2nd Petco BP Visit

[JLC]

After this, looks like I may have to get a snake delivered sight unseen after all...

Have you checked for any reptile shows coming up in your area? Even a 2-3 hour drive would not be too far to go, in my opinion. Besides just the fun of attending, you may get the chance to look through LOTS of bp's in person and actually speak to the people breeding/selling them. Way, way better than a few sad snakes in a pet store.

But even if you can't get to a show, I would rather buy from a breeder online than buy from a petstore. The only time I would buy from a petstore (if my husband would tolerate it...LOL) is if I happened across an extremely unusual bp for a "normal" price. ...Figure the odds!

[TraconSnake]

I was told that they were captive bred, but who knows. I think the bigger chain stores are doing captive bred, however, due to the pressures of trying to maintain a positive image.


As for shows, the herp society lists the next reptile show as September 16, 2006. Quite a ways away. I'll be ready to go in July.

I contacted a breeder in this forum and he pointed me to a breeder down south of here. This breeder states on their website that they will only do single sales with genders which they have an excess of. And they seem to operate out of their home, so I'm not sure if they'd allow me to pick one up in person yet (E-mail response pending)

Colorado seems to be a great void of breeders, or at least, the ones who can be found through a search engine.

[hornsrule]

talk to jamie glass. he has one normal male left according to his site. it will cost you about 85 with shipping. he posts on this site a lot. i bought my male bp from him and he is great. his website is www.glassreptiles. i believe another person on the forum bought one of his others.

[JLC]

Yeah, Jamie is a great guy. You can't go wrong with him!

[daniel1983]

I was told that they were captive bred, but who knows. I think the bigger chain stores are doing captive bred, however, due to the pressures of trying to maintain a positive image.

No big chain store is doing captive bred. They all sell CH imports, and anyone that tells you different does not know any better. The number of normal captive bred ball pythons produced each year is so small compared to the demand for babies that probably all of the BP breeders in the US combined could not supply one big chain like Petco or Petsmart. The cost of CH babies when compared to CBB babies is also a reason that these chains sell CH. I could buy 5-6 CH ball pythons for the price you would pay for one CH BP in any petstore.....petstores can mark up the price of an animal over 3x what they paid for it.

Buy from a breeder or at least a quality dealer...You will be much happier with your purchase.

[jotay]

I bought my bp from Petco about 2 yrs ago and even tho they said he was cbb I think he was maybe captive born but not breed.
Mine was a sweetie pie right from the get go.
If you can go w/ a breeder just like everyone said that would be they way to go.
Force feeding is never a good thing and I can't believe a Petco would even care enough to do it. Sounds fishy .

Not all bp's from Petco are bad or mean or in poor health, but that bunch I think I would stay away from. If you do choose to buy one from a Petco make sure you have a good exotic vet lined up to take it to.

Check around and I am sure you could find a good breeder to buy from.

[adizziedoll]

The less people buying from the pet stores, the less demand there will be from africa. (of course that's where we get all our pretty morphs from, and is somewhat hypocritical) Stick with a breeder and get a quality animal, with outstanding customer support to help you out through your herping adventure! (and YES, there WILL BE MORE!- welcome to the nuthouse)

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

The less people buying from the pet stores, the less demand there will be from africa. (of course that's where we get all our pretty morphs from, and is somewhat hypocritical) Stick with a breeder and get a quality animal, with outstanding customer support to help you out through your herping adventure! (and YES, there WILL BE MORE!- welcome to the nuthouse)

I wouldnt say that... its not as if breeders are having to euthanize their males because they cant sell them.

Until breeders in the states are producing enough snakes to meet the needs, they will continue importing snakes from Africa. Once there is enough being produced, then it will become a price war, and Africa may or may not keep winning (by then some morphs may be common enough that they gain the edge over normals priced low in africa). Im bad at the guessing games.

I figure breeders will always be able to sell at a fair enough price to customers, just not to pet stores like PetCo who pay less than $10 a snake and re-sell for $80.

[TraconSnake]

No big chain store is doing captive bred. They all sell CH imports, and anyone that tells you different does not know any better.

PetSmart doesn't sell BPs, but they actually have marked on their tags "Captive Bred" for their Cornsnakes at least. We'll have to wait and see when they start selling BPs.

[daniel1983]

PetSmart doesn't sell BPs, but they actually have marked on their tags "Captive Bred" for their Cornsnakes at least. We'll have to wait and see when they start selling BPs.

My comment was directed at Ball pythons. If PetSmart does have ball pythons...I can say with almost 100% certainty that they will be CH. You also have to be very careful at the labeling of snakes when you purchase them. Some snakes are sold as CB which most people figure as captive bred; however, some dealers will label CH as CB to move the animals. They can get away with this by saying CB means captive born which is the same as captive hatched. If you are looking for animals from any dealer make sure that it is captive born and breed(CBB).

As far as the corn snakes being captive bred, I don't think I have heard of people selling WC corn snakes in a long time. It is a big difference when you are dealing with an corn snake that can lay 15+ eggs and a ball python that averages around 6 eggs. Small clutches is one reason why CBB ball python prices (morphs and normals) are alot higher than the majority of other snakes out there....the production is alot slower due to small clutches.