About Us
KHP reptiles began its existence in 2010. It was a simple beginning, much how most people start out. At that time I never dreamed it would become such a huge part of my life. It was my son Kaden (the K in KHP) that was the snake lover. He dragged me to several reptile shows in the local area and begged for a snake of his own. I had never owned a reptile in my life at that stage. Eventually he broke me after I saw an adult Albino Darwin carpet python at the local Penrith expo. I read several books and read a heap of information on forums and eventually found a local breeder with a good reputation and purchased a pair of Darwin’s carpets, one albino and one het.
I had always planned to breed them at some stage. A couple of years later and after buying another albino Darwin I had my first two clutches. That was a very steep learning curve and looking back I made many mistakes but still managed to get good results from both clutches. We are fortunate that carpet pythons are very hardy snakes and although there are many ways to do things right and get near perfect results, there are always many ways to do it wrong and still get some mixed results.
Learning from these mistakes and trying to improve results every year is what drives me. Producing better clutches, stronger hatchlings and great feeding snakes is a very rewarding experience. Soon after these first clutches came more snakes and my love of the morph world began. Suddenly the next season saw Sunglow jags, albino jags, caramel jags and a range of siblings. Many of those produced back then now play key roles as adults in my breeding plans.
I have always been an animal lover and previously bred Alaskan Malamutes and enjoyed the process of helping raise the babies. Much like the dogs I never believed there was money to be made from breeding, the best I ever achieved with pups was to regain some of the expenses of keeping the animals in exceptionally good conditions. I have found snakes to be much the same, many expenses and outlay over many years and some income to offset these costs.
I have always wanted to enjoy the breeding process and achieve personal goals, the day it becomes a business I feel will be the beginning of the end. I always try to keep my regular work and reptile hobby as two separate worlds. I have always kept my animals in the best conditions possible. Even my rodents have their own air conditioned room to ensure the heat does not affect them. Both my reptile rooms have temperature controls and light controls to help simulate seasonal changes.
I have invested in high quality equipment to ensure my animals are kept in very good conditions while making it efficient for me to clean and care for them. I don’t claim that I do anything better than other breeders, I just do it the best I can and continually try to improve results based on the way I did things last year. I often talk to other breeders and share ideas on how we do things in the hope we both can learn and improve. I was very lucky to make friends with several great breeders that taught me many tricks of the trade over the years and I’m always happy to share with others.
I’m currently working on a range of projects, much like most breeders. Everybody loves a line that could be something new or special but it takes years and many generations to prove out these new morphs. Most of my projects are Morelia (carpet pythons) based but in the past years I have also branched out into some Antaresia and Aspidities lines. Some highlights for me have been - Sunglow jags, caramel jags (2015), Super zebras and super zebra jags plus albino zebras (2016) and Albino zebra jag, bredli/Darwin albinos, Ghost jags, Granites, Granite jags and Albino granites (2017), Granite spotted pythons, Moonglow carpet (2018). Other projects I’m working on include possible Stonewash bredli (or some other new morph) and possible genetic striped Bredli.