feeding ball pythons. Feel free to download it and share it on any forum.

Feeding Ball Pythons_2010.pdf

cheers, John

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"Received mine this morning and what a cracking book it is hats off to you John and to those who contributed towards it well done and wish you great success with the new book" Darren Pierce, UK

" Very impressed with the book John, great layout and a very easy reference guide, almost a ball python recipe cook book...well done. "  Scott Wilkinson - Captive Bred Reptiles & Forum

" It is great for doing what the others tickle the surface at, listing and showing pictures of as many morphs as possible" Shirley, UK

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Our inventory of books has eventually arrived from our printers in Germany so we will start to ship out all pre-orders today.

To purchase the new Designer-morphs, we are accept payments via paypal to: sales@bigreptileworld.com or email us for alternative payment methods (bank transfer or cheques).

The price is £49.80 plus £5.20 1st class Royal mail, recorded delivery, total delivered price £55.00 (UK sales only)

Email us at sales@bigreptileworld.com for details of European and other international sales. We will have books available in the USA at the end of July.

Our new webstore - www.bigreptileworld.com will be open from the end of the month for a compete range of reptile supplies.

Lastly, we will be at IHS Doncaster this weekend, selling and signing books. Come by and enter our free tee-shirt prize draw.

I also have a bunch of new snakes to add so will find some time to take photos early next week.

cheers, John

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As our new books are arriving from the printers early next week, we are extending the pre-print special offer pricing until the 15th June (see more details in previous post below).

Our new reptile supplies web-store, Big Reptile World (www.bigreptileworld.com) is opening 3rd July with a broad range of books and other supplies. Be sure to check it out.

Lastly we will be at the Federation of British Herpetologists (FBH) conference next Sat 19th (I'll be giving a presentation on "Snake morphs and how to avoid harmful mutations") and at the IHS Doncaster show on Sunday 20th. We won't have any snakes at the show (unless they are pre-sold and we are only delivering them) but we will have our new book and other supplies. Look for the Big Reptile World tables and banner.

We will be giving away some very cool "Big Reptile World" tee-shirts in a lucky-draw at the show (no purchase require, only a valid email address)

cheers, John

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Designer-Morphs 2nd edition will be available around the 10th June 2010. We are offering a special, signed book, pre-print offer of £45.00 plus postage *(see payment details below) for orders and payment before 10th June. Regular retail after 10th June is £49.80 plus postage.

* Pre-print special offer payment details: £45.00 plus £5.24 1st class Royal mail, recorded delivery, total delivered price £50.24 (UK sales only).

Or if you wish to collect your pre-paid book from the Big Reptile Word table at IHS Doncaster show on 20th June, the price will be £45.00 (as long as we receive payment before 10th June).

Paypal payments to: sales@bigreptileworld.com or email us for alternative payment methods (bank transfer, direct deposit, postal order or cheques).

Email us for details of international sales. We will have books available in the USA at the end of July.

cheers, John

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I'll be speaking at Hamm in Germany on 6th June. If you can read German, here is the release and link from the official Hamm site.

http://www.terraristikahamm.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77&Itemid=46&lang=de

cheers, John

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We will be at the following UK shows under the Big Reptile World banner (Big Reptile World is our new online reptile store which will be opening at the end of May)

• Doncaster IHS show 20th June & 26th September
• FBH Kempton Park show 15th August (presentation on Designer-morphs)

Our first 2010 ball python eggs have started to hatch, below is a nice litter of chocolate ball pythons that just hatched.

2010 chocolate ball python litter

cheers, John

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We have just received the book cover design back from our publishers and this is what it looks like .... what do you think ? Drop us an email or twitter post with comments.

cheers, John

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In an ongoing exercise to introduce new and exciting morphs to the UK & European markets, we have available a range of codominant Roswell boas and visual het Roswell (Ladder-tail) boas. The het Roswell (Ladder-tails) we have available are all either Kahl albino, 100% het albino or 66% possible het albinos. Roswell boas are one of the most exciting boa mutations around and are still a ground floor breeding project to get into.

Any ordered boas will be imported into the UK in early June. A 30% deposit is required to order and payment plans are available. Deliveries also offered via licensed animal courier to Hamm & Houten shows. See under our available boa stock for individual photos and prices.

Visual het Roswell (het albino)

Email me with any questions.

cheers, John

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Small clutch from our honey ball, laid on Easter Sunday. Now those are real Easter eggs! Mum on the eggs and the clutch (5 eggs, 1 slug) below. Looks like she will go into a shed, she is so dark, normally she has a honey-orange head. Still waiting on the chocolate eggs from yesterdays post ...

cheers, John

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Saw an article in the media this week that stated only half of UK school children in a survey knew the meaning of Easter ... wow, that's crazy. So in case you are unsure, it has nothing to do with chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies or anything like that. Easter is the weekend where the approx 2 billion Christians worldwide celebrate the death of Jesus at Calvary (on good Friday) and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. So now you know ...

Of course we just eat Easter eggs because we like them ... and in keeping with the chocolate egg theme, here is our chocolate ball python getting ready to lay .. chocolate (ball python) eggs, and hopefully with some super-chocolates in there as well. We will post baby photos :-)

gravid chocolate ball python female getting ready to lay eggs

cheers, John

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After discussions with our publishers, we have decided to split the new updated Designer-Morphs into two separate volumes. Volume One, due out the 1st week of June will cover mutations, morphs and hybrids of ball pythons (Python regius) and boa constrictors (Boa constrictor spp). Volume One will be approx 350 pages.

Volume Two, will be published in early December and cover mutations, morphs and hybrids of other popular boa and python species including; carpet pythons (Morelia spilota spp), blood & short-tailed pythons (Python curtus spp) and rainbow boas (Epicrates cenchria spp). Volume Two will be approx 200 pages in length.

Nice example of 2009 Calico ball-python (nfs)

By writing two separate books we can go into greater detail, include and cover more morphs. If you have any morphs or hybrids you think should be included in the 2nd volume, please drop me an email.

cheers, John

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Over the last few weeks we have added some additional Central American dwarf boas to our collection including some adults CA hypos het for Blood (d/het for dwarf hypo bloods) and this stunning CA caramel-albino sunglow (T+ x hypo). With their smaller size and easy of keeping, true dwarf boa morphs are some of the nicest snakes to work with.

Caramel-albino sunglow. His colours will get stronger as he matures

Still working hard to finish the updated Designer-morphs book. Our launch date has slipped out to the first week in June.

Also working on a web-store for our new company, Big Reptile-world, more news shortly.

cheers, John

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Well spring is on its way here in the SW UK, trees are starting to bud and spring flowers are pushing up. Spring time is also getting close to baby season for our snakes although like last year we will probably have eggs and babies right the way through to Oct.

One pairing we have been waiting for is our striped Berry Blood boa male (we produced him in 2006) breeding a high coloured Central American hypo female. All babies will be 100% het Berry bloods and at least half should be CA Hypo, het bloods ... which of course is double het for true dwarf Central American Bloody hypos. Additionally the female is 66% het T+ albino, which opens the door for future opportunities. They have been breeding on and off for the last 6 weeks, so the countdown has started.

cheers, John

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Seems you can't throw a stone on either side of the Atlantic without it hitting a crazy environmentalist. Here in the UK, there are plenty of over the top tree huggers who want to impose their will on everyone else. In the USA, there is the loony PETA and the HSUS. If you live in the USA, enjoy animals and want to have some sort of freedom from this bunch of crazies, check out this site.

http://humanewatch.org/

Here is a copy of an ad that ran full page in the New York Times. (click for a bigger image)

Just for the record (so I don't get nutty emails), I'm as concerned about the environment as anyone, I re-cycle, I'm not cruel to animals and I love nature and wild life. I also support, GOOD anti cruelty to animal organisations that haven't been hi-jacked by the crazies.

What I can't stand however are the over the top, hysterical, taliban like wacky environmentalists who worship nature and want impose their radical ideas on everyone else. (If you don't want to eat meat, fine but leave me alone). The fact is many animal rights organisations today are nothing more than money hungry, power hungry big businesses that act like a bunch of nazi's if you don't agree with them. They hoodwink the public into giving them millions of dollars/ pounds/ euros by deception. Many are also misnamed. They are actually ANTI - any kind of pets, ANTI - any kind of farming, ANTI - people.

If you have a pet (any pet) their ideas WILL impact you in the next few years. If you have a pet reptile, make sure you join all the reptile societies you can that are fighting for your rights or else before long, you may not have any left. These include:

USA - http://www.usark.org/

USA - http://www.dontmesswithmypet.org/

UK - http://international-herpetological-society.org/site/

UK - http://www.thebhs.org/

cheers, John

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A few breeding updates we are happy about, firstly we just saw our Honey ball ovulating, which is a good sign. If you haven't seen this before, it looks like the snake just ate a jumbo rat. She has been breeding with a Fire male as her son from last year wasn't up to size. We are still uncertain if she is recessive or if we simply missed out on last years clutch, hence we are keen to see what she produces this year!

Honey ball with the ovulation "lump" moving down the body.

Another clutch we want to see is from our unproven araza ball female with a vanilla-bee (vanilla x spider). Last year the araza female bred a very light YB male and produced a what looked like YB fires. If she (the araza ball) is in fact a fire, we will get vanilla-fires (which are very cool looking), if not we will see. I suspect she is a new dominant mutation ...

Araza ball and vanilla-bee

cheers, John

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Both the Wall Street Journal and the Economist have been covering the pending US constrictor ban (S373). They are only covering the tip of the iceberg but at least, they are not hysterical like most media outlets who never let the facts get in the way of a good story!

Check them out here:

http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15498320

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703575004575043951350432886-lMyQjAxMTAwMDEwMTExNDEyWj.html

cheers, John

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If you haven't seen Chris Weller with his house full of pet lizard, check this video link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/7148390/The-lizard-man.html

Note the size of the cages, whole converted rooms, before you rush off to buy a water monitor. Of course they don't quite need that much room, but that is a great way to keep them if you have the space! (not so certain they require the TV and the cushion though :-)

Over here we have a lot of snake breeding going on ... at least with the vastly reduced collection we have left. Looks like I'll have to check the incubators shortly.

Better get back to the book writing ...

cheers, John

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Still busy writing like crazy, the updated Designer Morphs is taking shape! Still aiming for the end of March.

Have also added several new snakes for sale onto the Boa and Ball python pages.

In case you didn't see this, here is what the UK looked like during the freeze a couple of weeks ago. I guess if we get any more global warming, we are all in danger of freezing to death!

(photo copyright NASA or some other overblown government agency that uses your tax dollars like they were their own)

Couple more interesting reports for all those who believe the BBC, UN and most government agencies on man-made climate change .....

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100023598/after-climategate-pachaurigate-and-glaciergate-amazongate/

This one is about major glaciers that haven't heard the news about global warming yet:

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/12-more-glaciers-that-havent-heard-the-news-about-global-warming

cheers, John

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Wow, January is cold, we have been in negative temps for over a week (I live in a bit of a valley with a stream in the back yard which doesn't help). It warmed up to just over zero C (32F) today and it felt warm outside ... this is when I miss Florida!

If you haven't seen the news on our homepage, I'm busy getting the second edition of Designer Morphs ready for the printers. Hope to have it out for the end of March (aiming for Hamm but not certain if we will make it or not).

The book will be hardback, around 350 full colour pages, full of all proven ball python, carpet python, blood python and boa constrictor morphs, mutations and hybrids. Price will be £45.00 (49.80 EUR). There will be a pre-order form up on the website from around mid March. In the meanwhile drop us an email (alphapython100@yahoo.com) if you want to be added to the waiting list and informed when the book is ready.

See the homepage for more info (John Berry Reptiles) and details on how to submit photos if you want to see your morphs in print.

cheers, John

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Happy Christmas

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Our first snow is due here on Friday ... and a colder than normal winter is forecast ...I guess no one told the weather its meant to be in the midst of getting warmer ... (just like the last 3 years were colder, not warmer).

Climate change will effect us all one way or another, mostly in your wallet ... all the hot air in Copenhagen is sure to costs us lots of money with increased energy, travel and tax bills. All while the "experts" aren't agreed on what good any of this legislation will do. Couple of worthwhile articles.

Climate change is natural, not man made:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6815681/Climate-change-is-natural-not-man-made.html

Al Gore is full of bull ... again !

http://www.climatechangefraud.com/enviro-extremists/5815-al-gore-talks-climategate-on-cnn-and-slate-misstates-the-facts

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6815470/Copenhagen-climate-summit-Al-Gore-condemned-over-Arctic-ice-melting-prediction.html

Okay snakes news .... although we are in a major downsize of our collection we have our first snakes breeding for this year ... it just didn't feel right NOT to breed any snakes! Especially when we still have a few pet projects we want to prove out. Will update as the season progresses.

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Interesting article on climate change ... global warming could all be a lot of hot air, at least from Al Gore, the clueless media and our politicians (they like the idea as it gives them a chance to tax us all more). Check it out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8299079.stm

Of course the Met office are the folks who can't even forecast correctly for the next week or month but they tell us we need to believe them for the next 100 years ...yeah, right.

09 Savannah Pewter starting to colour up

cheers, John

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Was busy checking our breeding charts and it was already six months ago (early March) that we had our first 09 Ball python eggs. We still have our last eggs in the incubator and with the end of summer, I'm already thinking of potential breedings for next year. Breeding snakes can be an all year round event !

Just had a strange clutch of eggs hatch from an unproven Fire female with a unproven Fire male. Until the babies hatch I can't figure out if they are dark Fires, light Yellow Bellies or YB Fires ..the joy of working with new lines of morphs !

One of this years hold backs, a Blond Sterling Pastel.

cheers, John

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As the summer starts to wind down, we still have eggs being laid with new clutches this last week and others hatching. We also sometimes lose eggs ... just had an entire Vanilla x Super Pastel clutch go bad. However in the next 2 weeks we have other Vanilla (het hypo), Fire and unproven Phantom clutches all due to hatch, so some nice stuff still to come this year.

Also still adding more proven breeder adults (both Balls and Boas) to the available pages as we thin our collection. I'm open to offers on some of the breeders, worst I can say is no ... so if you are interested, email me an offer.

cheers, John

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We are in the process of sorting out which adults and sub adult hold backs we want to keep and which ones will be for sale. See under the available tab/ ball pythons at the bottom of the page for the ones we are letting go.

Will be at the Kidderminster show this Sunday 9th August.

cheers, John

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We have produced some very interesting 09 Ball python babies this year. Here are a few of them:

09 Sterling Pastel from our Blond Pastel line

09 Savannah Pewter

The Savannah Pewter is what we are naming our Pewter Mojaves. They are a tripe gene designer morph with loads of breeding potential as all three genes have a super form. This is the first one ever produced ... and we hit a pair of them !

We also produced a pair of Savannah Balls (Mojave Cinnamons) that are outstanding. (see photos in the collection page)

Just mentioning again our next show will be the West Midlands Reptile Expo at Kidderminster on 9th August. I'll be away in South Africa for nearly 2 weeks so will update on new clutches that are hatching when I'm back.

cheers, John

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Due to seeing so many questions on forums, decided to write a simple guide to feeding ball pythons. Feel free to copy and post on any forum or website (as long as you leave it complete as is).

Click the link below to open file (Abode Acrobat reader required)

Feeding Ball Pythons.pdf

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader click here to download for free:

http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/

cheers, John

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So much happening haven't had the time to update recently. Firstly IHS Doncaster was a good show for us. Thanks to everyone who purchased snakes from us. (and my daughter Jessie's Crested Geckos). We will be back there in Sept with a lot more stock.

Had some very nice eggs hatch recently. Here is one of two Blonde Sterling Pastels we hatched out. (I believe they are the first ones hatched in the UK?) Dad was the first Pewter we produced back in 2005 and mum was a Blond Pastel we got from Africa as a baby. So that makes her and her sister, Blond Sterling Pastels.

Next show for us will be the West Midlands Reptile Expo in Kidderminster on 9th August.

cheers, John

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Super Vanilla female

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This time of the year is always interesting from a breeding point of view. The incubators are getting quite full which is always a good sign. I just built a new one and with about another dozen females gravid I think I need to get it fired up soon.

This female just laid today. I call her my "Amber" type female as she looks very like the female Amir used to produce his Ambers. She was bred by both a Fire and a Pewter so have to see what she produces.

While our Ball python season is turning out rather well, our boas aren't doing as nicely. Our Blood boas had the year off however we were hoping for some T+ Nicaraguans. Unfortunately the female dropped 11 slugs last night. This was her first season so maybe she was too young ? There is always next year ...

cheers, John

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Went to check on on the gravid boas this morning and our dwarf CA Tiger female had dropped 11 healthy babies.

Dad is a dwarf Central American Albino boa so we have a litter of 100% het dwarf Albinos. These will grow up to produce probably the smallest Albino boas anywhere. Mum is around 8 years old and still under 5ft and dad is very small. He came from Pete Kahl from his attempted Blizzard boa project. The babies are so small, they are real dwarfs !

09 100% het Central American Albinos. These guys are small !

We also had 5 baby Ball pythons sticking their heads out of their eggs this morning. I can see a couple of Pewter's and at least one Super Pastel. That's our first Ball python clutch to hatch this year so we are off to a good start.

cheers, John

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Our incubators have been filling up for the last month with some nice clutches of Ball pythons eggs. With many gravid females getting ready to lay and others still being bred its shaping up to be a good breeding year for us. Our first eggs should start to hatch around mid May.

Nice 10 egg clutch from a Chocolate/ Sable type female who was bred by a Pewter.

This year we are planning on attending more UK shows. Once we have confirmation from them all I'll put an updated list up here.

cheers, John

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We are now well into breeding season and expecting our first eggs very soon. Here are a few quick pics of some of our gravid females (excuse the newspaper in the cages, I find it so much quicker to keep them clean this way, however it looks terrible in photos!)

Honey Cinnamon

Blonde Pastel. She has been locked up with a Vanilla and Pewter males.

Aztec Stripe. When snakes are gravid I don't bother to remove any shed skin so as not to disturb them too much.

Mojave female who didn't like my camera. Hopefully she is carrying some Super Mojave blue eyed lucys in her eggs !

Last one, our CA Caramel Albino dwarf boa. This is a new line.

Cheers, John

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January update:

2009 is bringing some changes. Due to time pressures from our other business interests we are being forced to cut down on the number of snakes we are currently keeping. Our "Ball pythons available" page have been updated with some of our hold backs we will be letting go of (unless we find some more hours in the day :-). These are the ones we were planning on keeping ourselves so are all great quality snakes.

In the meanwhile many of our adult snakes are breeding so we are expecting a nice lot of babies around mid year.

cheers, John

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Happy Christmas 08

Christmas is a season of joy and giving.  Its also a time for us to consider others less fortunate than ourselves.  

In order to make the world a better place you might consider giving an alternative gift this Christmas season. Here are some great causes who are helping improve millions of lives. Please take the time to look at their sites. 

http://www.musthavegifts.org/Default.aspx

http://www.barnabasfund.org/projects/projects_02.php

Super Vanilla Pastel, copyright Sheila Mcquade/ GCR

God Bless and have a Great Christmas and New Year. cheers, John

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If you live in the USA, I want to encourage you to join and support the work of USARK, the United States Association of Reptile Keepers.

While the keeping of reptiles is becoming more popular all over the world, there are still many people who think they know better and want to restrict or outright ban you from keeping any reptiles. USARK is fighting to support the Herp hobby and industry. They need your support. Here is the link to their site.http://usark.org/

If you don't live in the USA, I would highly encourage you to join and support your local reptile or herp association or club in your own country. If there isn't one, then start one ! There is strength in numbers.

cheers, John

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Well that's at least what the enthusiastic article in the Telegraph is claiming. The numbers look like 8 million reptiles in the UK vs 6.5 million dogs. Here is the link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/3500882/Reptiles-now-more-popular-pets-than-dogs.html

2008 VPI Axanthic

We are gearing up for our first breeding season in the UK. Should have interesting new babies from around May onwards.

cheers, John

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I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has purchased from us this season. We really appreciate your business. This has been our first year of selling our snakes in the UK and most everyone has been great to deal with. At times its been difficult as we have had to ship many of our 08 babies over from the US (with all the delays and hassles that entails !) so thanks for bearing with us. Next season we will have most of out breeders laying eggs and giving us young (boas) here in England so deliveries will be much easier !

We are currently very low on 08 stock but will have our last 08's in January. Then its a break until eggs start hatching around May.

Here is a bright Enchi female we held back from this year. We currently have a few male Enchis available.

Our next show will be the IHS Rodbaston show on the 16th Nov. Its being held at Rodbaston Collage, Penkridge, Staffs (3 miles from junctions 12 or 13 on the M6). You can put ST19 5PH‎ in your SatNav or Google maps. The show will be open from 10.00am to 04.00pm.

cheers, John

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We will be at the PRAS (Portsmouth Reptile & Amphibian Society) show on the 26th of this month. Its at the Harvant Leisure Centre, Hampshire PO9 2AY. Just put PO9 2AY in your SatNav or Google maps. The show will be open from 10.00am to 04.00pm.

Its the first time for us at this event so we look forward to meeting the good people from PRAS. Any questions about the show email Lyn on Jolyn03@bulldoghome.com

cheers, John

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Large constrictor update: As I mentioned 3 weeks ago (see my blog entry dated 12th Sept below), we need to watch out for bozo's letting large snakes go and giving all reptile keepers a bad rap. In case you missed the story, someone let a "17 foot" Burmese python loose up in Lancashire (or it escaped). There are reports its probably closer to 8ft, however my points are still the same. If they couldn't handle a 8ft snake what would they do with a 17ft one ? Here is the link to the story:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20081002/tuk-gardener-s-17ft-snake-shock-45dbed5.html

The escaped "17ft" Burm which is now only "8ft" (copyright Sky News)

I'll state it again, in my opinion the average keeper is not capable of keeping large constrictors as pets. If you are intend on buying an Anaconda, regular Burmese, African Rock python or Reticulated python PLEASE ensure you have a plan to house it when it is an adult .... and letting it go or handing it to a reptile rescue center or zoo IS NOT THE RIGHT ANSWER. If you want a large snake go and see someone has one and get advice on how to keep and care for it before you buy that small, bright little snake. Again a word to those selling large constrictors, PLEASE be responsible in who you sell to and make sure they understand how big these guys can get !!If not YOU are just as guilty as the person who let this one out. (yeah I know I probably lost a few friends here ... but if they are responsible this isn't aimed at them and most keepers I know agree)

Grandpa Spider again: Just got an email this week that Carl, our pet Spider Ball python in the photo below, is a Grandfather ... again ... he is now retired (as a full time pet) but its always nice to hear that the snakes you have sold are producing babies of their own ... plus knowing they won't get too big for anyone to handle on their own !!

cheers, John

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Newly available: At the end of the month we should have some new 08 Ball pythons available. These include VPI Axanthics, Black Pastels, Enchi Pastels, Pinstripes and Orange Ghosts. We will also have some last 07 Albino boas and hets. 

Perfect pets: Most kids today like snakes and Ball pythons make great pets as they are tame, are easy to handle and they don't get too large. Here is my daughter Megan with Carl, an old Spider male. We don’t use him for breeding any longer; he is now a full time pet. He doesn’t seem to mind being handled at all.

Interesting read: If you are looking for an interesting and fast paced read, I would recommend “The Lizard King” by Bryan Christy. I was given a pre-publication copy for review and I read it two days flat. It covers the early days of reptile smuggling mostly in Florida, US. Having met and known many of the “characters” and heard part of their stories its was interesting to read an outsiders view. Fortunately most popular reptiles are now bred in captivity so smuggling has pretty much ceased, although many countries set themselves up by enacting over restrictive laws (like Australia for example) that encourage villains to smuggle reptiles out. You should be able to get a copy of the Lizard King on Amazon. 

Designer Morphs: We managed to get a few last copies of our book in from our US distributor, but these are the last ones. So if you want a copy, don’t delay as they will be out shortly.

Berry Chocolate Ball

cheers, John

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Disclaimer: Please take note, this post is primarily aimed at the UK & European market due to the average size of accommodation here.

After many people have asked me in person or at shows what I think about keeping large snakes let me jump in with both feet. The largest snake I have in my collection (of several hundred snakes) is around 6ft / 1.8m long.  I have worked with just about every large constrictor in nearly 30 years of keeping and working with reptiles and I just don’t think most people are capable of properly caring for the larger constrictors. Let me also clarify, I think Retic morphs are outstanding looking snakes, however too many people buy them just because of how they look.

Now, I know many people will disagree, some of whom have a financial motive, but the simple fact remains, unless you live in a large house like those in the USA you probably don’t have the room for a full grown, adult 18-20 ft plus Retic, African Rock python or even a large, old Burmese python. (I’m talking about ADULT snakes at 5 years plus, not a baby or sub adult). Yes, there are some very good private keepers who are responsible and know how to care for a large constrictor, but your average hobbyist who buys a baby Patternless African Rock or Albino Retic doesn’t have the space or the ability to care for anything once it gets over 12 ft -15ft plus.

Every year, hundreds of big constrictors are offered to Reptile Rescues, Zoos or sometimes even released into the wild. Many others are being kept in cages which are far too small by keepers who are scared to take them out.

Please note, I’m NOT talking about the DWARF Burms or Retics, I’m specifically talking about full sized Retics, Burms, African Rock pythons and Anacondas. In my opinion there are way too many of these large constrictors being sold without hardly any thought for what will happen in the next few years when they outgrow their cages. With current restrictions in place in many parts of the US, many breeders are now simply dumping their available large constrictors into the European and UK markets. I believe this is a potential disaster in the making, one which will make it harder on ALL reptile keepers if we don’t help educate younger and perhaps less experienced keepers about the responsibility of owning large constrictors.

Bottom-line, if you are set on getting a large constrictor, please do your homework first and figure out where and how you can PROPERLY care for a snake which can get over 18 ft long.  

PS. If you disagree with me, please re-read my post, I’m NOT anti large constrictors, I’m just anti breeders selling them without educating potential buyers on their size and care requirements.

cheers, John

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We had a good show this last weekend in Doncaster. It was a good venue and well run. Big thanks to Richard of the IHS. It was nice to meet so many people I've only spoken to on email. Our next show will be in Portsmouth, UK on the 26th Oct.

We got some nice 08 neonates in but as many were pre-sold we are already out of several ! Still to come are Axanthics, Caramels, Black Pastels, Bumblebees, Hypos, Spiders (normals plus hets for Hypo & Albino), more Womas plus a few others.

A nice Butter female from this year. We have a few available.

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There have been so many interesting new designer morphs produced this season I thought I would highlight a couple of them I really like.

First place of course has to be Bloody Albino Boa produced by Jon & Rich Ihle of Salmonboa (see below) This is a double recessive boa morph displaying both the Sharp Albino and Blood boa genes.

photo copyright: Rich Ihle/ Salmonboa

The Bloody Albino boa is the end result of a long project for Rich & Jon and an outstanding example of the potential for the Blood boa gene* 

*This year due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances we didn’t produce any Blood boas babies. Our breeders  however are now primed for the fast approaching 2008-09 breeding season. We are aiming for pure dwarf original line El Salvador and our own Nicaraguan line of dwarf Blood boas (pictured below) early next year. Here is an adult male Berry Blood boa, a true dwarf at under 3 foot long !

photo copyright: John Berry/ John Berry Reptiles

On the Ball python front, Canadian breeder, Mark Mandic just hatched the first Piebald x Axanthic, that he has named the PieAxanthic. I love the silver, black and white look of this little snake (Mark seemed very pleased as well !!) The interesting thing was Mark didn’t even realise he was working with Axanthics as his snakes were hets and he didn’t realise until his Pied eggs hatched! (I think that’s the new definition of a nice surprise!) I can see lots of breeders wanting to replicate Mark’s success.

While we may not have PieAxanthics for some  time, if you are looking for either Piedbalds (or hets) or Axanthics (or hets) we can supply either as well started, feeding 08 babies.

photo copyright: Mark Mandic/ Markus Jayne

Quick update on our communications: Now our move is sorted, we just need to get our broadband back up (I won’t say anything back about BT as they might take even longer to get me back online !!). I am checking emails on an ad hoc basis, however if you don’t get a quick response from contacting us, please be patient I will get back to you. I’ll also new stock photos and prices updated by next weekend. 

cheers, John

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Brief update as we are in the middle of packing to move again ... at least its not an international move this time, its only 8 miles away to a bigger house in Bristol, UK. As soon we are settled in I'll update the available pages which are rather outdated. We will have a lot of Ball python morphs available over the next 6 - 8 weeks. If I'm slow on answering emails, please forgive me, I will get back to you.

After many questions on forums and emails, here is a 08 Chocolate Ball (our own line). They all have sooty bellies (like Sables), good blushing and at first glance look similar to Black Pastels. The Super Chocolate is one of my new favorite ball python morphs !

In the meanwhile, enjoy your summer .... even if you are in the UK, we actually had some nice sun the last few days, hey better late than never ! We were in Cape Town recently and the winter there was the same as the weather in Europe (see below)

cheers, John

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The Doncaster IHS show was great for meeting up with other UK reptile keepers although it was a little early in the season for our 08 babies. If you live in the UK and keep snakes I highly encourage you to become a member of the International Herpetological Society (www.international-herpetological-society.org) and attend the shows. We will be at the Barking show in July and again at Doncaster in Sept (this time with loads of new stock).

I've been asked for photos of our adult Central American Caramel Albino boas, so here is the adult female. She is not related to any US T+ lines although her color reminds me of the VPI Colombian T+ boas ... although being a dwarf boa she is half their size. We are getting her ready for breeding this coming season.

Breeding wise, we have eggs, ovulations and Ball python babies starting to hatch all at the same time. The Boas are getting close as well although we won't have as many as we hoped for due to moving our snakes. We have some new 08 Hypo Nicaraguans, CA Motleys & CA Tigers. Next season all our breeders will be over in the UK.

Finally after so many positive emails from my comments on Global warming/ Climate change (see post below) here are some more related posts .... for those who don't agree with me (and have drank the sky-is falling cool aid), chill out .... global warming isn't all bad, we know its real, but we will adapt and the upside will be more biodiversity, more land to grow food on with warmer weather ... hey even warmer summers in the UK ... now that's good news !

http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/

http://www.nationalpost.com/related/links/story.html?id=594722

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=164002

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=102000A7ZB1O&page=1

cheers, John

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Nothing to do with snakes but should be of interest to all of us. It has everything to do with how the mass media are hysterical and politicians & bureaucrats intend to tax and spend YOUR money over global warming. Just like the Y2K scare was all nonsense (after billions of dollars were wasted and the only ones who benefited were those "warning" us about the dangers of Y2K) .... Global warming looks to be headed in the same way .... of course most politicians LOVE ANYTHING which allows governments to take your money (its called a having a "vested interest") ... and most journalists think being green is switching off their PC at night and thinking happy thoughts ... ok I jest but read below for some other views:

31,000 scientists, including more than 9,000 with PhDs, signed a petition that states, there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will cause in the future, catastrophic heating of the Earths atmosphere and disruption of the Earths climate

http://junkscience.com/jun08/pprelease060208.htm

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357201,00.html

Now the IPCC's researchers project no global warming over the next decade ... huh ?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353844,00.html

Bottom line, yes going green is important .... I recycle, I don't drive a gas guzzler, I teach my kids not to waste water, electricity, I have eco-friendly appliances in my house, etc, but I don't believe this is cut and dried ... don't be afraid to question the motives of those involved and don't believe the media and Al Gore's hysteria ...

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0903/021.html

Ok I guess I should add a snake photo as well :-) ... here is a cool Super Pastel .... more updates on snakes next time. I'm off to Doncaster for the IHS meeting this weekend .... should be fun.

cheers, John

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We are expecting a litter of CA Motleys and Tigers shortly. In the meanwhile here is an updated photo of one of the Nicaraguan Ghosts boas we produced last year. She is looking good. I can't wait to see the first pure Nicaraguan Super Ghosts.

Another updated photo of a Central American Hypo (het for T+ Albino). She should be breeding with our new line of CA T+ boas next year.

cheers, John

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If you don't have a copy of our book, Designer Morphs you will soon be too late as its nearly out of print. We have a few copies left and then they are all gone. If you to grab one before its too late, click through and order online http://www.designermorphs.com/purchase.htm

The 08 baby (neonate) season is already showing some outstanding new mutations. Here is one of the nicest  designer morphs from last season, a CA Hypo Leopard produced and owned by our friend big Mike at Basically Boas.

What a great example of a smaller Central American boa designer morph. (okay I admit I'm totally biased towards the smaller Central American boas !!).

Copyright Mike Weitzman/ Basically Boas

We are a little behind with our 08 babies as most of snakes bred very late in the season .... patience is hard at this time of the year !

cheers, John

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US Fish & Wildlife Services (USFWS) Notice of Inquiry

If you are in the US and keep or breed pythons or boas, you will know all about the USFW Notice of Inquiry. If you haven't responded you need to do so now as the deadline for submissions is 30th April.

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Not much news this week, so here are a couple of interesting documentaries I thought everyone should see ....

1) Sharkwater - one of the best movie documentaries of 2007

http://www.sharkwater.com/synopsis.htm

 2) Expelled, no intelligence allowed - how open (or closed) is your mind ? This one will cause big waves in 2008.

 http://www.expelledthemovie.com/enterflash.php

 Click on the link and watch the trailer.

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As per last weeks update, here is a photo of our new BurmBall. I'm really excited about this project as there are so many people who love their Burmese pythons but who wished they didn't get quite so big. So BurmBall hybrids could be the answer. I think she is outstanding.

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Just got back from Hamm in Germany. Its the third time I've traveled over and is always interesting. Apart from the packed crowds (as the facility is too small) and the unfriendly organizers, its great to see species you don't always see at the US shows. We picked up a BurmBall  (Burmese x Ball python) hybrid as a fun joint project with Scot Wilkinson from Captive Bred.

I also collected a sub adult pair of T+ Albino Central American boas. We have been waiting to get these guys from a breeder in Italy for over a year. They are totally unrelated to any current US Blood lines and will be bred into our Blood and CA Hypos.

Here are a couple of recently taken photos of some of our Green Tree pythons:

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All of our breeders are very doing what they are supposed to do at this time of the year. Of course if you have ever wrongly sexed a snake (and everyone has at some time) this is the time of year you find out !! In this case it was a snake that was sold to us, a nice Carpondro (GTP x Jungle Carpet). We thought it was a "she" however she has proven to be "he" ... oh well, at least he is now breeding a nice big Green Tree female ... aiming for 75% GTP Carpondros.

The morale of the story is, no matter WHO you get a snake from its YOUR responsibility to check its sexed correctly. I have made mistakes before and I've had some of the biggest breeder friends sent me wrongly sexed snakes. It happens. If you catch it early most breeders will exchange or refund (if they don't report them on the BOI). If its been months or years, I would say its way too late.

Here is an Albino male doing his best to give us some Albino Spiders, with a female Spider het Albino. Our Ball pythons breeders are working hard for us !

cheers, John

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06 February'08 update - PURE Central American Boas ?

Some US boa breeders (and wannabe breeders) have recently been dismissing the term "Pure Central American Boas" saying its too broad. In our opinion this term is actually quite useful and shouldn't be dismissed. This label is used to donate that these are not intergrades or mixed with boas that originated from Colombia where Boa constrictor imperator can reach sizes of up to 10 ft. So boas termed as CA or Central American boas only come from lines that originated in Central America (or Mexico, yes which is technically North America), so its a SIZE issue and not a LOCALITY issue. The fact is most CA boas if not intermixed with any Colombian Bci lines will mostly stay under 6 ft with males much smaller. This is a big consideration for many people who don't want or can't accommodate large constrictors.

Secondly, the label "PURE" is used to donate ONLY from a particular locality or mutation. For instance we sell PURE Nicaraguans (like the one pictured below), that means no other CA locality has been bred into these lines. Or PURE Blood boas, meaning no mixing of Salmon or other Colombian influenced blood lines . Thus we will continue to term our boas as PURE CA boas where appropriate.

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So far our Ball python breeding season has been rather slow. Blame it on the weird weather in Florida. We have however seen good breeding from some important snakes we have been waiting to prove out like our Honey Cinny female seen here with a light Pewter male. As a baby she had a bright orange head like no other Ball python we have seen before (see photo below). We believe she could an extreme new color form of Cinnamon Pastel although as an adult she does look like the the now proven Black Lace Ball Pythons. Either way we have high hopes we will know for certain later in the season when we get babies.

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We have seen some good breeding action so far from our Green Tree pythons (Merauke x SCZ Tri-color outcross breeding), our Berry Blood Boas, our Central American Motley x Central American Tiger Boa (these should be the nicest looking, small CA Motleys around !) and our Ball/ Royal pythons. Hoping to prove out our unique Aztec Ball (looks like a Genetic Stripe), seen here breeding with a Pastel Yellow Belly male.

We have also just got a shipment with the last of our '07 and few '06 Ball/ Royal pythons into the UK. All of these guys are great feeders and ready for new homes (see Mojave below). If you are interested drop me an email for a good deal. I'm open to some short term payment plans as well.

Cheers, John

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Breeding season is underway. I'm really looking forward to some nice Pinstripe Ball pythons morphs from this nice light male (photo below).

Breeding hint: If you are breeding your snakes this season, be careful not to over breed your males. I've seen too many breeders get way too thin due to over enthusiastic keepers not giving their snakes a break. Its OK to take the males out of breeding and feed them (if they will eat). If they get too thin and refuse food, its a good idea to move them to another room away from the females altogether.

Here are some updated photos of one of the pure Nicaraguan Ghosts (Hypo x Type 1 Anery) we produced late last year plus our Super Hypo Nicaraguan. These guys are dwarfs and grow very slowly. This year we are attempting to breed some of our 3 & 4 year old holdback Hypos and Pastels for the first time so it should be a good Boa season here at JBR.

Also, we are nearly sold out of our last copies of Designer Morphs, so if you want a copy, you had better grab one quickly before they are all gone. They are on sale at www.designermorphs.com

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Last year was a disappointing breeding year for us as we were moving and it totally messed up our reptile breeding plans. This season however looks to be much better. We also have high hopes for several potential new morphs. Here is one of them, we are calling her a Orange Cinny (as a baby her head was bright orange). She will be in with a nice yellow Pewter male.

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August 07 - Nice pure Nicaraguan Striped litter from a "possible" Type 1 Anery NIC with a Hypo NIC .... Reverse Striped Ghosts and Hypo Nicaraguans ... Central American Boas rock !

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