Hey! Welcome!

I traffic between the Bay and Stanislaus(Turlock).
I have bought my snakes from various sources; online, local breeders, and reptile shows.
They were all great successful transactions.

I can recommend a few Bay Area/Valley breeders that are good. They ship if you are unable to pick up the animal yourself.
- Brian Gundy from "For Goodness Snakes" is near San Jose.
- Robert Seib of "Eastern Indigos" in Walnut Creek
- Sam and Naomi of "GBU Enterprises" in Lodi (They had a reptile store they just sold that is now being called"Misfit Petz", but they still breed privately)


Freedom Breeder is in Turlock. I know they breed and produce snakes, but they don't have a specific website for their animals to look at. They're better known for building their reptile racks. But I'm sure if you call them up, they'll let you come by and check out some of the animals.



As for buying a baby, I personally like raising up my own snakes from hatchling to adults. Watching them change and grow is very interesting.
But be aware that some babies are more prone to being nippy than an older animal. It comes with their small size because they are vulnerable and easily insecure at that age. Most do outgrow the nippy-ness with size and age. And they are rather sensitive to enclosure size. Most babies prefer very small enclosures because it feels secure to them. Too large of an enclosure can stress out of a snake and make them go off feed.
But if you clutter up the enclosure and keep it from being 'too open', it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

It also helps to ask the breeder if their animals are good eaters. Ball Pythons with a strong food drive are a major plus and make things so much easier. Dealing with a picky eater can be a pain. And unfortunately, ball pythons aren't known to be very good eaters as a whole species.