We currently are operating out of two locations in different countries. Our colubrid projects have been moved to Malaysia…as it is our much larger facility and holds many projects. It is also changing and evolving on a continual basis so we will be using a separate website to catalog and update all of the animals we are working with there, while using this website to offer availability and make bigger announcements. We will announce that website in the near future.
Tiger Rat Snakes (Spilotes pullatus pullatus)
This project began in 1999 when I was chatting with Rich Ihle at a local reptile show. Somehow Spilotes came up in conversation and he mentioned he had a nice trio but not with him. I purchased them completely sight unseen and it all started from there. They were originally captive bred in 1997 by Rich but unrelated. The older images pictured below were basically my founding stock. It was the male at 85% bright yellow and 8′ long. The female was normal in appearance with near equal amounts of black and yellow. I produced a very small number of extreme high yellow babies in 2001. The following year produced another couple of clutches from two different females, however, fertility seemed low and I blamed it on the environment being too warm while catering to the python and boa projects I was working on in the same room. I subsequently sold the project.
Fast forward to May 2011, I was able to acquire one of my females back as well as a pair of offspring which were direct descendants of my founding stock. Husbandry this time is correct with a new work area in place and a shift in focus to colubrids in general. I am so happy to have them back in my collection. Nearly every one of us has regretted selling off an animal or project but rarely does it come back…
Greater Keeled Ratsnake (Ptyas carinata)
This is a gigantic colubrid that inhabits the jungles in Southeast Asia. Arguably one of the the largest colubrids in the world routinely reaching a solid 10’+ and look very much like a King Cobra in color and pattern. This is an extremely fast, agile, visual hunter. I had no idea this snake existed until my first trip to Thailand in 2003 where I saw one at the Thai Red Cross Snake farm. I made it my goal to bring this species into the hobby as virtually nothing was known about it and everyone I asked about Ptyas had never heard of it. I was finally able to get my first animals in the U.S. from Indonesia in 2010. It was not easy figuring out diet, males from females, cycling, breeding, etc. I finally bred them with minimal results twice in 2017. This species became extremely popular the more I shared and publicized them but they were not easily sourced. As they became quite the commodity, I started to be annoyed by the internet, the resellers and the egos which robbed the animals of their mystique. I managed to get a baby from Malaysia in 2017 and started to notice that the animals were a bit different in appearance so I switched my focus to Malaysia locality carinata only. I have learned a lot about feeding habits and preferences. Each one seems partial to a different type of prey item but the one common denominator is that the faster the prey goes, the more keyed up the snakes become and are much more apt to chase down and swallow without question. Frogs are also a food item that none seem to be able to resist. We currently have a nice group of Malaysians but the photos below mostly represent the Indonesian locality.
