THE HISTORY BEHIND T and J's:

T and J's began with four simple, desperate words: "My mother hates snakes." About two weeks after uttering that phrase to Tim we had our very first cornsnake, a female snow, that we named Pearl. It was a decision that saved our marriage and sparked an addiction that quickly morphed from a small collection of neat looking cornsnakes into a breeding colony full of a diverse array of snakes and genetics.

After Pearl, when we first started adding snakes to our collection, we picked them up because we'd found some small trait or personality quirk that we fell in love with. Early in 2006, when we seriously began adding to our collection with the intent to breed our snakes, we began selecting snakes based upon the genes that they carried, instead of just looks alone. That's not to say that the look of an animal didn't contribute to our choices, it's just that we spent more time researching each animal's history before purchasing.

Additionally the snakes that we have added to the breeding stock are in excellent condition, healthwise. All of them are eating and growing steadily, something we've come to appreciate after dealing with a small handful of sickly individuals that never thrived.

WHERE WE STAND NOW:

We have successfully survived our second season of breeding, learning that it is wise to always have back-up plans in the event that the original pairs decide they are not interested. We've also dealt with a small dose of some of the harsher sides of breeding; Minor prolapse, egg binding, D.I.E. (Dead In Egg) hatchlings, and double clutches. We're also learning the joys of raising dozens of hatchlings at the same time - great preparation for future clutches.

In the past the majority of our breedings were planned with the need to learn more about the genetics of some of our older snakes as opposed to breeding for a specific morph. This year we will start shifting our focus to producing a few cutting edge morphs, though there will also be a few test breedings to prove out the genetics of some of our snakes. The goal, as always though, is to produce healthy hatchlings with good appetites.

The 2009 season will see out attempts to breed our San Luis Potosi kingsnakes for the first time. We are really looking forward to this pairing as the mountain kings have always fascinated us with their calm dispositions and small stature.

Since we have begun branching out, no longer limiting our interests to just cornsnakes (though they will always be our main focus), we now have a small handful of kingsnakes, a few sand boas, several emoryi, a couple of baird's ratsnakes, one python, and a milksnake in our breeding stock. As time goes by, we plan to add at least a couple more different types of kings, a few more milks, at least another pair of sand boas, and possibly a few ratsnakes as well.

 

T and J's Cornsnakes is owned and operated by Tim and Jennifer Rasch and is currently based out of Southern California, though there are plans in the makings to relocate in the hopefully near future.

The information on this page was last updated on 02/26/08.