Quote Originally Posted by MelissaFlipski View Post
IIs it better to buy from a breeder who ships or to buy it from a local expo and drive the hour or two home?

I ask for two reasons, 1) is one inherently more stressful for the snake than the other, and 2) is one better in terms of quality of animal, health, care, etc. or are they pretty much 1/2 dozen in one and 6 in the other???

I would like to add something that I have not seen anyone touch on yet, and that is the stress that is present in each of these situations. I personally believe that the buying the animal from a trusted breeder and having it shipped to you is less stressful for the animal. Here is my reasoning. I just recently did a show in Chicago. I live in New Orleans, LA.

This is a short summary of what my animals went through. (note: this whole event was about as stressful for me as it was my animals, as I spent every waking moment worried about how they were doing). Thursday morning - pack snakes in deli cups and load into cardboard box. Load boxes into SUV and drive for 10 hours. Stop at Motel, and load animals into motel room. Turn up heat in room, and sleep miserably, because I am not a reptile. Friday morning - Load snakes into SUV and drive 3 hours to show. Unload snakes and put in acrylic display cases. Friday night-Sunday afternoon - Keep snakes in small cases, with no thermal gradient, and very little to no heat at night. Sunday afternoon - pack snakes into deli cups and cardboard boxes and load into SUV. Drive 8 hours and stop at motel. Load snakes into motel, and sleep in the heat once again. Monday morning - load snakes into SUV and drive 5 hours to home and put snakes back into nice cozy enclosures with a ready suppply of much needed water.

p.s. I am not against reptile shows, nor anyone who does them. We do shows, and I think they are a great venue for promoting the industry. What I was trying to do was educate/remind some people what goes on behind the scenes, so that you can look at a snake at a show.

Now to the stress that is received from shipping. I sell an animal to a customer in Ohio. I live in New Orleans, LA. I pack snake into snake bag, and place in insulated box with appropriate environmental conditions(i.e. cold pack or hot pack, whichever is needed due to temperatures at shipping end and receiving end). This typically happens at 6:30 pm. Drop off snake at FedEx at 7 pm. Next morning at 10:30 am the snake arrives at it's new home, where the new owner will put it into a nice cozy enclosure with a ready supply of water. Stress time = 16 hours average, vs. about 100 hours average for a show.

I mostly wrote this to show people that are nervous about having snakes shipped to them, that it may not be as bad as you would think, if you think about all of the factors that go into your purchase of an animal.

All of the above is moot if you have a local breeder that you can meet, or go to their facility to pick up a snake. However, that is not available to everyone.

My 5 cents,