About
I'm a private reptile breeder/hobbyist and I live in the Kansas City, Missouri
metro area. I was born here in 1977 and have lived here all my life. Although I
have to say, Kansas City isn't exactly my style...if it weren't for my friends
and family, I'd probably move away in a heartbeat (not kidding).
I'm primarily known for
carpet pythons and
crested geckos, but they aren't the only species I keep. I have a
number of others as well...mostly other pythons and geckos. You'll see all
kinds of stuff pictured throughout my website, which I own or have owned in the
past.
How I got started with reptiles...
Like many reptile keepers, there
really wasn't a definitive starting point. I've been fascinated with
animals of all kinds, not just reptiles, my entire life. If you could keep
large cats without the risk of being eaten, I'd probably have a breeding colony
of those too. :)
Anyway, I've had
reptiles off and on from the time I was a little kid. I started by
catching toads and ringneck snakes out in the back yard as a little kid and now
that I don't have anyone telling me "no more reptiles", I have a fairly sizeable
collection.
I kept lizards, newts
and different species of toads and frogs as a kid, but snakes were always the
most fascinating to me...and of course, the toughest sell with my mom. My
dad had actually owned a python in the past and my mom didn't mind the
snakes...the problem was that she felt sorry for the feeder rodents. I
finally got the OK to get a corn snake when I was about 13...the guy at the pet
store said they ate crickets and even though I knew better, I took full
advantage. :) I came home with the corn snake and a dozen crickets.
The crickets didn't get eaten, so we quickly got past the rodent thing...mom
just didn't want to see them. Once I got past that, it was time to go for the
"real deal" (pythons and boas). I got a ball python shortly after the corn
snake and then a common boa. I really liked the idea of a huge snake, so I
got a Burmese python when I was in high school. After that, it didn't take long
to figure out that big snakes aren't for me. I kept the Burmese python for quite
some time, simply because I couldn't find anyone who wanted a giant
rabbit-eating snake. This was the mid 90's and there was no such thing as
a website to sell snakes on. The next snakes I got were a pair of spotted
pythons...talk about one extreme to the other! What I really wanted
were carpet pythons, but the nice ones were a little out of my price range back
then.
When I was about 19
years old, I got rid of my snakes because I was working full-time and taking
some college courses, so I didn't have the time or money to take care of
them. Getting rid of my snakes wasn't any fun and I promised myself right then
that I would not only get back into reptiles, but that I would also make an
attempt at breeding them...something that has always fascinated me. In
fact, I even said that Carpet Pythons would be the first thing I'd get and a few
years later they were. When I was 22 years old I landed a job at
Gateway (computers), moved out on my own shortly after that and didn't waste any
time getting back into reptiles. In fact, I started with some baby Irian
Jaya Carpet Pythons, which I still have and are now productive breeders for me.
My
'Mission Statement'
I don't know if this is what you'd call
a mission statement, but this is basically what I'm about when it comes to my
collection.
I'm creative and
artistic by nature and we've already established how much I like animals, so
selective breeding is absolutely fascinating to me. Selective breeding for
pattern and/or color is basically combining the two things I'm most passionate
about, art and reptiles. I've always made it a point to select the most
attractive animals that I could find. In some cases, I've waited a couple
years for the right animals to come along before adding a particular species to
my collection. In other cases, I've purchased dozens of babies to raise up, in
order to keep the most attractive ones as breeding stock. My goal with any
project has no end, because I want to produce the absolute best looking
specimens available anywhere and then improve on that with every generation.
Granted, my fascination
with these animals goes much deeper than what I can make them look like (I find
common toads fascinating, seriously) but the selective breeding is what has
pushed me over the top in terms of numbers. In other words, I wouldn't
need a few hundred crested geckos if I just wanted to observe their behavior.
I need those numbers because there are so many different looks I'm trying to
refine.
My Brother
I've done my best to expose my little
brother, Cody, to reptiles. He is now 15 years old (I really need to
update that picture of him!). He owns several snakes of his own and we
also try to go out into the field every once in a while to see what we can find.
In the summers and sometimes on the weekends, he comes over and works with me.
Reptiles as a Business
Business wise, it's a simple idea that's
fairly complicated to execute. I essentially conduct my projects as a
hobbyist, just like I always have. This means keeping only what I like,
always keeping selective breeding in mind and sometimes holding back way too
many animals! On the other hand, I try to operate like a business when it
comes to the way we do things at the facility. This means finding the most
efficient possible way to keep our animals 100% healthy and keeping overhead
costs as low as possible. Never sacrificing quality or health can be more
costly than a business model with a certain number of animal losses expected,
but I think it's the only ethical way to run a business where living animals are
being bought and sold.
This has been a lifelong passion
for me and career aside, reptiles are always going to be my hobby. I was
just fortunate enough to have been in the computer/website design business for
five years, which gave me the necessary skills to set up a website and sell the
babies I produced online. After a few years, demand for my geckos and
pythons became so great that I began to see an opportunity to breed reptiles
full time. Although I was advancing quickly in the technical field, anyone who
really knows me would tell you that a career in computers wasn't right for me.
That being said, I now work harder than I ever have before, even compared to
when I bred reptiles part-time and worked full-time...but the way I see it, if I
work 60 hours a week, that's still better than working a 40 hour job and only
getting to spend 20 hours with my animals. Of course, running a business
can be stressful, but at the end of the day, I'm a much happier person because
I'm immersed in something that I'm passionate about every day. Sometimes I
feel like I'm retired at the age of 30 and other times I feel like I'm a working
80 year old. :)
In the spring of 2007, my
long-time friend Gary Quirk (formerly Bawaa Herps) partnered up with me on our
leopard gecko project and we have also started a separate crested gecko colony
as well as some really cool snake projects that you'll hear plenty about in the
near future.
Thanks for visiting and
I hope you find my website informative and if not, at least a little
entertaining.
MySpace
If you're on MySpace, be sure to
send me a friend request. My profile is located at
MySpace.com/AnthonyCaponetto.