Wild Caught Balls

[greenman1867]

I know people shy away from WC like the plague...............but, are there and "Pro's" to wild caughts?

Is the acclimation a whole lot different than regular CB? Of course you have to treat for parasites and have feces check, and of course the potential feeding issues (which I know are bad enough with CB let alone WC).

Anyways just looking for thoughts and I am sure "rants". Thats okay though I am looking for any and all opinions/thoughts.

Shawn

Mary Jane (not WC, just bored and think we all need to post more pics :) )
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[Manitoban Herps]

One go dthing about WC and CH balls are that they are immune to many disaseses (sp) in captivity.

[greenman1867]

Really? Thats something I never heard before. Interesting.

[CamHanna]

Pro - They cost less (at first, but more after vets).
Con - They die more (apparently after the headaches you'll wish it was you).
Neutral - They offer genetic diversity (disease resistance), but there are so many different captive bloodlines that simple outbreeding should do the same.

Anecdotally feeding is a very big problem and so are parasites but I've never tried acclimating a WC python before so I wouldn't know.

Cam

[RandyRemington]

One go dthing about WC and CH balls are that they are immune to many disaseses (sp) in captivity.

Please elaborate on your thinking here.

I doubt there is much if any genetic difference between captive bred and wild bred ball pythons. We've only been breeding them a very short time and there are still tens of thousands exported every year from Africa. They aren’t like lab rodents that have been bred for hundreds of generations without parasites or diseases.

I suppose there might be some diseases that aren't seen in wild populations (last I knew we don't know where IBD comes from and I think snake Mites are only wild in Asia). However they could easily pick some of these up at a North American importer's facility or a pet store.

[greenman1867]

IBD is found more in Baos and the like though right? I know it's possible in Balls, but less likely? Is that right?

Shawn

[RandyRemington]

My understanding is that ball pythons would die of IBD quite quickly and hence don't live long enough to spread it much. If your ball python collection is still alive a few months after getting your last new snake you probably don't have IBD.

On the other hand I've heard that boas can live a long time with IBD and spread it to breeding partners and even offspring.

My vet did a study in which 50% of the boas he tested had IBD. I don't know many of the other details like how random the sample was etc. He did say that he felt that IBD has been spread to boa collections around the world and he indicated that the main culprit appears to be lax mite control.