What to look for in a breeder

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Jessicatt1

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Hi I’m looking at getting a snake (probably woma) but I’m not sure what to look for in a breeder. What should be expected when finding one that’s reputable? How do you know they’re reputable?
 
Ask others who have bought from them.
What if I don’t know anyone who has snakes/any reptiles? I have been able to find breeders near me but not sure how to work out their reputation when I don’t know anyone who’s bought from them...
 
What if I don’t know anyone who has snakes/any reptiles? I have been able to find breeders near me but not sure how to work out their reputation when I don’t know anyone who’s bought from them...
ask around for who breeds what, if multiple people say the same names, you know who to go see
 
Why not ask about the breeder you are interested in buying from here ?

if they are well known and have a good reputation I'm sure people will say so, and conversely if they are dodgy .
 
What if I don’t know anyone who has snakes/any reptiles? I have been able to find breeders near me but not sure how to work out their reputation when I don’t know anyone who’s bought from them...
It is hard to be a newby, you don't have the contacts, you don't know where to start and you don't know what questions to ask.It takes years to gather that info. Start with your local pet shops and ask as many questions as possible, join your local herp club and join as many reptile groups a possible.Go to the zoo/reptile park and ask questions. Passionate people will always offer advice
 
Another way to ensure you aren't scammed / ripped off is find a local breeder / seller and arrange to meet them when you are ready to buy.

DON"T BUY by mail-order unless you are 100% sure the seller is bonefide and licensed ( being a noob you can't be sure of anyone online ) so unless you see the animal , the seller is prepared to meet you and do a face to face sale , and shows you their permit to keep reptiles it's very likely you'll be stung.

There scammers / crooks out there who will take your money , and you'll never receive the animal.

Again : check about the seller here first , and if in doubt , don't.
 
Definitely go and research different breeders. Start digging on facebook. Make friends with breeders. I have only 4 snakes at the moment, but I talk to numerous breeders. Now, most big breeders will know a lot of the smaller breeders as well. So what I do is if I see an animal for sale, whether it be on gumtree, facebook or reptile classifieds, I will talk to the seller and get their name, then id ask around the breeders to see if they know them. Now if this is your first snake, I would definitely recommend talking to a proper breeder. Some others might not agree, however recently there have been multiple scams, multiple people getting "perfectly healthy and feeding animals" and then they are sick or they don't feed regularly.

Where are you located? I might be able to help out. I live in Brisbane and know quite a few people these days.
 
Send a message to your local snake catcher, they've jumped through the hoops to be able to catch snakes which usually gets them a fair few contacts, even if they don't know what the person may be breeding they can point you in the right direction.
 
There a plenty of good reliable breeders who arent on facebook and are not known by most "big breeders" wont know . People like myself just like the hobby and have kept various pythons for 15yrs plus . Not trying to make money just purely breeding a few clutches to see if they can improve the lines they have or just pair things up out of curiosity cause it interests them and selling things off due to space constraints or goin in different directions . Obviously selling off some hatchies help pays for rodents and power bills haha but thats about it! Word of mouth is king in this hobby! I have bought off "big breeders " in the past and tbh ended up with some bad feeders
 
As mentioned above by Shire Pythons, find someone who's not in it for the money and just loves what they're doing and who has only a handful of animals and focuses on QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY.

In the turtle scene, you can always pick those breeders who are trying to turn a quick buck... they'll pump out Emydura sp. hatchies with no genetic integrity whatsoever by the bucket load (because they're as easy as rats to breed and can't be easily ID'd by your average Joe to whom which all turtles just look the same) and sell them in minimum purchases of 2-3 and tell you "you need to buy a few as turtles get lonely and need friends"... they won't sell just one. As above, word of mouth is BIG and there's plenty of dodgy people out there in all walks of the herp scene with bad reps.

Facebook is definitely not the be it all end all... I don't have a fb account at all and nor do I need one to advertise with. I have species you can't find anywhere else in captivity but word of mouth is more than enough. I've usually sold everything I've bred before it's even hatched each season.
 
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