Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a question. I was never into blackhead pythons but I always noticed their prices. Why is it that some are being sold for $400 and some for $2000-$3000? What is the difference in the animals? Is it a question of purity of genetics or something else? Thanks.

Where have you seen BHP's for 400?

D.

Yeah no kidding. WHERE? Lets buy those up Derek. lol. Maybe they were that price on an Aussie Website? ?

Please tell me first!!!! I'd love to add $400 blackheads to my little group.

Seriously, if someone is selling them for $400, it's either sick, stolen or a scam... or someone really unaware of their selling price. As someone who has had BHP's for 7-8 years, I've only managed to have 4 babies hatch and 2 survive. I've had pretty good success with hard to reproduce species.

My BHP's who eat, breed and do all the things that snakes do to produce babies, have produced 2 large mostly unfertile clutches of eggs. Simply put, they're hard to reproduce. If someone is selling them for $400... use extreme caution.

Doug T

>>I have a question. I was never into blackhead pythons but I always noticed their prices. Why is it that some are being sold for $400 and some for $2000-$3000? What is the difference in the animals? Is it a question of purity of genetics or something else? Thanks.

Me thinks someone is looking at womas and black heads. The cheapest price I have seen for a BHP was $600 for a dark male. Like Doug said they are a pain in the butt to produce and get going. My holdout non-feeder from my clutch this past summer just took it's first meal on it's own.

I have run through it else where but from a nice big female that had a few years of no breeding attempts I got 21 ova deposited, 14 fertile eggs, 11 hatchlings, 7 live babies after 2 weeks and like i said above the last one just started feeding half a year later. One started after a month.

They are not easy but they are awesome animals!! Spend the extra cash for a good looking healthy animal and it will be well worth it!! Once they are going strong and feeding they are bullet proof and will eat you out of house and home!!

Jason

I need an adult female for my lone 8' male. I'll even go $500, lol

My bad guys....I was looking at woma prices and assumed blackheads were similar.....soooooo....what happened to the woma prices? They dropped significantly in the past few yrs.

Supply and demand.
More are being produced....means people have to drop their prices to meet the "market".
Times are tough and most breeders are willing to take whatever they can get for their animals....to pay their bills...or to have extra money.
When people lay off breeding them....and less are around....they'll go back up.

Plus, you get what you pay for....if you want NICE Womas....you'll still pay good money for them.

I remember when you couldn't give Ring pythons away.....now, the people who have them are charging 3 times what they were going for 15 years ago and selling out.

Supply and demand.

D.

More abundance and easier to produce! I would assume......

See I've never worked with either species so it just seemed odd that the price dropped that much. Are womas that much easier to produce than blackheads? Then you look at an animals like the Amazon Basin Tree Boas and they've held a high price tag for over 20 yrs and its not like they are the hardest snakes to reproduce.

I think there are a number of people sitting on BH's they've bred to keep the prices up. That said, the initial investment on BH's is high. I expect to see them below $1K in the next couple years for hatchlings.
Besides, they aren't easy to get to feed, whereas Womas are.

I am guessing your talking about emerald tree boas (and not amazon tree boas) from the basin region? They still carry a hefty price tag, but (much like the bhps) they have dropped considerably over the past 10 years.

As to if they are easier to produce, womas are not an easy snake to incubate - but yes, they are easier then BHPs. They also typically produce a slightly larger # of eggs, and there are a LOT more of them on the market right now, so it isn't hard to understand why the price of womas has dropped. That said, I would expect the price of womas to stabilize.

I do expect the price of BHPs to continue to slowly come down, and while they will eventually drop below 1k each, I don't see it happening soon.

Another thing as well.....quality!!!
Getting quality BHPs will run you more money as well. You see a few animals for sale but, to get the "super high contrast animals".... that most people want when thinking about getting a BHP....will run you more...than buying whatever BHPs....just to have some.
I love all the looks of BHPs but, when comparing a black and white/ high contrast animal...... to a red animal that will just turn into a cardboard box colored adult...with no defining contrast....there is no comparison to me.

Getting animals that look like this as adults....


Is going to cost ya a little more.

Cheers,
D.