Handling wild caught BP

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

its so much different for so many other species, where there is no huge semi-domesticated population. and poachers and trappers actually go into the wild to hunt them down. you just cannot say "wild-caught BP" and be both serious and informed, it makes no sense. just call them africa import hatchlings. this is also where the really big guys get their dinkers. like for example the first pinstripe, or the first banana / coral glow, or the scaleless head. bamboo is an interesting case, it showed up and didnt move far at all, it went straight to a local breeder, who proved it out and claimed his world first and later sold bamboo hatchlings, at high prices, to you know who. EB Noah in Ghana.

http://www.worldofballpythons.com/bl...visiting-noah/ <--- big, professional, high-end morphs, located within the natural range of the ball python.

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There are still a few folks that actually go out to hunt for new localities and mutations but you are right that most animals are farm bred. The farm breeding mostly goes on in agricultural areas of Ghana but like I said there still are animals that are taken from the northern plains and volta basin.

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Originally Posted by OctagonGecko729

There are still a few folks that actually go out to hunt for new localities and mutations but you are right that most animals are farm bred. The farm breeding mostly goes on in agricultural areas of Ghana but like I said there still are animals that are taken from the northern plains and volta basin.

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so, genuine wild caught? or are these localities located in different barns belonging to different farmers outside Ghana? i am not sure. but i would guess its quite similar, that its still people that just know where the pythons hang out each day every day, and for cash they may just pick them up.

mutations are a matter of chance, why search for hours in the wild and see just a few, when you can check many locations where many of them hide during daytime every day? i am not really convinced.

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

and quite frankly it annoys me whenever i hear it.

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Unfortunately, you annoy most of us when you post.

There is domesticated and not domesticated. No semi domesticated you prove to me how ball pythons genetically benefit humans, which they don't. You're thinking of the term taming.


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I noticed the 2nd of the possible ringer girls a shape on the top of her head that looks like a spade. Anybody know if its a marker for a morph or just a cool head pattern on her?

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

i doubt that any of you have a wild caught ball python, because first of all they are semi-domesticated in some areas, and secondly there are these thousands of captive hatched or farm bred BP hatchlings that people just love to mislabel as wild caught. people dont catch BPs unless they are females that will soon produce eggs. why would they. its a persistent MYTH that keeps getting repeated, and quite frankly it annoys me whenever i hear it.

in other species, wild caught really exists and puts a burden on the wild population, contributing a lot to drive some of these species into extinction. this is not the case with BPs.

i see no reason to treat them differently. BP breeding has not been going on long enough, and breeders select for morphs and optics and fertility and feeding response, not for character. the fact that the behavior of a BP is mainly influenced by learning and conditioning has to be recognized.

if you never handle them, they never get tame, thats true for locally bred morph BPs as well as for farm bred or captive hatched. treat them the same and get the same results. and please, cut it out, just erase the term "wild-caught BP" from your brains. thousands of years of human interaction and hundreds of years of BPs living in a semi-domesticated state just make that term sound ridiculous, especially when other species are actually wild caught by poachers and trappers. and when politicians decide to crack down on poached and wild caught animals, you dont want to put ball pythons in the crossfire with such a simple mistake.

no special treatment, except that you need to be much more careful in quarantine, and you need to worry more about parasites.

P.S.: one possible explanation for why they are called ROYAL pythons is that there are indications that egyptian pharaos liked to sometimes wear them around their necks as ornaments as early as 3000 years ago.

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True, mainly queen Cleopatra, she like to wear them around her wrists.

To get back on topic, if these are truly straight off the plane then I was advised when making the decision on purchasing an import that the animal should be seen by a vet ASAP, get a fecal done to check for parasites, and expect to have to treat for mites and ticks. QT is also a must, preferably at a different location for six months.

Otherwise, leave them plenty of time to settle in, and only minimal handling until they are eating readily.

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Originally Posted by kylearmbar

True, mainly queen Cleopatra, she like to wear them around her wrists.

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I'd appreciate it if some one would sit down and substantiate this, and don't come back with "it is said" or a reference to drawings or depictions.

There's depictions of unicorns, and I can tell you that they exist. Doesn't make it so.

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