What to do with unwanted normals?

Howdy all, I considering breeding morphs and have a question regarding the normal offspring. Now I love snakes, but I would want to keep my operation fairly small focusing on a few high quality morphs. Of course in the process I would produce several normals in the course of breeding as well, and I was wondering what exactly do people do with these extra snakes. Are they difficult to find buyers for? What is the best venue to try to sell these snakes (eg Internet, local pet stores, reptile shows)? The price I would sell them for is fairly inconsequential, I just would want to find good buyers that would treat the snakes well. Thanks! :)

I have an idea give them to me :D

unwanted????

Thousands of normal ball pythons are imported from Africa each year in order to meet the ball python demand. CBB normals should not be a problem to sell at all. The best venue is what is best for you.....all the ones that you listed are great. I just mentioned that I was planning on breeding ball pythons when I was picking up some mice at the local petstore and they wanted to how many I expect to have and when can I get the babies to them.....ha ha...one experience like that and I got a good understanding of what the bp 'market' is all about.

You will find someone that will want your babies.....No worries :D

You will have NO problem selling CB females. Males will be a bit harder. You will always be able to sell them for $10-$20 to a pet store but of course you will have no idea if they go to a good home. I have 3 gorgeous males that were born in May but there just isn't much market and I am not willing to just give them away to a pet store without knowing how they will be treated or whether the store will even care. I would rather give them away to someone that I know will take care of them then make a few bucks and not know.

I keep all of the normal females that I produce, but finding buyers for them isn't hard ... I turn down lots of people looking for quality girls each year.

I have a local guy that deals to the pet stores that takes my normal males from me ... and I always keep a few to sell over the internet, and have no problems selling them.

In the past, I used to trade my normal males to a local pet store for credit towards feeders or supplies which always worked out great!

If you are going to sell ball pythons, then you are going into business and you should act like it ... research, advertise, market, sell ... if you do the things that all businesses do you'll sell what you want to sell .... the ball python market is strong!! ;)

-adam

Hell yeah Adam! We are no where near ready for breeding and I've got both the local pet stores wanting any spare normal males I produce LOL (they won't get there hands on my future girlies tho!) Makes business sense for us, makes business sense for the pet stores. They get well started babies with no shipping costs/stress involved and Mike and I get a nice credit with them for whatever dry goods type supplies we might need.

Just like breeding any creature though, you have to plan ahead for the spare young and be prepared to raise them and feed them until you get a home for them and plan ahead for that.


~~Jo~~

I think the experts pretty much covered everything, its all about planning and being responsible. Females are worth their weight gold once they get well started, and the males should be fairly easily sold in the pet trade. Not to mention if your going to be working with high end only any "normals" you would have will be X% het for whatever you are working with and will attract buyers also.

And did I mention that you could always give them to me, i am more than certain i could make a nice home for them & I have a hot little momma who will be coming into her breeding weight within the next year! Hubba hubba!!

FREEZER!!!!!


Just kidding..lol

Thanks for all the responses! It's good to hear that there is a good market for normals as well. I was just worried about having swarms of snakes (hmm...is there a group word for snakes/ball pythons?...you know like murder of crows or pride of lions?) that I wouldn't be able to sell. :D

Always a good market.

Plenty of folks are perfectly happy with normals and as has been mentioned ESPECIALLY when they are confirmed CB, and definitely moreso if females.


I thought it was a gaggle of balls? A pod? Clutch sounds so . . . . painful.

Well, eggs that come from the same hatching are a clutch so..yeah..clutch!

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Originally Posted by Smulkin

Always a good market.

Plenty of folks are perfectly happy with normals and as has been mentioned ESPECIALLY when they are confirmed CB, and definitely moreso if females.


I thought it was a gaggle of balls? A pod? Clutch sounds so . . . . painful.

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Wait a sec..gaggle..Way better!

since these animals aren't really group animals the only word that I know of for a group is "clutch" pertaining to the eggs.


Experts?

oh! oh! google turns up the words den, nest, and pit but those are more what you find a "group" in not what the group itself is called.

hrm...

murder???

I vote for gaggle.

Are we making them up? What about a slither of ball pythons?

my thought would be that since most snakes do not travel or live in groups..(except maybe hibernating rattlesnakes)....there is no need for a group term....if more than one snake is seen at a time.....then they are just some snakes :)

Please, please excuse the stupid question but why are females worth that much more? I understand that their value should be a little higher from a breeding standpoint but why such a large discrepancy in value? Are there proportionally more males in a clutch?

It's not that there's more males in a clutch, it's that one male can mate with a significant number of females... meaning you need fewer males to female ratio

Excellent point!

Ill Take Them Or Buy Them

Lmmfaoa cage!!!! FREEZER that's messed up. I am afraid of the freezer at our pet store...dead bunnies and rats and some ill herps....its a horror show.

hey there!

I'm brand new at this, just signed up and getting to know everyone. I have bred normal balls for the past three years, and if i were you, selling your extra babies in the paper or at a reptile show would be your best bet. A lot of pet stores either don't want to give you what the snakes are worth, or only want to give you store credit. Also, you could probably trade your bulk babies at a show for one that was het for something, thus adding to your breeding project. Pet stores sometimes don't seem to take as good a care of their snakes as they should, and you want your babies to get good homes, right?:)

Excellent points and welcome to the forum! Hope you enjoy it here!


~~Joanna~~

In my experience, many of the people sitting behind tables at local "swap meet" style shows aren't much better than pet store owners. There's good and bad apples in every barrel.

I think a more appropriate point might be that if you want to make sure the babies that you produce and sell are going to go to good homes, then make sure you really know the people that you are selling them to.

-adam

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

In my experience, many of the people sitting behind tables at local "swap meet" style shows aren't much better than pet store owners. There's good and bad apples in every barrel.

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Generally speaking this statement is correct, however if you do your research (most notably at places we cannot mention here;)) it is possible to find reputable breeders at these shows. I'm fortunate enough to live in Central Ohio and there are a couple guys local that have good reputations that I feel are trustworthy.

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Originally Posted by buckdawg

Generally speaking this statement is correct, however if you do your research (most notably at places we cannot mention here;)) it is possible to find reputable breeders at these shows. I'm fortunate enough to live in Central Ohio and there are a couple guys local that have good reputations that I feel are trustworthy.

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I absolutely agree ... I have many friends that do shows that I know are good people ... which goes back to my statement about knowing who you are dealing with.

My point was more geared towards anyone that expects to walk in off the street to a show and do any better than they would walking into a pet store.

Research, research, research. ;)

And I know that the admins will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that there is a problem with "mentioning" other sites like the BOI .... the problem is when you provide a link to them or give out their specific address in the forum. It's a subtle difference, but an important one.

-adam

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

Research, research, research. ;)

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Amen.

www.reptilebuyer.com This is Alex Hue and he would probably take any unwanted animals you have... Pretty good feller as well...

sorry for the late reply but ill gladly take a normal male of ur hands.. im personally into snakes for pleasure not to profit of them. So i prefer normals consider them a brand new factory car without any modifications :P