My new ball

[Weaver]

Found this male on faunaclassifieds. The guy said he is DH pied and ghost but he only wanted $100 shipped for him because he hasn't bred him and has no way to prove it. He's 3 years old, 849g, and 3'4". I figured at that price I couldn't go wrong because even if he's just a normal that's a good price for an established adult male. And hey, if he happens to give me a pied in a couple years, I won't turn him down. (don't worry folks, I'm not that naive, but I can dream) He's a very nice looking, well tempered snake. He has a few marks on him that look like he may have had a recent bad shed, and there's a small mark on his belly that looks like a burn. I've been treating all the marks with neosporin. The guy said he was more interested in breeding his chameleons than messing with snakes so I got lucky. Here's a pic. I named him Regis.

[Jake_la_serpiente]

Nice looking guy. Any pied markers on him?

[JLC]

Well, I'm not sure how anyone who was just "messing around" with snakes and not particularly interested would have come up with a DH anything. But I suppose it's within the realm of possibility that the guy has a het pied and a het ghost in his collection and some babies came out possible hets for either, somewhere along the way...but he didn't bother keeping any records.......???


LOL....regardless of the slimmest of possiblities, he's a very handsome guy!!

[daniel1983]

Neat looking guy.

If you don't mind me asking, who did you purchase it from?.....the only double het ghost pieds I have seen were sold for $2500

[Weaver]

Like I said, I paid less for him than I would've for an adult normal so I don't care if he doesn't prove out to be anything but a normal. I bought him from a private owner, not a big time breeder. He is a good looking and very tame snake so whether he's actually het for anything doesn't matter. I wanted an adult male that was eating f/t and that's what I got, if he happens to sire a few good looking babies down the road, that's great. If not, that's great too.

[cassandra]

Right on...=) He's pretty boy.

[elevatethis]

That's relatively steep for a normal male, however, if you are happy with him- thats money well spent.

In order to make a 100% DH for pied and hypo without proving them through breeding (which you said he hasn't), is to cross a visible pied to a visible hypo. If this guy doesn't have either in his collection, then you probably don't have a DH snake. Considering the cost of true double hets and even possible hets, it sounds like he just exploited that fact that you are new to the game and embellished the deal a little bit.

[rabernet]

Well the way I see it, a "good deal" is in the eye of the buyer. Weaver is happy with her purchase and has stated, it doesn't matter to her if he ever prooves out and she got what she wanted - an established male that eats f/t. To her, he was worth the $100 that she spent, even if he is "just" a normal. I say good for her, she knew that the chances of him being a true DH were slim to none.

He met her criteria - well established, eating f/t - everything else - if it prooves out, and even she has admitted that it's probably not likely - is a bonus to her. $100 to her was money well spent. I don't think she has any grand illusions that she got "lucky" in the het game.

He's a very handsome boy and I'm happy that you got what you wanted! I love his name too! Congratulations!

[frankykeno]

Nice looking male Diane. Whether he's anything more than a normal is a moot point, he's still a nice snake who obviously has gone to someone who wanted him. Actually $100.00 shipped for an adult male isn't a bad deal really. If you consider what part of that $100.00 is for the shipping, the actual cost of the snake is realistic. None of that matters anyway, you got a nice snake that fit what you wanted and that's always a good deal. Congrats again on him and I love his name!

[Weaver]

Thanks you guys. The snake was $45, shipping $55. I've paid much more than that for corns. Like Robin said, to me it was money well spent. I was at a show not too long ago where the dealer told me that his male balls would eat frozen easily and then just by chance I found out that the guy that owned them previously gave them to him because he couldn't get them to eat ANYTHING. This way, I've got a 3 year old male, not a hatchling, he's healthy, eating f/t and he's very handsome and tame. I don't feel ripped off and I don't care if it never produces a baby because I'm not in this for the money. All I said was, if I happened to get a pied out of him that would be a bonus. I'm not young, naive, or foolish. I like snakes. As you can see in my profile, I have a variety of snakes, not one mating pair of anything. I'm not a breeder, I'm a collector. I would like to breed my ball pythons someday just for the experience but if I happen to get anything worth anything I would very likely sell them cheap just so I don't get stuck with a lot of babies. Call me crazy if you want.