would you get a wc python?

[josh@outbackreps]

I love w.c animals as long as they are something special worth taking from the wild, not just a normal.

We have bought and sold a LOT of cool w.c balls, everything from new morphs, existing morphs, specials, to just odd ball gravids, and have had great luck with them.

It really depends on how you approach acclimating them.
20 gallon tank with a heat light, aspen bedding, and handling = a animal that I can almost guarantee will not thrive.

A w.c animal set up in a rack system with appropriate size box ( 6 quart for 400 grams or less, 16 quart for 400-1000 grams, 28 quart 11-1800 grams, etc) and keep them dark and on cypress mulch with no handling they can do very well.

I have a group of about 20 w.c specials and morphs that I have had for 4-6 months and all but 1 eat live domestic rats every week just like a c.b animal does. It is all about how you keep them. When they come in worm them, and black knight the cage to kill the ticks (mites are not native to Africa) and leave them alone for 3 weeks and they should thrive!

If you get a w.c talk to someone who has experience with a good number of them, and has gotten them fresh, as pet store animals have been threw hell and back so are different than most reg. w.c. Don't handle them and set them up right, and you will have a great snake that is worth the xtra work!

[akaangela]

I voted NO. I feel the w.c's are beyond my ability. It is like anything else, if you have the expertise it is not hard, some have that special touch that can make them thrive. Anyway there are SO many c.b. that you can pick and choose. I also don't have the time for a dinker project. I want to know what I am getting so all my time and money are spent towards my main goal....pastel albinos

[Bruce Whitehead]

I have two WC females. They were imported as gravids and sold when the buyer could not get them eating after the eggs were collected and hatched out.

They are alot of work, and have taken alot of patience.

I certainly do not regret it, and have no expectations on them to breed. If they do that would be great, as they are both really nice looking girls.

But at least I know they will not end up in a pet store to be purchased with a 250 gallon glass tank.

My only hope is that they will indeed thrive in captivity, they are already in captivity that cannot be changed.

One is eating, thanks to support I received from this forum, and VIA phone from Joanna.

Would I recommend them? Not really, but I think that is up to the keeper to decide if they have the supports and knowledge available to them. Also it would depend on the snake itself, mostly it's age. An older WC is going to be much harder to get eating and acclimating than a 500-800g snake.

Bruce

[Somed00d]

I voted no but I would buy a W/C in a heartbeat if it was something spectacular.

[dacalio]

I have many captive hatched babies and will get more if I find them interesting enough. I have NEVER had mites or other parasite issues. I would only purchase CH animals from someone I trust. All of my CH animals act identical to CB babies.

I doubt I will ever get a WC animal. Unless it's some kind of morph. But the chances of me getting lucky enough to purchase a WC morph are pretty slim.

[mxrider42]

I purchased a wild caught adult male. I kept him for about two months. Got him treated for parasites and offered him every food every way I could. I took him to a friends house, who has 15+ years snake experience. He tried everything he could and he wasn't eating. He started force feeding the snake. It got to the point where all he had to do was put it in his mouth and he would eat. Then after one feeding he went in to check on him and he was curled up on the heat dead. The guy tried everything. It just wasn't meant to be.
There is always a gamble with w.c. snakes. Don't put into it if you can't afford to loose it.
Trey
That is him in my avatar.

[butters!]

i voted yes.i would buy a captive hatched again.as for a wild caught,no.it would be hard to tell if the snake was 5 years old or 10 or 15 near its death.

[Purrrfect9]

The only reason why I posted yes was because I have a big female that I got from a petstore that turned out to be a wild caught female. She had already been through an owner or two and had been treated medically, so I ended up with a big, healthy girl in the end who eats great. Will I ever buy a WC strictly for breeding purposes? No, I don't think that I would. There is enough of a genetic diversity in the captive BP population that wouldn't convince me that introducing more normal WC BP stock would benefit the bloodlines for anything more than an aesthetic appeal.

[frankykeno]

I think a lot of what goes into this decision is understanding the difference in terminology between CH (captive hatched), WC (wild caught) and LTC (long term captive). Unfortunately how you might define this, particularily LTC, isn't how a seller might define it so you need to get as much information on the snake as possible. I've seen adult BP's sold as LTC when they came over from Africa not 2 months ago. To me that just isn't "long term".

[Wh00h0069]

Most of the ball pythons that are shipped from Africa have been picked through, so if there were something special about it, it would have been held back. These holdbacks are sold to the highest bidder; for example, big breeders.

Support the U.S. breeders. What is the sense in breeding ball pythons is everyone is just going to buy wc or ch balls anyway.

Also most balls that come from Africa have either parasites or mites. If you buy from a respectable breeder, you will get a healthy ball that will have a much better chance at surviving than an import.

This is just my opinion, but I feel strongly about it. I for one will never buy an import.