Where do they all go?

[Gerardo]

I Know that large pythons lay alot of eggs. Sometimes people have ahard time selling all their BP hatchlings. I would imagine thay finding homes for the giants might be a little tougher. Where do all the babies end up?

[reptileexperts]

This sounds extremely familiar, did you watch the urban jungle video recently? This topic is not exactly comparable to ball pythons.

1) Anyone can breed ball pythons and produce eggs, they are small, easy to breed, and a lot lot lot of people are breeding which is why they are hard to home (insert demand vs produced amount)

2) The average clutch size of retics is probably closer to 25 young, when working with massive girls (not many people are) you can see 40-60 egg clutches, but its not a common thing. When you consider dwarf / superdwarf clutches. You are looking closer to the lines of 10-20 eggs.

3) Demand for retics > supply at current. There are a few breeders who are producing a good chunk of snakes, but still its not that many. And many of those are supplying European markets (Prehistoric pets, Bob Clark, and now even Travis Kubes).

So where do they go? To special homes that want to take on the challenge of owning one of the most rewarding species in the hobby. Is there too many retics out there? Nope. Most breeders sell out quick quick even with many snakes fetching well over 1,000 per baby.

end rant

[Gerardo]

I have not seen that video. Just something i was curious about. I always thought that everybody was hatching out 60 babies per clutch. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Bluebonnet Herp]

Great reply, Cody, however, what do you know of the other giants such as burms, anacondas, etc?

[reptileexperts]

Burmese are so controlled now that the breeders are no longer breeding since they cant sell across state lines. So those are dying into even fewer numbers.

Anacondas are not widely bred at all. I know a lot of retic owners dabble in green anacondas, which are not as of yet regulated by the lacy act. But it sure seems tough to find a good captive bred one.

African Rocks are the same boat. . . few people breed them now because 1) they have a reputation as being a nasty snake, 2) they are on the lacy act so it limits sells potential.

A lot of people do still breed Burmese. However, I'd say a lot that end up in troubled homes probably end up dying before ever reaching their max size. Not saying that's a good thing, but its a statement of truth since they are cheap to get, people don't look into the permit system, and people fail to feed them often enough.

This is just observation**