NERD is the parent of Zoo Creatures.

NERD began the way many reptile breeders do: a hobbyist with a passion for reptiles starts a personal collection. The collection grows, word spreads, and the animals start paying for themselves. Before you know it, you have one of the largest reptile breeders in the Northeast.

Kevin McCurley, NERD's founder and owner, is that hobbyist. Kevin understands that to some people, snakes are strange — a scary, creepy mystery. Unlike mammals, or even other reptiles, snakes have no arms, no legs and no eyelids. They can't blink, so they always seem to be looking at you. “We don't identify with them,” says McCurley. “They're like a boogeyman for people.”

A herp enthusiast since early childhood, Kevin first focused his breeding on Pituophis and other large colubrids. Over time his interest turned to pythons — particularly the ones fewer keepers were working with at the time: retics (often thought to be too big and too psycho) and ball pythons. That focus has brought a myriad of color morphs and combinations to the NERD collection, many of them the first ever bred, right here at the NERD facility.