hhmoore said:
4 baby BCIs? I thought you were into the small stuff, lol. Kinda funny, how tastes change...whether it just happens or it is a change in circumstance.
Yeah I thought I was only into small stuff too. You're so right about how tastes change. The guy I work for has a lot of boas and when the one popped out with the stripe I flipped for it even though it wasn't finished "cooking". So I bought some of its siblings. I'm sure it was just a weird fluke and nothing will come of the four I bought but who knows? These could be het for albino because the dad is 100% het albino.
And yeah, I'm cheap too. I only paid $25 each for those BCIs so I couldn't pass them up.
I got some of my snakes very cheap too. I have a radiated ratsnake that I bought at an auction on April 06, 2005. We looked at this snake before the auction and he had several stuck sheds and was dehydrated and looked to be at death's door. But when they couldn't get a bid I finally bid and won the little guy for $12.50. I really didn't think he would live because he looked so bad when I got him. On the trip home I rehydrated him and I've never seen an animal drink so much. He's turning out to be a really nice snake and really pretty too.
I got the two ATBs that died, 1 hatchling BP and a 3' BCI (sold the BP & BCI) in a trade for a bunch of fish tanks that were cluttering up my back yard. I originally was going to sell the ATBs too but I kept them because I really liked them, nastiness and all.
Just two weeks ago a guy had an ad on this site for 8 Cal-kings, 2 gophers, 4 corns and 3 Honduran milks. He was only 40 or so miles from me so I emailed him and he let me have all these snakes for $285. Cheap ole me bought them. I figured there was probably something wrong w/them because he wanted to unload them so bad. But he told me he was getting rid of everything that wasn't a blood python to make room for his bloods. Well he didn't lie. All these snakes eat like pigs, nothing wrong w/them. So that really upped my snake collection. I'm keeping some of them and taking the rest to the reptile show(s) next month. It'll be hard to decide who goes because they are all nice animals.
I have a pair of jungle carpet pythons that I got free, yeah free, my favorite word. A friend of mine got married & his wife doesn't like snakes. He finally caved in and one day just gave all his animals away. I got the carpets and a turtle. They are 3 y/o and he raised them from little babies. So I'm hoping I'll be able to breed them this fall.
hhmoore said:
I was always a rock python/retic/amethystine kinda guy, with a few carpets & ATBs, a bunch of hot stuff, monitors, and crocodilians to round things out.
I've handled rocks, retics and a couple amethystines (those are scrub pythons, right?)before at the store I work at. Almost all of them were babies. We had one retic that bit and bit and bit and looked to bite some more. What a nasty little guy. My boss used to breed retics, tigers & supers. The darn things were getting so big that us girls couldn't hadle them any more so he sold his breeders. I'm glad. I'm not fond of the super large stuff, espcially super large with an attitude and huge appetite to go with it! He has large burmese but they're really docile and except for their weight, it's not that hard to work around them.
hhmoore said:
and how receptive the market is...I only keep stuff I like, but I'll only breed things that tend to sell (last thing I need is 50 leftover mouths to feed and clean up after, not to mention try to find room for as they grow)
I understand what you're saying there. My boss still has one supertiger retic left from last year's clutch. The retics just don't sell well even though the tigers & super tigers never offered to bite and are really easy to handle. People know how large they get (& if they don't I tell them) and not that many people are capable of providing for a snake that big.