Reptile & Amphibian Forums

1. Are there only certain people/licensed individuals that are allowed to export ball pythons from Ghana or can any citizen collect and export them? I’m thinking of staring an “exporting/importing” partnership but I’m unsure of the politics of exporting and importing and what are consider fair practices/payments to the exporters.

2. Are there only certain areas in which people farm and collect ball pythons and if so are they pretty much managed by particular people because it’s like “their territory?”

3. Do most people who import have the same suppliers that pull from the same general environment/forests?

4. Do importers get paid a certain amount per snake or do they send approximate numbers of animals getting paid a concrete amount?

5. Also I’ve seen WC morphs for sale, in an instance like that do the exporters get a percentage of the sale or just more money for that specific snake?

6. How do people get these adult WC unique animals/morphs? Do they go and find them in the forests or do they usually breed them in captive situations and then export to the US?

7. How much does one usually pay per ball python A)baby B)adult females C)morphs/possible morphs. I’m quite interested to know how much someone would usually get compensated for when finding these unique snakes.

8. Do people still find wild albinos, spiders, pastels, mojaves etc? If so how much do they usually want for them.

I’m aware of the risks/fraud of importing and would do considerable research and possibly go to Africa in the future to find a quality supplier. The questions I’ve posed though are very relevant to me because I’d rather establish a new partnership with someone who is not already supplying others so that I could be their primary buyer and not get the leftovers/2nds of others. Any advice on this subject is greatly appreciated. I’m relatively new to the ball python morph world and would like to become very involved in morph “revolution” and importing seems to be the way to go. Many of the newer morphs have amazing lineage and I’d like to “hit the jackpot” and produce something new (in the far far future).

wow. well what you are wanting to do isnt really possible.

in ghana the dealers are licensed. And only certain ones can export.

There is very few actual collectors that go and catch them in the bush.

The collectors sell to the dealers. When they find a morph they sell to whoever pays the most. Sometimes they will contact people here in the states and sale direct and then have an exporter export it for them.

each exporter/dealer charges a different amount. Every year they try to hold out and keep prices high but it never works. Usually starts out at about 8.00 per baby and goes down from there. adults $20 and down.

the morphs. they know what they have and ask the same amount as they sell for here in the states usually. Theyre not stupid. And there is at least one exporter there breeding these morphs and shipping over as both c.b. and sometimes saying theyre new blood which they arent.

they find albinos, pieds, axathics, caramels, etc, all morphs every year. Most are hatched out from wild caught females or wild collected eggs. But sometimes they find thm as adults or bush babies.

so you wont be able to start your own thing as someone new getting licensed there isnt going to happen. Just find a good exporter and start buying normals from them. Dont ask for morphs. put in your dues, be a good customer and they will start offering you stuff.. They sell the morphs to their best customers.

Thats the way everyone else does it, there really isnt a short cut unless you go to africa with a pocket of cash and pick them out yourself.. then you risk getting ripped off or robbed.

and there is very very little profit in importing balls. most importers are only making $1.00 each off large lot babies and the morphs, unless you get a real good deal on something new, which never happens, you dont make money on them.. just no money to be made on importing morphs anymore. noone will buy morphs just to get new blood anymore unless its the same price or less than c.b. ones on the wholesale market.

sorry.. My advice and ive imported for over 10 yearf from africa and other places, brought in a lot of morphs including new ones.

My advice, put in your dues, buy normals and wait till they offer you morphs.. or just buy them here and be safe.

Beau

I second that!!! Beau is right on the mark. I would only add that you should be VERY carefull. There are alot of scammers working out of Africa in this industry.
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Larry Walker

WebSite

Unless you have some great connection, you're probably wasting your time.

I second and third everything said, Beau knows what he is talking about.
There are alot of things that you have to take into consideration, like cities, other paperwork, a good connection, the animals coming in alive, the fact that big importers spend 100's of thousands of dollars each year and if you cant compete with what they pay the exporters will sell to someone who can. 90% of the importers i know have to buy many many other animals as well to even get alot of Balls in, is dealing with frogs monitors and others something you want to do? There are alot of other things also that i wont go on about here, but please feel free to email me if you want to chat back and forth about it.
Like Beau said it is much easier to find an importer and buy from them, there are alot of people in the US that are already set up to do it.
If you want email me at Exoticreps@aol.com Maybe i can put you in contact with someone who can help in the US.
Kim
N.A.R.C

wild balls........why?

there are so many cheap balls here in the US to buy why bother raping Africa anymore???

pastels are less than $100 for males and you can get adult balls from other impoters for like $20 and huge ones for little more than that........babies at $10 and up.,......

.......go for it.......

call Noah.........he has alot locked up in Africa I hear..?......

.......and I wouldn't trust someone that far away with my money........
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