In 2002 Ingrid and Roland got their first geckos. These were Rhacodactylus ciliatus. They were one of the first people in Holland keeping them. At that time there was not much information about them so they had to find out everything by themselves. Everything about caretaking, housing and breeding. This was quite a challenge but they can laugh about it since they know how easily this species can be kept.
In 2003 a good friend of them mentioned they have morph Rhacodactylus ciliatus in America. As always Europe was way behind as they discovered. Luckily that good friend had good contacts in America and Marc Bell brought them the first morph Rhacodactylus ciliatus.
They were one of the first in Holland to have Rhacodactylus ciliatus morphs and they already found out how to hatch Rhacodactylus ciliatus. One and one makes two, Crested Gecko NL was born. Crested Gecko NL got a website and in no time also people outside Holland got interested in their ciliatus. The word spread fast and more and more people in Europe got interested in their geckos.
Crested Gecko NL kept importing more nice morphs and build the collection they have today. Besides that they also started their own projects to make new strong and healthy morphs. No quantities but specialized projects to produce new morphs. An important aspect of this specialty breeding is to continue to produce quality geckos that are genetically healthy.
In 2004 their best friends ( Els and Sander ) got interested in geckos as well, they started working together. Els and Sander started to keep Rhacodactylus sarasinorum. Ingrid and Roland discovered the whole Rhacodactylus species was interesting to keep so they started to expand their collection by buying Rhacodactylus auriculatus ( striped and reticulated in the colors orange, red, black and white ), Rhacodactylus chahoua ( Pine Island and Mainland ) and Rhacodactylus leachianus ( henkeli type E ).
In 2006, the four of them also got interested in Python regius, better known as Ball pythons, and they bought their first ones. From that point on it went very fast. Els and Sander discovered they had more to do with snakes than geckos so all sarasinorum went to Ingrid and Roland. Together they invested a lot in new Ball python morphs for their future plans. In 2007 they bought morphs as Butter, Enchi, Mojave, Pastave, Pastel, Pinstripe and Spider. That is where it all started. Els and Sander hatched the first baby Ball pythons in 2008 and Ballpythons NL was born. From that point on they started to work together more closely and in 2009 they did their first double morphs like Bumble Bee and Pastave and one year later in 2010 they got their first triple morphs like Pewter Bee and Butter Spinner.
There was only one problem. They had one website Crested Gecko NL for the Rhacodactylus species and one website for Python regius, Ballpythons NL. Only problem, if you can call it a problem, they got interested in more and more species. They started to keep Hemitheconyx caudicinctus ( African Fat-Tailed ) geckos and Western Hognose snakes in 2010 as well. To start a website for every species was not a smart thing to do so they came up with the idea to put everything together. Ingrid and Roland started IR-Reptiles ( K.v.K. 52544222 ), Els and Sander started ES-Reptiles ( K.v.K. 52544168 ) and together they are IRES Reptiles.
From now on ( 2011 ) Crested Gecko NL and Ballpythons NL stops to exist. From the creators of Crested Gecko NL and Ballpythons NL now comes IRES Reptiles. We joined forces and put together all of our knowledge. This proved to be a very well base for the future!!!
Everybody does its own share in IRES reptiles, below is a summary what everybody does:
Ingrid:
Roland:
Els:
Sander:
If you have a question about a subject mentioned above, you can email us directly at our own IRES Reptiles accounts. You can find these addresses at the contact page.
