Vote for BP.Net for the 2013 Forum of the Year! Click here for more info.

» Site Navigation

» Home
 > FAQ

» Online Users: 1,035

0 members and 1,035 guests
No Members online
Most users ever online was 47,180, 07-16-2025 at 05:30 PM.

» Today's Birthdays

None

» Stats

Members: 75,945
Threads: 249,141
Posts: 2,572,336
Top Poster: JLC (31,651)
Welcome to our newest member, SONOMANOODLES
Results 1 to 10 of 35

Threaded View

  1. #19
    BPnet Veteran
    Join Date
    02-02-2016
    Location
    Boston Area
    Posts
    671
    Thanks
    197
    Thanked 572 Times in 308 Posts
    Images: 1

    Re: Bought a new ball python, he came with a contract agreement, need advice.

    I agree that you can probably do what you want later breeding-wise and no one will bother you.

    But I think it's worth pointing out that the humane society's policy of asking people not to breed the animals they rescue isn't just because they are worried about the snake equivalent of puppy mills. It's because there are also many animals out there that get neglected or "sold downriver" multiple times and are in need of good homes; they don't want people adding to the numbers just because they think it's cute to have babies. That argument doesn't really have anything to do with how good of a breeder you are, or even how carefully you vet the homes that your babies go to; they can always argue that the good home your baby went to might have taken in some poor needy animal instead if they hadn't just acquired your baby.
    I don't know about the "fungibility" of snakes and whether that last part is true or not, but a quick Craigslist search in my area always reveals any number of ball pythons people are selling or "rehoming"; most of them quite young, so clearly someone got an animal that could live decades, and then lost interest in less than a year or two. This forum alone is full of examples of people who got a pet snake without knowing some incredibly basic things about them - like the fact that they produce urates, for example, or that their eyes get cloudy when they shed... and at least the people who show up on the forum are trying to find out.
    It always strikes me as sort of unsettling that you can buy an animal with such a long lifespan, so quickly and easily and for so cheap. But part of the reason the humane society doesn't want you to breed is to limit the overall oversupply, in hopes of reducing the number of animals that are treated as throwaway accessories, and then need rescuing.

    The vagaries of the BP market means that babies coming from a super pastel orange ghost would likely be more valuable and desirable than average, and thus more likely to be cared for appropriately, doesn't really change that picture by very much.

    I'm not at all saying you shouldn't breed the snake if you want to, and didn't actually promise not to. I just think the no-breeding policy is not entirely unreasonable. It's not overboard like my colleague/friend the militant PETA type, whom I finally blocked on FB so I could post about my snake without starting issues.

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to Coluber42 For This Useful Post:

    Megg (06-23-2016)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v4.2.1