Reptile & Amphibian Forums

How does the importation from Africa of Ball Pythons occur?

Do all Ball Pythons leaving Africa go through only a few dealers there? Is their black market stuff leaving Africa as well?

On the US end, how many people are allowed to import them? I know you have to go through a process..there must be strict guidelines.

It's not that I want to import wild caughts.

I was wondering, if, only a few people control the process, it would enable them to "cherry pick" out all the best and most unusual specimens leaving Africa, thus acheiving great control over how future new morphs or unusual specimens reach the collector.

This monopoly could allow for unnatural price manipulation as well?

For example:

Do the large suppliers like a Petco buy direct? Is their any realistic chance of walking into Petco's and buying a freshly imported Ball Python and having it be something unusual?

Alan

All of the big breeders do get to cherry pick. They all have contacts in africa who call them when something interesting is collected. You can bet that any really unusual snakes are offered to all of the big breeders first. If they all pass on it it goes to the next level of breeders. There is nothing unusual that makes it to smaller breeders in the US without the big guys knowing about it. I really don't see a problem with it. The big guys can afford to take the risk of importing them and ending up not being what was expected. If you look on RDRs site he said he paid $70,000 for a snake that was described as all white, and it ended up being an Ivory. The big breeders put the time and money into finding their contacts in africa. If you did the same and could afford to send them $50,000 or more the moment they find what you want you could do the same thing and cherry pick also.
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1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 66% Het lav albino
1.0 50% Het lav albino
0.0.2 1999 Hatchling Galapagos Torts

Where to start..lol. Umm
In africa they run the ball trade kind or like a colombian drug trade. There are main guys that allow smaller farmers to send stuff out, but all in all they control the airports and if they dont want a shipment being sent out it wont leave the country. They over look everything that goes on and in the end have the final say.

In the US there are many many breeders that import balls every year, i think the actuall number would shock many people. The only thing now is exporters from Africa all know the trade market in the US so they no longer send out any "crazy" looking animals to smaller breeders, they hold on to them and try and get good money for them from the big boys. Now the shipment of CH babies that arrive every year look more and more normal, sometimes its hard to find a good granite out of thousands. lol

Petco orders from Calzoo, Goumet Rodent, and sandfire dragon ranch. All of the balls have been picked through at least once or twice before being sent to them. The odds of finding something good at petco now are slim, a few years ago before big breeder knew what to look for to find het lucys your odds would have been greater.

Just my input..
Kim

What a shame that money dictates where passion and love for animals should go first.

I guess its like any other natural resource, the Red Woods, the Sockeye salmon run, harness the Colorado river and ruin the slot canyons for profit, put a fence around Old Faithful and charge addmission...

I think the chance of finding somthing that is known to be unusual is almost zero now. A few years ago I'm sure their were yellow bellies and other unkown at the time morphs in pet stores. But now before a snake gets to a store like petco it has been picked over by many different people who know what to look for.
-----
1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 66% Het lav albino
1.0 50% Het lav albino
0.0.2 1999 Hatchling Galapagos Torts