Featured Customer #3
John Dague of JD Constriction
John Dague is setting the bar for quality and professionalism with his designer ball python business specializing in the beautiful silver, black, and white axanthic gene.
JD Constriction is a relatively small business, keeping itself nimble and adaptable. John pays close attention to his customers’ needs and provides a level of service second to none. He produces amazing animals working with only the best examples of every morph in his collection. His focus is not just on appearance, but also on the overall health and hardiness of his animals.
“We aren’t just looking to produce animals in volume, we are looking to produce the best animals in every way, shape, and form. We believe a great animal isn’t just amazing to look at, it’s also an avid breeder, an excellent feeder, an amazing producer and, in short, is perfect in every way. Our number one goal is to produce animals that are the best examples out there and are truly investment quality.”
Unlike many that foray into the world of professional snake breeding, John did not start out with a love of slithery animals. He didn’t mind frogs or turtles on his camping and fishing trips, but avoided snakes with determination. He admits to being scared of harmless garter snakes. In 2003, a college friend dragged him to a pet store to look at ball pythons and John held his first snake in shaky hands. Shortly after that, he bought his own, and almost immediately became obsessed with the astonishing plethora of ball python morphs. In 2008, he created JD Constriction—dedicated to caring for and producing quality ball pythons with a focus on his favorite axanthic morphs.
John has been shipping regularly with ShipYourReptiles since 2012 and, to date, has saved over $10,000!
What has your experience with SYR been like over the years?
SYR has been an absolute pleasure to work with. Anytime I have questions about shipping, weather, insurance, hub locations, etc they have been there to help me out. No matter how dumb my question :) Moreover they have openly listened to suggestions on changes to the site or improvements that make my life easier and booking shipments even more of a breeze! The ability to make the SYR page a one stop shop for planning out my shipping and booking shipments is something that really simplifies things for me.
For me SYR's great customer service, great pricing, live arrival insurance, and massive amount of support to the reptile hobby (via The Reptile Report and donations to USARK) make them my number one choice for all my reptile shipping needs.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to ship reptiles for the first time?
The simplest thing for advice I can give is to package your animals as well or better than what a retail purchase might be. For example some of the animals being shipped are equal to or greater than the price of an Xbox or a Playstation. As such they should be packaged at least as well. I can't tell you how many packages I've received where I have been disappointed in how well it was packaged relative to the value of the animal in the box. It really does matter in terms of animal safety and also marketing the quality of your business. The more professional and better the box is packaged the better it looks and the better the animal inside does as well!
Got any unique tips for shipping your snakes?
One of the best practices that I have adopted is solely shipping hub to hub. I both drop off and require pickup at Fed Ex Service Centers. This way the animal spends the least amount of time in transit as possible and also isn't bouncing around in a vehicle or exposed to the elements for long. This gives them the safest trip possible and helps reduce the time it takes to settle into their new homes.
Another good tip is to watch not only temperature but also weather. A thunderstorm or snowstorm anywhere along the shipping route can end up causing a delay so avoiding nasty weather is a must to keep your packages consistently on time.
To learn more about John and JD Constriction, check him out on the following sites:
Web: http://www.jdconstriction.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdconstriction
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/jdconstriction
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/jdconstriction
Please don't hesitate to reach out to Customer Service for any questions or concerns you might have regarding your shipments. We're here for you!
Monday - Friday, 7am - 6pm MST
303-730-2125
info@ShipYourReptiles.com
info@ShipYourAquatics.com
New to the Newsletter? Want to catch up on past topics or share one with a friend?
Check out our Newsletter Archives!
Click here to SUBSCRIBE and be the first to read each week's Newsletter!
