Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have seen a lot of recent postings for lot deals on wc balls. I know these guys come in with heavy parasites & other issues. Does anyone have any experience with the young wc balls & would you consider these to be a good investment as future breeders. I do have plenty of experience, but it is limited to healthy cb snakes. How about an idea of a time investment to get these acclimated & feeding regularly, as well as ideas about how many would be likely to survive. (I hear various percentages on survival rates.)

My own personal opinion is by the time you rid them of mice and parasites you may have invested in a good captive bred. Also the exportation of BP's in the wild is growing way out of proportion. I would like to see less people purchase wild caughts...or at least in mass. Besides if you have to ask what the percentage of bp's that survive..doesnt sound very caring...not you personally the export traders themselves. So you can either put money in some quality breeders pocket or some African snake wrangler?

Just my opinion only.
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0.1 Leos
1.1 Corn snakes (1 Lav & 1 Ghost)
0.1 Banan California King
0.0.1 Childrens python
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow boa
1.0 Rat (as pet not food)
1.2 Ball pythons (1pastel 2 normals)
"whats with you and all those dang reptiles?"

I'm not a breeder or anything like that. I was trying to do the same thing you say you would like to do. (buy some cheap girls and get them big for breeding)So I jumped in like many others fools do with these wild caughts and bought 15 of them. Big mistake! You have to clean them up if they have ticks or anything like that. Half of mine are mean as all get out. can't blame them! Not to mention I have all my husbantry correct and it's been 2 months and only one of them ate.( using all the tricks I could gather from diffrent websites and here). So now I guess I just keep trying. If I had it to do all over again I would take the money I spent on these and buy 1 or 2 feeding healthy captives.
Sorry for my rambling

I have had a female Wc for almost 5 years! Unfortunatly I got her as an adult to add to a breeding project. When I got her she was in POOR shape! She had mites, ticks and a few scars. Sadly she didnt eat for nearly 6 months untile she finally ate. The down side to Wc is unexpected "off feed" for no reason, internal as well as external parasites, scars, bactieria as well as desises that can spread through your collection. You get what you pay for stands strong with WC lots. I would stick with CB. When attending state and country reptile shows you can get tons of CB lots from breeders! Make them a deal on a lot they wll normaly cut you a good discount. Some may be cheaper than WC!
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1.1 Tangerine Honduran Milk Snakes
0.1 Mexican Milk Snake
1.1 Desert Banded California King Snakes
1.0 Okeetee County Corn Snake (Okeetee County Documented)
1.1 Sand Fire Bearded Dragons (Sunfire Ranch)
0.1 Ball Python (Mark And Kim Bell Line)
1.0 Ball Python (Jungle pattern WC)
1.2 Ferrets (Albino, sable, and cream)
JOSHUA

Has that wild caught bred for you in those 5 years?

I've heard it said that by the time a wild caught adult female adjusts enough to breed in captivity that you could have raised up a captive bred female so they really aren't a shortcut to breeding. I haven't tried it myself so just wondering what sort of luck people have had getting wild caught adult females to breed in the first 3 years or so.

I appreciate getting EVERYONE'S opinion. I certainly agree about removing animals from the wild, I've been torn about that issue. Looks like my time & money would be best invested in good CB balls. Of course, like others, I consider the WC's to inject "new blood" into breeding projects. And the prospect of ending up with some great new morph or interesting pattern is tempting. I also realize many of these lots are pretty well picked over by the importers wanting to keep the "good stuff" for themselves. Thanks again!

Just one humble opinion.....

When I first got fired up for BP's.....money was limited and I wanted to get a jump start. I purchased a male pastel and I needed the breeder girls to go with him. The demand for adult female cbs went through the roof. They were available but the price at that time was more then I could afford. I took a chance on 5 WC adults to get a breeding group going....wow what a bone head mistake. None of them ate well......I tried every feeding trick on the planet it seemed. I ended up picking up female hatchlings that same year. Many of these hatchlings are larger today then the original wild caughts.

My point....

Getting wild caughts is not bad.....after all look at some of the amazing new morphs proven from the wild. However, moving forward I will only add wild caughts when I'm not dependent on them to succeed and eat well. After I already have an established group of breeders......then I play the wild caught game.

Just my thoughts,

Jim Perron

How long has it been and have any of the WC females produced for you yet? Have some of the CH ones produced? Basically I'm looking for someone with a real world example to confirm or refute the adage that you can grow up a captive hatched to breed quicker than you can get most WC adult females to breed.

In my particular case....my CH bred before my WC.

I'm sure their are plenty of people with a different experience. I got my WC's in at around 1000 Gs. I got my CH's in at around 100 Gs. Being patient stinks and is no fun....but it is essential in the ball python world. In the end....I think you win raising them up yourself.

Again....I realize there are exceptions to this.

Jim