History: The history of reptile breeding is a bit of a mystery because it is a very new industry. It started only as catching snakes from your backyard and keeping them as pets. Though around 1960(ish) someone (again... this is too new of a subject and we don't know the first person to start it) had got the idea to hold many snakes at one time in captivity and use the knowledge of animal husbandry and started breeding amphibians/reptiles. This is... once again is a very very broad statement. Fun fact: buying snakes at the beginning of this was very very cheap. For example you could have bought a sand boa for $1.50. Today you can buy a normal/natural morph (morph: the combination of pattern and color) sand boa for $40.00. If you want an albino morph it will cost $150.00. The change is massive.

This shows what the timberline insects do for
the health of these animals.
The one on the right is fed chain food (petco for example).
The one on the left is fed with timberline insects.

Present: Transitioning from that... these last few years (10 years ago to present) is basically going to be known from people 100 years from now as the "actual" history because this industry has been rising so quick in such huge numbers. There are huge companies out there that are breeding reptiles and amphibians. Such as BHB Reptiles, Timberline (they aren't reptile breeders but they breed genetically healthy engineered insects for reptile food... so they become a great part of the cycle), Reptile Industries, Underground Reptiles, ect. Not only are there big industries mass breeding there are many hobbyists who breed inside their homes. Sometimes they're big enough to make their own little business. Some people just breed for fun without doing it for money. The amount of new colors and patterns combined are amazing to think that they have never been or will be born naturally in the outdoors. Instead there is prime examples of beauty coming out of nature artificially. Through all this process there are a ton of people out there who are educating people about reptiles. They are teaching them that not every snake is evil, slimy, or gross. Even the vicious poisoness are sweet, but people need to understand how to respect them otherwise they will be bitten.

Future: Its hard to say what the future holds. There could be thousands of new morphs to be purchased. Maybe the really cool morphs today could be super cheap compared to the thousands of dollars they cost now. Every household could hold a snake, lizard, gecko, ect. Though there could be a bad side though. Like I mentioned in the last couple of sentences in the "present" paragraph I say that people are being educated to love all the reptiles. That might not be the case because today and knowingly in the future the government is putting/will put bans on snakes coming across different borders. So maybe in the future there will be more restrictions on the bigger snakes for example. More so than there are today. Hopefully not but that could still be the case only because certain people are afraid and don't know how to handle them. Lets hope those educators in the future will put a footprint in peoples minds so that restrictions are less likely to happen.

Work Cited:
1. http://www.applegatereptiles.com/articles/history.htm
2. http://bhb-reptiles.myshopify.com/collections/boas/sand-boas
3. http://snakebytes.tumblr.com/post/16010829987/r-i-p-big-snakes