More than 20 years ago, Mark Forgan quit his engineering job to catch snakes for a living.

Today five of his snakes will get to compete in the state’s first reptile judging competition at the Royal Adelaide Show.

“I just think it’s great because there’s a lot of reptile people in South Australia,”  SA Snake Catcher owner Forgan says.

From cookery to animals to art and craft, we are publishing all the Royal Adelaide Show results here.

He gives his more than two metre long python Romeo a kiss for luck before placing him back in his exhibit.

“They’ve got funny names, snakes,” he says looking at another competitor’s snake Merlin and his own Stimson python Skeletor.

The snakes will be judged this morning for clear eyes, colour, patterns and the condition of the skin. Consideration will be given for shedding – like Carla Foreman’s Bredli python Merlin is about to do.

“He looks terrible,” she says.

Forgan, who is head marshal, says the best part about the exhibition is being able to educate the public about how to handle snakes and what to do when you see a venomous one – a job he does with schools and scout groups during the winter.

“You’ve got to stand still; it’s the people that lift their legs or run away that get bitten because the thing a snake is most scared of is being stepped on.”

Vida Symonds spent years perfecting her Genoa cake – the result is a real show stopper.

In Melbourne there are more than 200 reptiles judged every year, making it so big, the reptile competition moved out of the show into its own event. Forgan hopes the SA competition will soon grow to be just as big.

“Hopefully in five years we can reach around that goal.

“We are hoping to be as big as the cats and dogs one day because reptile keeping in SA over the last few years has grown twenty-fold.”

He says the growth in popularity of keeping snakes and lizards as pets is likely because of people living in apartments and townhouses wanting a low maintenance animal.

“They don’t need to go to the vet all the time, they don’t need clipping or trimming and they are great to hold while you are watching TV.

“My kids grab the children’s python and just have them around their neck while they are watching TV or something, so the pet snakes here you’ll find like being held all the time and like to come out their cages to be held.”

For Forgan it was the way snakes looked and moved that attracted him. In year two, Forgan’s teacher asked him to look after the class reptiles and he was hooked.

“I got a lizard at home and after that my collection grew and grew and grew.”

But he had to wait until he moved out of home to get a snake. He did a venomous snake handling course at the age of 18, and he now owns 23 snakes including a pair of Queensland death adders.

Forgan ditched a full-time job as an engineer to work as a snake catcher – starting his own business, SA Snake Catchers.

“It has its moments, but some days are really good: people are freaked out, you get rid of a snake and then they are really happy.”

The Royal Adelaide Show runs from today until September 14. If snakes aren’t your thing, InDaily has published show competition results daily – so check out the best of the rest here.