About the Author and Editors

I have been keeping reptiles for twenty years. I started the way a lot of keepers do — chasing lizards around as a kid, then tortoises, then geckos, leopard geckos most of all. My parents let me get my first snake when I was twelve, and I never looked back.

In the years since, I have kept just about everything: Macklot's pythons, carpet pythons, reticulated pythons, big lizards, tegus, water monitors, Nile monitors, and plenty in between. Some were forgiving. Many were not. Every one of them taught me something, and a great deal of what is in this book came from those animals.

But this guide is not just my experience. We brought in seasoned keepers, breeders, and faculty to review every section — people who have had their hands on these animals for years and decades. We are all students of their stewardship, their wisdom, and their experience, in addition to our own. When we write these books we draw on all of them: this volume is a compilation of many people's opinions and lived experiences, not one person's word.

That is the whole point. No single keeper has all the answers, and anyone who tells you otherwise is usually selling something. What we can do is gather the best of what we have collectively learned, argue it out honestly, and hand it to you in one place — so that it helps you keep your animals better. That is what we hope this guide does.

Editors and contributing experts

This volume was reviewed by working keepers, breeders, and field professionals — the people whose hands have been on the animals for years and decades. The opinions and disagreements you read in these pages are theirs. Names, biographies, and credentials of the contributing council follow.

Jasmyn Brilliante

Co-owner of BVR Reptile Room in Rocklin, California, and a working keeper and breeder for over fifteen years. Together with Tyler Bevers, Jasmyn has run brick-and-mortar reptile retail for more than a decade — keeping and breeding a wide range of species, from ball pythons to crocodile monitors and nearly everything in between.

Tyler Bevers

Co-owner of BVR Reptile Room and, alongside Jasmyn Brilliante, a seasoned keeper and breeder with over fifteen years of experience and more than ten years behind the counter of a brick-and-mortar shop. Tyler's hands-on work spans the full range the shop is known for, from ball pythons to crocodile monitors and everything in between.

— With gratitude to every keeper, breeder, vet, and field herper who answered a question, lent a photograph, reviewed a draft, or argued with us in a way that made this guide better.