Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've kept and bred colubrids for over 10 years and have always admired GTP's. Now That I am seeing some become more affordable - $300 - $500 (cbb not farmed). I am considering picking one up. I have done a good amount of research as to which localities tolerate handling the best and other husbandry issues.

One thing I am still unsure of is why do some breeders still get over $1000 and up to $3000 for neonates? I am not knocking them or criticizing, just curious if I am missing something.

Is there that much value in actual locality data?

Thanks

>>One thing I am still unsure of is why do some breeders still get over $1000 and up to $3000 for neonates? I am not knocking them or criticizing, just curious if I am missing something.

The look of the adults and blood line, plain and simple. Heres a photo pictoral of low medium and high end pairings.

Chances are, if you're paying 300 - 400 dollars for a neonate your more then likely going to end up with a "normal" looking chondro. The more the price goes up.. the more your chance of getting something unique... say, like this -

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Julian Garcia
Chondros Exquisite
Seattle,WA

Julian hit the nail on the head. I had it all typed out and my computer froze on me........so I'll just pick up where he left off.

and these........

Brandon Osborne

Thanks for you replies. So if I am mostly interested in a uniformly green adult, hopefully some blue thrown in. If I deal with a reputable breeder the lower priced babies will serve my purpose?

Also as neonates do the markings serve as any indication of the adult? More specifically the amount of speckling. I like the neonates with clean bright yellow and little speckling, but will that effect the appearance of the snake as an adult?

Your very best way to tell what your animal is going to look like is to have a look at the adults. Have the breeder show you photos of the pair and tell him or her what you are looking for (with in reason) in a look.

Your breeder can tell give a educated guess as to what they should look like when they mature. Though you can never really tell. This is something you have to accept with these animals. Either you love it or hate it..... though, you really do have to love it
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Julian Garcia
Chondros Exquisite
Seattle,WA

Most often the red markings turn blue. What shade of blue is up for grabs. Any reputable breeder can get you what you want for a reasonable price.
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4.5~Cornsnakes
1.2.2~Green tree python
1.0~ATB
Dogs, cats, horses....
www.franclycac.com

have to correct you Meg (sorry) it's the black markings that usually turn blue not the red, if that was the case there would be thousends of solid blue adults, lol

Jurgen.

Actually you're both kind of wrong Red markings on yellow neonates do not always turn blue.. nore do black. I wouldnt even call it a rule of thumb or "most likely"... Chondros - heh.
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Julian Garcia
Chondros Exquisite
Seattle,WA

For the most part, the red markings on the yellow neonates (yes, I should have specified) and the black markings on the red change to blue. Yes, sometimes they just turn green on the animal, but mostly they turn blue. Here's my yellow sorong type, before and after....the red markings turned blue.

Starting change:

Now:

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4.5~Cornsnakes
1.2.2~Green tree python
1.0~ATB
Dogs, cats, horses....
www.franclycac.com

Hi,

I've been breeding reptiles for more than 20 years and have hatched over 100 species, I know quite a bit about the markets now and over time.

There isn't another reptile I can think of where pictures of the parents are less relevant than GTP's. You are never going to see anything like the "little clones" phenonenon you often see in clutches of other pythons. This is pretty ironic becasue so many breeders are so proud of their parent pics....which IMO are almost ( i said almost) decpetive becasue no matter how many times you tell prospectvie buyers they believe they have a "good" chnace of their animal looking like a parent, they don't.

There isn't an agreed upon "beauty" standard in GTP's that correaltes to price either - more unusual animals are coveted and priced accordingly but generally speking you won't get a group of GTP folks to agree on whihc one is the "perfect" (aka high dollar) animal - like most reptiles where very little is understood about heritable visual characteristics the premium is on anything weird and anything slightly reliable (like some of the yellow/blue bloodline work). It is important to remember that with an average 5-6 year birht to breed cycle and the first ever captive breeding relaitively late - that combo means that on a practical basis means what is known now is much less than what you'd reasonably expect.

If you have knowledge of other reptiles and look to make snese of the GTP market and pricing - good luck. LOL

All the best,

Ross
Spruce Nubble Farm, Inc. - Green Tree Pythons, Carpet Pythons, Carpondros, Kinkajous, Horses
http://www.SpruceNubbleFarm.com
69 Spruce Nubble Road
Strong, ME 04983
(207)-684-3539
eFax: (512)-853-3820

I've argued this out with various people who were surmising why all the Aru's weren't producing the high white stripes of their wild caught parents. Nature normally works toward mediums. It doesn't like drastic, so the odds are most spectacular animals...and this includes horses, dogs and anything else you breed...are going to produce only mediocre animals compared to the parents. That doesn't mean that down the line, THOSE babies won't produce a spectacular animal and so that's really what it's all about. I'm finding that so far, my Biak/PNG baby is looking like it's going to be much more amazing than it's parents. They were just plain jane looking chondros. He/She is looking like something wild. Part of the fun of a chondro is never knowing what you're going to get...but knowing no matter what...it's going to be good!
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4.5~Cornsnakes
1.2.2~Green tree python
1.0~ATB
Dogs, cats, horses....
www.franclycac.com