Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a chance to buy a male and female brb. they are both adults and are wild caught. they are 175 each. can anybody give me adive why i should or should not do it. or is their any precautions i should take. any advice would be helpful.

thanks
steve

I'll start by saying I have no experience with WC anything. I'll just give you my opinion (I almost always have one!)

PROS
They are usually cheaper (as far as purchase price).
They aren't very likely to be related to CB's so the blood lines
will be unique.
CONS
They are more likely to not thrive.
They are much more likely to have parasites.
Their end cost could be greater than you bargained for.
Their temperments will vary more dramatically can CB.
They might not adjust well to a captive environment.
They must be quarantined rigidly away from your established
reptiles for 3 to 6 months, the longer the better.
You will be supporting the capture and export of the species from
their native land when it's not necessary due to the
availability of CB.

If I were to buy a WC (which I'm not completely against doing) I would want pictures. I would also keep it out of the same room as my established snakes for a very long time. I think the longer in captivity it has been would be better. I would also check out the seller's reputation very well.

Hope that offers some insight, whatever your choice will be.

Linda

From my experience....DON'T! But if you do....Take them to a Vet. as soon as you get them. Get them on Panacur and Flagyll. These are medications for various G.I. parasites. I really like Flagyll. Ask the seller to pay for a "fecal." They are cheap. If the seller is unwilling to to that, I definatly wouldn't buy them....I don't like buying adults, I've decided. I prefer to raise my own breeding stock....that way I know the animal. Why is this person selling them so close to breeding season?

Good luck, Chris O.
-----
www.chrisolsonreptiles.com

Steve,
..I have bought and kept about a dozen imported BRBs. I still have some of them in my breeding collection. If they have any scars or abnormalities around the nostrils, mouth or eyes do not buy them. Many imported WC BRBs will have scars from injuries and tick bites. If these scars are on the body and are not open wounds they are usually not a problem. If you get the snake eating and shedding okay it will clear up most of the scars over time. WC BRBs will have external parasites and you need to use Provent-a-mite to kill the parasites as soon as you get the snakes. Do not use any lesser product on them because the other products only piss off the parasites and drive them away from the snake. From there the mites and ticks will go looking for and find your other snakes and that is exactly what you do not want to happen. Like Linda posted you need to keep them quarantined away from your other snakes for many months. Imported BRBs may have internal parasites. When I got mine I started feeding them and keeping track of their weight. If they passed reasonable looking stools and put on weight I assumed internal parasites were not a problem and did not treat for them. If the snake passed messy stools or did not put on weight I treated with flagyl and panacur. Most WC BRBs will bite. They can all be tamed if you are brave enough to lose some blood. Some of them are real nasty and will warn you. Others may act tame but they eventually bite you without warning. These bites most often occur when you are moving the snake to clean a cage or feeding it or getting it out to handle. All of them that I have had bit me at least once but they all eventually became tame calm animals. I got my imported BRBs in the early 90s with the intention to breed them. At that time it was hard to find pretty CB BRBs for sale. None of the imported ones bred for me the first season after they were imported. A few of them bred the following season and most of the rest bred the season after that. If you are getting these to breed you can just about count on not having them ready to breed before any CB yearlings you could buy now would be ready and the CB ones would be lots less trouble. I would not buy an imported BRB today unless it had something special going on in the way of color or pattern.
Jeff

>>i have a chance to buy a male and female brb. they are both adults and are wild caught. they are 175 each. can anybody give me adive why i should or should not do it. or is their any precautions i should take. any advice would be helpful.
>>
>>thanks
>>steve

thank you allfor your advice you have all been really helpful. the place where i was getting them was www.topshelfexotics.com. if anyone can take a look and give me their opinion that would be great. i'm leaning towards not buying them now but really i do. so if anyone can just look at their site and tell me what they think.

thanks
steve

Steve,
...The PICs look great but something tells me those are "file" pics and not pics of the actual animals for sale. Do you know if Topshelf Exotics is located in Orlando?
Jeff

>>thank you allfor your advice you have all been really helpful. the place where i was getting them was www.topshelfexotics.com. if anyone can take a look and give me their opinion that would be great. i'm leaning towards not buying them now but really i do. so if anyone can just look at their site and tell me what they think.
>>
>>thanks
>>steve

n/p

$175 is a good deal for two adults. The thing to watch out for is inclution body disease. IBD is a horrible respritory infection that just makes the reptile waste away and there is almost nothing that you can do about it once the reptile has it. It is also conagious to other snakes. Also internal and external parasites are a problem. Wild caught also most likely have a nastey temper. I have been bitten by just about everything; 6 foot blood pythons, carpets, redtails... and none of them were more painful then a 5 foot brb. Also they can't be housed together if you plan on breeding them. Also with any brb you need to be sure that you can give them the proper heat and humidity, which can be trickey. It is totally worth it if you can give them what they need. Once they are handleable they make wonderful pets.