** ball python industry going under????**

[janett]

Many breeders will wholesale normals and sometimes hets that are in lesser demand to pet stores. There simply isn't a huge amount of demand for normals (ESPECIALLY normal males) in the breeding side of things, and many pet stores (those that actually care about animals) would rather buy local captive hatched babies that are in good shape and they don't have to pay shipping for, instead of babies from Africa.

Never underestimate normals, though. Simply because they aren't in high demand with breeders, doesn't mean that they can't be wonderful pets. Many ball python owners start out with a normal from a pet store, and they learn how great the snakes are from that.

Actually thats how I started. My husband actually begged for a BP. I told him, "NO way, they are mean!", his response was, "You get all those shoes you want!" So needless to say, I bought him a BP for his Birthday. Sad thing is that, it for some reason hated him. If I was in the room, it would try to crawl away to get on my arm or my neck or something. Its the one pictured above that I posted. Anyway, after that, he showed me all the different morphs, and I was hooked. He wanted to start breeding, so I saved up money and purchased a few morphs and after a couple years he we are our first season. Only, my husband is kinda "fed up" I guess he didn't realize that its a LOT of patience and I am VERY clean, I have a set schedule that I do EVERYTHING regarding my snakes. Same time every day for spot cleaning, water check, temp check, etc etc. Anyway, he kinda ditched me with regards to the snakes, and here I am....loving them more than ever!!!! lol Is it sad to be more in love with my snakes than I am with my husband???? lol