Jeremy Turgeon has been busy on social media over the last few years as Brass Man Reptiles. He recently was brought onto the team at N.E.R.D. but still has is own projects. We sat down with him and got the details.
HM: What was the first species that made you decide to take the hobby to the next level with breeding?
JT: Like so many others, Ball Pythons. I had bred other snake species before and lizards as well, but BPs really pushed it over the edge for me to take things to the next level. I think partly because when I really got into it I would go study from Kevin up at NERD in how to ID genes in different combos. I’m still not perfect at it over a decade later, but that really helped me as I started to grow my collection!
HM: You definitely have diverse tastes in what you breed/ have bred in the past. Do you ever see yourself focusing more on one group or species in the future or will you always need to have different projects going on at once?
JT: I like too many different things to truly zero in on one species! Back in the day, I think I had 25 different species I was working with give or take a few. I’m definitely headed that way again! Haha! I’m working with Burms, Retics, Ball Pythons, Jungle Carpets, Coastal Carpets, Bredli, Blood Pythons, Borneo Short Tail Pythons, Amazon Tree Boas, North Mexican Pines, Rufous Beaked Snakes, Leopard Geckos, and have plans for a few more species of snakes in the near future. I like having a little of this and a little of that.
Growing up my mentors all had diverse collections. Adam Harris, Kevin McCurley and Brian Barczyk all helped me grow in some capacity as a keeper and all have had and still do have diverse collections. What I have been able to do is try to zero in and focus on specific things within each species I want to work with. For example: Caramel Labyrinth Burms, OGS Retics, Ocelot Jungle Carpets, etc.
HM: You recently started working at N.E.R.D. what’s your official title and what do you do on a day to day basis?
JT: I’m incredibly honored to be working at NERD! I came in taking the Facility Manager position. I float throughout the building and oversee everything that’s happening in the facility between animal care, breeding projects, setting up and IDing baby snakes, monitoring the website and social media accounts etc. We have a really solid core of people at NERD – some people here have been with Kev since the very beginning of it all, and I am again so honored Kevin reached out to me to take this position.
HM: You now have what a lot of us in the hobby would consider a dream job. Is it everything you hoped or thought it would be?
JT: Ya know, back in 2011, I had the chance to hang out with Brian Barczyk at BHB for an entire week. That was when he had his bigger place. That week was a pivotal point in my reptile keeping career because up until then, I had dreamed of having a huge facility with tons of animals. I had of course been to NERD many times but only had the chance to be up for a day at a time so never saw the real daily grind. SO, while being at BHB was an amazing experience, it REALLY opened my eyes as to what that all would entail and I realized that wasn’t what I wanted for my personal collection.It didn’t change my desire to work with reptiles at all though – just the scale I was to do it at.This job at NERD is certainly a dream job and I’m grateful for it. I’ve been blessed my entire life to be able to pursue both my life’s passions as careers – music and reptiles. So I’ve been (to quote Jay Brewer) Living the Dream my entire life, and I’m blessed to do so!
HM: How has that compared to working with your own animals at home?
JT: It’s a much different ball game! I have just under 100 animals of my own, and NERD easily has thousands! I’d love to say I have experience with every species Kevin has at the facility, but there are some species I’ve never been able to work with over the years. It’s given me a chance to learn and increase my knowledge, which I truly enjoy. Overall the tasks are the same for me, the scale of it all is what’s different. Time management is key!
HM: What’s your favorite species at the NERD facility to work with so far?
JT: Hmm… that’s tough because I enjoy them all so much. I really enjoy getting to spend time with baby monitors and caiman!
HM: What are your plans for the future of BMR?
JT: At the moment… continuing to grow a little more. There’s a few more species I want to add into my collection, some are common species I’ve had in the past, others aren’t. I don’t want to get much larger than where I’m at, after all, I’m doing some Burm and Retic projects that will require me to hold back various animals so I need to make sure I have space for that. I don’t want to expand to anything more that could be held in my basement to be completely honest. Especially seeing as how I travel a lot for music work and expos, etc and for the most part, I do everything in my collection by myself… my buddy Chris helps me out when he can too.
HM: What unpopular or under appreciated species do you see gaining more traction in the hobby in the near future?
JT: I’ve seen a few species really get a lot of attention in recent years and it seems to be continuing to go that way, which is great! Carpets, Blood Pythons and Borneo Short Tail Pythons would be the biggest ones. There are others too like Viper Boas. I believe a huge part of that is color variations. Often when it comes to Carpets, Bloods and Borneo STPs babies may look nice, but go through a lot of visual changes as they mature. This can make them a tough sell often as babies compared to a Boa or BP or Retic that may be completely stunning basically right from the get go. Also those species tend to have a bad reputation passed around from people who (more often than not) didn’t know how to successfully manage one of those animals. They aren’t Ball Pythons. They aren’t too difficult to manage, but you definitely need to be a bit more dialed in with your husbandry. With the booming of morphs in Carpets, Bloods and Short Tails, it’s certainly not unheard of for the popularity to increase.
HM: What’s your advice for someone who wants to take the next step into breeding as a side business?
JT: Two things… First…. NETWORK!!!Find the people who also work with the species you enjoy and reach out to them. Social media has made the ability to communicate incredibly easy… but make sure you look deeper than those trending vloggers out there. Not digging at anyone… but the vlog scene is new… there are plenty of “old timers” still around who can REALLY provide info you can’t always get from looking at a Facebook post. Second… Work with what you like!! Don’t try to chase the dollar – you will be disappointed! If you love odd stuff not many people work with… GO FOR IT! Yes, your market may be much smaller than that for Ball Pythons, Retics, etc, but you need to enjoy what you do! On the flip side – if you like BP, Retics, Corn Snakes or anything that’s much more common – do it!!Don’t let anyone dictate your passion!
