Farm hatched

[guitrage]

What does it mean if a BP is "farm hatched"? Also, what does cherry picking (in reference to snakes) mean?

Thanks

[Ptindy]

Farm hatched are usually snakes that were hatched at a facility where the snake is from (in this case Africa). The parents would be Wild caughts. All this means they are imported and you should not get one, get a captive bred snake from a reputable breeder near you. The 20 or 30 bucks you save (maybe more in America) is not worth it.

Mike

PS - No idea what cherry picking is, maybe picking out the nicest animal when they first hatch?? Waiting for the hatch and bugging the breeder till they are ready?? Getting the bes tpick, i dunno.

[guitrage]

Ok, thanks. Besides checking out a show (there don't seem to be too many in my area), how do you recommend discovering reputable local breeders?

[guitrage]

Also, do you recommend that I pay a little more for a snake that's het for something from a big name breeder, or try to find one that's just a normal? All I'm looking for is a normal-patterned ball, but would buying one from a bigger, more reputable breeder (who usually only offer het-somethings) be at all beneficial?

I'm just not quite sure where to purchase my snake (I'm just looking around; I don't plan to buy for at least a few months).

Any suggestions?

[Stockwell]

Yup farm raised, also called CH (captive hatched) started with Africans getting smart and keeping gravid wild caught females in pits in the ground until they laid, then incubated their eggs. This provided significantly more revenue, with near zero investment, compared to simply shipping big gravid females, that often ended up egg bound. It's probably a bit more sophisticated these days but basically they are still babies from wild caughts that are hatched in captivety

The term "cherry picking" is used in advertising, to imply that the animals offered were the hand picked best, presumably out of a big batch. The purpose is obviously to motivate a sale by indicating that the animals being offered are a cut above the average.

[guitrage]

LOL, yet another question!

What do you all think about searching the classifieds on the kingsnake site to find a snake to buy?

[Stockwell]

Many thousands of animals are sold on the KS classifieds. Since you're in California, you have pretty easy shipping access to all American breeders and wholesalers, without any worries about CITES paperwork, or import licenses... Your choices are almost endless.
You shouldn't have much trouble at all finding one, especially since you aren't really looking for any special morph.

[pinoiballer01]

hey dude where in CA are you from? im here in cali also and i know some breeders. im located here in torrance CA

[guitrage]

San Francisco Bay area. Torrance is by LA, right? Do you know of any northern California breeders?