Jason's Jungle - Daily Journal Article

This is an article that was published in the Daily Journal on 12/30/02 (yes, I am VERY late in finally getting this tranposed) :)

Jason Hess plays on the floor with a few of his 80+ snakes.

Fur Not Required - by Sherri Coner

Pet the family dog. Cuddle with Amos, the family cat. And handle more than 80 snakes. That's how Jason Hess finishes every evening. "We get them out every day," Hess says as he plucks several snakes from different containers. "We do a shed check and a health check at least once a day," he says.

In his Franklin home, Hess houses 18 adult Kenyan sand boas and their 16 babies plus a multitude of other snakes. "Daddy, where's mine? Can I hold it?" asks Hess' son, Kyle, 6. Since Kyle is now learning to read and write, he's helping his dad record eating and shedding information. Kyle seems to be following his father's fascination with these slithering reptiles. "OK, Big Momma," Kyle says to the largest Kenyan in the Hess household. "Are you ready to go back in?" Kyle says to the snake as he gently returns the 28-inch Big Momma to her home.

Formerly a fan of iguanas and leopard geckos, Hess admits he was terrified of snakes until he was 19. "My friend had one," Hess says. "He got me to hold it, and I absolutely loved it." Snakes seemed to have more character than lizards, Hess says. He was mesmerized. And soon after, he was an official snake owner

When Hess, a network engineer, and his wife, Misha, first married, Hess' love for reptiles was limited to a few snakes curled lazily in a 20-gallon aquarium. But then Hess decide to expand his love and to share the love, literally. He opened a home business, Jason's Jungle, and became a detail-oriented snake breeder. Hess designed and built snake containers, adding strict temperature levels and painstakinlgy records each snake's daily activities.

"Go look in our freezer," Misha Hess says with a laugh. More than 100 frozen mice and rats are stored there for weekly snake feedings, she points out.

Big Momma, pregnant on 5 occasions, gave birth to 10, then 12, then 14, and last year, a whopping 18 sand boa babies. "When the babies get out, the cat will find them for us," Misha says. "Next year it's possible that I'll have 100 or more babies," Hess says with a grin. "This is my hobby and it's what I like doing".

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