Contact Information:
Justin Julander - owner
Cell: (435) 760-4739
e-mail: justin.julander@usu.edu
Ben Morrill - owner
Cell: (435) 770-5997
e-mail: dendroaspis03@gmail.com
Steve Sharp - owner, AAR south
Cell: (480) 415-9416
e-mail: aarsouth@gmail.com
Location: Australian Addiction Reptiles is located
in Smithfield and Logan, UT at two separate facilities and in Mesa, AZ.
History:
Australian Addiction Reptiles was founded in 1997
when I bought a gravid female bearded dragon from the local herp
shop. I had always kept various herps as a kid and had a lot of
experience with keeping reptiles, but had never really considered
breeding them. I discovered Vivarium magazine and the first issue
I got was the cutting edge of herpetoculture issue and saw some of the
breeding projects people were involved with and was imediately
hooked. I was always excited about Australian herps and
was always dreaming about the day I could get a frilled lizard or a
perentie. In that first Vivarium magazine, I discovered the dwarf
monitors and began scheming how I could start on a project with
them. In the meantime I
got more bearded dragons and had a nice little hobby that made a little
money
to fund the addiction. I borrowed some money and sprung for a
trio
of red spiny-tailed monitors. Later that year, I got some jungle
carpet
pythons, a few colubrids, and some veiled chameleons and began to
envision
all the babies I would produce.
For the most part my projects went well, partly due
to help from Python Pete Kuhn and Frank Retes who got me really excited
about Australian monitors and pythons. I visited them and called
them to squeeze
all of the information out of them I could. After one clutch of
(failed)
ackie eggs I was on the right track, but soon after moved up north to
start
grad school and soon discovered my schedule wasn't really compatible
with
breeding monitors, and failed to produce any more eggs from the ackies
and
ended up selling them off after my female died. The pythons,
however,
did well and were more condusive to a graduate student schedule.
A
pair of childrens pythons was soon added and it wasn't long until all
my
pythons started producing babies. My facility overheated in 2001,
killing
my beautiful breeder jungle carpets, but luckily I had some babies that
were too ugly and didn't sell, but had the ugly duckling syndrome and
became
screamers. I met a local guy, Jim, and he sold me some smooth
knob-tailed
geckos, which got me in contact with Casey Lazik as I was searching for
information
on the little guys. A visit to Casey Lazik's place introduced me
to
ball python morphs first hand, and then I caught the piebald bug from
that
visit as well as a resolve to add a group of bredli to my
projects. Centralians arrived in late 2002 and have captivated me
ever since.
In 2002 I met Benson Morrill, and our common
interest in reptiles led us to combine forces as partners in the
reptile breeding business.
Ben had bred ball pythons and boas and was very interested in getting
into
some of the new ball morph projects as well as some carpet python
projects.
Ben and I got a pair of het piebald ball pythons in the summer of 2003,
and
were thrilled to have the male breed with three females which laid eggs
that
summer. In 2005, our female het pied laid 3 eggs, 2 of which
turned
out to be pieds. That did the trick, and we were very excited
about
ball morphs. Ben and I have continued to accumulate many
different
projects. Things will continue to grow, and it is exciting to
think
about all the projects out there to get into. It also helps that
our
wonderful wives are supportive of our addiction, and even participate
in
some of our reptile discussions. Ben finished a BS degree in
herpetology in 2004, and is currently working on his PhD. I
finished my PhD in Bioveterinary
Science in the spring of 2005. AAR became an LLC in 2007 and we
started
making a little money, as opposed to spending a lot in previous
years.
In 2010, Steve Sharp joined the AAR family. He
specializes in Australian lizards and complements the primarily snake
projects at AAR to add more Australian species. We met in 2008 at
the Anaheim reptile show and we were impressed with his dedication and
excitement for the hobby. In late 2009, in anticipation of
joining our company, he named his LLC Australian Addition Reptiles
South. He is located in Southern Arizona, which is another bonus
as we plan to have business meetings with ample road cruising down in
his neighborhood. Steve brings a great enthusiasm in keeping and
breeding reptiles and will fit in very well. Steve is currently a
college student with hopes of veterinary school. We are happy to
be working with Steve! Feel free to contact Steve for info on
geckos, monitors, and other Australian lizards.
With all the great advancements in herpetoculture
that have or will occur,
we are excited for the future of Australian Addiction Reptiles, and
hope
we can serve you in your addiction as well. Get Addicted!
Interests:
I am crazy about Australian reptiles, especially
pythons, monitors and geckos. We are always looking to add the
folowing species at some point down the road:
- Northern carpet pythons (M. s. variegata)- het albinos, pure
Northerns
- Blackheaded pythons (Aspidites melanocephalus)- Westerns, hypos,
reds, or het albinos
- Green tree pythons (Morelia viridis)- Canary, blue, or high
yellows
- Kimberly rock monitors (Varanus glauerti)
- Pilbara rock monitors (Varanus pilbarensis)
- Sand monitors (Varanus flavirufus)
- Perenties (Varanus giganteus)
- Rough knob-tail geckos (Nephrurus amyae)
- Centralian Blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua multifasciata)
- Western Blue-tongued skink (Tiliqua occipitalis)
- Red Australian frilled lizards (Chlamydosaurus kingii)
- Other rare Australian herps