Importing Questions

[Jbabycsx]

In my boredom just now, I started reading some old posts about people importing balls directly from Africa. From what I can tell, the sellers there are going out and collecting eggs to hatch. Once the eggs hatch they sell them to people in America through all kinds of back channel and secretive connections. I also see that they have females there in captivity that are basically baby making machines.

With all that being said, why would anyone want to import these balls when they are basically doing the same thing that breeders are doing here? Is it just the huge retailers doing this? I know Underground Reptiles is known for importing. How popular is this trade these days? I’m planning a trip to Africa and I would like to know how “open” this whole trade is. Is it something that is protected by people with machine guns? Lol

PS- I have no intention of trying to enter or partake in this trade. Just curious.


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[MR Snakes]

Most open air markets sell them. Yes, I'd like a loaf of bread, some corn meal and a bag of snakes please.

[artgecko]

I believe the only advantage would probably be lower cost than snakes available in the US. That said, I highly doubt the biggest chains (i.e. petco/petsmart) are selling WC or CH..I'd assume they are selling the lower quality cast offs of big breeders here in the US. I know WC and CH animals supposedly have loads of issues to deal with and a higher die-off rate during importation and just after, so I'd think a retailer wouldn't want to deal with that unless they are already used to importing lots of WC animals (like underground reptiles and others).

[RXLReptiles]

The main reason that it still exists today, at least to my knowledge, is new morphs. Most BP morphs were wild caught or CH babies that got sold to US breeders for tons of money.

The most popular story that comes to mind for me is the first pinstripe ball, it was purchased by Brian Barczyk, without seeing it first, for like almost $30k. The importer told him it was completely different than anything he'd ever seen, so Brian bought it, proved it genetic, and was able to build most of his facility and company with one very expensive imported BP. So every pinstripe related morph in the world is related to that one snake. At least that's what I've heard over the years, I've tried looking for any real evidence of the story on the web, but the only evidence is BHB being listed as the original producer on WOB and some videos on youtube that tell bits of the story.

[redshepherd]

In my boredom just now, I started reading some old posts about people importing balls directly from Africa. From what I can tell, the sellers there are going out and collecting eggs to hatch. Once the eggs hatch they sell them to people in America through all kinds of back channel and secretive connections. I also see that they have females there in captivity that are basically baby making machines.

With all that being said, why would anyone want to import these balls when they are basically doing the same thing that breeders are doing here? Is it just the huge retailers doing this? I know Underground Reptiles is known for importing. How popular is this trade these days? I’m planning a trip to Africa and I would like to know how “open” this whole trade is. Is it something that is protected by people with machine guns? Lol

PS- I have no intention of trying to enter or partake in this trade. Just curious.


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They don't just collect eggs, I believe the majority still collect ball pythons in general, including normals. So yes, normals still get imported regularly. I don't know if this applies to EVERY single trapper, but the ones an acquaintance of mine joined in with just collected snakes in general of basically any snake species to mass export, so it's not specific to balls.

"females being baby making machines", actually ball python females can only lay one clutch a year LOL and sometimes they skip a year and won't go- same exact thing as the breeders here. That's just how female ball pythons work... not like dogs and cats who can be repeatedly bred right after they give birth.

"How open the trade is", from what I gather, it's actually very open and casual. My friend who simply went there on a working trip and lived in a small village for a few months made friends with the townsfolk and many of them were trappers on the side, so it seems to be a pretty common way for them to make some money. He just asked to see their collection of wild-caught animals and they brought him in and showed him! The living conditions are of course not very pretty, but he got to see a lot of interesting snakes, including venomous, just all together in the same facility.

He later asked to join their trapping trip (for a few days), and they were just like "sure" and he up and went LOL.

He also did visit a facility that had morphs that looked like pastels. I don't know if those are wild caught, but I would assume so.

That said, I'm sure there are the wealthier trappers with bigger connections that breeders and people here go to mainly visit if you're just going on vacation. But it's just not so secretive or unique of a job as you think.

[redshepherd]

^ I thought I'd add to my above post that his experience was in Ghana.