Can anyone explain Het papers to me?

[reptilejunkie33]

I recently purchased 2 Female Boas het albino.In the thread the seller said all hets come with papers.I received them...there were no papers.I contacted seller about this and they said..."OOPS I forgot.Send me some pics of them and I will get them right back to you....???????

 

[shrap]

Het papers basically are showing the snake's lineage, thus theoretically proving the snake to actually be het for a recessive trait or traits. In your case, het for albino.

Just keep in mind, anyone can make false papers saying anything they want the papers to say. Het papers are only as trustworthy as the person giving them to you.

 

[mikeyt]

I would totally agree with shrap on this. Papers really mean nothing unless coming from an honest breeder. Something else I have learned over many years from other breeders is that unless it is coming from a reputable source who produced the animal themselves you are always at risk.

Keep in mind many breeders who do many shows cannot produce enough to keep up with their demand, so they in turn buy wholesale from other sources who may or may not always be honest as well, and therefore they cannot always be relied upon.

Safest bet, do your research carefully

 

[Clay Davenport]

I would totally agree with shrap on this. Papers really mean nothing unless coming from an honest breeder.

I go so far as to say papers, as they are currently produced, mean nothing regardless. They actually serve no purpose aside from a feel good measure.
If you know and trust the breeder you're buying from, you don't need papers. If someone buys a het with papers from a well known and respected breeder and then decides to sell it, the trust issue rises again. Is it actually the snake that came with the papers? Have the papers been altered to represent a different snake? It still boils down to the trust a buyer has in the seller.

If papers were actually produced that were non reproducible and contained a photo that easily identified the animal then that would be different. However, I have never known of any breeder taking those measures.
It would require something like an imprint on the paper itself, like a notary mark. Something that would prevent the paperwork from being scanned, altered, and printed out again, thereby losing the imprint.

Just a piece of paper whether with or without a photo does nothing to actually guarantee than animal is het. You either trust your source or you don't. No amount of paperwork would cause me to purchase a het from someone I didn't fully trust to represent the animal properly.