Buying from Africa?

I've heard of people buying certain ball pythons caught in the wild from Africa... where is this done? Is there a website? Just curious.. thanks!

-Mike

Many of the big breeders import from Africa.
You can purchase a 'bag of balls'. I.E. 30 balls for $200 or something (<-- not exact price, just an example)
You don't know what's in the bag. It's mostly normals and possible dinkers, but there are some basic morphs like pastels and mojaves that can be found.

I believe you can buy a bag from BHB and Outback Reptiles

Importing from Africa directly can be very costly due to the import/export process.

Personally I don't think that it should be done very often. We have more than enough captive breeding to support the market. Importing except for new morphs simply isn't necessary.

Most of the "bags" you would get have been picked through. As for something that looks oddly visually different (like a possible new mutation) would typically be offered to someone with a VERY deep wallet. Then they would basically take risk in proving it. There has been cases where ALOT of money has been spent, and the animal does not prove out.

My first ball purchase was a grab bag of babies from Africa, about 6 years ago. I got 10 babies, but I honestly can't remember how much, or where we got them from. I believe it was someone in Florida. I still have 3 of those 10 :)

I do know that Outback will occasionally have these Captive Hatched baby bags, BHB might possibly.

Theres a local store here that sells Captive Hatched individuals, but i dont know where he gets them from. Thats where my normal male came from.

Slightly off topic... what happened to outback reptile's website?

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Originally Posted by PsychD_Student

Slightly off topic... what happened to outback reptile's website?

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They might of gone to a strictly facebook page if their website is gone. But I have never been to their website so I am just speculating.

Micheal Cole from BallRoomPythonsSouth also used to offer bags of 10 hatchlings direct from Africa. Not certain he still is. Importing yourself is hugely expensive and nearly impossible since you have to have the connections and buy a certain amount.... as far as I've been told.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

Importing from Africa directly can be very costly due to the import/export process.

Personally I don't think that it should be done very often. We have more than enough captive breeding to support the market. Importing except for new morphs simply isn't necessary.

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The problem with that thinking is the Importers don;t get to pick and choose what they want to buy...They have to buy all the misc. animals to be offered the New Morphs...So without bringing in all the misc stuff (not just Balls) there would be less New One of a Kind Morphs offered up...Plus look at all those WC/CH babies that proving to be subtle Morphs!

If they didn't get imported here they would get sold somewhere else...Most likely for food and the skins...There are a lot of guys that feed their families trapping Snakes in Africa.

And it seems the Captive market is not keeping up with the demand...Do you think Importers are bringing this stuff in and not selling it???