i am in the market for indigos doing my homework and all. i have a few comments, directed at no one in particular and without anger! just a few things apparent to me as a potential customer...

-i agree what eric east said below. people have suggested doing the same with louisiana pinesnakes, jacking the price to keep unscrupulous people away. i have been successful breeding P. ruthveni for several years and at all price levels you encounter questionable individuals. more money does not make me feel better or keep others from hybridizing or whatever treachery i supposed to prevent.

-someone justified higher prices based upon reduced fertility. well, if it were a natural phenomenon for indigos to have small fertile clutch sizes, not larger clutches of infertile eggs I could undertstand. Reproductive problems are a symptom of captivity or an indication that the captive population is suffering some serious problems. There is no mechanism i am familiar with in nature where large vertebrates benefit from poor reproductive output.

-electricity and food and caging... hmmm. from what i have gathered, indigos are fossorial and prefer temps in the mid 70's to low 80's max. how is that temperature gradient more of a strain on the electric budget than someone breeding boas?
food... indogs "seem" to have a higher metabolism. Someone please take a fasting adult indigo and place it in a metabolic chamber for 24 hours to determine their true metabolic rate.
caging... if planned out as all indigo breeders have done before acquiring their charges, a good cage for an adult is a one time expense. if you have an indigo for a pet it is like fencing your yard in for your dog, part of the responsibility. if you are a breeder, you will get your money back with the first clutch of eggs you successfully hatch out. unless someone is renting cages (dumb) costs can't be justified for longer than it can be amortized on your tax return.

-unless:
the animals are legitimately involved in university or zoological studies or a legitimate educational center...
the individuals are studying animals in the field or the habitat or are making serious contributions to such studies...
your animals are dead to nature and are part of the pet trade. hard to swallow but i feel it is true. Again, Louisiana pinesnakes - I have tried and will keep trying to make that connection but in reality these captive snakes, more rare than indigos do not contribute much to conservation efforts.

finally ( only since my son is waking up from his nap) whatever happend to the economy and free market competition? it may not be collusion to set prices, but it is a little disappointing and maybe dangerous(?)to be rallying around prices on a public forum?
i agree the indigo is a valuable snake and should get what the market should bear, but the justifications i have discussed don't bear weight with me the consumer.

Thanks all,
Dave B

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