Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got curious, so I went through the snakes currently listed on petfinder (www.petfinder.org). This may or may not accurately reflect overall trends in shelters and other rescues across the country -- dunno. It's just an interesting snapshot!

I did think it was interesting that there's as many albino burms listed as normals, but again I dunno if that means anything or not. Oh, and I didn't separate out the morphs of anything but the burms...and I didn't separate the rat or king species.

Ball python – 55
Bc – 27
King – 7
Corn – 24
Rat -- 7
Burm –
Albino – 3
Normal – 3
Retic -- 1
Borneo short tailed python – 1
Dumerils boa – 3
Carpet python – 1
African house snake – 1
Anaconda (no spp) – 1
trinket – 2
carpet python – 1
Kenyan sand boa – 4
Water snake – 1
Children’s python -- 1
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

That looks pretty accurate to me.
I'm a little surprised there is'nt a couple of male spur tortoises. D.C.

>>That looks pretty accurate to me.
>>I'm a little surprised there is'nt a couple of male spur tortoises. D.C.

I was only looking at snakes. Dunno about the tortoises!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
2.0 Brazilian rainbow boas (Arco, Olho)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
1.0 Thayeri kingsnake (Coatl)
2.7 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, Uce, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

I can speak from personal experience that male ball pythons outweigh every other snake in rescue. I always have more of these than any other snake. Second will be the normal boa constrictors, once again, male heavy.

Last year in August, my rescue moved from open admission, to working exclusively with shelters. We are there for the drug raids, the strays, the domestic cases, the abandoned. Being the only shelter that works with every shelter in the state, we felt it was best to reserve our energy for animals that will need to move ASAP or die. There are numerous other shelters here. I will include our intake numbers of snakes for you.

27 Ball Pythons
19 Boa Constrictors
9 corn snakes
4 coastal carpet pythons
3 albino garter snakes
2 cal kingsnakes
1 mexican black kingsnake
1 rainbow boa
1 reticulated python
1 dumerils boa
1 argentine boa

The retic, dum and argentine as well as 1 ball all came from the same household. It was a situation where the owner died and the family didnt know what to do. The garters, 3 corns, Rainbow and 1 coastal came out of a neglect case. The rest of these animals were shelter transfers.

FYI 4 sulcattas and 19 iguanas.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
Visit kingsnake on Facebook!
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What do you think about people changing their signatures to say:

if you want an iguana, male ball python, or male boa, don't buy! Adopt from a shelter!

I'll do it if KS is cool with it
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

One of the rescue tag lines is "Opt to Adopt"

Perhaps something along the lines of
"Have you checked rescues for herps? Consider adoption". That may be more along the lines of TOS.

As you can see, the variety of animals through my doors is quite vast. Kingsnake is very supportive of rescue (this goes with out saying since I am the site coordinator) supporting them with rescue network, webhosting etc...
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
Visit kingsnake on Facebook!
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I've noticed something on the pet section of Craigslist (Austin), which I checked out of curiosity: there are more ball pythons there than any other reptile. That didn't surprise me. What surprised me were the so called adoption fees. $100-200 for a normal BP? How can we urge people to adopt when the cost is so much higher than at a pet store or a show. I just feel sorry for all the snakes (and other animals) that are obviously unwanted.
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http://www.mikefoux.com
http://snakerack.blogspot.com

1.2.0 Hondurans Het Amel
1.1.0 Hondurans Anery, Het Hypo
0.1.0 Honduran Hypo
0.1.0 Honduran Hypo, Het Anery
0.2.0 Pueblans
1.0.0 Pueblan Hypo
0.1.0 Corn Bloodred
0.0.1 GBK Blair's Phase
1.0.0 California King
0.1.0 California King Blue-eyed Blond
0.0.1 Speckled King WC
1.1.0 Brooksi Hypo
0.0.1 Jungle Carpet
0.1.0 Ball, Normal
0.0.1 Sulcata
1.2.1 Leopard Geckos, various morphs
0.1.0 Wife, Caucasius Mexicana

While Ball pythons, regular Boas, Iguana's, Red Eared sliders, and Beardies are the majority in San Diego we do get some things that are on the more scarce side. From Cat eye'd snakes and Scrub pythons and even a Caulker Cay Boa. I do see alot of people on craigslist trying to get unreasonable adoption fees and most are not really part of the community but think that since they got taken for a ride paying Petco prices they can ask that much when trying to rehome their pet. I've seen adult corns for 175 and Balls for as much as 250(for a normal) and have to remind them of the reality. All of the rescues in my area won't pay rehoming fees since all food, heating, medication costs are out of pocket. I would say we get 1 Burmese for every 15-20 Balls.

There are some different factors to look at.

My rescue has a scale for pricing. Different for different ranges. Small snakes, large snakes, lizards, inverts, turtles and iguanas.

Each animal has different costs involved and also different I spose you would say market value. Honestly, I have not taken a fee for the past few iguanas I placed. I was just happy to find them a good home. I run the rescue like a business. Because it is to some extent. One thing we do with each and every animal is an intake vet visit. Wanna guess that drives some of our adoption fee? We also have various other things "built" into the cost such as on larger snakes, they get a second vet visit for microchip implant prior to adoption. Now we do not pay full exam cost, but we do pay for them. Honestly you can not get a vet checked animal for what we charge.

Now with craigs list adoptions. Remember most of those folks are people trying to place their own animals. I have had people tell me that they wont give up their 10 year old 3 foot iguana because it HAS to be worth at least 100$. So some people do have a skewed view of value.

I always suggest when people look to adopt, check out an organization, ask for references, check the references and know you are working with a good organization. Yes they will cost something, but if it is a good and reputable organization, you will see results of that groups work.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
Visit kingsnake on Facebook!
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Myself and the rescues I work with all have our specific animals of interest. So when one gets a monitor we know who gets first dibs and when another gets a various python who will take it. As my screen name tells what my main interest is I also have plenty of Balls and a couple Boas. My largest Carpet was left at the entrance to a local Petco similar to a kitten in a basket with the knock on the door and run technique. I've been givin' Ball pythons by Samoans who apperently did not know other Samoans(their families) have a high fear of. There is a fair number of local breeders who use craiglist with various Ball morphs, Beardies, and Boas available.You can usually tell by the asking price what type of seller your dealing with. Alot of rescues I know won't rehome using craiglist for fear of the same animal or its offspring ending right back at their door 6 months to a year later.Rescues become more like sanctuaries where once a animal is relinquished it will be the last time it changes hands.

>>Alot of rescues I know won't rehome using craiglist for fear of the same animal or its offspring ending right back at their door 6 months to a year later.Rescues become more like sanctuaries where once a animal is relinquished it will be the last time it changes hands.

To some extent that is true. I promise that the instant any carpet comes to me, it never will make the adoptable list. But in the same respect, I then incur all the costs associated with that animal. Same for any blood python (which I still havent gotten a single one in) that will stay here. My foster home likes Chams, so she will get dibs and the moment they come in for all of these animals it is a yes or no I want it. Once the decision is made the rescue does not fund anything for that animal.

But there is also a rescue here locally that sells animals to anyone who comes in. It still says rescue, but it is basically a pet store. He also breeds "albino berms" and has sold EGGS in the past that people hatch themselves. I kid you not. Now he is in no stretch a rescue or anything of the type but labels him as such to get free stock. That is where the references come in. And why my nose is squeaky clean. I do get a fair amount of flack for it, but I feel there needs to be a standard. BTW the whole "Berm" thing is one of my top pet peeves along with poisonous snake.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
Visit kingsnake on Facebook!
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I know people talk about Craigslist, I have sold at least 200 snakes on that site in the last 4 or 5 years, mostly normal Ball Pythons, and normal Boas, or snakes that are actually het for something that I sell as normals. People that go an that site want cheap stuff. You can't sell a normal Ball Python for 100 bucks. I sell them for 20 bucks and in some cases less then that. I just try to make people happy, sell good snakes at a good price.