What Are some Breeders To Avoid Or Reptile Sellers To Avoid?

I'm still relatively new to this hobby (I got my first snake in June ) and I know that Petsmart( In my experience they weren't ) and Petco usually aren't very good. And I haven't heard good things about Backwater, Underground, and LLLReptile and other big sellers. Who else should be avoided? I've heard mixed things about BHB.

If you have a breeder in mind simply go here http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...splay.php?f=13 and do some research there are 1000's of breeders out there and they should only be judged based on personal experience and reputation and the best place to find that out is by doing your homework on the BOI.

To expand on Deborah's advice above, select the "Search this Forum" link and then "Advanced Search".

On the left side of the page under Search options look for the box labelled "Find Threads with Prefix" and under "BOI" select "Bad Guy".
Grab a bowl of popcorn and the beverage of your choice, and spend some time reading.

Yes, the BOI is invaluable. There are smaller breeders that don’t have threads, but after you read enough BOI threads, you’ll start to get a sense of what the red flags are, and it’ll help you evaluate the unknown folks.


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Kind of depends on where you are located. As I am in Canada it's harder for me to find reputable breeders. Honestly I'd recommend just doing hours of research on each breeder before dealing with them. In Canada I tend to trust Markus Jayne the most.

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Can't recommend the BOI enough. If you so much as think about crossing anyone in the reptile community those guys will sniff you out and expose you. The google kung fu is strong there. Scary even.

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Originally Posted by Prognathodon

Yes, the BOI is invaluable. There are smaller breeders that don’t have threads, but after you read enough BOI threads, you’ll start to get a sense of what the red flags are, and it’ll help you evaluate the unknown folks.


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That and the threads can be like 100 pages long and play out like bad reality TV before you know it you spent 20 minutes reading about some crap you have no stake in at all.

No gourmet rodent. No no no no!

I can't speak of any of the ones you mentioned besides BHB. I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted to breed MBKs until recently, but when I decided I did I spent a lot of time looking for a quaity female for my male. He had some available last month at a decent price, so when I saw that I jumped on one (they tend to sell out quickly). She's a gorgeous snake. Perfectly healthy, but with the typical skittish behavior baby kingsnakes often have.

So far she's been easier to tame down than my male. I think that's just because I have more experience and know what to do now. They aren't as easily stressed as BPs and daily handling really helps them get used to humans. It doesn't interfere with her eating whatsoever, she gobbles down pinkies.

Here's my girl:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...com/9qbvrp.jpg

No problems at all with the transaction, I love her. She's a whole lot prettier in person. Hard to get her to hold still for a photo though.

Do keep in mind there are a lot of hobbyist/small breeders out there who will have little to no reputation on way or the other.