Not for me. No guarantee that they will ever eat regularly or breed. Not worth the discount. Get some CH or CB babies and grow them up.
05-27-2007, 01:51 PM
lord jackel
Re: WC Ball Pythons
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lockes
In general
My opinion -
They will ALL have some issues when you first get them (some more some less)
Ticks - easily treatable
Wounds and scars - treatable and will go away with sheds
Internal parasites - treatable
Acculmation issues - these are hit and miss some snakes will settle right down and start eating others may take a lot of work and still others may never eat - this in my opinion is the biggest issue to overcome. This is pry the biggest risk why unless you have lots of experience with getting snakes started most will recommend you stay away from WC.
The good side - potential for a new morph or trait. Also larger females are much much cheaper (relative to CB versions)...so it can help you get breeding sooner.
05-27-2007, 01:55 PM
tmlowe5704
Re: WC Ball Pythons
I have 2 WC that eat sporadically. I got them in january of this year and they have both eaten 5-6 times. I am going to switch them both to cypress and see if that convinces them to eat. One came in with ticks, a quick look over with tweezers and the usual PAM treatment and she was good to go. Both were over 1200 g when I got them and you can't beat that $40 price tag. I tried to breed one with my pastel male this year just to see if I could have any luck, but no such luck.
05-27-2007, 02:08 PM
Rapture
Re: WC Ball Pythons
Hey tm... how about trying pre-killed? I got the advice from the VPI book and my WC female eats religiously after months of fasting when I first got her while trying to feed live mice, rats, and gerbils.
05-27-2007, 02:10 PM
tmlowe5704
Re: WC Ball Pythons
Thanks rap. I never tried P/K but I may have to.
05-27-2007, 02:20 PM
Sevo
Re: WC Ball Pythons
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rapture
Hey tm... how about trying pre-killed? I got the advice from the VPI book and my WC female eats religiously after months of fasting when I first got her while trying to feed live mice, rats, and gerbils.
Did yours finally take a pre-killed rat or mouse?
05-29-2007, 10:35 AM
Lockes
Re: WC Ball Pythons
My biggest question is why wild caught ball pythons are still being taken out of the wild?
From the responses so far all I can say is that the only motivation for wiping out the wild population would be a financial one. Not completely wiping out but maybe significantly reducing the gene poolin the wild.
05-29-2007, 10:43 AM
tmlowe5704
Re: WC Ball Pythons
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lockes
My biggest question is why wild caught ball pythons are still being taken out of the wild?
From the responses so far all I can say is that the only motivation for wiping out the wild population would be a financial one. Not completely wiping out but maybe significantly reducing the gene poolin the wild.
Until Adam steps in, I will answer that as best as I can. Simply enough, there are still thousands of ball pythons being imported because there is a demand for them. Breeders only produce a small fraction of the demand for them so wild species are brought over from Africa to be sold. Though it may seem like a lot, think how many ball pythons there must be in Africa. It has not seemed like a big problem finding and importing tens of thousands yearly.
As I said, Adam knows much more about this topic and I'm sure would love to step in and give his say.
Edit: I found one of Adam's post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki
Brad nailed it.
Even with all of the captive breeding being done, we don't even come close to producing the numbers being imported into the US each year. It will be a long time before captive production can meet the demand for these animals.
On top of all that, the import and export of p. regius is regulated by an international body called the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora" or CITES ... they set the quota for the number of exports leaving each country in West Africa every year based on the numbers of ball pythons in the wild. It's there job to make sure ball pythons (and all animals under their umbrella) are farmed in a way that does not impact wild populations.
Wild ball pythons are well protected.
-adam
and another
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki
That's not going to happen.
Ball pythons are an internationally protected species. Their export and import is controlled by an organization called CITES. CITES is responsible for monitoring the wild populations of ball pythons can controlling the number of ball pythons that can be exported from Africa and imported into other countries around the world. These animals cannot be moved across borders without inspections and permits to protect them and their wild populations.
Stopping the exportation of ball pythons from Africa would be a bad thing for ball pythons at this point. The ruralization of Western Africa is causing a population explosion for ball pythons that is turning them into a nuisance animal. If the exports were to stop, the alternative would be for the governments in Ghana, Togo, etc to control their local ball python populations through other means ... which would likely be hunts, burnings, or worse (think rattle snake round ups but with ball pythons). The large scale exportation of ball pythons within the limits set by CITES which monitors their wild population keeps the numbers of ball pythons in the wild at a very healthy and very reasonable limit in order to protect the species as a whole.
Not to mention that the ball python export business is a huge industry over in Africa that employees many people and puts food on the table of a large number of families as well as supplies money to the governments of the West African countries the snakes are being exported from. It is in their best interest to make sure that the business (and money) continues to thrive for as long as possible.
No one is going to let ball pythons go extinct in the wild due to exportation.
