Current BP's. Where are they shipped from?

Actually Petco used to get their babies from Gourmet Rodent not sure if they still do or not. Mites are native to the US not Africa - ticks come in on adult imports - mites are acquired after arrival. Captive hatched babies are usually as parasite free as cbb - dehydration and stress is their major issue.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

Well majority of the big chain pet stores (petco,petsmart and such) buy wild caught or farm raised babies.Thats where the mites and such come from ;)

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Eh, not exactly....some ticks yes, mites not so much...."snake mites" aren't indigenous to western Africa, where imported ball pythons come from. They usually become infested after they are mixed with shipments from other parts of the world like southeast asia after they've arrived in the US.

i know personal off hand that the snakes in my store are at least captive bred and hatched is because the guy that does it for us comes in the store at least once a week to see if we need anymore our other snakes like the corns come from another guy thats local

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Originally Posted by Monty

i know personal off hand that the snakes in my store are at least captive bred and hatched is because the guy that does it for us comes in the store at least once a week to see if we need anymore our other snakes like the corns come from another guy thats local

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5 will get you 10 that he is NOT breeding everything he sells you, especially ball pythons.

You can get them in 100 lots for 6 bucks a piece.

Also, your babies that are captive hatched in Africa can come in with HUGE parasite loads from drinking contaminated water.

They are not housed individually, but in large groups and all it takes is one infected small but not born this year snake in the same cage to poop in the water they all share and you have all kinds of lovely bugs in your new babies.

I've seen it happen.

Also, when they come into the USA they are frequently mixed with various sized even if only for hydration and again parasites are exchanged.

Then there's the mite issue. Just because it isn't crawling with them in the store does NOT mean it wasn't at the facility where it was held prior to the store getting it. Those baby ball pythons can look good for several months before they are shipped from a USA facility to the store that ultimately sells them to the public.

Just be careful and ALWAYS get a fecal done.

I also found out that. Petco does not sex the snakes and they have mixed. I guess thats a good thing.

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Originally Posted by mr86mister

I also found out that. Petco does not sex the snakes and they have mixed. I guess thats a good thing.

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Its a good bet that the majority of Petco ball pythons are male...

every ball python we get from him is mite free eating pink rats and is well established we only get 3 bps in at a time since ive been the reptile specialist i hate over crowding and dont see a point yea some of the snakes he gives us could very well be CH but he'll never tell his true secrets had mite problems once from him but after that we havent had any mites