Maybe an uncomfortable question, but....

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

That is exactly where I would suspect many end up. And it is sad.

I wonder very much about the adults as well. Lots of things can happy to a person over twenty or thirty years (often even less as we all know). It doesn't take much imagination to see a rack of pythons becoming a serious inconvenience. What is the market for adults?

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The demand for adult females will always be there it seems, even for wild type. Single gene morph males and wild type are much harder to sell. The main question I wonder about is how many of these less expensive babies actually make it past the first year?

They go where the market dictates. Some become pets or breeders. Others die or become feeders.

I was hesitant to ask because I was afraid that some people may take the question the wrong way. I'm glad to see that nobody has. This is an unusual corner of the internet where people act maturely and address each other with respect. What a breath of fresh air! I hope it stays this way.

However, I think this is an important question to address. If one is going to take on the responsibility of caring for an animal for 30 + years, it behooves one to consider what would happen to the animal if something should happen to oneself.

There will always be more domestic/pet animals produced than competent, compassionate people to care for them appropriately. There will always be people who purchase pets without being willing or able to make a commitment to care for them for their whole lifespan. There will always be people who impulsively purchase animals without doing their due diligence on the care that animal requires to thrive.

Sometimes the animals who belong to those people die from neglect or ignorant care.

That's true of snakes, reptiles, birds, other exotics, and even 'common' domestics like cats, dogs, and rodents.

That's why animal welfare, rescue, and rehab for domestic and pet animals is so important. If you feel sad or uncomfortable about all the 'extra' snakes getting wholesaled to Petco and going home with people who don't understand how to care for them, then do something about it. Get involved with your local herp society. Foster or rescue unwanted animals. Donate to your local shelters and humane societies, or to animal welfare groups who fund rescue efforts. Donate or get involved with educational projects focused on teaching the general public about how to compassionately and responsibly care for these animals. There are a lot of ways to make an impact on this sort of thing!

Man idk I started with two ball pythons now I have 6 with 4 more on the way. And I do eventually want bigger, more complicated animals when I have the right area set up for it. Every person I know what starts with one reptile eventually can't resist getting another. Then another. They're like freaking Pringles. I think Deb is right and there is still plenty of consumer demand to be filled. I never see a hatching sit around a breeders site for much more than 6 months if that, and usually they're gone in just a week or two. Though I do think there is starting to be a shift in the hobby from the huge facility operations like what Bob and Brian have, to smaller scale set ups focused on quality rather than quantity, which I think is a healthy trend in the hobby for long term sustainability.

Now whether the person buying it is a responsible keeper that will care for their new animal properly for its whole adult life is something you can only vet so far. As breeders, we do what we can at the point of sale, try to assist with trouble shooting care and husbandry after the fact if it's asked for, and cross our fingers.

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

However, I think this is an important question to address. If one is going to take on the responsibility of caring for an animal for 30 + years, it behooves one to consider what would happen to the animal if something should happen to oneself.

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I put a list of names and contact info with my Will so that the executor knows who to contact for help with the snakes and cleanly closing out my firearms business, since he's neither a snake person or a gun person.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

They go where the market dictates. Some become pets or breeders. Others die or become feeders.

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when we got into breeding fancy guppies, one of the first things we did was to get an oscar and a jack dempsy to feed the throw backs to. I am guessing there is some sort of unspoken reality around this with BP breeding as well, though I have no idea what they could be fed to. I would be surprised if culling was not a common practice among at least large breeders.

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Originally Posted by Slither Seeker

when we got into breeding fancy guppies, one of the first things we did was to get an oscar and a jack dempsy to feed the throw backs to. I am guessing there is some sort of unspoken reality around this with BP breeding as well, though I have no idea what they could be fed to. I would be surprised if culling was not a common practice among at least large breeders.

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I can't comment on this in regards to less valuable morphs but I've heard of more then one individual who feeds snakes born with significant birth defects (after humanly euthanizing them) to a tegu or other similar animal.

Edit: I'm pretty sure there is actually a video showing someone feeding a still borne ball python to some sort of frog species (likely a pixie frog) I'll see if I can't dig it up

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

I've watched many YouTube videos of people with extensive collections of ball pythons living in rack systems and talking about how they want to breed them. In the wild most of the hatchlings would never see adulthood, but in captivity, chances are most survive. These animals live for up to 30 years, sometimes more. So it begs the question, where are all these snakes going? Can there really be so many people that want to maintain such huge numbers of these reptiles?

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At least part of it is they'll just keep getting passed from keeper to keeper. When someone gets tired of breeding/owning the snake, they'll sell it easily to another keeper. There's always a demand for adult morphs. When you see older female BP for sale, sometimes she's already been in 2 or 3 homes. When I got my female, only 5 years old, I learned that I'm already her third home. (But for her it's not surprising, since she won't eat f/t... I tried so many times) And the BP hobby really is gaining more and more interest from the general public every year.

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

However, I think this is an important question to address. If one is going to take on the responsibility of caring for an animal for 30 + years, it behooves one to consider what would happen to the animal if something should happen to oneself.

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Imo that question could be asked of any pet, even dogs and cats. (Cats can live up to 20 years)

I agree that it is very important to have someone lined up to take your pets in the event of your untimely demise.

I have the contact information written down for the person I want to take my two snakes and my entire setups in the event I pass unexpectedly. My husband has been informed as to what to do about that. He has no interest in my snakes so I needed to make sure they would be cared for in the event that I could not do it.

Gives me piece of mind.