Woes trying to buy animals

For the past several months I've been reading and learning all I can about snake husbandry before I purchase animals. I have my housing setup all planned out and am currently in the process of buying all the necessary equipment. Exciting!

Not so exciting has getting animal information from breeders. Based on the most recent email I received it seems as though they expect me to purchase an animal without knowing much info about it (not knowing the sex, how old it is, what morph/color it is?) I was expecting to be able to choose the animal I wanted to buy, rather than having them choose the animal they want to send me. Also it seems that the animal pictures in ads are not of the actual animals they're selling, which is really frustrating as a new buyer.

Am I better off going to a reptile show (which is sadly 2 months away) to buy animals?

Any insight or guidance you kind folks can give me would be appreciated.

Long post incoming!

It sounds like you are talking to either a large scale breeder or a company that buys wholesale and resells. A lot of those companies will use a stock photo of an animal and not bother with individual pics.

As far as sexing, it depends on the type of snake you are looking for. Some cannot be sexed when young as doing so will damage their fragile tail areas, but generally that is information you should be able to get before you buy.

If you want to be able to pick out your baby, I would suggest working with a hobby breeder, this is generally someone that has a small collection (under 100 animals) and will be happy to provide individual pics, feeding records and detailed information about the parents. Another way to pick out the animal is to go to a show as you suggested although again, you will run across resellers there who won't always have much info about the actual animal as they have so many or just buy to resale.

You can find hobby breeders in classifieds like here or through a local reptile club. You can browse discussion forums here or elsewhere to see who works with the specific species you are interested it, it never hurts to send some people a PM and see if they are breeding or what they might have available.

While buying from a small-scale or hobby breeder might mean you pay a little more, you usually can get much more information, advice and after care service from them than you would get from a big reseller or big breeder. Not always the case of course, but generally speaking this is what I have found.

It's always a good idea to search the BOI (Board of Inquiry - http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...splay.php?f=13)
for the person or company you are thinking of buying from. If you don't see anything, you can post an Inquiry or ask the person for referrals.

Good luck! I hope you are able to find what you are looking for!

I agree with April, breeders here really know there stuff (most of the time) and sometimes you can get better deals (not just price, but better quality as well).

If the expo has its own web page or Facebook page check it to see if you can find a vendor list. You can then search for the vendors online, find out who is local to you, and contact them for sales. Not only can you get better deals that way, by buying local you can put all of your snake budget toward the animal and equipment rather than blowing $40-80 on shipping.

I did purchase three snakes sight unseen last fall - 1.2 Savu pythons - but they don't come in morphs and they drastically change color over the first few years of their lives.

Thanks all for the tips!

I'm looking for a mexican kingsnake (solid black, patternless, not brown!) and my husband likes "normal" ball pythons (he wants a male).

I'd like to buy local, but I was told by two stores I visited that mexican kings and normal balls are not popular anymore and don't sell so they don't stock them They offered to contact some large breeders to see if they had any available, so I decided instead to contact them myself, and those communications prompted my original post.

Yes AbsoluteApril, the emails were indeed to large breeders. Re-reading the emails I received shows that I was contacted by sales people and not the animal handlers themselves, which makes some sense why they didn't know the particulars of the animals.

I'm going go through the Sacramento Reptile Show sponsor list and see if anyone has any animals I'm looking for. And I'll keep checking the BOI too. Reading the drama there is both interesting and frightening!

Every local BP breeder and his brother should be able to offer a normal. Definitely check the expo list and start making calls.

There's not a lot of variation in MBK's so large online sellers often will only have a stock picture on their web site. If you can't find a source after calling the expo vendors, put up a WTB ad in your local reptile facebook groups.