Quote Originally Posted by soy.lor.n View Post
Since the local pet shop says they have CB balls, maybe you should try to find out what breeder(s) they're buying from. It might even be someone that works there or something.
And the $50 is a pretty normal price. Like was already said, if you're getting an animal sent to you, you'll be putting lots of money into the shipping anyway, so you might as well get one locally if you can find a good one. And it seems like you can often trust a pet store that specializes in exotic animals over one that doesn't really know anything about them. Probably they'll even have someone working there that knows how to sex the snakes. Of course you probably should go to the vet anyway and get it double checked while your there.
Sadly, that's not always true. The local "exotics" pet store by me doesn't know a darn thing, even though the owner has reportedly kept reptiles his entire life. He believes that probing snakes will sterilize them, and he also believes that female ball pythons aren't available in the pet trade, because breeders won't let them go.

He doesn't know why the ball pythons that he has all in one enclosure won't eat, or have poor sheds, and he's in no rush to clean their enclosures. And they don't need small hides, they have that huge 1/2 log hide that they all "cuddle" in together.

Very good points, and buying from a normal pet store I was never really thinking of doing in the first place. My first choice would of course be a breeder, but I was looking more into the local place and they actually seem to be very professional and knowledgeable when it comes to their area of business. Actually, here's the reptile section on the site:

http://www.aquaticcritter.com/Reptile/reptile.htm

If you look around a bit they explain the difference between captive bred, captive hatched, etc., and the importance of selling/raising captive bred babies, and their ability to probe them if it's requested. So, they look pretty legit. Let me know what you all think, if you check it out.
They look good on "paper"! Have you been in there? Are the animals well kept? Really trust your "gut" when you go in there.

There is a good review of them in the last post here:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...quatic+Critter