Things to look for when buying from Private Owner

[Wrath]

Hiya,

I am going to look at a Ball Python about an hour's drive away tomorrow. I want to make sure that she is in good health before I make a decision....but I wanted to know if I'm missing anything here.

Check:
eyes, nostrils, mouth clear of guck and mucous
for mites and skin free of wounds

What else?? I would think I would be able to determine health easily, but I want to make sure that I make a good assessment.

If she is not up to par, I will just get a CB hatchling from a petstore, but I did not want this one to go homeless if she needs a home and I have one to give....

[Linds]

Hehehe.... good luck finding a *real* CB ball in a pet store, especially this time of year :p

A few other things to look for are its body weight and muscle tone, strength (is it limp when you handle it?), vent area (is it clean?). Make sure you find out her feeding history as well.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out :)

[Wrath]

Oh, I found a bunch of reptile stores out my my bf's house (funny, there's like 1 in my area and like 20 of them by his place, I knew there was a reason I met him!) :-p

....I don't want to buy WC, so I'll just do some browsing, shopping, if the BP doesnt work out.

But thanks, I will keep those all in mind when I visit her....Hey, what do mites look like? Are they aphid size? Not as big as fleas, right? More like lice I'd imagine....hmmmm

Yeah! I'm seeing her tomorrow, so Ill let you'all know how it went!

[AzR@k]

i bought a CH baby and she is very very nice.. i have yet to have a prob with her she is great.

[Tim_Cranwill]

my buddy's ball python (from petland) came complete with ticks and mites and got scale rot and died the other day (two months after purchase)!

I don't think I'll ever buy from that store again.