"Caramel type" Jaguar, Possible Red Phase - This snake was produced by breeding a red phase to my original "caramel type" female, and although it would take a couple years to prove out, I belive he's carrying both the "caramel" and the "red phase" traits. This snake was sold - not sure what I was thinking, other than I had a hard time deciding what to keep. :-) 2006 Clutch - Male 5 - This is the male I kept back for a rainy day. He's one of the four "silver" babies produced in the 2006 clutch. "Caramel type" Jaguar - This snake is a few months old in the photo, but the dark pigment around the saddles is now fully developed. This snake should turn into a nice yellow Jaguar with nice orange saddles bordered in black.
Breeding Facility
My breeding facility is a 2,200 square foot private office/warehouse building located in the Kansas City, Missouri area. The facility is straight up reptiles - the closest thing I have to an office there is a shipping counter with a printer and a spot for my laptop. As you probably would have guessed, the facility is not open to the public. It will be time for a new facility soon - hopefully somewhere I can setup a small showroom. Until then, this page is as close as you're going to get!
We're making a lot of changes in 2011 at the facility, so stay tuned for updates and new pictures!
We generally have anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000+ animals to care for at any given time and we currently produce over 5,000 animals each year. Almost everything I produce is sold online - either through my online store or privately via email.
Caging
Most of the racks and caging we use is made by Animal Plastics (APCages.com), although we still have several Barrs (HerpCages.com) cages and racks in use.
Thermostats
For temperature control (cages, racks and incubators), I prefer the Spyder Robotics Herpstat line. These products are designed and made in the USA and are designed for use in herpetoculture - they are hands down the most advanced and easy to use reptile thermostat on the market. And they are relatively inexpensive!
2009 crested and gargoyle gecko egg shells...I think this was taken in the early fall. I'm guessing there's probably around 3,000-3,500 shells in there by then. Crested gecko and gargoyle gecko eggs. That's around 800-1,000 eggs, all separated by the code on the front of their parents cages. By the time we collect eggs, mark them, put them in their own container and remove the freshly hatched babies, the shelf you're looking at takes a good 5-10 man hours per week to maintain properly. This is just one example of how selectively bred geckos cost more to produce. Large scale producers can cut that time by literally 90% by simply putting all the eggs in the same container as they're collected. This is a much more efficient method than what we do, because they never have to top off the water. The babies all hatch around the same time and they just dump out the old perlite when they're done.
Contrary to popular belief, we aren't one of the top producers in the country - just the largest producer of selectively bred crested geckos (a large scale "little guy" so to speak). This is one way we've been trying tokay geckos. Tokays are tough, so they do great in there, but I think something with less ventilation would be more appropriate - these just don't hold the heat well enough. This is an aisle of juvenile leopard geckos. We house them individually, as they require far less attention and seem to do a whole lot better that way. When we were keeping them two per tub, someone was always getting bullied. This way, we don't have to watch out for bullies and the geckos get all of their food every time. These are 6 quart shoebox racks from Animal Plastics. This is a great size for just about any baby python you can possibly think of, from green trees to bloods and everything in between. All those pictures you see are taken right there. Not the best shot, but I couldn't get any more of it into the frame without standing on a shelf. It's starting to get cramped already - time to start looking for a bigger place? :-o This is a small "sandwich box" rack system. We have 600+ tubs worth of these, which we use as "overflow" when we're hatching out big numbers (in the summer mostly). They're awesome for starting baby snakes, keeping leopard gecko babies individually, etc. Adult crested gecko racks. 58/66 quart Sterilite tubs. Racks from Animal Plastics. I had these made several years ago and we absolutely love them. I just wish I would've had them made so the boxes slide in long ways...at the time I wanted a better view of my geckos, now I just need to conserve every inch of aisle space I can. Another wall of crested gecko breeder racks. These are 66 quart sterilite tubs from Target, racks from Animal Plastics. These things are very affordable and work great. Holding containers for baby crested geckos - we keep them in there until they have their first shed. I think my record is something like 80 babies in one day - that was a rainstorm in the middle of the summer after it hadn't rained for a while. I knew that was going to be a busy day. Green tree python cages by Barrs. I like these a lot, but am thinking of going to something a little better insulated. These look great for what they are, but I think I may just want something to match all my AP racks and cages. lol
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