Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Jason

Prices were really down at Daytona for babies. $650-750 for males, slightly more for females. I'll bet you could have bought a pair on Sunday afternoon for $1500.

Yeah but they looked like crap from what I heard. You have always been able to get dark muddy babies cheap and non feeding babies as well. That is like saying that alterna were at Daytona for $25... they have been for years but if you want a beautiful feeding babies you are still paying $75-150 apiece for alterna and you are still going to have to pay for nice blackheads. Some guys would rather dump them off to a wholesale/retail seller as ugly non feeders for a few hundred a piece rather than actually do the rest of the work with the animals and get them feeding and going strong. My 2010 babies will not leave my possession until they are feeding strong unless they are going to an experienced BHP keeper who has dealt with babies before. It took me 9 months to get the last 2009 to feed on his own but one girl took only 4 weeks.

I will bet you that some of those "cheap" blackheads at Daytona will not be alive this time next year because they still will not be feeding on their own...

Jason

Yes, they were darker, but to some people...it's still a Black Headed Python.

I was also told by someone that they were not feeding yet either. It seems like Daytona has become the show for market crashers but 2 vendors selling sub par or non feeding animals does not make the market. The guy with the store front is happy to make $200 off any animal he sells outside his invested breeding plans so he has no care for what the animals are worth to a market he is not breeding in, just try to tell him about a half market value ball python from a morph he breeds and listen to the whining that starts.

Like I said, there are guys selling locality alterna feeding on mice for $150-$300 a piece and guys selling generic alterna that are not feeding for $20 at the same show. It all comes down to what is important to you. If you want a certain look like a nice red or a nice black and white it will cost more and if you want an animal that feeds readily on rodents when you get it home it will cost more. If you just want a blackhead for the cheapest possible price then you go to the guy selling muddy non feeders.

I prefer mine clean and feeding

Jason