Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was curious if anyone knew where big chains like pet supplies plus/ petco, etc get thier balls. The pet supplies plus by me has balls for sale pretty cheap right now but was curios where they came from?
Also, if anyone knows what do you think the chances of getting a female are, ( i have no expiernece in sexing, so it would be by luck since i dont have any personal background in popping/probing.) I was thinking maybe the breeders, or people that get to the snakes before they enter the pet shops may go through and take out all the females???
And on a side note the amount of knowledge and experience people in this forum readily and happily share is trully amazing. Thanks in advance to those with the knowlegde I aquire for so willingly sharing it with me and others, your herping hero vicious.

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1.2.1 crested geckos
0.1 burmese python
0.1 pain in the ass

I am not sure how they get their ball pythons at. And the chances of you getting a female are 90%, bacause every snake I bought from a pet shop it was a female and I popped two ball pythons for him and they both wore females, so your chances I think are pretty high. Hope This Helps Scott Glover

I don't know where the big chains get their snakes from. If the people selling them don't know what sex the snake is, I personally wouldn't want to buy from them. I would think that you would get a much heathier snake from a breeder that knows what he/she is doing. The big chains are in it for the money. I think most people that breed them do it for the love of the snake. Just my opinion. )

...in this day-N-age, many of the shipments are screened for females, so high male groups make it to the petshops...so...odds are better than 50:50 you'll get a male...and another thing, don't rely on "popping" to sex baby ball pythons...when you pop, if you don't see hemipenes, you STILL HAVE TO PROBE to verify it's a female or JUST A NON-POPPED MALE!!

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City

Well, from asking the personel in charge of buying ball pythons at Petco, they have a wholesale supplier that they've been using for years. I myself purhased a larger then normal lot size and am keeping back females and have males for sale. I've already made a deal with one smaller pet store and am taking the rest in to the local flea market though.

I would definately agree with Dr. Scott about popping though, I double checked my lot and when I couldn't find hemipene on some males I set them aside and probed them.

I would just go with someone that knows and can sex a snake for you a breeder or importer. Try the local shows, you never know. Obviously not all females are held by people.
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Violette Garcia
www.shakahnsgrove.com

np

I have confirmed in my recent research, before finally acquiring my first pet ball from John Skipper, that Petco gets its snakes from Calzoo.

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