i know you guy think WC is cool any all....

[scottrussell]

but i think this guy sucks for doing this:

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=60&de=397027

why would you take snakes from the wild and sell them for TWICE as much as captive bred ones...which have no parasites and are completely healthy?

[Jynx]

A) They are shipped worldwide. Not very many people will ship worldwide.

B) Those are at least sub-adults, if not mature adults, and they are worth about what he's asking

C) WC are a great way to introduce new blood into the gene pool, instead of just concentrating the bloodlines

[ghosthousecorns]

I agree the WC have their pros but I hope he just put them all together like that to take the pic... if not I can't say I like his husbandry practices.

[cowboyman13]

Price seems fair to me. I believe $30 is what i find CB normals for around here. Unless your at a show.

And i thought a chicken snake was just a term us rednecks used for snakes we ran out of the chicken coop. Who knew they where hybrids? :shrugs:

[Tyger9791]

i agree that getting a WC is good to breed to introduce new genes into the gene pool. otherwise you're just inbreeding, and that can produce birth defects. i've paid anywhere from $20 to $40 for my corns. so $30 seems fair.
now i dont like how he has all the snakes thrown together like that. i hope it was only for a few moments, just to get a pic. WC need to be quarantined. they can carry all sorts of parasites, including mites.

i, too have heard of chicken snakes, but like cowboyman, i just thought they were just any old nonvenomous snake that you found in the chicken coop or barn. i used to get paid by my friend's stepmom to catch the chicken snakes in her coops. they would eat the baby chicks. i'd catch them and release them miles down the road.

[mbdorfer]

And i thought a chicken snake was just a term us rednecks used for snakes we ran out of the chicken coop. Who knew they where hybrids? :shrugs:
Even Black Rats are sometimes referred to as Chicken snakes in older literature, as well as "rattlesnake pilots"! :cheers:

[kimbyra]

Personally I think its terrible. Not his selling wild caught, I've nothing against that as long as they're not endangered (and they're not), what I have a problem with is those snake pits. It looks like thats how he keeps them. There had to be about 25 in that one box, (it looked like to me). Thats awful. THose are some stressed snakes. The "parasite free" bit is very doubtful too.

[scottrussell]

yeah that's pretty much what i was getting at. i could very well be wrong, but when i saw that pic and what he was doing...to me it just looks like that guy lives in a good snake area and when all the snakes come out for spring, he catches them all, throws them in a pit and tries to see if he can make a buck off it. a lot of WC stuff is based on volume...when i was at a local show last week they have "this years new babies" or whatever of ball pythons that were so young they haven't even shed yet. the guy probably had 100 of them all sitting in a sterilite sweater box...and just sat there and popped them and then tossed them into the appropriate box like they were inanimate objects or something. i dunno that stuff just erks me, the new blood point is a fine one to make but i think more people are just willing to make a buck than care about the gene pool of captive snake breeding. ps i apologize for the 5 spelling errors i made for the title of this post i have no idea what i was thinking...

[Slippery Ernie]

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=6&de=397032

[ghosthousecorns]

It sure looks like these animals are being kept in substandard conditions, wire cages, dirty water, ugh. And selling feeder snakes... I have nothing against the responsible collecting of W/C if the person doing it at least takes care of the snakes, leaves some adult males & females to repopulate the area where he collected, and provides decent conditions until they go to new homes but I have the feeling this person does none of these things and is only in it for the buck. I hope I'm wrong.

[ghosthousecorns]

Well now it says the ad has expired or been removed.

[mike17l]

i emailed the guy asking him exactly what a "chicken snake" was as i had never heard of them. thats why he added the note on the end.
i do think that "land raping" for profit is wrong, but i do agree that the captive industry needs WC specimens to strengthen blood lines. i have no problem with an individual collected one or two or more snakes but do not feel that blatant collection for profit alone is right.

[cka]

I think the idea of going out and snatching up 30 or 40 assorted wild corns snakes is unnecessary, given the tens of thousands that are bulked out every year, here in the States and abroad. Maybe 20 years or more ago, with keeping reptiles such a "niche" hobby and the demand lower, the impact on the snake's population was so little it wasn't harmful. With the explosion of the Herptile "pet" trade and the world wide connectivity the Internet affords, where it was one or two jobbers doing it before, it could be 100's...and that won't be good lol...

There's nothing wrong (JMHO of course) with taking a few wild caught animals from an area known not to be threatened, but how long will populations be able to sustain "bulk snatchin' " just for profit :shrugs: and if it doesn't, then you find yourself in the position of being unable to take ANY. Still blaming those wonderful people in DC and your home state capital for all the recent anti-reptile keeping legislature? Better think again...