Calling all snake keepers.

[swreefer]

Here are a few pics.
One is a children's python, the other is a ball python, and the last is a dumeril's boa.
I have many different types of herps. LOL.

 

[Dale W.]

swreefer,

How much did you get your Childrens and Dumerili for? Those have always been very expensive snakes in the states which is one of the reasons I didnt really suggest them.

 

[swreefer]

The children's I got a few years ago and they were running about $150 for a tiny hatchling with no guarentee it would be feeding. Over the past few years, more people have started breeding them so the prices have come down. They are still quite expensive if a pet store happens to have one in stock, but you can get one direct from a breeder for about $100.
Same goes with the dumeril's. A few years ago you would be paying a fortune for one but now since people have been breeding them with regularity, you can get a baby from a breeder for about $200.
Both Children's pythons and dumeril's boas are still not a common petstore animal due the markup they need to charge but they are showing up regularly at shows and on breeder pricelists.
The good thing about both these snakes is you can only buy captive bred animals. Australia does not allow children's pythons (or any other native animal for that matter) to be exported and Madagascar will not allow export of the dumeril's since they are now classified as a CITES 2 species.

 

[MasterBlaster]

The other night, this snake sat on my head for THREE HOURS! I usually wear my hair up and he'll curl around the bun part and just hang out.

Haha, that's cool. I caught a big King one day on the job, and I kept him wrapped around my neck and shoulder, til I got him home. There was nowhere to stash him that he couldn't escape, so I wore em. I took him home and put em in a 90 gal tank, and feed him shiners. When he started to bore me, I released him in the woods.

 

[Nippy]

Ooo! I want a Dumeril's for my next snake. I am going to wait a couple of years though before I do it. Want to have some more experience with snake keeping before I take on anything bigger than what I got. I work at a pet supply store that also sells fish and hamsters so I get to see some of the wholesale lists every once inawhile. One place has a Dumerils for 195 wholesale. I imagine the mark-up would be to around $400 retail. It's not a baby snake, though. It's listed at being 3' already.

 

[Dale W.]

Wow, Prices have come down more than I thought they would. When I was into the herp's Dumerils where about $1200. Albino burmese where around $1500. Keep in mind that these are prices from breeders, not retail. Diamond Pythons where also a fav of mine but where running about $900.

As far as Boas are concerned, guyana and Surinam where the sweet ones to have but where very hard to breed. I hope that has changed.

 

[swreefer]

Albino burms are down to between $125 and $200 depending upon the breeder.

Diamonds are still way up there. They are still the hardest carpets to get to breed and not many of them are out there. The cheapest I have seen them go for is about $700 for a single male hatchling.

Centralians have come down dramatically. You can get them now for about $600 a pair thanks to Casey Lazik dumping a ton of hatchlings onto the market at wholesale cost. Forced a lot of breeders to adjust their prices and gave a lot of keepers the chance to finally afford them.

Suris and Guyanas have come down somewhat but can get between $250 and $700 each depending upon the quality. The really high priced ones now are the Colombian morphs. Salmons run about $1200, albinos for about $1000, ghosts for about $2500, and motleys for about $12,000.

You should see the ball python market recently. Man those prices are out of control. Het for luecistic (solid white BP with blue eyes) run $100,000 a pair!

 

[need4mospd]

There is no reason to feed snakes live prey.
You can feed them thawed out food. Buy the feeders in bulk and thaw one each time you need it.
Most of the breeders will have the snakes feeding on frozen thawed before selling them nowadays. It's safer for the snake since it's food can't bite back.

I would like to reinforce this. You should NEVER feed live prey. Sometimes the snake just doesn't get a good grip on it's prey, and those little mouse claws and teeth can be sharp. Plus, frozen rats are creepy and ugly. They have lost the cuteness they might have while alive, so there should be no problem wanting to keep them as pets.