Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been trying to acquire adult female CB's and I just can't seem to locate any! My hunt for >1000 gram captive bred females is coming up empty.

I wonder if my type of demands help contribute to the importation of adult wild caught bp's for breeders in need of females.

Anyone know where I can get some adult female cb's >1000 grams?? And yes, I've already got an ad on kingsnake

thanks

My guess is that if anyone out there has an adult female bp that they were considering selling, at this point they've decided to breed it instead.

That's why you can't find them.

Joel
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2.5 Leopard Geckos
0.1 Ball Python
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.0 Blair's Phase Gray Banded Kingsnake
0.0.2 Crested Geckos

If you are trying to find adult captive bred females prepare you give you left arm for one because I doubt anyone is selling them.

You might have better luck towards the end of the year. Most CB adult females are either breeding or beeing beefed up for next year. I was lucky to enough to get 3 earlier this year, one 1700g one 1600g and the last 1400g . I think the 1700g is gravid from my het albino, and she's the only one not eating right now. I havent tried anything with the other two yet.

I don't think there is a problem finding adult females. The problem is finding adult females, CB, over 1000 grams, and CHEAP!!! It's the additional criteria of being CB, feeding on frozen thawed, CHEAP, etc. that narrows down the available group to almost nothing. I've posted females only, with good weight, feeding, clean inside and out, etc. only to receive some rediculous offers. If you expect someone to give up a healthy, feeding, near breeding size adult, you should be willing to pay. Afterall, didn't they go through the same efforts that your complaining about. They had to shop hard and long, pay a premium or work with it for a year or more to get it up to size.
It is frustrating, been there, done that! Keep shopping or get some younger ones, 400-800 grams and feed them all they will eat so you can try next year. Also, consider paying a little more. Isn't it worth a little more to get your hatchlings to market a year or more earlier?
I recently offered a group of females to a breeder that has just invested thousands of dollars in various morphs. Instead of paying me $150 each for a couple of very nice balls, he opted to buy '04 CH at $10 each. It will probably be spring of '06 before they are ready to breed. My females will be ready next year. Also, he has co-dominant pastel males that will be ready next year. So he saved $140 per female and will lose more than that, a lot more than that per hatchling pastel because of market changes. By the '06 breeding season pastel pricing will have dropped more than his savings.
Sorry for the rant!

I haven't been looking since I don't have any codoms, and Its a long game to work with recessive through normals if you have mostly hets(like me), but what is the fair market value of adult normal females right now???
Just curious
TomChambers

Fair market value is kinda hard to say. I had been advertising a couple ch. 800 gm females for 200 ea. late last year, kinda high, but I am glad I did not sell them. I bred them to my pastel male and got 8 eggs between the 2 females. If all goes well those 8 eggs could easily turn into $4000. 10 times what I wanted for the females. If I had say a male spider at 600 grams, and could not find females to try him out on, I would gladly pay $500 for adults. Basically depends on the situation. Craig Kade

I don't think anyone is charging too much for any animal if there is somone willing to pay the asking price.
I suppose the correct phrasing should have been " what is the current average asking price for adult females"

Good luck with the eggs Craig, I hope the odds are with you.
TomChambers

I agree with Craig and his experience is an excellent example of when it's worth paying a little more. Each of us needs to decide what is fair for our own projects. The current market and ability to generate big $$$ sales in a first breeding is driving up the price of females. If you've got the right male like Craig, it is obviously worth paying the extra.
I've got a couple of big girls, 2k and 3k grams. I missed with the 2k but maybe not the 3k girl. Lack of skill and experience with balls, my fault. In the hands of an experienced breeder she could generate a large clutch. Why would I sell her cheap? So someone else can benefit from my work of getting her up to size! No way!

The only problem I see with people asking $300 to $500 for female balls is, that most of the people asking for these prices are garage dealers or pond scum. They know they can go to local reptile swaps or local pet stores and purchase these adult animals for $45 to $75 each. It happens every weekend.
For example: Last sunday a female ball was purchased for $45 at 11am from a young gentleman walking around the swap, it was later sold for $300 from someone going to the swap to find a few females... if he had only been there two hours eariler...
Second exmaple, there was a ad in a local sales paper, a adult female ball for $65. That animal was purchased and sold for $500 shipped. I am not saying that this activity is wrong. It's buyer beware. It's just I've been keeping and breeding herps for over twenty years, and I can not justify spending $500 for a normal ball, when I know for a fact, if I would only look around, and do some research, I can also find females in the $45 to $75 range. It just takes getting off your butt and looking.
But no, this is the computer age... let someone else do the leg work, I'll just spend a few hunderd... please, give me a break.
Now with that said, I to also look online for possible purchases.
I've found some real nice animals that way. But, we all look at the ads everyday, we see some real bargins, don't we?? You just have to use your head and make your on decisions, on what you are willing to pay.
It's been said, if you have a pastel, and the person is selling a normal ... then the sky is the limit, cause your be producing pastels... so that makes his "animal" worth P0 more, because of what YOU have?? I just don't see the logic....

Thanks for the good luck wish. I have not seen enough adult females lately to say what an av. price would be. If someone is selling one this time of year I start to worry about why they are selling her instead of breeding her. I know sometimes people just have to many or are in need of cash now, sometimes though it could be a female they have tried to breed a couple years in a row that does not seem to take.

I have to agree. I am always very skeptical of anyone getting rid of a GOOD adult female , especially if they are a breeder! And what about the unscrupulous sellers trying to pass off wild caughts as captives? I just started getting into balls early in 2003. I purchased hatchling to 400-500gram females. I'll have to wait a little longer but at least I know what I have! And John, I saw your add and just didn't have the room at the time or I would have taken them all! And the IMG type I got from you is back on feed and slamming medium rats. She is over 850 grams now. I will be posting pics of her soon.

She currently weighs 2450 gr. but could easily go to 3000 gr. quickly. I feed her only about every 2 weeks, 2 jumbo rats. Don't want to overfeed.

She laid a clutch of 6 eggs late August last year, and the eggs were about 150 gr. each, really huge. Before that clutch she weighed about 2800 gr.

5 eggs hatched out, the babies were huge, between 96 to 110 gr. each.

She eats frozen thawed, but right after her clutch she wanted only live...but I have switched her back (I would give her only small live rats and follow up with dead ones).

She also has a nice temperament and is by no means a "boring" snake...

I have been offered upwards of $800 for her. But I really like that girl...and don't plan on selling.

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reps-r-us

Here is a pic of the big girl today...shows her weight through the rubbermaid...and the rubbermaid is not incl. in the weight, was set to "0" gr. after the rubbermaid was laid on the scale...

here is a better look at her size...

and a pic of her clutch from Aug. last year...

enjoy
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reps-r-us

Thats a great looking girl you have there. I think I saw some 3000 gram females go for around 1k each last year, so I wouldnt be surprised if you had high offers on her. Best of luck to you.

I also have 3 males, get the picture.

None are for sale, since they are adults. You would have a lot more luck buying babies and growing them up, because prime breeders are valuable and one male can breed many females. If you had an adult female that was ready/close to breed, would you want to sell it? I wouldn't.

Ocassionally some are available, but breeders usually snap them up pretty quick.

Rodney

follow the link might be a solution to your problem.

jeff
Link

lol mine is laying on 10 eggs, i was also looking for adults about two years ago but i purchesd 2 cb females that were 2 months old seemed better to buy and raise them then to look forever