Hey,
Thanks guys for helping me on everything recently.Anyways me and my mom are now wondering should we buy the snake from a breeder, petstore or online.We'd perfer not to order online and we like the idea of knowing the gender before we buy. Thanks again Lindy

Hello,

I always say go with a breeder or try to adopt when possible.

Depending on where you live, buying online may be the only way to buy from a breeder.

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.:: Rich ::.

+ Spread The Info

I would definitely say a breeder. You can find out when/where the next reptile expo will be near you by checking this website: http://www.kingsnake.com/events.html

Adoption is another good option, as Rich mentioned. You can call your local animal shelter, look online for reptile rescue groups in your area (a good place to start is www.petfinders.org), or try Craigslist.

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Amy

If you are lucky enough to have a good herp shop around thats fine, but you will also pay more. Unfortuantely there are a lot of realy bad shops that sell unhealthy animals that make poor pets and with reptiles it may be difficult to tell the difference for a novice.
Most of my animals were aquired from breeders at herp shows. There you get to talk to the breeder as well as physically handle the animal see how it feels and how it behaves.
What area do you live in? Maybe someone can point you in the direction of an upcoming show.

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I'll agree with the rest, all of our herp kids were either bought at a herp show, from a breeder or adopted. Shipping can be scary the first time but usually well worth the stress.

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Colleen

Breeder, definitely. I can tell you that the reptiles I've bought from pet stores most often have turned out to be sickly and require a LOT more vet care. They cost less, but because they are handled less delicately, they often die sooner.

The best way would be to find someone who knows a reputable breeder in your area. You can go online and find someone, but I'd look for a breeder that is within driving distance. (This, of course, means however far you are personally willing to drive to pick up the animal. I actually drove out of state to pick up a veiled chameleon once.) That way you can meet the people who have been raising the animal and hopefully see the conditions it has been kept in. It really helps to know.

a well known breeder is always the best bet if you are quite new to the game. Once you have more knowkedge and experience you can judge the quality of a herp yourself(and sex it ). then it is ok to buy a herp from another person... if you can see the animal before hand.

Adoption is also a nice idea but make sure you will be capable of bringing the animal up to good health. It will also likely be stressed and not handle that easily...this is case to case though.

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oh....forgot to ask. Are you looking for anything in particular... for example more common and easy to keep herps can be purchased from good general keepers who happened to breed their pets.

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Don't be jealous the voices only speak to me...

www.swaziwildlifevolunteers.com

What kind of snake are you looking for?

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Actually as a general rule, unless you are purchasing some exotic morph or het, a breeder will be less expensive than a pet store. After all the petstores buy from a breeder, and then put their markup on as well! I have seen animals from breeders at expos for 15-20 dollars and seen the exact same species at pet shops marked up to 100 dollars!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!