Biography
As many keepers eventually find out it never just stops at one and thanks to a very understanding landlord my collection grew and my thoughts turned to breeding my own. With my PhD focusing on Genetics, I naturally became interested in the many different colours and pattern mutations that exist within Royal Pythons and I started setting out plans to breed my own novel combinations. Somewhere along the way my focus on Royal Pythons got a little side tracked and I ended up adding a Central American Dwarf Boa to the expanding snake collection. I still focused on colour and pattern mutations within Dwarf Boas and finding a mate for her took me on a global search, which ended in organising my first international shipment and courier a very special male from Tom Burke in the USA.
SELECT
I first began keeping snakes in 2009, while studying for a Postgraduate degree in Genetics, Epigenetics and Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh. The collection began with a little male Mojave Royal Python from John Berry. After many sleepless nights tweaking the vivaium heating I eventually found a setup that would work in a very cold house in Edinburgh with the snow backed up against the back doors and windows! From this small beginning my passion for snakes developed.
Ophidian
2012 heralded the completion of my PhD and start of a new job at the University of Exeter, which saw me returning to my native county of Devon along with my growing collection of snakes and equipment. After a logistical nightmare of boxing animals on heatpads, loading vivariums and a 450 mile, 10 hour drive we all arrived safe and well at the other end of the country. Only a few weeks after arriving I started the exciting task of pairing up animals for the start of my first breeding season. Thanks again to another understanding landlord, I was able to add some hatchling racking to my equipment. This was filled shortly after in the spring of 2013 with my first 2 clutches of hatchling Royal Pythons and a litter of Dwarf Boas.
I always had a passion for animals as a child. This grew into a love of reptiles in particular and lead to us acquiring 4, hatchling, Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoises in 1998 / 99. These have now grown into 3kg monsters, who happily live out their days in a large, wild food planted, outside enclosure with attached heated greenhouse.
Twelve months later and we’ve moved again, this time to my own house with a dedicated reptile room. More snakes have been added to the collection from the purchase of new animals with additional colour and pattern mutations and from breeding my own new combinations. With this latest move and an ever expanding collection comes the addition of a completely new vivaruim and racking setup for 2016. A mixture of custom vivariums and racks provides triple the housing space for the growing hold-back hatchling and the many new exciting, world first combinations due over the next few seasons. The launch of the Ophidum Select website see the culmination of a 7 year journey from a lone pet Royal Python in Edinburgh to a fully fitted reptile room with many breeding projects here in West Country.