About

What, or Who, is NWReptiles.com? (Northwest Reptiles)

My name is Tom (or sometimes Thomas,) and I am a ball python breeder, originally from thPhoto of Thomas, founder and primary operator of Northwest Reptiles.e Portland area, but now in Elkton, Oregon.  I must say I am not any sort of pioneer to this field/hobby. I have been breeding since 2008.  I can also tell you in the short time I have been raising and breeding ball pythons I have learned a LOT of information, which I hope to share via this blog site.

As of this update, we’re in the middle of my ninth hatching season, Fall of 2019. In 11 years we’ve had many clutches, and currently the incubator is empty, the hatchling racks full, and we am planning the fall breeding season. I also hope to have many years ahead of us.

There is still much more to learn, and we hope to share what we continue to learn, with you as we go.

I am 54 years old, and my background is in computers, computer networking, web hosting, and programming.  I do not have a flair for the written word, or computer graphics. I wish I had more time to dedicate to this site, but one has to earn a living.

I have always loved animals, and have taught the same love and respect for animals to my children, and am now doing so with my grandchildren as well.  I’ve had many animals through my life, including dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, turtles, lots of fish, and now snakes.

Early photo of our facility in Vancouver Washington

Photo from 2009

I seem to have fewer house guests (especially family,) than I did before my first snake….  But at the same time couple of my own kids, who are grown, have snakes now too.

Snakes habitats are cleaned and disinfected a minimum of once a week, and more if needed.  This helps with the smell, and makes for healthier, happier, animals.

Ball pythons are a gentile animal, that are very timid.  They will never strike in anger, and are very non-confrontational (like me.)  They are also non-venomous.

I’ve been bit a few times but it was always either a very young snake, a feeding mistake (I was mistaken for a rat,) or I moved too quickly and startled the snake.  If I had this many dogs, I would get bit sometimes too.

Ball pythons have very sharp, small teeth that help them grab food, before they coil around it, trying to suffocate the pray before they eat it.

This season I bred 8 females, and all 8 gave clutches. The last few years we’d downsized quite a bit due to personal and geographical changes, meaning we have a lot fewer animals to breed.  I have in the last few months added several powerhouse morphs to the collection, and am currently finishing up a new building to house them, and some feeders again.

We breed for colors and patterns. A morph is a throwback or abnormality to the standard genetic pool.  By working with oddball ball pythons, breeders have discovered that many of these abnormalities are genetic, and can be passed on through selective breeding.  Where it gets real fun, is the combination of genetic traits to make designer morphs.

Every female we bred, normal (we only have one normal anymore) or morph, was bred to a morph male.  We are hoping to expand our collection of morph males and females so we can experiment in new combinations.  We have some plans for a few designer combinations that have never been tried before, that we know of.

We have been selecting some very fine animals, and have been arranging a couple of joint projects with others, so our projects will certainly produce some outstanding morphs in the years to come.

With this site, we will be showing some of our breeding projects, and breeder animals.  We will create a library of various morphs and morph combinations, and we plan to share how we care for our animals in case you too have one or more ball pythons sharing your life.  We can also showcase animals that we have for sale/adoption.

We ship anywhere in the continental US, and can arrange for pickup if you are local to us in Elkton. We also sometimes travel to Roseburg, Eugene or to Portland, and might be able to arrange delivery to those areas if you are willing to wait.

Join us on our journey, feel free to make comments about existing posts, or contact us if you are interested in becoming a contributor to the site with your own articles.

About was last modified: October 16th, 2023 by Tom

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