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About Us

HappyDragons is a community platform composed of reptile pet owners, breeders, and enthusiasts committed to the betterment of reptile keeping through observational science. Together our staff, breeders, and customers are turning their shared passion into a framework for a better reptile industry. We have brought together some of the top talent from both the tech and reptile industries to create a unique team capable of bringing innovative tech solutions to the reptile hobby.

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Meet Our Team

Based in New York City, New York

Our team members are passionate reptile enthusiasts who are excited to bring modern tech solutions and a greater sense of community to the reptile industry. We believe crowdsourcing technology is the key to unlocking new information and understanding how to better care for reptiles. The best way to promote and sustain learning and growth is by creating a community where reptile pet owners and breeders can come together and share their experiences.

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Steve Bogda

CEO & Co-Founder

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Ashwin Dayal

Lead Advisor & Co-Founder

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Jenna Cunningham

Creative Director & Co-Founder

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Katherine Contos

Lead Customer Liaison

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Tomás Moreno-Johnson

Customer Liaison

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Kevin Conway

Lead Enclosure Designer

Our Reptile Team

HappyDragons has partnered with some of the leading experts in reptile husbandry, breeding and zookeeping. These experts have helped craft HappyDragons ethics and breeder standards to make sure they uphold the highest standard of care while being a fit for the reptile industry.

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Mariah Healey

Reptile Care Director

Mariah is a reptile husbandry specialist and consultant with over a decade of experience. She is also the founder of ReptiFiles, an online resource for trustworthy reptile care information. Mariah has devoted herself to researching reptile husbandry and compiling her research into science-based care guides she has made available for free on ReptiFiles and HappyDragons.

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TC Houston

Breeding Director

TC is a highly accomplished former professional AZA reptile zookeeper, and a small-batch breeder with over 30 years of experience, traveling the world for a diversified perspective on husbandry. TC focuses on Australian skinks and species uncommon in the captive-bred market. He has published several articles featured in iHerp Australia and the Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research.

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Frank Payne

Breeding Director

Frank is a biology teacher, former AZA senior herpetology zookeeper, and an exceptional breeder and keeper of beautiful and rare reptiles with over 25 years of experience. Frank has published several care articles featured in Reptiles Magazine and helped create exhibitions for the NYC American Museum of Natural History, Baltimore’s National Aquarium, and Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.

Meet Our Breeder Advisors

Our panel of breeder advisors plays an important role in determining how we implement changes to evolve our standards as we discover new insights. HappyDragons is committed to listening and learning from breeders to find the best way we can serve reptiles and the community.

Phillip Lietz of Arids Only specializes in producing amazing, healthy, and vivacious Uromastyx. He takes the utmost care in producing animals with sound genetic, physical, and mental health.

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Frank focuses on breeding several species of beautiful and highly sought after lizards such as electric blue geckos, carpet chameleons, and jeweled lacertas. Frank is also committed to customer education. When you purchase an animal from Living Art, you are also purchasing his experience, advice, and support throughout the life of the animal.

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Chad Ramsey of Ramsey's Reptiles focuses on providing the healthiest, hardiest and most genetically sound reptile breeders and pets available. Chad places the health and safety of his animals above all else and produces an astonishing array of beautifully colored lizards.

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Sacred Geckos & Exotics is a two-person team of lifetime reptile owners with over 15 years of experience. Zachary and Joe Bill take care to breed animals with diverse genetics including high end tegus, leachianus geckos, gargoyle geckos & crested geckos.

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Laura Roberts has over 35 years of animal handling experience, and more than a dozen years working with tegus. Laura has pioneered positive reinforcement training techniques and has been the progenitor of new morphs such as the anerytheristic red tegu.

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Moonbeam Geckos is a family company run by Jungle John, a former zookeeper and zoo supervisor, his wife Susan, and their son Nick. Moonbeam Geckos raises captive-bred, organically-fed leopard geckos of many beautifully colored morphs. They have decades of expert experience bringing customers healthy, happy geckos.

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Reptile Mountain is a small-batch captive reptile breeding program run by TC Houston, focused on the production of limited volume, high quality Australian Blue Tongue Skinks (Tiliqua ssp.) and other select uncommon species. TC’s commitment to perpetual welfare advancement and providing the best evidence-based care possible is at the center of his breeding program ethos.

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Sunfish Exotics is a passion project owned and operated by Morgan Carpenter. They focus on raising leopard geckos, western hognoses, Leonis (variable) kingsnakes, and corn snakes. They keep each batch of hatchlings small so they can focus on providing every animal with the very best in care and husbandry.

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