for that. It beats the heck out of raising cattle or hogs! Seriously though I have always held a keen interest in reptiles in general and in snakes specifically. My professional snake handling career began in 1970 when I started work as a Park Naturalist for a county park system in New Jersey. Our mission then was to create an environmental awareness and promote the need to preserve open space. We had the freedom to develop any type of program or activity that helped bring attention to the fact that our natural environment in New Jersey was disappearing at an alarming rate.
My thoughts were to use live animals as attention getters and weave a story that demonstrated
that their needs and our needs, although not apparent on the surface, were the same. No animal attracted more attention than the six foot pine snake that I first used as a prop. After a short time
it became apparent that we needed a “live snake show”. This was quickly developed along with a collection of indigenous snakes that included enough specimens of each species to allow them to rest between programs. This got to be a full time job and I soon became known as the Monmouth County Snake Man! Although many were trained to present live snake programs and a few were trained to care for the snakes, I remained responsible for the collection for many years.
As the years went by my responsibilities at work became more administrative than creative. But retirement would soon save the day. After 31 years with the park system I was ready. Upon retirement, the need to find greener pastures became apparent. What better place could there be for a retired Naturalist than Arkansas the Natural State? After settling in my son said “Dad you’re going to need something to do down here. Why don’t we raise Boas? They are easier to keep than the snakes you used to work with and we could sell them.” Sounded good to me so in 2002 we bought several young adult boas including Snows, Anerys, Albinos, and Surinam Red Tails. Later we added some Ball Pythons. These are now producing young for us.
Look through our available pages and you will see some beautiful animals. We pride ourselves in producing and selling only the healthiest and best adjusted young snakes available. We are not a warehouse operation. Our collection, though growing, is relatively small. Each newborn receives the attention it needs and is handled several times a week as it is progressing. All of the snakes we offer for sale are healthy, good eaters, and calm when being handled. Take a look and you’ll like what you see.