Fred Kick - Kicksballs

I have a mixed review on this business as well as some history about them. As the business name may imply they deal heavily in ball pythons. However, they are much, much more than just ball pythons and their vendor tables at reptile shows always one of the largest with the most variety. They usually have all kinds of snakes, amphibians, lizards, and sometimes venomous reptiles. Online however at http://shop.kicksballs.com/ they only offer their captive bred ball pythons for sale so, if you're interested in purchasing something else from him you'll have to go visit Fred at a reptile expo or simply inquire through private messaging. Kickballs does sell many imported wild caught animals, which makes them a good go to place for something harder to find or something that is usually found only as wild caught specimens for sale. All the imported animals I have personally seen at their stand have been to my knowledge animals that are often wild caught as they are plentiful in their native habitat. However, I have seen some unhealthy fresh imports being put up for sale already even though they were emaciated looking and clearly not established to captive living. I only have seen animals being sold like this at his stand 1 out of a 100 animals and Fred is honest about what is WC and what is not. He apparently uses a supplier for any animals he doesn't personally breed himself and the supplier, he assured, does treat all wild caught animals with Panacur de-wormer, quarantines them, and treats for any external parasites before they ship them out of their facility. I purchased a fire skink from Fred, which like most fire skinks for sale anywhere he is wild caught. I've had my boy 1.5 months and he's doing great. He's active, colors are bright, he's friendly, eats like a champ, and his only shed with me went good. While I was at his reptile show stand, Fred himself answered my questions without hesitation, was straight with me about the skins' origin, and he paid attention to me while still helping other customers. I was allowed to handle the fire skinks before purchase which is a must for me since I'm looking for a pet. Though skittish none of the skinks tried to bite, only to run away from you and most were pretty calm once you got them in hand. I think this shows they have been handled, were treated with respect, are use to humans, and are settling into captivity well. I think of all the fire skinks at that reptile show, the ones at Kickballs were the calmest once in hand and Fred seemed to know the most about his animals. Over all Kicksballs is a well known name and I personally would buy from him again as my buying experience with him went well.

Fred is an awesome dude and is my go-to guy for hard to find "rare" reptiles! I have been doing business with him for over 10 years and I am always satisfied. He takes pride in his ball collection, which is housed in a separate facility from the import stuff. Even though I do almost every northeast expo, I still look forward to cherry-picking his new imports before the doors open everytime!

Yep bought and sold to the Kick Bros. Many times. That said, a lot of their harder to find animals are imports and should be handled accordingly.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=290130

I know he doesn't have the greatest reputation in some circles but I have purchased some nice stuff from him in the past including a emerald tree boa, Madagascar tree boa and some Balls and all have thrived quite well. I would do business with him again

I think whenever you buy from someone that works with wild caught animals a lot you're taking a risk that nothing was cross contaminated. Sellers that handle WC often are going to have mite problems and other issues no matter how much they try to prevent it. The buyer has a responsibility too to inspect animals' health and to shop around before buying to make sure they're getting their monies worth. Now I do agree there are times I have seen animals at the Kicksballs stand that they should've been ashamed to be selling because they were obviously a fresh import that needed fattened up or another mite treatment. However, looking at how many animals they have total, these sick animals were only a small percentage and all wild caught. Perhaps they are cleaning up their act so to speak.