Posted by:
RandyRemington
at Tue May 27 08:12:42 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by RandyRemington ]
Can anyone else confirm ANY captive breeding in Africa, especially any first hand accounts?
It's just that I hear this a lot about them maybe having big pens and keeping the females multiple years and re-breeding them but it sounds too much like what we might want to hear.
In captivity over here it takes years to get a wild caught adult female acclimated to breed (generally longer than to grow up a captive hatched on). Maybe they have some sort of nearly wild situation over there that shortens this time.
I’m also skeptical that it would be economically feasible to raise carnivores for export over there. The amount of grain required to raise the feed animals could be put to better use than producing a normal ball python that they probably export for $0.50 – $1.50. I think the prices they get only work because they are harvesting a wild sown crop with very cheap labor.
This idea of mass semi-captive breeding in Africa may have even been put forward by a book on ball pythons, but I still question it. Call me cynical but the only first hand reports I've read are about digging them up each year during the season of gravid females and eggs. Maybe things have changed recently but I'm afraid it might just be a popular rumor.
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RE: "Ranching" - RandyRemington, Tue May 27 08:12:42 2003