What you should avoid....reptile expos to start with unless you know the seller's reputation and are sure they are also the breeder. The breeder should be able to provide all feeding data from birth, pictures of the sire and dam, and history of the animal's bloodline. Do not buy anything that isn't established and by established I mean no younger than 4 months old and having eaten no less than 10 meals. Like with many other species, there are a lot of imported, misrepresented animals on the market and many of them are passed on through shows and expos. From what I have seen, a baseline price for a CB baby gtp is around $500-$700. You may find some less than this but if they are being sold in the $200-$400 range, it should raise the red flags (imported, farm raised, not established, take your pick). It is also common to see babies priced well above $500, even as high as $5000; however, in my opinion, anything priced much higher than $700 needs to be justified by the breeder. Typically, reasons for the higher prices would be exceptional parents, exceptional bloodlines, or they have been accurately sexed. Because these animals should not be sexed until they are about a year old, avoid any babies that are advertised as being sexed.
I highly encourage you to visit these two forums and ask all the questions you have:
http://www.chondroweb.com/
http://p219.ezboard.com/bmoreliaviridis
I would also encourage you to research husbandry needs for these animals. They have specific needs that are different than balls or boas. One thing you will hear from experienced keepers over and over again is to keep these animals in small (12qt) tubs until they are around 1 to 2 years of age. With that said, many new keepers want to ignore this advice and put them in a nice display cage and treat them like a corn snake only to wonder later why the animal won't eat, why they can't maintain the correct temps or humidity, and why it keeps having bad sheds (and God forbid...why my snake died).
Since this is your first gtp, I would suggest avoiding the idea of buying it from an expo and check out this site:
http://www.signalherp.com
Rico is a highly respected breeder who sells well established babies at very reasonable prices. I also want to add that farm raised gtp's are not necessarily a bad thing. I have one I purchased through Gary Schiavino and I couldn't be happier with it. The problem is that there are a number of risks involved with these that you should avoid as a first time buyer. Again, if you have other questions or concerns, I suggest visiting the other forums I mentioned and posting there.
Good luck,
Bart
