Question for experienced EXPO"ERS"

OK here's my problem.  The kid that works for me has decided to try and sell his pair of Emerald Tree Boas.  They are 4 years old and perfect in every way, but we have no way of proving they are c.b.  He bought them from a guy going through a divorce and they came with no paperwork.  How strict are the rules about this stuff?  Is the fact that they look great, eat great, and are great, enough, or is he out of luck?

Thanks, Brian Conley

this is where honesty and reputation come into play.  You can't prove it so you have to tell prospective buyers everything you can and hope it will be enough.  It sounds like these animals are in top condition, and that should speak volumns toward a potential buyer.  I am not familiar with emeralds but it seems to me that a 4 year old CB animal would look pretty good compared to anything recently imported.  Be totally honest and things should work out.


Another thing,(and this may not apply to you) but if you are a vendor that makes a living selling WC animals at swaps don't be surprised when people are a bit sceptical when you suddenly have animals that you claim are CBB espescially when they are animals that are commonly imported.

Steve Schindler

Yeah, that's one of the problems I'm worried about.  I am working the JP pets table at the expo.  JP and myself do sell imported animals so some people may be skepticle.  I guess we'll just bring them along, present them with everything we know about them, and take it from there.  They really are great animals.  We were feeding everything last night and in the process knocked over a cage full of mice.  In the process of catching 50 hoppers!!!!, we knocked over the male's cage.  I thought to myself, well, so much for him eating before the expo, but 3minutes later he chowed down a rat like a hungry corn snake.  See yall there.

If you have all of your W/C animals labelled as such, and then these snakes labelled as C/B - II would not see a problem. Explain the situation and if someone doubt you - point out all the snakes marked W/C and ask them why they think you labelled just one pair as C/B!

My two cents:


Because you allready sell wild caught snakes, and are BROKERS, the presumption is going to be that the pair you have, because they are adults and you are brokers, are wild caught. This is going to be hard if not impossible to erase from most real buyers who are looking for a quality snake, not just some rehashed turned over import.

Emeralds have  wide variety of behaviours as wild caught imports...some of which include regurgitation, refusal to feed out right, and overt aggressiveness. I would try and get the feed and shed records for these snakes from the original owner, who..if they truly are captive bred snakes, given the amount of money laid out, may have kept them.

The problem here is that the activity you are involved in:Brokering animals, lends doubt as to the authenticity of these snakes origins. Remember, if a person is looking to spend bucks on a snake, they want as much PROOF as possible that the snake is not only feeding, but has been kept by aas few people as possible in a given amount of time. If it was some cheap corn snake or perhaps Colombian boa or nicaraguan, then no one would really care, but with the kind of cash poutlay your talking about, it behovess you to do the best you can to SHOW the customer the LEVEL of care these snakes have received, even if you cant PROVE origin.  If you cant show level of care and cant prove origin, you are going to have one hell of a hard time trying to sell them to people that are looking for good snakes. Your best bet is to try and sell them to another breeder, whose Expereince level allows them to deal with problems that may arise.

                            Just my two cents, more like 6 cents


                    Fred Albury
(Aztec Reptiles U.S.A.)