The ball pythons in PetSmart and PetCo are all Captive Hatched. They don't have contracts with private breeders, and I don't know of a breeder that can produce enough babies to supply both chains.

The babies don't know if they were hatched in Africa or in an incubator here - so it makes no difference in temperment.

Some of my prized females are captive hatched - and I love seeing the new interesting captive hatched that come in each year.

Ball pythons are a CITES protected species - and their numbers are closely monitored. Their wild populations are in no danger.

An interesting post regarding this in the past for your reading pleasure:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...00&postcount=7


from this thread:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ht=populations