Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey all! I've kept cornsnakes and kenyan sand boas for a few years now. I've also been facinated by womas (and black-headed pythons, but one step at a time, eh?) for years now. I'm starting to seriously consider aquiring a pair, but as I've never bought "high end" snakes, I'm leery of how to go about it. So, all of you with experience out there, what's the best way to shop for a woma? Order online? Go to shows? Of course, I'd love to be able to see my potential snakes live before choosing them, but I'm under the impression breeders often don't bring their high-end animals to shows (stress) plus there's just generally less selection since a show only has local breeders wheras the internet is global.

So, does anyone have any advice or warnings for me?

Thanks!!

There's a good handful of reputable breeders online but let us know where you live. As you may get lucky and be able to score one from one of those guys at a local show. If you can make it to one of the larger shows like Daytona you can find just about anything. Tom

Woops -- kingsnake didn't send me the normal "you have a response!" notice, sorry for the delay!

I live in Baltimore, currently. So I'm pretty close to Washington DC. It looks like there are a few herp shows here every year, but I'm not sure what size they are. Ah, to live near San Diego again (This place also has a huge derth of herp specialty stores... sad. Horray for the internet)
Yes, picking a pair up at a show would be ideal, if there was a good selection available!

Two people/buisnesses that come to ming are Rare Earth Inc out of Richmond VA and I am sure many people will mention Don Hamper out of Ohio. Both have sites listed on Kingsnake.com breeder section. Good luck with your search. I love my pair, they're great snakes. Tom

I went to the Daytona show last year in hopes of finding "nice" womas. I was picky, and wanted light colors. 95% of the womas I saw there were quite dark, and didn't look like an animal that I wanted to drop hundreds on (although there were definitely some good deals to be found if you weren't picky, or like dark womas). I ran into a friend there who was also in the market for light colored womas. He basically said "you get what you pay for" and pointed me towards a breeder with nice animals. Sure enough, they were higher priced, but were exactly what I was looking for.

I now have two pairs... A few weeks after I returned from Daytona, I found a breeder online that had some beautiful hatchlings for sale. He sent photos of the available snakes, and let me pick. I couldn't pass them up.

There is some variation among womas -- some are darker or lighter, some have clean bands rather than broken bands, some have bands that are more red than brown. Figure out which look you like, then set about finding a breeder who has the same tastes!

Female from Rare Earth:

Female from Todd Trowbridge:

Good luck!
Ronda
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Ronda Van Winkle
Northwest Herpetoculture

Zonks, lovely animals you have there!

Yeah, I figured that with higher quality comes higher prices, and if I am getting an "upper end" animal I figure I should go all the way (within limits). Actually, I do prefer the darker animals... specifically the ones with a lot of red in them. But still with a decent contract and with cream bases, if I can be really picky
Thanks for suggesting a good breeder to me!

High Orange/Cream womas will hold there value.....theres a ton of ugly dark brown males out there u can get for 500 bones. In my opinion Barry Miller is producing the best Carrot colored womas in the country! But he isnt cheap......but you have that freak bloodline too show for it. MillerReptiles.com Ive got a one of his its outstanding. Joe's stuff is great also.

Another good person to get womas from is Todd Trowbridge. He is just about sold out this year, so watch for his ads next season. Knockout animals! I also have some girls from Barry Miller and hope to get a couple males to go with them. The picture attached is a pair that came from Todd.

Very nice! Thank you for the recs!

Mmmm, I actually do prefer the darker red snakes. No accounting for taste I guess ^-^