Meet Joe Phelan of Port City Pythons in East Dallas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Phelan.

Joe, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
To say I was naturally attracted to reptiles might be a lie. I was influenced from a young age. I was coerced by a father who had a little of an obsession of his own. I think I was his excuse to feed his fixation. He would come home from work in the middle of the night. Most of the time I wouldn’t see him, but if it was a rainy summer night I might wake up to a frog in a critter keeper. He wanted to show me his find from the night before. After a little observation, the night’s catch would go along his merry way. We had a pond that we dug out in the backyard. It was in the middle of his garden; it was his other obsession. The garden and pond both attracted their fair share of wildlife. We would be ecstatic to find a garter snake waiting for one of the pond’s goldfish to swim too near or a toad hoping along the pea pods. Eventually, we would make trips down to the White Plains Reptile expo. We would buy all types of snakes and lizards. Among those were corn snakes. I even have one of these snakes until this day.

I lost this love for reptiles a little bit when I was going through high school. After that it reared its head a few times. I started with a tortoise in college and eventually graduated to ball pythons. That was about the time I realized there were a few people working with these animals for a living. Once I knew it was possible… I was obsessed!

I started producing ball pythons in 2014. I have pivoted a couple times since then. (I no longer have ball pythons) That being said, I haven’t gone a moment without keeping or even thinking about reptiles since.

I would consider 2017 our break out year. We got more serious about our social media presence. We started showing off our animals on Instagram. Even bringing you through the breeding process on YouTube and satisfying a thirst of knowledge by interviewing industry leaders on our podcast. (From The Ground Up) Going forward, we strive to be a multi-faceted force of good in our industry.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Working with animals can be an unforgiving profession. 5 years ago I had dropped out of college and invested every extra penny into starting a quality reptile collection. I had managed to acquire a couple thousand dollars’ worth of breeding stock in a short period of time. An animal I acquired had a drug resistant virus that eventually wiped out about 50 percent of my collection. The emotional and financial burden almost broke me. It took 2 years of reflection to center myself and realize why I want to do this for a living. That experience taught me a lot and led me to pivot my business into what it is today

Port City Pythons – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Port City Pythons is a multifaceted reptile company. We are reptile breeders, enthusiasts, and educators. We are known for quality snakes and constant customer interaction. Through our YouTube channel, Instagram, podcast and Facebook; we bring people through our whole process. If you buy a snake from us, you can see a video of its parents, watch your snake hatch, and even see them eat their first meal. Transparency is our core competency and it has built a trust between us and our customers. There is nothing we are more proud of than providing a new snake owner with a quality experience. A successful first reptile keeping experience is pivotal to create future generations of reptile lovers and keepers!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There’s is no one moment that I would call my proudest moment. These moments come in small doses, but they come daily. It’s a YouTube comment that may say, “I was terrified by snakes, but your channel made me interested in them” or “I used your channel to help convince me mom to let me have a reptile”. I am driven by ensuring our community has a bright future. If more people keep reptiles; we have more people respecting these animals. This means we have more stewards of wildlife conservation and nature.

Contact Info:

• Website: Portcitypythons.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/portcitypythons/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/portcitypythons
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/portcitypythons
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/c/Portcitypythons

Image Credit:
Joe Phelan
Melissa Davis

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