Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What kind of Boas are everyone producing this year if all goes well? Andy

Well, I have a bloodline from Mahdia on the Potaro River in Guyana that I will be breeding and a bloodline from Apetina on the Tapanahoni River in Suriname and a bloodline from Camopi on the Camopi River in French Guiana and a bloodline from the Essiquibo River in Guyana. This will be the first time in four years that I have decided to breed anything. I seen years ago with the dawn of the internet that the market was going to go down. When I got into this Hobby, for instance; " You could say the word Suriname Boa and no more than a dozen peoples names would come up that were actually breeding them successfully. " Now, there are probably 10-20 for every one back then and that is being very giving. As the internet brought our small and intament Hobby to the world, more and more people started and have gotten into it and alot of these people have been successful with production, especially with the wealth of Husbandry info that is available now and breeding info, also. Even small scale breeders are helping to drop the market, because there are more of them now. As the Hobby continues to grow and more people get into breeding and are successfull, along with the gobs of imports that come in each year; " The market will continue to decline and we will go back to the days when B.C.C. could be bought for $40 a piece and this applies to others too. " Morphs, will also eventually run their course; " It has gotten to the point that the morphs are morphed out! " There are only so many things to selective breed for and at that point, GAME OVER.So, what are the answers? I have my opinions, " That I usually get bashed for " but either we need to take some years of as a community, to let the market catch back up or STOP BUYING IMPORTS. That will help nature number one and the market number two. As I said; " I will attempt to breed this year for the first time in four. " Why would I want to do that, with the Market in such bad shape?? To have babies to play with and to prove a point to alot of these guys that have wondered were all my offspring has been. Not letting other people make decisions for me, but I am tired of hearing their mouths. If I have to sell them for $20 at a local yard sale, that is fine or I will give them away. In closing; " I have alot of good friends in this business that do this for a living and they are really feeling the pinch right now and I hope it gets better for them or they are going to have to get a real job or something. " Nobody, hopes that all my " gloom and doom " predictions are wrong more than me, but I believe it will get worse before it gets better, if it even does get better......Good Luck and GOD BLESS......John Johnson.....founder of " HOOKED ON PHONICS HERPS " Did I spell that right??

What do you mean the market is in bad shape? The morphs being morphed out? I don't see this. There are a lot to look forward to for many years. We have never seen a snow leopard, or sunglow leopard for that matter. We have yet to see a t poss anything with a pattered morph. Like with all markets the price will come down, however the price seems to level off at some point. If you don't like getting $40.00 for a normal....Don't breed normals. Breed a "all morphed out boa"

James W. Arnold

Do not get your panties in a wad James. I am speaking of future events " as it concerns morphs. " Morph breeders only have themselves to compete with and that is why their Market stays fairly good. In other words; " There are not thousands of sunglows and albinos and motleys ect.ect.ect. being imported in every year. Locality breeders on the other hand " like myself " have Joe Blow to compete with and Imports and our Market " wether any Locality breeders want to admitt it or not " is going to pot! In time " and it may take longer " the Morphs will do the same. I remember when Pete Kahl sold one of the first pair of albinos at the Daytona Show for $50,000. I remember when albino burms were around $10,000 a piece and I owned a pair. They have came WAY DOWN since then and in time, everything will run its course. In other words " when the time comes " it will be hard to charge big money for something that everybody already has. If you guys casnnot understand this; " I just need to throw this stupid computer out the window. "......Good Luck.......Johnson Herp

I think what you are saying is that the "morph" peope who do not morph with the times will be left with $100 albinos and $40 hypos. But what most morph people do is that they change with the times...they morph. If you like albinos, then you wil always have albinos. But you will be breeding them to your albino ghosts, your snow leopards, your motley snows and so on and so forth. I started out with cornsnakes when blizzards were $200 babies. Now they wholesale for $15. But to get a striped opal or type"A" bloodred motley, (just examples) you will spend $200-400 or more. Of course albinos are going to go down in price. But not now, and maybe not for a few years. They have been in the $800-1200 range for a few years now, and with the new morphs coming out, they will stay there. It is all about what you want to do. Do you want to keep nothing but albinos? Then in a few years you won't get what you want for them now. But if you like morphs and can stay "in the loop", then there will always be a market willing to pay "market price".

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Derek Roberts
Sonoran Reptile Breeders
sonoranreptile@cox.net

This thread seemed to give a whole bunch of good info. Thanks all, and here's to Morphing! Andy

I think it would be a great idea if you threw your computer out the window like you said!! LOL

Boas can't be compared to cornsnakes.Period. It's like comparing apples to oranges. You can't house 300 Boas in the same amount of space you can cornsnakes. There are alot of factors that you need to consider before making outlandish comments.

BTW-It seems like you are the only one getting their panties in a wad.

If you are such a genius and my statements are so outlandish, then how about you sharing with us your GREAT WISDOM and KNOWLEDGE! Tell me why their are dozens of WELL KNOWN BREEDERS that have not beem selling their stock as quick and for as much here recently. You sound like alot of these guys or kids or whatever around here, you are quick to critisize mine or someone elses answers, but you offer NONE!!!!!, YOURSELF! So, lets here some of your thoughts. I cannot wait to hear your knowledge of the situation........Johnson Herp

You will be able to get a good price for plain old albinos for a very long time to come. Thousands of new people get interested in this hobby every year and want albino boas. The yearly production of albinos is not even close to the demand yet. There is no reason at all for albino breeders to lower their price for these guys (why some are is beyond me.) I certainly don't see pet shops over run with albino boas With so many big breeders now concentrating on the newer and more expensive morphs the plain old albinos have taken a back seat and some big breeders are producing less of them. I have yet to see an albino breeder that does not sell out every year. Albinos and hets are still one of the best reptile "investments" and pets on the market.

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Derek Roberts
Sonoran Reptile Breeders
sonoranreptile@cox.net