CONTACT

Mission Statement

Naturally exciting. Exciting exotics beyond aesthetics.

Our mission is to get people excited about animals beyond their looks to preserve their appreciation for future generations to explore. We aim to unite keepers, breeders, and institutions through the love of animals and inspire people to pursue careers in education, science, and zoology.
contact us

About William

Hi, I’m William

As a young kid, I’ve always had a fascination with animals, from being taken to zoos and watching them on television (animal planet & National Geographic). It wasn’t till 1998 I was watching television and saw Steve Irwin catching a Perentie monitor in the arid desert of the outbacks of Australia, and that’s what really got me interested in animals.

Fast forward 10 years later in 2008, Animal planet really started going downhill on their animal content, so I really started turning to outlets like YouTube for content. I came across this YouTuber snakebytes with Brian Barczyk. That really introduced me to the reptile industry, and had me really enthralled with it. From there on out and I’ve been striving to obtain as much knowledge as I possibly can, by attending local Reptile Shows and even vending reptiles shows, books, and video’s whatever informative thing I could get my hands on. Where I would then meet another individual that really influenced and impacted my life in a great/tragic way.

Knowledge can sometimes mean nothing without some kind of personal experience, so in 2013 I was able to connect with a guy local to me (through Reptile Shows), he did this for a living on a big scale with a great reputation, named Ben Renick. It was a dream come true, to be able to work with someone, with such a reputation and experience in this hobby, and what he was able to do at such a young age. I would work with him every Friday afternoon. I would also take days off from my regular job to go out there to work, as just part-time and worked for snakes. I started out with cleaning the babies and cleaning out baby tubs, then his other employee ended up leaving, so I had to take over cleaning the large constrictors like the Retics, anacondas, and a few Burmese python‘s (32 of them altogether). What a change of atmosphere that was, from baby snakes, that I can fit in the palm of my hand, to snakes that were bigger than most people. It was one heck of an experience, but luckily with his guidance. Nothing serious ever happened, and gain an incredible amount of knowledge with handling and dealing with large constrictors. He was also an incredible businessman, which really helps build on my foundation and understanding, and knowledge of operating and running a business. He was a mentor a boss and also a dear friend of mine.

Then tragically in 2017, his life was taken. Really left me in a rut, not knowing what to do next. For seven years prior to 2013, I was breeding reptiles still, but only ever considered it a hobby at the time, mainly, because I was content was working with Ben and his collection. After his passing really thought long and hard about what to do next. Never once considering getting rid of everything, but would I take this further. Keeping it as a hobby level or even just as pets, or possibly taking this further. After thinking about it, when Ben was gone he left a huge hole in the industry, especially locally he impacted a lot of people, and I think even helping younger people get into the hobby especially locally who could meet him in person at Reptile Shows that he would always attend and vend. I kind of looked at it as something that I can contribute to future generations to help and encourage younger people or people, in general, to join in this incredible industry, so really after his passing, there was a huge void. I decide to push my collection further and possibly chase this as a full-time career.

Fast forward to today with all these past experiences really has molded TJW exotics into what it is today, and where I plan on taking it into the future. I’ve collected many different species of python over the years that I also enjoy working with, and I definitely have plans on breeding them just to preserve them for future generations. To show people that there are many ways you can run a collection not just by running with one species and that being all you have, But you can have an eclectic collection, and still operate it, and run it as if you were plan on breeding.

Other things I’m pretty passionate about, really is nature and powerlifting/ strength sports. I love physically pushing my body to the extremes ,of whatever I am capable of doing, and I think that’s what life is all about, setting goals for yourself and trying to reaching and achieve those goals. Sports have always molded me and who I am and how I live my life today.

Shop our Reptiles