new guy- daughter wants a pet snake.

Hello everyone, I have few questions. My daughter is asking for a pet snake for Christmas. I am pretty excited about this as I used to keep pythons and boas. I am thinking a ball python is perfect. I have always wanted to breed bps and this would be a great project to share with my daughter. It would a perfect intro into genetics. I guess my question is what would be a way contribute to the hobby as opposed to breeding more animals that perhaps no one wants. I am not interested in making money but I am not opposed to it either. I was thinking an albino female and later a male albino. It looks like albinos are reasonably priced but retain some value. I am in PA and we are going to checkout the reptile expo in Hamburg December 5th. Ball park what prices should I expect? 200-300 for albino female is what I am seeing online. If you have any input on what I'm thinking it would be appreciated. Thanks for time Mike

Two recessives would be a good idea, guaranteed results in clutches give you something to kind of plan around, but at the same time isn't as exciting and if you want to add in another gene it'll take a while. Not to mention adding in something would be best done by buying a male that's het for albino but has other genes to pass on to the possible albinos.

What I would recommend is going for co-dom balls. Get a female now that has 1 or 2 genes and then in a year or two get a male that has 2+ genes. I'd especially go for something with lesser or mojave (or one of each in the male/female). That way when the clutches come out it's still really exciting whether you get single genes, some cool multiple genes, or even ending up with a BEL from the lesser/mojave.

I think that'd be the best money wise too. You'd probably be looking at 200-300 for each snake (or less if you get less genes), but mostly all of the hatchlings would be at least easy to sell. The biggest thing I'd like to avoid while breeding is as few normals as possible (I typically think of normals het for something are the same since they sell for barely more than normals), just because I don't think you can really sell them and you probably don't want to keep them.

Hamburg is fun. Just be careful who you buy from, while there are great vendors with quality animals who set up there regularly, you'll find some sketchy ones as well.

Anyone you would recommend?

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Hamburg is fun. Just be careful who you buy from, while there are great vendors with quality animals who set up there regularly, you'll find some sketchy ones as well.

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Just out of curiousity, how are they sketchy? I've only seen one breeder that was sketchy to me at a repticon (not sure if repticons are really any different or not) he was selling a possible het pied that was breeding size and has locked up a couple times with a visual pied male. It seemed like a lot of maybes to sell the snake, but at the same time it was still pretty cheap (I think $75). I of course would be reluctant to buy any hets unless they were cheap and the breeder seemed established.

I really haven't talked to enough breeders to notice any sketchyness though.

Look at every critter on the table. If anything looks sick/dying/dead, run away.

If you find a snake you like look carefully at it's body condition. Look for mites. Look for bubbles/mucous around the mouth, listen for congestion/popping/wheezing, and feel for congestion along the snake's neck when you hold it.

Does the vendor have businesss cards on the table or a banner with their business name on it, so you know who you're dealing with?

Ask a lot of questions, like:
- How long have you owned this animal? Some vendors only breed and sell their own, while others will have unboxed the animal from a distributor's shipment a day or so before the show.
- When was the last time it ate?
- Is it eating live or frozen/thaw?
- This animal will be a pet, does it tolerate handling or is it defensive and nippy?
- Probably not an issue with albino ball pythons, but if you branch out into other species you should ask if it captive-bred or wild-caught? If wild-caught, has it been treated for internal parasites?

If you have a smart phone, once you find a critter you like use your phone to do a quick internet search on reviews of the vendor, both here and on the FaunaClassifieds BOI, or even Google.

We just got back from the Hamburg show. That was great. Tons of animals. We got to see lots of beautiful morphs. We picked up a pair of Mojave. Ghost orange Mojave male and a pastel Mojave female. My daughters are really excited. Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to post pics later. Those BEL's are crazy.

that's awesome! congrats!

yes, please post pix of your Orange Ghost Mojave and Pastave. we would love to meet your new babies. :P