Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I want everyone's honest opinion on farmed snakes. I keep seeing them for really decent prices, but I am kind of iffy. I am blessed with a male snake that has no attitude problems or eating disorders. He eats whenever where ever.
I was looking at some farm raised females. They've been cleaned, no parasites, no scars etc.
They seem like a great way to get some nice females for breeding, but what sort of troubles can I expect?

Are they going to give me feed problems? Are they full of bad attitude? Or are ball pythons generally docile (even farmed)

Thanks in advance,
-KOS

Assuming you get them from a reputable dealer, you probably
won't be able to tell the difference between farm raised and
captive born. Most of the time they will be just like a CB
baby. Of course, if you get someone's leftover baby balls,
or sick/etc balls, then you will have a difficult time. Like
I said...buy from someone you trust.

Note: For the most part, these animals will not be treated for
anything. So there is always a chance that they are harboring
something bad (ie. parasites). With all newly acquired
specimens, you should have them go through a quarantine period
(typically at least 3-6 months) before putting them near your
established animals.

Good luck!
Chris Simone

Are you looking at farmed hatchling females or Adult females? If they are ADULTS they are not "farmed" they are just wild caught. Farmed generally means that they go out and collect gravid females from the wild , hold them until eggs are laid hatch and export the babies then release the females back to the wild or sell them for export. Farmed babies generally present few problems if aquired from a reputable source but wild caught adults can be hard to acclimate to captivity.

If at all possible, USA captive bred will be your best investment.

If you are referring to farm hatched or Captive Hatched babies there is almost no difference between them and c.b. babies. If a person here in the US has farm hatched babies that they have raised up and are selling there should be no problem as long as that person is a trusted dealer/seller. Now if there is someone selling adults as farm raised there is no such thing. The "farms" in Ghana, Togo, and Benin all go out and collect gravid females, let them lay their eggs, hatch the eggs and then export the babies as farm hatched. When the baby season is over and they have surplus animals they are released back into the wild to be possibly collected again in the future. The locations that are referred to as farms as not farms but rather usually someone's house or a warehouse that they use for the purpose of hatching eggs. If you see someone selling adult females as state they are farm raised with no scars or such I would have them clarify if the animals were recently imported or if they have been in captivity since they hatched. More than likely you will find that the snakes are recent wild caught imports that you will more than likely have problems with feeding and such.
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Rob Trenor
RK Reptiles
www.rkreptiles.com
www.rkreptiles.net
www.oldworldchameleons.com
www.ballpythonmorphs.net
www.beardedragons.com

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Many believe that this process of aquiring Ball Pythons further "strips" the ecosystem of a valuable animal and promotes its abuse - all for the sake of the mighty dollar (or Yen, or Kronur or whatever). I will always promote buy CBB. But that does not mean I condemn those who do not do it.
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Jay A. Martin