Carpet Pythons

09/03/2026

25/02/2026

Finally Available! The Definitive guide to everything Blue Tongue!

They’re HERE! 🙌

After a lot of hard work behind the scenes, my book “Blue-Tongues Down Under” has officially landed!

If you love bluetongue lizards as much as I do, this book covers:
✔️ Care & Veterinary
✔️ Breeding & Genetics
✔️ Amazing Shinglebacks
✔️ Aussie species info & natural history
✔️ The rise of the internet Blue Tongue !!

I’m incredibly proud of this one & a massive THANKS to everyone who has supported the journey…. You know who you are 😊

Regards Joe & co authors John McGrath, Joshua Llinas & Tristan Pace.

Grab your copy here:
https://joeballbluetongues.com/product/blue-tongues-down-under/

19/02/2026

🔒 A 61-year-old Sydney man received a record jail sentence for attempting to export Australian reptiles.

Neil Simpson was sentenced to 8 years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 5 years and 4 months.

This is the largest sentence given to a wildlife smuggler in Australia.

He attempted to export packages to Hong Kong, Romania, South Korea and Sri Lanka.

Authorities recovered 101 live reptiles and seized several hundred more later, as part of Operations Buckland and Pandora.

🤝 The outcome reflects joint work with partners including the NSW Police Force, Australian Border Force, NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and Australia Post

More in comments 👇

03/11/2025

Go and subscribe to get access!

Around 15 years of keeping and breeding a horde of the most amazing species of Lizard the ‘Blue Tongue’ has led me to the point of being able to release this book. Hard back 400 pages & 800 full colour photos of amazing Bluey info… Colour Morphs, Keeping, Breeding, Veterinary, Natural History & the effects of the Internet on the Reptile hobby. Co-authors; John McGrath, Joshua Llinas, Tristan Pace with a foreword by Rick Shine. All carefully assembled by graphic designer Rachael Hammond. A deeper list of further acknowledgements will be in the book !!

Pre-orders will be available via subscription to my website in December with the book being finally available in early 2026. Feel free to ask any further questions in the comments below !!

Thanks Joe

21/12/2023

Pretty cool!

What an incredible find!

Last night Brandon attended a job for 3 female Carpet Pythons on eggs all within a one square meter area! How fascinating!

Over the last 12 hours since this discovery we have been talking to several members of the Herpetological field who have been around for over 30 years and they have never observed this before so it's a pretty awesome find! Communal egg laying in snakes is not uncommon, however it may have not been observed like this in Coastal Carpet Pythons before!

The video will drop at 4pm this afternoon and is one of the coolest videos we have ever done!

Brandon Troy Gifford

***Photo is protected under Copyright, any media usage please contact us on 0408545440 or at [email protected]***

21/10/2023

Now for the big one next weekend!

21/06/2023

I took some photos of Joe Balls collection a few months ago. I thought it would look good to see part of his collection in a poster form. It’s amazing how far the mutation part of the hobby has come over the last 15 years.

13/06/2023

This was quite an interesting animal to take photos of over at Reptilia! I think Marty said it was a first of its kind.

12/06/2023

You can see the difference when you use a professional camera. A photoshoot I did for Marty at Reptilia in Melbourne a couple of days ago.

26/01/2023

Haha!