Getting Ball Pythons straight from Africa.

In about 3-4 weeks when they hatch/shed I will be receiving an unopened bag of 10 ball pythons from Africa through Outback Reptiles. Hopefully some of the babies will prove out to be genetic. I can't wait:D!! Just thought I would share:)

i saw that post on KS but it would be my luck to get a bunch of normals i mean i love bps but i love morphs

Don't expect to get anything spectacular. The gathers and farmers in Africa have learned in the last decade or two what is unusual and they jump onto a computer at the local internet cafe and check it out. They know what the costs are and they know what they can expect to get from the "cool" stuff. There is a possibility of getting reduced patterns, bandeds, and such and possibly even a yellowbelly or something like that that is more "normal" looking but then you have to spend years and years to prove them out and then determine if they are a new line or just another specimen of what already exists. Really the only good thing about fresh imports is it freshens the bloodlines of your collection. Good luck with the new ones when they come in. Todd

You may want to have a different location for these snakes until they clear your QT. Some can be pretty nasty. I wish you good luck, but I think the time has passed for getting anything special on these deals.

Jim Smith

Sorry but with the sickness that can be imported I opted out of getting in on the bag of balls deal. Good luck and I hope you get some cool looking stuff.

They claim there are no parasites or mites in Africa, has anyone ever confirmed this?

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Originally Posted by billye1982

They claim there are no parasites or mites in Africa, has anyone ever confirmed this?

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ya......no west nile either!!!:colbert:

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Originally Posted by billye1982

They claim there are no parasites or mites in Africa, has anyone ever confirmed this?

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I can't speak about recent activities, but 15 years ago, there were.

Jim Smith

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Originally Posted by snakeman13

ya......no west nile either!!!:colbert:

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LOL, no malaria or typhoid fever either huh :)

Hi,

From my patchy memory I don't think they have snake mites in Africa - I seem to remember them being Asian in origin.

I think they do have ticks and other assorted internal parasites though.

But as long as a good quarantine regime is in place I don't see unopened bags being any different than the usual CF animals in stores. They come form the same source after all - the shop just unpacked them.

You are however extremely likely to get a bag of normals - the people packing these bags are not stupid and this is their job. They know what looks unusual.

In fact they tend to sell the unusual one seperately as "specials" - buying a bag of specials would be of more interest to me simply to see what they looked like.

Just remember it takes at least one breeding to find out if anything is genetic and several over a couple of generations to be able to say for sure what you may have. ;)

Nobody is going to open a bag and get rich overnight. :rolleyes:


dr del

Wow this was a very helpful forum! I was thinking about doing the same thing in hopes of getting my female numbers up. I was a little hesitant mostly because of the possible disease and I really don't want to encourage the importation of wild animals. I know it is the cornerstone of this hobby but for some reason I don't mind putting domestic snakes in the tubs but I feel guilty about taking the "freedom" of a wild snake. I know, I am hoping to get over it in the future.

I can tell you 100% for sure, there are ticks and mites on these imported snakes.

I got a huge gravid female from Josh, and even though they treated her for parasites, she still had plenty of mites and about a dozen ticks on her.

Now, because I practice good QT procedures, I'm not bad-mouthing anyone, I just want you to be aware. I treated her tub with PAM before she got here, I treated her with Reptile Relief. Picked off the ticks by hand, and she seems good now.

I ordered one of these bags last year. The babies were indeed normals, but nevertheless they had good patterns and colors. They also had mites.

Bottom line, practice good QT. Remember the PAM, and enjoy your new babies!!

Gale
Gale

I thought about doing that, but decided I will wait to see what they post from the hold backs and pick up a male dinker.
More likely to get something genetic that way. I got a bag from Ballroom South a few years back and it was nothing but normals.
Sold all but one female.

Also, one more point to make...

They're not really "Wild" babies.

Ghana highly regulates the collection of eggs.

Basically, people collect eggs laid by wild snakes. The babies hatch and are immediately put in bags and shipped out.
Every baby captive hatched animal I have gotten has been 100% healthy and parasite/tick free.
It's only if the babies are allowed to drink before being shipped that you really have to worry about anything. They pick up a lot from the African water.

Captive hatched and wild caught are two completely different things.
Captive hatched babies are just as good as captive bred.

Thanks for the replies and i know Im not getting morphs ex:a spider, but I have seen so dinker balls that people have gotten from africa that look really cool and i just want fresh bloodlines as well. And if even one has a genetic trait then that is awesome, if not then all well, no biggie. and yes they will be quarintined when they arrive here for sure.

Id worry more about them at outback then the wild.. Just sayin!:D

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Originally Posted by ChrisGant911

Id worry more about them at outback then the wild.. Just sayin!:D

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I got a nice bag of babies from outback that were indeed parasite free and full of great looking normals, granites, and one that looks exactly like every het red axanthic I've ever seen. Also I have over a dozen other snakes from outback reptiles that arrived healthy and parasite free. JUST SAYIN!

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Originally Posted by snakeman13

ya......no west nile either!!!:colbert:

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Yup no poverty, hunger,or aids either..

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Originally Posted by chaples84

Yup no poverty, hunger,or aids either..

Sent from my XT1028 using Tapatalk

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Great contribution for a first post on a 4 year old thread :rolleye2:

High Five!
Down Low..
Too slow...

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Originally Posted by Kingofspades

Also, one more point to make...

They're not really "Wild" babies.

Ghana highly regulates the collection of eggs.

Basically, people collect eggs laid by wild snakes. The babies hatch and are immediately put in bags and shipped out.
Every baby captive hatched animal I have gotten has been 100% healthy and parasite/tick free.
It's only if the babies are allowed to drink before being shipped that you really have to worry about anything. They pick up a lot from the African water.

Captive hatched and wild caught are two completely different things.
Captive hatched babies are just as good as captive bred.

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Not to get too political here but I highly doubt that Ghana is regulating anything. I would not believe one word about their care. African countries can't provide basic sustainable healthcare and industry for their human populations, why would they do any better with regards to bags of snakes? I would never in a million years introduce an animal from Africa into my domesticated collection. Breeding domesticated animals results in them having a vastly different immune system and capacity to fight foreign pathogens. These African born animals could be harboring unknown numbers of microbes. Although the African BPs might look healthy, they could pass on parasites and pathogenic organisms to your immunologically naive domestically born animals. Not to mention that Underground Reptiles itself maintains animals in less than desirable conditions. I have been to their physical location in South Florida, and saw first hand multiple sick and uncared for animals in their shop.