New from Iowa

Mimstrel · 01-29-17, 10:07 PM

Hi! I'm new here, and I live in eastern Iowa I'm planning on buying my first snake as a birthday gift. I really want an anery Kenyan sand boa. Okay, let's be honest, I really want a striped anery Kenyan sand boa, but the extra price is more than I can justify.

Does anyone know of anyone breeding anery KSBs within a couple of hours' drive from the Quad Cities, or along the I-80 corridor to the Des Moines area?

In any case, a little about me, I'm a biologist by education and inclination and a customer support minion by virtue of that's who decided they would pay me for showing up every day (and surprisingly, I actually kind of like my job). My snake experience has been incidental to interning and volunteering at nature centers and zoos, where my areas of expertise are birds and mammals but sometimes, somebody has to clean the snake cages. I share my home with a Senegal parrot named Copernicus ("Copper"), a lovely mutt named Tussah, and a painted mantella named Jig.

Nice to meet you all!

**Tsubaki** · 01-30-17, 01:37 AM

Welcome to ssnakess

wish I could help but I'm not quite from the same area!

dave himself · 01-30-17, 02:57 AM

Hi and welcome

MartinD · 01-30-17, 04:01 AM

Hi Mim and welcome to the forum

akane · 01-30-17, 05:25 AM

Hi, Cedar Rapids here. Sand boas are a little more common around than rosy boas but you probably won't find anything specific. I love the pattern of the anery sand boas and was going to get one but I decided I don't like how they look as adults and prefer rosy boas. Snake shipping is easy, common, and only about $30-$60 depending how far away and size of box. I've shipped one a little under that and a little over. Aside from my random rosy boa rescue that started it all the only one I've picked up is my sumatran python and I drove to Madison. I'm waiting for warm weather to get my reserved anery rosy boa from Washington state.

A summary of Iowa law while it doesn't affect your sand boa if you have any future plans for other snakes Iowa is rather strict. Collection of any snake in Iowa except common garter snakes is illegal and if you bring in a species native to Iowa at some point make sure you keep a shipping label, receipt, or ask for extra info from the seller to prove origin. Threatened and endangered snakes in the 2 reptile sections on this pdf (I would link the dnr site instead but I can't find it) are illegal to keep irregardless of source. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/ACO/rule/571.77.2.pdf
We are getting clarification on the special concern section that was added but so far the wording of the law only includes the threatened and endangered lists.

Mimstrel · 01-30-17, 11:32 AM

Thanks!
Akane, I am less worried about the cost and safety of shipping than about finding a really good vendor. The major online dealers all have mixed reviews- which is understandable, there's always going to be some unhappy customers and on average the unhappy ones are always more vocal. But with an online dealer, I can't do my own checking, all I have to go on is those reviews. The other half of the issue does tie into cost. I see people saying that buying directly from a breeder is typically significantly less costly than dealers, but the few breeder adds I have found have had wild-type KSBs listed at $100 or more, and morphs going up from there. That's twice the cost of buying from a dealer. So I'm not sure what to think there, except that if I don't have the shipping cost, I could put that extra $30-$50 into the cost of the animal.

Thanks for the link on the legalities, too!

I like rosy boas, too, and did some looking into them, but in the end I decided that the species that really caught my attention were the KSBs so I'm going to go with one of those and if I decide I really want a second snake, maybe I'll get a rosy.

akane · 01-30-17, 04:30 PM

I haven't used major vendors. I have used forum classified ads. I haven't had a problem. Yes, they cost about that. My anery rosy will be $200 plus shipping. Many of the native colubrids are cheaper like I have a bull snake that was $30 and a little less than his price in shipping. My desert king was $50. The small boas have a steep price tag compared to other natives. From a breeder or collector you can select a specific snake and buy exactly what you see. From a vendor you generally get something that is called the same as their stock photo. The exact coloring may be different. A few vendors do list as they get them in and so have the exact snake pictured but most of the time you are getting something randomly selected that falls under the name given.

Kungfucougar · 01-31-17, 08:46 AM

There's a great reptile store in Madison that has some baby regular sand boas right now, and I know they've had anerys in the past, all were/are less than $100. It's called reptile rapture (not sure if I can post store names here?). It's probably a bit of a drive, but they do also ship.

Grave13 · 01-31-17, 09:23 AM

Sorry I can't be of assistance but hello and welcome.

akane · 01-31-17, 01:25 PM

Yeah, I have been there but I didn't see anywhere they offered to ship their stock.

There was an anery in chicago but sold. I just have to comment they have a $900 snow splash and $1900 snow splash listed. No splash sand boas in my future.... There are anery sand boas for under $100 before shipping in several places and slightly over for a striped anery but not a fresh listing. You probably aren't going to do better without a whole lot of patience and some luck.

Kungfucougar · 01-31-17, 01:41 PM

They do ship--it's on their website.

Mimstrel · 01-31-17, 06:01 PM

I ended up finding a breeder on Facebook with a good price for an anery male, and then I talked myself into the (very reasonable for the morph) price of an anery stripe female. That'll be the "splurge" portion of my tax return this year.

Thanks

MartinD · 02-01-17, 03:45 AM

Mim, you certainly have caught the addiction lol, there will be more to come believe me lol