Constrictors Unlimited-About Us

About

Sales or Information: (405)424-8800

I have been keeping reptiles for most of my life. My childhood was spent with cages piled up to the ceiling in my room filled with many of the different herps that I had collected from the fields around my house. This interest progressed and eventually, in 1980, I obtained my first Burmese python. Then I was really hooked! As my collection grew, I began to need more space, so I built a building by my house. As I started breeding and selling the animals, I decided that this could be a business. I could actually do what I love and make a living at it. I invested in a few expensive morphs to get started. I soon outgrew the new building that I thought I would never fill. My dad owned a 9000sf building with 3000sf that was unoccupied. I decided to move in the larger building. I quickly added more cages and racks and now have filled the new space, but it is comfortable for me and the animals. I decided to have a diverse collection consisting of Ball Pythons, Boas, Reticulated Pythons and Burmese Pythons. I love them all, but I really like the big snakes.

My reptile business has become very successful. I am still reinvesting most of the profit in new breeding stock, cages and FOOD. I believe that the main reason for my success is treating my customers right. I spend many hours on the phone or answering e-mails from customers and future customers and I am always happy to help if I can. I believe that the most important part of this business is good customer service. That's part of the deal when you buy a snake from me, I will help you in any way I can, from breeding advice to basic or advanced husbandry. I have some experience and chances are that if you are having a problem, I have dealt with it too at some time and can help you with it.

Your Own Reptile Breeding Business

If you love keeping and breeding these snakes, you can start your own reptile business. It can be as big or small as you desire. Most of all you must start with a love for the animals and your first priority must be them or it will not work for you. If you already love keeping reptiles, then you can start earning, at the very least some extra money every year.

Some considerations and advice when investing in reptiles.

1. Think when you are choosing what you want to breed. Choose animals that you like to work with and focus on them. It is better to have 2 pairs of Burmese Pythons or 2 pairs of Ball Pythons than it is to have 1 pair of each. Having a larger group increases your chance for success on any particular year. I see many people make the mistake of having 1 pair of several different species instead of focusing.

2. Don't overextend your ability to properly care for the animals. Reptiles must be kept in optimum conditions to reproduce with regularity in captivity. If you have more animals than cages or food, then you will not succeed and the animals will suffer. These creature deserve your best care and it is unfair for them to be given any less. Also, you will have less breeding success if they are not in excellent health.

3. If you decide on inexpensive animals, you will only produce inexpensive animals to sell. If you breed normal ball pythons, remember they only sell for $50-$75 retail. Wholesale is even lower, so don't expect too much return on your investment. It's fun to breed reptiles, but it is wonderful when it also comes with some money to help pay for food, maybe some new cages, new projects or even a new car or house. If you want to make some real money at this, you have to invest some real money. I have a friend that had always kept snakes and wanted to try breeding Ball Pythons for some extra money. I recommended that he get a Pastel male and then pick up some breeder size females from the local paper and reptile shows. Since Pastel is a co-dominate gene, he can produce the first year by just breeding him to normals. He took his tax refund ($2000) purchased a Pastel and bred him to two normal females the next year. He produced 4 Pastels and sold 2 of them for $3000 and made some trades with the other 2 to get some new animals. Now he can have some money every year and get more animals for the future. So you see, it is possible to get in this game for a relatively small investment that will pay year after year. Even a pair of $200 Burmese Pythons can return $10,000 per year. (50 babies X $200ea = $10,000).

4. Get quality breeding stock from someone that you can trust. If it costs a little extra to buy from someone that is established and you trust, it is better to spend the extra money here. Prettier babies sell easier and sell for more. It only makes sense, if your snake is prettier, people will want it more than an ugly individual of the same type. This is a variation on the number 3. Let's say you decide to invest in a Pastel. Play it cheap and buy an ugly one, then you produce ugly babies that are hard to sell. Pay a little more and get a beautiful Pastel, you make pretty babies that are easy to sell for top dollar. Remember, there is a reason that guy is selling the snake $200 cheaper than everyone else. You don't want to be in his shoes two years from now, having to dump your babies because you didn't get good stock in the first place.

5. Patience is your most valuable asset when embarking on the reptile breeding business. I have seen too many people crash and burn, lose their money and go out of business because they lacked adequate patience. It may seem that it would be nice to shave a couple of years off and simply buy adults instead of babies. You have to ask yourself why someone would be selling an adult animal if it is breeding and doing what it is supposed to do? Many times there are adult animals offered for sale because they will not breed or are not in good health. You will greatly increase your chances for success if you buy babies and raise them yourself. It can take many years to establish a reliable breeding colony of a particular morph. Time spent here will pay dividends far in the future.

Like I said at the beginning of this. Your business can be a small or as large as you decide. I will help you get started and will always be here to answer your questions and support your efforts. In most cases, I will buy your babies, if you do not want to sell them yourself.

Breeding Facility

My breeding facility is a 3000sf building. It has been designed to ensure that the animals are kept in the optimum environment and are well protected. We installed a state of the art alarm system including "smart" infrared motion detectors that are not tripped by small animals and Hi-Lo temperature alerts that are monitored 24hrs per day. We will be notified immediately if there are any dangerous fluctuation in temperatures.

Here are a few pics of the facility.

When you "Mouse Over" the thumbnails, descriptions will pop up.