Woma Python

$350 isnt cheap, its about the avg price i find, and i wouldnt pay anything over that, not unless the snake talked.

well you get what you pay for.

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Originally Posted by Lucas339

well you get what you pay for.

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Please explain this Lucas.

I've recently seen a $900.00 female woma and a $400 female woma. Both were in apparent good shape and both looked relatively the same.

Some people price womas on the clarity of the banding and the intensity of the head coloration. Is this worth the extra $500.00? I guess this could be argued - however, I have seen such a wide discrepancy in woma pricing for visually similar animals that I tend to think this is not the case.

Or is it that some people are in a time warp? Two years ago or so they paid $2500.00 for their pair and no one sent them the memo informing them that prices have plummeted as more and more of these animals are flooding the market.

Or do you have another theory? I'm still curious why some people are paying a lot of money for womas when good examples can be had for much less.

well it is all in the color. bright colors and good banding makes a good woma. darker colors and banding that is mushed together is not so good. its like any type of snake....the more that area available the less expensive they will be. black heads are a great example of this. they are up there right now but im sure the price will drop.

here is a site of a breeder who breeds womas and others. look at the coloring and banding on these. his average prices are like i said 400-800 dollars depending on the qualit of the animal. http://www.millerreptiles.com/Womas/Womas.html

i don't have a womas yet but i will be getting some as soon as i can. will i pay the extra hundy for a brighter, better patterned animal......you bet i will!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lucas339

well it is all in the color. bright colors and good banding makes a good woma. darker colors and banding that is mushed together is not so good. its like any type of snake....the more that area available the less expensive they will be. black heads are a great example of this. they are up there right now but im sure the price will drop.

here is a site of a breeder who breeds womas and others. look at the coloring and banding on these. his average prices are like i said 400-800 dollars depending on the qualit of the animal. http://www.millerreptiles.com/Womas/Womas.html

i don't have a womas yet but i will be getting some as soon as i can. will i pay the extra hundy for a brighter, better patterned animal......you bet i will!!

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Blackheads are harder to breed than womas - so the prices should stay up longer.

It's funny that you mention banding and color. Some people take great care with various species to maintain locality purity - central american locality boas are a good example of this - as are some locality bullsnakes, ratsnakes and.................womas.

Yes - there are several different woma localities. In some cases, these localities can be identified by the lack of color, drabness in banding, etc.

When I was in Australia 18 months ago, I spoke to breeders who were being very careful to breed by locality - not color. Ulurus, Tennant Creeks, Tanamis, Boodarie, Rockhampton Downs, etc. - all were being bred true to locality. Specific emphasis was put on documenting that the animals actually could be traced to the locality in question as people were misrepresenting localities to push prices up.

I saw several drab or muddy banded animals fetching good money because they came from specific localities.

So in the States, we are apparently pricing our womas for aesthetic reasons or by who bred them. We have no concept of the differences in locality and we don't care. We are paying top dolllar for brightly colored animals with no pedigree other than that of the person who put two attractively colored animals in a bin together.

I remember when people were freely interbreeding the antaresia species here. Now we are very careful to not mix our children's, spotted, stimson's and anthills. We are also now paying attention to locality differences within the species instead of blindingly interbreeding them for looks.

I'm sure that woma breeders are very knowledgeable about what markings and colors are more desireable than others. I'm with Neal on this one - I wouldn't pay double the price just because a couple of breeders decided a bright orange head makes the animal worth more.

also here is one place i found that has some good reads on womas

pics of different womas together: http://www.southernxreptiles.com/WOMAGALLERY.htm

nice article on womas:
http://www.southernxreptiles.com/Art...Fs/woma_lr.pdf

Nixer:

Good find on the pdf!

i agree. that is a great article.

skiploder im going to relate what you said to GTP. you can still find GTPs advertised as local speicmens but the ones that are most sought after are the outcrosses that produce the best colors. i see no difference in wanting a highly colored GTP to having a highly colored woma. some people like locals and good for them. me, i prefer color and thats what ill buy. i don't plan on buying from a broker. i plan on buying form someone that breeds them so i can get pictures of the parents.

its your money....spend it on what you want. if you want local then go local. but can you really prove that it is truly that local.

outcrosses and all that mean anything to me though, i dont plan on breeding them, so im satisfied with the normal phase, but im not gonna pay more then $350, i doubt id even spend $350, on any snake unless i can pay to get a black cobra without owning a permit. then id spend the $350.

i guess i can see why some people pay alot for some snakes if they like the way they look, but im not that type of person. i want a rufous beaked really bad, i have since november, but im not gonna pay over $120 for a wc, ill pay $150 around there for a CB. the reason i say this is because aa reptiles has r. rubopunctatas for like $300, they were $400, and i wouldnt pay that, i think the regular r. rostratus look better.

i suggest you hold out for the rufous then. or go with something different thats less money. i have only seen the beaked snakes from AA. never have seen them elsewhere so im not sure about that price.

buy what makes you happy. check kingsnake. i use it as a refernce and then ask around for breeders. there are some really cool looking animals out there that are cheaper than $350. just look around.