About Big Squeeze Constrictors

 

 

 

I’m told my fascination with snakes, frogs and other creatures began at my Papa and Grandma’s farm when I was about 2 years old while learning the fine art of baiting a hook. The murky shoreline and tall reeds that laid in thick pockets along the banks of their ponds were the ideal hunting ground for a junior explorer.  When my attention span grew short and the fish weren’t biting, my brother and I would spend hours combing the shore hunting for frogs and anything else that hopped, wiggled, or slithered.

In middle school my fascination continued, and after taking an animal science class I was hooked. I just didn’t know how hooked yet.  It was around that same time I got my first snake, Jack, a beautiful corn snake, who was followed by a couple of leopard geckos, and whatever else my parents would let me bring in from our yard.

In 2007, leaving home to begin my freshman year at Texas A&M, also meant leaving behind Jack and the boys, but it wasn’t long before I got lonely and bought my first ball python and boa to keep me company, and in 2009, my junior year, I bought my first breeding pair of boas.  During this time at A&M my focus of study evolved from majoring in Business, to studies towards a degree in Agricultural Leadership and Development, which allowed me to acquire the business background I was looking for, but also allowed me to shift my focus to include studies in education, and various sciences, including genetics.  It was this knowledge of genetics and my fascination with potential genetic outcomes that led me to this first breeding pair of boas.  All of this research came with great success, and on May 6th, 2011 my first litter of boas arrived.  In this litter of 17 healthy babies I was fortunate enough to have produced the world's first Sharp Strain Bloody Sunglow, which I coined “Fire Opal, as well as the 2nd and 3rd Sharp Strain Bloody Albinos in the world.

I’ve been told over the years that I’m a little obsessive about order and detail, but those are a couple of the facets of my personality that have come to be very valuable. When it comes to tracking genetic variables for breeding, careful charting of feeding, breeding and cleaning schedules or recording and logging of dates and data, being a little obsessive has gone a long way to be a very good thing.

I met my wife, Hayley, at the Texas A&M Herpetology Society and a friendship quickly blossomed, and the rest is history. Hayley and I share a great passion for all things animals and our business has grown because of our love for reptiles. Apart from our love of reptiles, we also share our home with many furry and feathery pets as well. It is now 2023 and our business has taken a different direction from where it began. We both enjoy live-bearing snakes, and this fascination has led us to the addition of sand boas to our breeding repertoire. We mainly focus on colubrids at this time; including corn snakes, milk snakes, king snakes, western hognoses, rat snakes, and gopher snakes to our now long list of species that we breed.

I graduated from A&M, in 2011, with a Bachelor's of Science In Agricultural Leadership and Development with a focus in genetics and biology, and spent three great years as a middle school Animal Science teacher, which just so happened to be the exact same class that played a large role in my obsession. I am now fully employed with our reptile business as Hayley continues working in the veterinary field. Hayley is also employed with exotic veterinarians and a member of the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians. This helps in making sure our collection is healthy and that we continue to produce snakes that are viable and not carrying diseases. Our breeding collection has grown in number to include too many animals to count, and we both continue to be intrigued by the potential genetic variation that may be possible with these species and those that are yet to be discovered by us and/or our colleagues in the breeding community.  We take great pride in what we do, and it is very important to us that we go to whatever lengths necessary to make sure all our animals are well taken care of, so they are not only healthy while they are in our care but also when they reach their final destination, wherever that may be.

We look forward to sharing our passion with you, and we know how important it is to be accessible to our customers even after the sale is done.  We are only an email or call away and willing to help you get the answers and information you need whether you’re a customer or not.  As our knowledge and experience continues to grow, we are always happy to share what we have learned, and when challenged by tough questions we are more than willing to rise to the occasion and hunt down the answers for both of us.  We want our animals to be well taken care of while they are here and when they arrive to you, so if we can help you give our animals the care they deserve, it’s a WIN, WIN for all!