The origin story of Iowa Family Exotics is probably very similar to that of most pet shops and animal exhibitors: I grew up caring for a variety of animals and just made a name for myself over the years as someone people could come to with all things animal! 

In 2013, when my daughter was 3, we got a male and female hedgehog from the pet shop, but didn’t realize the female was pregnant, so that started a domino effect that led me to quit my day job and focus on raising and rescuing animals full time. 

Today, we do vendor shows around the Midwest, we raise hedgehogs, boa constrictors, various pythons, and American bullies. We own several monitor species as well and will attempt to make hybrid monitors and also hybrid pythons soon. We are a licensed pet shop, breeder & exhibitor, but operate mostly as a zoo and focus on the educational aspect of raising animals.