The post right below just reminded me to ask a question I always wonder about. What does it take to import balls? Like what are the common methods to doing it, is there a certain quota you must buy on a regular basis, who do you contact, do you need to be approved by some agency? How's it work? Not that I'm really planning on doing it but yellow bellies must be almost as common as normals in the wild judging by how many are suddenly available through importation. And it would be really cool to get a shipment and wonder what kind of crazy animals you're gonna have inside that you basically pay pennies a piece for, I imagine. This to me is a really interesteing aspect I know nothing about. If anyone can explain, I'm really curious about how it all works. Thanks alot. Ryan.
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How does one go about importing balls from Africa?
Replies (2)
Ball pythons in africa right now are $5-$8.00 each in 2000 lots. SO not pennies.
The guys in africa know exactly what a yellow belly is and know what every other morph is. YOU dont get to open bags of normals from afirca and see weird stuff anymore, sorry.
They sell the special stuff to the importers here and it cost very close to the amount a captive bred baby of the same morph would go for here, no real good buys anymore. Just wont happen ever again.
They have internet there!!
The guys importing 5,000-10,000 balls a year are making about $1.00 each and there is a lot of work involved, not a big money maker.
Get an import license and do your homework, contact someone in africa and get a price list. Send money and hope they dont rip you off and you will get balls shipped to your nearest port of entry and usfw will inspect every animal, sometimes make you count out every ball python, even if 10,000 of them to make sure you dont go over how many you are supposed to have. If you are 1 over they will confiscate the extra and Have known them to take the nicest or most special ball in the lot too.
Its a tough game..
Beau
I rememeber my friend who owned a pet shop getting balls by the 100 lot about 15 years ago. I can't even rememeber exactly what was in there but there were always different looking ones before they were called morphs. I guess it makes sense that the importers have educated themselves as well. Almost sounds not even worth it to import thousands of them. Might as well just buy the wild blood if the price is similar to a CB one and leave the rest in the wild. Definitely doesn't sound like anything I'd wanna get involved in. Thanks for explaining. I've been curious about how that all worked for awhile now.
