Considering buying this beautiful one

Hey all, I plan on making my first purchase! I was at a place and this guy screamed my name.

http://i.imgur.com/VFNd1eF.jpg

I was wondering what the going rate is for this blue eyed leucistic. One thing not shown in the photo--it has very faint yellow lines along its back...I did not even see them at first.
I don't know its morph or if it's male or female, and to be honest I don't care which I get. I don't have much information other than this photo, and the store said the breeder information is confidential.
It was really docile and we were instant friends.

Any ideas or estimates would be appreciated. I may have to rescue him.

- Mybright1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mybright1

Hey all, I plan on making my first purchase! I was at a place and this guy screamed my name.

http://i.imgur.com/VFNd1eF.jpg

I was wondering what the going rate is for this blue eyed leucistic. One thing not shown in the photo--it has very faint yellow lines along its back...I did not even see them at first.
I don't know its morph or if it's male or female, and to be honest I don't care which I get. I don't have much information other than this photo, and the store said the breeder information is confidential.
It was really docile and we were instant friends.

Any ideas or estimates would be appreciated. I may have to rescue him.

- Mybright1

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No!! Don't buy it!!!!
Can you tell me where it's at? LOL
JUST KIDDING.

Price depends on the morph and if it's male or female. I would check the Kingsnake.com classifieds, Fauna Classifieds, and the Reptile Report Marketplace to get an idea.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mybright1

I was at a place and this guy screamed my name.

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You stand to make a bunch of money if his vocal chords prove genetic!

yeah, its pretty.

but, as others said, it depends on the gender and the genetics and the weight.

i think its most likely to be a super lesser/butter or a lesser/butter + mojave, but there are many other possibilities.

its quite a deal-breaker when the store says that breeder information is confidential. thats weird. it could mean anything, best case scenario is that they buy from BHB or something and re-sell at greatly increased prices and dont want to tell you because a 5-minute search would reveal how much they marked up the price. or they just picked it up at a reptile show.

its better to cut out the middle-man, unless the price is right and/or you like your local pet store so much that you want to support them with some serious amount of cash. the owner of my favorite pet store was honest to me: he just knows a lot about reptiles and spiders and says he picks most of what he sells at reptile shows but also occasionally buys from smaller local breeders. what he didnt say, but it was easy enough for me to figure out, is that he multiplies the prices by a factor of between 2 and 3, in some cases even more. thats quite normal.

Just found out it is a male. There are two there, this is the slightly larger male.

Ah a bel-one of my favorites. Could be a white diamond?

Honestly I'm not comfortable with the whole breeder is confidential thing.
i would do a search on fauna, kingsnake, & reptile report marketplace. I have had nothing but good experiences going though the actual breeder for the snake.

I wouldn't buy from a pet store. The "breeder is confidential" nonsense is one of the reasons. There is just no good reason (good for the customer or the snake at least) to do that. There are 2 reasons I can think of that are good for the store. If they don't give away the source, then you might be forced to buy from them (at the marked up price). Also, they don't have to bother to keep track of which snake came from where.

I couldn't see the photo, so I can't comment on that.

I know a lot can be, but not all pet stores are evil. Yes it is true that they probably don't want you going directly to the breeder and cutting them out (or maybe the breeder does not want 1000 phone calls about stuff they don't even have anymore, I know some like this), but they are trying to make a living, it does not mean anything is wrong with the snake. I did see one just posted on facebook for $500 (plus shipping, generally around $50), a male lesser/mojo BEL. Not sure on the weight of either snake (larger is typically more $$)

if you like the snake and the price is not horrible and you don't want to wait or mess with other sources, why not?
I'd just make SURE that it is eating, and what it is eating, and when it last ate. (and get the enclosure set up first, they will generally hold it if you pay for it, so you can get everything setup first)

they do look cool. I just got some eggs from my Mojave female, hopefully I'll have some baby BEL's in about 50 days! :)

It isn't a 'mom and pop' store per say, its a chain. And yes I imagine they are keeping the details of the breeder out so I'll have to pay them directly, and/or so I won't harass the breeder (probably the first). They are asking $1000 for it. I can afford it, but I also do not wanna get ripped off, ya know?

I am starting to get my set up going, if I'm not lazy about it I can have it done in a week. I guess it will give me time to sleep on it. Also, I did check on all those sites listed...I did not see too many blue eyed leucistics there, which was kind of disheartening.

- Mybright1

$1000 is too much!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I figured it did seem kinda high based on prices I found. I guess it would help to state my intentions with pythons as well. I would like to breed at least once at some point, and I'm researching where to start. But, first and foremost, I have to see if I am dedicated, so I'll start with just one snake!

Is it the general consensus that if you do plan to breed, then start with a female vs a male?

- Mybright1

Yes you want to start with a female. Because it can take a couple years or longer before they are ready to breed, when males can go by next season or sometimes sooner.

Thank you all for the input. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled and keep researching while working on the new home.

Great community you guys have here; I'll be coming back often!

- Mybright1

If you want to breed at some point it is better time wise to start with a female, they take longer to get large enough and have to be larger to breed than males. Also as time goes on prices drop, so getting a better male next year or the year after will be cheaper, plus it is not uncommon to see breeder sized males going for decent prices as breeders replace them with better ones.

I've seen smaller (little bigger than hatchlings) go for 5-600, so for a pet store price it is not outrageous, but if you are willing to part with around 1K then there are a LOT of female options (including BEL's) open.


Female blue eye lucy (mojave x russo) $600
Male high white pied Proven $750 (breeder example)
Female pieds - low-medium white (6) $535 low white $600 medium white
http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.p...=32&de=1046038

heck, big female almost ready to breed. ($1250 shipped)
http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.p...=32&de=1044079

breeder male $750
http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.p...=32&de=1040921

anyway, you get the idea. A few more notes, when reading, blue eyed lucy, blue eyed lucistic and BEL are all the same thing. And there are multiple ways of making them, and they can look slightly different. Mojave X Mojave will make one with a slight head pattern but any other combo of butter/lesser (same thing) and mojave and Russo(less common) will produce a similar looking mostly pattern-less BEL. play around on this sight to see what the different combos look like:
http://www.worldofballpythons.com/wizard/

I wouldn't spend more than 5-600 for a male BEL at this point - this season a ton of these are going to pop up and that will be the price.

Also, there's a snake in the hide, the snake in the foreground, and then your snake. How many snakes are housed in that tank? I wouldn't support that kind of practice.

That's why in my post I said I may have to rescue him :/. There were a total of 5 in that small space