Preserving lost baby BPs

typically, whenever babies die, I bury them.
Well, I've been thinking of preserving them as specimens and selling them instead of letting them rot in the ground.
Since morphs wouldn't really matter since they're not, you know, live, I was thinking they'd all be around the same price.
What do you think they'd go for?
I see specimens on Etsy all of the time, but I haven't seen any BP specimens to know how much they're worth.

Im not really sure what id be willing to pay. Even for a dead CG i cant see myself paying more than like $100. I mean yea itd be cool to own a morph that you may not otherwise be able to afford, but i wouldnt spend alot on a dead snake thats just pretty to look at. Shelling out like $40 for a dead vanilla cream or a pied (morphs i really love but dont have money for right now) would be very reasonable imo.

Id love to hear others opinions. Maybe im way off base here. What were you thinking Navy?

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Im not really sure what id be willing to pay. Even for a dead CG i cant see myself paying more than like $100. I mean yea itd be cool to own a morph that you may not otherwise be able to afford, but i wouldnt spend alot on a dead snake thats just pretty to look at. Shelling out like $40 for a dead vanilla cream or a pied (morphs i really love but dont have money for right now) would be very reasonable imo.

Id love to hear others opinions. Maybe im way off base here. What were you thinking Navy?

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I was thinking anywhere from the $30-$50 range, nothing too pricey because it doesn't matter how pretty they are, they're dead. Since selling live morphs is a breeders market (breeders sell to breeders who sell to breeders and so on) buying a dead snake would be nothing more but something to admire on a shelf and no profit to be made.
I don't get a ton of dead babies, maybe 1 or 2 a year, but I just don't like the idea of letting them rot, y'know?

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Originally Posted by Navy

I was thinking anywhere from the $30-$50 range, nothing too pricey because it doesn't matter how pretty they are, they're dead. Since selling live morphs is a breeders market (breeders sell to breeders who sell to breeders and so on) buying a dead snake would be nothing more but something to admire on a shelf and no profit to be made.
I don't get a ton of dead babies, maybe 1 or 2 a year, but I just don't like the idea of letting them rot, y'know?

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Yea i totally agree with you. Like i said, if it was a morph that i really loved but couldnt afford then something like $30-50 would be a good price imo. How does one taxidermize a snake? Is there a website for this lol?

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Yea i totally agree with you. Like i said, if it was a morph that i really loved but couldnt afford then something like $30-50 would be a good price imo. How does one taxidermize a snake? Is there a website for this lol?

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there are a lot of sites that explain how to do it.
I've been looking at this one in particular from googling "preserving specimens in liquid preservatives"
http://botany.si.edu/projects/algae/...es/liqpres.htm

I'm not sure how much I would be interested in a 'jarred' preserved specimen since that sounds a little creepy/witch doctorish, but I may be interested in a taxidermy snake. But that would definitely jack up the price pretty significantly.

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Originally Posted by lk_holla

I'm not sure how much I would be interested in a 'jarred' preserved specimen since that sounds a little creepy/witch doctorish, but I may be interested in a taxidermy snake. But that would definitely jack up the price pretty significantly.

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x2 i wouldnt buy one preserved in a jar lol

Well, it a scientific profession, I think it would be a good idea. Hell, contact the herpetology departments in any colleges if they would like to acquire preserved ball pythons. I bet they'd go for it. ;)


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Originally Posted by lk_holla

I'm not sure how much I would be interested in a 'jarred' preserved specimen since that sounds a little creepy/witch doctorish, but I may be interested in a taxidermy snake. But that would definitely jack up the price pretty significantly.

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My original idea was to make them taxidermy, but I was told by my fiance that jarred would be "cooler".
I still have a while to decide since I won't have eggs for a few months

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Originally Posted by Kodieh

Well, it a scientific profession, I think it would be a good idea. Hell, contact the herpetology departments in any colleges if they would like to acquire preserved ball pythons. I bet they'd go for it. ;)


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They very likely may not. When I was at KU I would occasionally help out in the herp lab, which consited of the largest neo-tropical herp collection in the world, and they had more than enough to go around. While some specimens are loaned out for display purposes many are leter dissected to determine things like stomach contents, sex of the animal, etc. I don't see any herp lab needing any preserved ball pythons.

Also, specimens that are preserved in fluid never keep their color. The specimens at the herp lab consist of shelves and shelves of snakes, frogs, turtles, lizards, etc., and they are all a dull green, to brown, to black, and the colors that they had in life are long gone. If you want something pretty you would be best to preserve it in some kind of acrylic or have it taken to a taxidermist. Skeletal articulation is an option however it is not cheap. I believe a company called skulls unlimited will do it for you for a few hundred dollars.

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http://www.skullsunlimited.com/recor...nt.php?id=6942

This, to me, seems the best and cheapest way to preserve color. I have emailed these guys about skeletal articulation but not this. I would email them and ask what it would cost (assuming that they would even be willing to do it), the worst they can do is say that they won't do it, but I assume that for the right price, they would.