About
My good friend Steve Smith (left) and Me (right) at NRBE 2007
I'd love to start out with the atypical story about how I love reptiles and snakes and have had them as pets my entire life.....but that just wouldn't be true. Truth of the matter is that I did randomly pick up frogs and turtles while wandering around Iowa, going to camps, and going fishing at rural farm ponds. But I didn't like snakes at all.
I don't look back on those days very fondly, and I am even mildly ashamed about it now. I was one of the kids that when they saw a harmless garter snake slithering through the grass, I was scared. Sometimes I even went so far as to hit it with a stick or rock and on a couple occasions unfortunately killed them. It's surprising to friends that knew me before how far from that person I am today.
My journey into the world of ball python obsession started in 2003. A good college friend of mine, Steve Smith, had gotten a kenyan sand boa as a starter snake and was wanting to upgrade to ball pythons. He had made several trips to the local petstore alone but decided to bring me in with him the next time he went in. As I found out when I got there Steve was in the market for 2 snakes and the pet store was willing to give a price break if 3 were purchased. Steve wanted me to buy the 3rd.
When they got the snakes out and I held my first Ball Python I remember having my hands cupped and shaking slightly, wondering when the hatchling was going to "attack me". After roughly a minute or so I decided it wasn't so bad and gave in to Steve and purchased my first Ball Python.
I still have the video I took of my first feeding, shaking horribly, holding the f/t rat pup in hemostats, and then of course jumping when the snake finally decided to strike. Funny stuff to me now. After a few weeks of caring for that first ball python (which I still have today), it was all downhill from there.
Within a month I had discovered Ball Python morphs and became obsessed. I knew I had to have one. While purusing various sites I came across The Snake Keeper and my jaw dropped when I saw how awesome axanthics looked. I had to have one. A few emails and a few thousand dollars later I had my first Ball Python morph.....everyone thought I was nuts.
While talking with friends about my new hobby I discovered that a coworker, Barry Breffle, had owned and bred a pair of burmese several years back. He was very interested in Ball Pythons after hearing about my experience and seeing pics of various morphs. It wasn't long before Barry, Steve, another coworker Brent Gasper, and myself started to draw up plans to form a partnership and breed Ball Pythons as a group. Everyone jumped on board and starting January 2004, M.W. Reptiles was formed.
For the next 4 years I learned as much as I could about Ball Python husbandry and breeding. Reading every internet post, every caresheet, every book, anything I could get my hands on. Even going so far as to email or call breeders for their insight. All the while expanding my collection each year, successfully breeding, and getting the resources I needed to be a successful keeper. As the years went by I spent more and more time devoted to my obsession.
Not only are caring for, breeding, and producing the snakes part of my obsession, but also education about them is important to me as well. I don't want people or children growing up with the same fears that I had about snakes and want people to first hand find out how docile and wonderful snakes can be. With the help of Steve who is also employed as an educator in our area, I have been doing presentations at the local schools. I of course bring in snakes for the kids to see, touch and hold, but also give information about caring for them as pets, their docile nature, and even some background about genetics and genetic morphs. Education about this hobby is something I also strive to make an important part of my obsession so people can hopefully learn to understand and appreciate such an amazingly interesting and fun hobby.
Finally we come to 2008. After expanding my collection and getting experience working with M.W. Reptiles, I decided to form my own business, dedicated to caring for, breeding, and producing Ball Pythons, a species I have come to know and a hobby I have come to love. The culmination of several years of working with these amazing animals is my latest obsession, JD Constriction.
If ever you have any questions about my experiences or my animals feel free to shoot me an email. I love to talk about Ball Pythons and share in my passion for this hobby.
Regards,
John P. Dague
JD Constriction L.L.C.