Esoterica Reptilia

Esoterica Reptilia I am a reptile breeder in the Pittsburgh area. Hognose, Boa morphs & localities, various colubrids, some pythons, and Australian Water Dragons.

Very gravid Crawl Cay Boa. I named her Skully due to her saddles fading down her tail into skull shapes. These are such ...
04/07/2025

Very gravid Crawl Cay Boa. I named her Skully due to her saddles fading down her tail into skull shapes. These are such cool dwarf boas with an interesting background evolutionarily. They have a nice iridescence to them and an almost anerythristic look. In person they look mostly black and grey but with pink in their faces and sides. I acquired her as a 1.2 group from Vin Russo 4-5 years ago.

For not being a huge female, this Strawberry Red Factor Snow Corn snake seems to lay nice big clutches. With how overpop...
04/07/2025

For not being a huge female, this Strawberry Red Factor Snow Corn snake seems to lay nice big clutches. With how overpopulated the Corn snake corner of the market is I don’t really want to add to it. I’m using this girl with my Heliconia male to make Super Red Factor Heliconias and Super Red Factor Heliconia Snows and raising those up to breed. I was blown away by the Heliconia corn snake morph combo when I first saw it 4-5 years ago, so my focus is on just improving the Heliconia corn snake over many generations of selective breeding. Just an easy mode side project for me while working with all of the other species I have.

A few holdback boas I just posted to MorphMarket. I’ll be keeping them if they are still here in a month or so. Just rai...
04/06/2025

A few holdback boas I just posted to MorphMarket. I’ll be keeping them if they are still here in a month or so. Just raising some extra funds to pay a hefty income tax bill.

Here’s something cool that popped out of a Lemon Ghost outcross last year. As usual the photos didn’t capture it well, b...
04/03/2025

Here’s something cool that popped out of a Lemon Ghost outcross last year. As usual the photos didn’t capture it well, but his brown spots are green tinted, his background coloration along the spine is very light, and his face and sides have a slightly orange tint to them. In person he looks pretty wacky, in photos he just looks like a clean normal.

It’s hard to beat a Super Arctic. The pink tail and pink head (color not captured great in photos) against the white bac...
04/01/2025

It’s hard to beat a Super Arctic. The pink tail and pink head (color not captured great in photos) against the white background scales, black eyes and black markings, just such a drastic difference from wild type despite only being one gene. If I had to pick only one hognose gene to keep it’d be a Super Arctic. I got this female from Yinzotics as a hatchling.

While at the Gettysburg Expo this weekend I saw these Pistachio hognose at the Ancient Reptiles booth and had to pick on...
03/31/2025

While at the Gettysburg Expo this weekend I saw these Pistachio hognose at the Ancient Reptiles booth and had to pick one up. I’ve seen these mentioned before online, but any photos I’ve seen they always just looked like a normal pretty much.

Everyone always says it, but photos really do no justice. In person their background color looks gray rather than tan, and that gray background against the rust colored spots is just so impressive. The rust colored spots also have an almost green tinted fade to them. For a single gene it has a really cool look. I’m honestly not sure what path I’ll take with it as far gene combos go, I haven’t seen much done with them yet. I just had to grab one after seeing them in person.

Go figure, as soon as I go out of town my Hognose ladies start dropping their eggs. Luckily my fiancée was home to colle...
03/29/2025

Go figure, as soon as I go out of town my Hognose ladies start dropping their eggs. Luckily my fiancée was home to collect eggs for me before the moms could eat them. Some cool Super Arctic Evans Hypo Conda and Lemon Ghost stuff in these two clutches.

First Honduran Milk snake eggs for me! I should have produced some 2 years ago and found out the two females I was raisi...
03/27/2025

First Honduran Milk snake eggs for me! I should have produced some 2 years ago and found out the two females I was raising were both males 🙃 So this is now the only female Hondo in my collection. Admittedly I never had a ton of interest in this species, but when I saw the male on my friends table 5-6 years ago he just blew my mind and I had to get into this morph combo. Mom here is an Extreme Hypo Tangerine Vanishing Pattern and dad is an insanely nice Extreme Hypo Tangerine (he was marked VP but I’m not 100% sure on it). There’s a video of Dad somewhere on this page.

Here’s a cool observation. While checking for eggs this season I’ve been using a blacklight flashlight just to hopefully...
03/09/2025

Here’s a cool observation. While checking for eggs this season I’ve been using a blacklight flashlight just to hopefully disturb females less. While doing so I’ve noticed some snakes have cool blacklight reactions. This corn snake is a Salmon Snow with some extra genes added. I noticed years ago that African Black House snakes have fluorescent orange on their sheds under blacklight as well.

A perfect 15 egg clutch from this Stimson’s Python. Her and her bf are the friendliest snakes and every baby they’ve mad...
03/08/2025

A perfect 15 egg clutch from this Stimson’s Python. Her and her bf are the friendliest snakes and every baby they’ve made so far has been the same. I’ve heard from others that Antaresia are nippy, but I have yet to see this.

My Amur Ratsnake laid the biggest colubrid eggs I’ve personally received. 6 fertile, one infertile. These babies are goi...
03/07/2025

My Amur Ratsnake laid the biggest colubrid eggs I’ve personally received. 6 fertile, one infertile. These babies are going to be huge!

This guy is a super cool holdback from one of my ‘24 litters. Super Hypo Jungle Marron Het Blood, poss het Albino. He wa...
03/04/2025

This guy is a super cool holdback from one of my ‘24 litters. Super Hypo Jungle Marron Het Blood, poss het Albino. He was PINK at birth and still remains way more pink than the camera can pick up. Safe to say not many of these in existence. He fits perfectly into a breeding project I’m working on that will take a good 10-15 years to come to fruition. Anyone else with Marron stuff, please share! If all goes well one of Marron combo ladies will be bring some more Marron stuff into existence in a few months.

Update on the ontogenetic color change of this few year old Biak. He started out red, turned yellow, and as the green ha...
02/25/2025

Update on the ontogenetic color change of this few year old Biak. He started out red, turned yellow, and as the green has come in so has a good bit of black. The color change has slowed down so much I wonder if he’ll hold onto the remaining yellow. Time will tell.

Albino Kunashir Island Japanese Rat snake. Personally I greatly prefer the amazing blues and greens in my non-albino Kun...
02/20/2025

Albino Kunashir Island Japanese Rat snake. Personally I greatly prefer the amazing blues and greens in my non-albino Kunashirs, but I love the species so much I had to pick up this Albino female awhile back. She’s not usually sitting still for too long so I took the opportunity to finally get a photo of her.

First clutch of the season for me, and go figure it’s the African Black House snakes. They always seem to be the first a...
01/31/2025

First clutch of the season for me, and go figure it’s the African Black House snakes. They always seem to be the first and last clutch of the breeding season. I wish the other couple dozen species I keep and breed were this consistent 🤣

This girl is insanely blue in person but my camera just does not show it accurately. This is one of a few Kunashir Islan...
01/17/2025

This girl is insanely blue in person but my camera just does not show it accurately. This is one of a few Kunashir Island Rat snakes that are breeding this season. These are definitely in my top favorite pet snakes. They’re beautiful, hardy, inquisitive, fun to handle, easy to feed and breed, and can even be kept in groups year round like garter snakes (though I haven’t done that yet).

Last Pittsburgh Reptile Show & Sale for the year! Come on by and see some cool exotic animals from me and the other vend...
12/01/2024

Last Pittsburgh Reptile Show & Sale for the year! Come on by and see some cool exotic animals from me and the other vendors until 3pm today at the Pittsburgh Mills mall

I haven’t posted much lately, so here’s a pair of Crawl Cays giving me some promising signs. Way too early to tell, but ...
11/19/2024

I haven’t posted much lately, so here’s a pair of Crawl Cays giving me some promising signs. Way too early to tell, but I have my boas and pythons paired up while the colubrids are down for their winter nap.

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I got to check another dream species off my list thanks to my friend Dillon at CBC Exotics, Sanzinia madagascariensis volontany. The Western Sanzinia, aka Mandarin Sanzinia. Such a cool species, and in just a short time now of interacting with her I can tell there is something special about them. Very inquisitive and intelligent species of snake. #sanzinia #sanziniamadagascariensisvolontany #mandarinsanzinia #westernsanzinia #treeboa #madagascartreeboa #babyboa #babysnake #snakebreeder #snakekeeper #boabreeder #snake

These African Black House snakes just hatched the other day. Hopefully my last clutch of the year, the female likes to surprise me with extra clutches. They look cloudy right now since they’re about to shed, but they’ll be super iridescent after that. #Boaedon #boaedonfuliginosus #housesnake #blackhousesnake #africanhousesnake #babysnake #snakes #iridescent #snakebreeder

My last clutch of hoggies for the year hatched recently. It was the second clutch from my Albino Conda x Lavender Het Albino pairing. #hognose #hoggie #babyhognose #albinohognose #hognosebreeder #hognosesnake #westernhognose #heterodon #heterodonnasicus

This boa is nuts. Super Hypo Jungle Marron 50% Het Kahl, Sharp, and VPI. I wish cameras could capture how pink it is. When I first saw the litter of babies for a brief second at a distance I didn’t know what I was looking at it was so pink compared to the others. Dad is an IMG and the 4 other babies ended up IMG, but looks like this one missed the genetic lottery on IMG. #babyboa #boaimperator #boaconstrictor #boa #marronboa #superhypo #boabreeder #boakeeper #snakebreeder #boamorph

This Albino het Coral hognose has been super inquisitive and friendly from day 1. Took food from tongs right away along with most of his siblings. He is spoken for, but some of his Albino Conda het Coral siblings are on my MorphMarket. #hognose #hoggie #westernhognose #heterodon #heterodonnasicus #hognosebreeder #babyhognose #babysnake #colubrid #colubridae #colubridcrazy

I came home to a small but better than expected litter of IMG Marron boas! 5 good babies, one stillborn, and 3 slugs. The Hypo Marron mom was actually sold to me as a male and after 2 years of not breeding my other Hypo Marron, I put a 2nd male in with them to hopefully entice the supposed male Hypo Marron into breeding, and thats when I caught them locked up. Soon after I saw the ovulation and got worried because I fed this mom like a male and she was only 3.5 years old which I’d never breed a female that young. So with her due date coming up I honestly expected all slugs and my main concern was just her pulling through. But thankfully she is doing great and ate right after I cleaned her up, she doesn’t even look like she lost much weight at all which is crazy. Pairing was IMG Hypo Jungle Motley Het Kahl & VPI x Hypo Marron het Sharp so I got some really cool IMG Marron combos along with the crazy looking Super Hypo Jungle Marron which is pink in person. There were 32 possible genetic outcomes from this pairing, half of which had Marron in them, yet all 5 babies have the Marron gene, so that’s great odds! #marronboa #boaimperator #boaconstrictor #babysnakes #boabreeder #boamorph #boasofinstagram #boa

These African Black House snakes are such a pleasure to keep and breed. I decided to only breed one female this year, my Olivaceous Project female from HouseSnakeMorphs. Her 2nd clutch hatched recently and I have 1.2 left from the first clutch. I’ll post them up on my MorphMarket sooner than later, just been slacking on posting ads and enjoying just raising this season’s babies. #boaedonfuliginosus #boaedon #africanhousesnake #blackhousesnake #housesnake #snakebreeder #babysnake #iridescent #iridescentsnake #rainbow

I wish photos could capture the amazing colors on this girl. Extreme Red Toffee Conda het Axanthic. There are orange and red tints along with the tans and grays that just make a really cool looking hognose. I have my eye out for a Toxic Conda boyfriend to breed her to this upcoming spring. #hognose #hognosesnake #heterodon #heterodonnasicus #hognosebreeder #snakebreeder #hognosesnakesofinstagram #hognosemorphs #toffeeconda

I didn’t hit any Amelanistic Scaleless this clutch, but luckily kept one last year that’s growing like crazy. I did hit three Scaleless het Amelanistic and half the clutch is Amelanistic. The sire of this clutch is the friendliest, most inquisitive rat snake I’ve ever had and his holdback son from last year is just like him. #Amelanistic #texasrat #pantherophis #pantherophisobsoletuslindheimeri #ratsnake #babysnake #snakebreeder

I’ve been on the hunt for a pure Ron St. Pierre El Salvadoran Blood boa male ever since I picked up a female a few years ago from a buddy of mine. Finally got lucky and I got this gorgeous male in today from Vin Russo. If you are a locality boa nerd these are super cool being that they are a pure locality and morph, and they happen to be an extremely small boa that is the perfect pet size. The buddy I got my female from has breeding age adults that are maybe 4.5ft. They’re also very iridescent despite not having a ton of black in them, and redder in person, the camera does no justice showing that. Stoked to finally have a male! #boaconstrictor #boaimperator #bloodboa #elsalvadorbloodboa #dwarfboa #boabreeder #boamorph #localityboa #snakebreeder

I’ll have some of these baby African Black House snakes available at the Pittsburgh Reptile Show tomorrow! These iridescent babies always seem to get snatched up quick and I’m not hatching out as many of them this year as I did last year. They make great pets, grow to a very manageable size, and don’f need a large cage, so if you’re looking for your first pet snake these are a very affordable first snake to get. #pittsburghreptileshow #boaedonfulginosis #AfricanBlackHousesnake #housesnake

My Argus monitor gets all of the infertile snake eggs, which I haven’t had much of this year yet.

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