Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been curious about this for awhile. I was at the Hamburg show on Saturday, and I saw quite a few adult Columbians, Argentines, and even a couple Hoggs, of both sexes for $100-$300. There were several breedable female Columbians for $150, while there were quite a few baby normals for $100 and up, and the baby Argentines were $125 and up, while there were adults for $200. Does any body know why adults are so cheap compared to babies?
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LONG LIVE METAL!!!!

MY COLLECTION:
1.0 '04 Columbian BCI
0.1 '05 Blood Python
1.2 Ball Pythons

MY WISHLIST (I turn 18 on June 16th ):
A Northern Blue-Tongue Skink
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
1.1 Hogg Island Boas
1.0 Salmon BCI
0.2 Columbian BCI
1.1 Sumatran Short-Tail Pythons
1.1 Borneo Short-Tail Pythons
1.1 Dumerils Boas
1.1 Suriname BCC
1.2 Spotted Pythons
2.4 African House Snakes
2.4 Bearded Dragons
1.2 Rankins Dragons
2.6 Crested Geckos
1.1 purebred Dobermans
0.1 black German Shepherd
2 ferrets
A Senegal Parrot
A Sun Conure

In my opinion there are 2 reasons. First off Adults are shorter lived. For example if you buy an adult it will only be a pet for X amount of years but if you buy a baby you have that many more years to keep it. Another huge reason in my opinion is exactly that HUGE. I am sure there are a whole lot of people that buy these cute baby Boas un aware that they will reach 12 feet and 100lbs or larger. Its kind of like the New York Alligator stories. My father says he can vouch for Gaters in the sewers as when he lived in NY as a child they use to be able to mail order them. Once they got to big a lot of them would get flushed LOL I bet toilet plungers were a popular item in NY in the 50’s and 60’s LOL Anyway I think that’s the biggest reason is a lot of Normal every day Americans just are not able to take care of such a large snake for any length of time so once they decide to get rid of it they just want it gone. While I was at the pet store purchasing Shadow a person called with a 6 foot Boa that he wanted to sell for $100 including enclosure and all care items. I almost grabbed it as it came with everything and was still $50 cheaper than Shadow but I kind of fell for her so I took her instead.
My Research and Collection "New server"

Many of these adult snakes that show up at shows have not been taken care of properly. Many of these snakes have or have had mites, respiratory infections, "mouth rot", or worse. Especially in the case of adult females. Adult females should bring a premium, if healthy. Just like the ball python females. If you are breeder, you need more females than males. If adult females hit the market, especially in the $100-$200, it is buyer beware. I'm guessing that snake will come with a little extra, undesired merchandise. Sometimes nice adult females do pop up though. Everyday I regret selling my 8' adult normal about five years ago. She was my first boa. I had her for over three years. I was just getting enough money to start buying some higher end stuff and she was just a normal Colombian. I was a young, dumb kid who thought I would have rooms filled with albinos, hypos, etc... I was on the morph kick. Let's just say I grew up a little and now I wish she was here.

Phil Goss

A few other points being that the babies you would get at the show for $100 plus are most likely CBB. The adults priced at $100-$200 are most likely not. Another plus of buying a baby for almost the same price of an adult is that you will know that boas complete history when they come up on breeding age. A $150 for an adult doen't look like that good of a deal when you take into account that you know zero about that animal's history.
Jason Reese

This one here is a exception to the rule lol

I picked this girl up after someone passed away , was a one snake household and rasied as a baby. The parents contacted the local petshop for someone to come get the snake they were scared of it.

I was DUMBFOUNDED when I saw this girl in person ...
9'-8" 49.8 lbs

And She will be in a bigger cage next week this was the only one Available for her at the time I got here

I told the lady i would take her ( expecting to pay for her ) and she just asked for my name & # to give to the owner so she could contact me and keep in touch with the snake ( only pet son had ) so i gave her full contact info.

So I told her for her son I would call her " Joe"

her like a boy named sue ... right ?
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Builder of Professional Reptile Enclosures ,Plastic caging , Standard & Professional Breeder Rack Systems
junglehabitatsplastics.com/

There are many reasons... let me try to help with a few:

Sometimes, these adults are males, and some consider adult males practically worthless, atleast in terms of Breeding.

Sometimes, the females had just given birth. Most breeders would rather buy another one close to breeding season than to hold her, spend lots of time and effort getting her up to size again, and hoping she goes again next year. If she doesn't, that alot of time, space and funds that couldn've gone elsewhere. Again, this is from a breeders perspective.

Another big problem, you don't know where they've been! Who've they've been with! If they've been sleeping around or not! lol... well, you know what I mean... there is no telling the life this boa had, and it's true origin.

With a baby, there is usually very little info to be desired, meaning, you usually get it all upfront, immediately.

It is usually much easier to determine whether or not it was imported or 'farmed'. If it wasn't, it is almost guaranteed that you will be able to easily find out the breeder, the parents, the lineage, and even more.

With the baby, you know what you're getting. Raising and breeding these animals are the absolute best way to go.
With the adults, it is always a gamble in some way or another. You just don't know what you're getting!

Hope that helps! -Bci Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

I was meaning to mention normally females that are cheap have had babies and would be pushing to get them to breed from the breeder side so they sell them to open cages.

Females could have RI etc due to cooling or hard breedings , or just plain bred out period.

and males are for normals a dime a dozen and i would rather have from breeding stances a young male then older male

now joe speaking of younger females ... did the 75% salmontine you got from me take ? or did you ever sell her?
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Builder of Professional Reptile Enclosures ,Plastic caging , Standard & Professional Breeder Rack Systems
junglehabitatsplastics.com/

She's been offered, but is still here. Her and her sister, that I originally picked up from Mike, are both here.
The T Pos male has been reluctant to breed any of his girls... even have a poss het T pos girl sitting there.. lol

Please contact me, wanted to ask you something... thanks much, Joe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

np

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Sincerely, Jason
www.NortheastSnakes.com
NortheastSnakes@aol.com