Buying hets from a new breeder..What do you need to know?

[garweft]

One of the first guys to give out paperwork turned out to be a scammer.

That pretty much says it all

[purplemuffin]

That's interesting, I'll keep that in mind. I'll still document everything in photos(as much for myself as for the buyer) but I can see how that would be a serious problem and could be manipulated by a scammer..

Hopefully my luck will be good and I will get some visual morphs out of these breedings! This group might not stay the way it is, if I find a good deal on a great snake or am able to spend a little more I might add a few more codoms. I like fireflies, if I can find a sweet pastel and an awesome fire(still learning what to look for on those) that would be a fun project that I could plug into other things later

I'm very excited right now! It feels like I already am incubating eggs gotta be patient now

[Don]

I think one of the most important things is for the breeder to be a solid member of their community. They may be new to breeding ball pythons, but they should not be new to the community. Someone who has been in the same area for a long time and is established isn't going to ruin their reputation over fake hets. If you google the name of the breeder, i would expect to see that they have a responsible reputation as a person.

There is a lot of access to public records and scammers are scammers. A new breeder who is a scammer has probably tried other scams. The Internet and public records are a wonderful thing. As others have said, paperwork is only as good as the reputation of the person supplying it.

[Don]

Forgot to add: If someone is selling hets, then they better darn well have a homozygous version of the morph in their collection and be willing to share pictures with buyers. If they do not, that is a major red flag.

[purplemuffin]

That's one of my biggest reason for wanting at least ONE visual parent of all my recessive animals! PLUS..I don't want to play that 'het game'!

I try to stay active here on the forums, and when things get closer to coming together I will try to become more active as a hopeful breeder in the community. Hopefully these next few years will be all about making good connections and friends. I want to be a good buyer as well as a good seller!

Today was sort of random lucky. I went to my grandma's house and she was complaining how her wine cooler never worked and she was going to throw it out. Guess who picked that up? It's about the size of a large minifridge. I guess a little more than two feet tall? It's sitting by itself in our storage room for now, but that's one piece of equipment I hopefully now won't have to worry about in the future.

Now I just need a house of my own, to get to my target amount of money(I have about 1000 now, but I've been saving slowly) and the rest of my shopping will begin!


I'm setting up an etsy account as well to help me save up. I'm in art college full time with no time for a job(classes random throughout the day) so I'll be making awesome fun things to sell. I have some really neat ideas, some of them reptile themed. I want to make cutesy/cartoony stuffed animals based off REAL reptiles(not just 'lizard' which looks like an iguana, alligator, and a gecko at the same time! LOL)

I'll be sure to post any reptile themed artstuff here as well. Thinking of making custom ball python dolls/scarves/cute paintings/bracelets and things so people can have their favorite morph or maybe their favorite pet snake with his or her special pattern!



It seems overall the best thing to do is be a good person! I know I would HATE to be ripped off.. And I have a goal in mind other than money, I can't imagine doing something like that to someone else! It would get in the way of what I want to do eventually--get the experience and respect so that I can breed the less often bred species of snakes and help preserve them in captivity and increase interest in them in the pet trade while lessening the pressure on wild caught animals. That's why I want to breed. I want to make snakes I love, and I want to help out my favorite underdog snakes! Would love to be one of the firsts to successfully breed some of the wild caught animals to finally get some captive born and bred babies and start a new line of healthier animals. Then hopefully people will start buying the cbb babies and imports will slow down a little. That's why I need to get a good reputation, so I can do good for those snakes and people will trust in my word as a seller(and know I'm not scamming them!) I know this is years and years down the line, but I don't want to do anything now that could tarnish my name when it really matters.


Ah, I type too much!

[JulieInNJ]

Great thread! Thank you to all who posted!

[PitOnTheProwl]

I am not a big "facebook", "tweeter", and "whatever the next one will be" user.
I am more of a face to face type of guy
The best thing you can do is network in your area, word of mouth spreads like wild-fire. I am here and on a couple of local forums here in my city. I am trying to stay away from hets but I do have an albino male (some how he came home with me)
I know I am going to produce at least OG hets to make the females I need but some of the guys around here are already getting to know me and know I dont screw around when I say what I will do
Your "word" is all you have to live by and people will start to trust you.
Even though we all know a het is still a gamble, you have to also be ready for people that are looking for the easy scam

[mechnut450]

I just posted my hets for 2011 in the trade/sell section I have the video of me cutting the eggs and pics of them out of the egg and as a group in a bowl from when I got ready to set them in their own tubs. I used my visible albino to a 100% proven het female so I knew I get at elast 100% hets.
Now when I did the pieds the ear befoer I had one pied and rest possibl hets and had a paper stating that for one person that got them on fuana, ( heatherherps got my pied and a possible het male when we did a trade)

Until a got a better rep I am doing to the orginal buyer a visible albino backing against my hets )
if they don't produce a visible het , they send females back to me and the next season I will use my visible male to them and prove them out, then they get half the clutch and their females back(as it be consider a breeding loan) when I prove them. if not proven then I send them my male albino. ( and this is only to the orginal buyer as they will have to a paper to sign for the warrenty as I will keep a copy of every thing on file for x years. as well as paper works stating they 100% het .

[Sugarbone]

I can't really add anything useful to this discussion, only that I'm totally jealous you're starting with a clown!

[purplemuffin]

I can't really add anything useful to this discussion, only that I'm totally jealous you're starting with a clown!

See, that's how I felt about looking at all these breeders with clowns..so I decided..I want to start with one! And I started saving money like a mad woman