Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are the balls that are farmed in Africa and then sent here by the thousands kept in a manner that would leave them vulnerable to ticks? I was in a pet store today and they had a skinny little ball with a tick in its eye. I told the clerk but she just chuckled and said "yeah, our reptile guy hasnt been here in a few days." It just got me thinking about this. I would assume that a CBB ball would not have a chance in hell of getting ticks. Obviously a WC ball could very easily have ticks. But how exactly are the farmed ones kept in Africa? They are selling this ball for 90 bucks and it cant be worth more than $10. Thanks for responding. EP

As I understand it, farmed reptiles and amphibians are kept in pieces of land that are set aside for the purpose of "cultivating" the target animals. These are essentially wild areas that are casually monitored and are maintained with essentials, such as brush or whatever, that encourages nesting. Now understand that these parcels of land are probably being used for other purposes and the "reptile farm" aspect of the land only comes into play at certain times of the year...when eggs seasonally start hatching. There are no international standards set up for what a farmed animal is or what constitutes the farm. Most of these kind of "farms" (there are some in the swamplands of the US for cultivating turtles, treefrogs and lizards)are in underdeveloped nations where labor is cheap and methodology and standards are second to making money off the animals. In some parts of Asia, it is customary to use gas to knock out the desired animals. When you get them, they live for quite a few months and then mysteriously die (well after any return policy you might have with the pet shop)...I would suspect from cumulative resperatory failure caused by the gassing. I am sure that there are some farm situations that would meet a herp lover's standards, and that the one I just described is the most extreme example. The bottom line is that "farmed" means wild caught when it comes to the diseases the animal may carry. These animals should most certainly be less expensive than captive bred.

It may very likely be a bush baby, which is a young animal that hatched in the wild. Basically a wild caught. There's also the possibility that it picked up the tick in that petshop. I hate going to petshops and seeing how the snakes are treated and improperly housed.

Later,
Oz
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Adult ticks lay their eggs within freshly laid regius eggs, the ticks then proceed to baby balls when hatching and thus continuing the cycle.

For the non beleiver, this is mentioned (pic included) in the Ball Python Manual on p.72