Hi Everyone ,I was wandering are there  many wheatbelt stimpsons in captivity, and  being breed?  are they rare or common in the wild, are many being collected? regards jay.

I ended up posting some in here so I wont post them again.
http://pilbarapythons.com/trueblue/index.php?topic=316.new#new
let me know if you like them

Save the wheatbelt Stimson's, Only buy CAPTIVE BRED!!

But who is breeding and selling them? I need a male if anyone is selling them.

You must of forgotten about my W.A outstanding order Gary

Prices have to reflect demand , but w.a keepers look at price first, so its usually the cheaper stimsons that get sold locally.

Oh come on! I think a better way to put it is we look at value  . No offense intended but in WA we are restricted in what we can buy and given a choice of wider range of animals we most likey wouldn't be looking too hard at stimi (If first time keepers were able to get a carpet for $200).

Just to high light value. Boodrie Woma are about 3k here and 1.8K over east - same breeder same breed line. I think you sell Woma for about 3K each, as do Reptile Trader. I think I looked at value when Armidale reptile centre sold me 2 woma hatchies for 2K. One of which comes from a tanami line which the takers don't have access too (line comes from surplus Perth Zoo stock).

Carpets are selling for around about $800-$1000, Gary Kelly Sold me 2 for $600 dollars each and a BHP for $600. There is no difference in quality at least in the BHP's case becuase you supplied it to him.

I've no problem with the prices you want to charge that's supply and demand (artifically created mined you) , but don't have a whinge about WA people buying cheaper animals cause yours are too high. Due to the small amount of keepers here in WA, once the demand over east is filled and they're are breeding them they won't be putting in orders over here and hopfully the prices will come down.

I'm not against you guys making money - I think its great that you are rewarded for all the years you've put into the field, but please don't make it into some high moral ground argument about animal quality, CB VS WC, keepers looking at price or the like to justify your prices - as you've said before your prices are your prices, that I accept.

Just to high light value. Boodrie Woma are about 3k here and 1.8K over east - same breeder same breed line. I think you sell Woma for about 3K each, as do Reptile Trader. I think I looked at value when Armidale reptile centre sold me 2 woma hatchies for 2K

I have only ever sold one woma. That was about 3-4 years ago, which was one of the first W.A womas legally collected for the pet industry and that one sold for $2400. I have not sold any since, as I am trying to gather my breeding stocks. I had advertised some at 3K and this only reflected a price I could buy them for,from another collector.
This was only an effort to make some available in the perth metro area but has not been recieved as well as I had thought.

The womas I have gathered for myself have taken many hours in the feild and cost me quite a bit of money too. When I breed this species I will be able to offer them at a cheaper rate. But others in perth have claimed to have bred them so I would have thought they would be offering them cheaper already.

Yes if we were given the same opportunity to take zoo's excess stock and sell them to the pet trade I am sure we would be able to compete on a level playing field. But unfortunately we are not  legally allowed to do this.

My point is not about you making money - I sincerely wish you all the best at making a living out of your passion. You need to be able to cover your costs and make a profit and as you say when supply is down you can make a premium profit. I think I bought a wheatbelt female off you for $350 3 years ago and they are now $500, brilliant you're doing well.

The point really is that there is no level playing field for anyone. Keepers/Takers/Farmers. Reptile parks get surplus Perth Zoo pythons and they breed them and sell the offspring - do they pay a farming fee? Are the reptiles WA sourced origninaly? or supplied from another inter-state zoo?

DEC supply's a reptile park over east WA natives which we aren't allowed to kept here, that reptile park then gives these animals to a comercial arm to breed which then sells them for $10K each to keepers in NSW (we aren't allowed to keep WA rough scaled pythons). DEC confiscate WA stimi and give them to the same commercial arm at the expense of WA herp farmers.

Takers are pretty much doing the same thing - if there were no export of our natives reptiles then the prices of reptiles would come down here due to the smaller market of keepers. Keepers get screwed further because they pay inflated prices in WA for the same animal that is near half the price over east. Keepers can't sell their animals to another keeper, they have to go through a dealer.

I admire you Gary for setting up a breeding farm which will serve keepers in the long term, butI think if anyone is entitled to be price conscious and looking for value its the keeper

This is not about Takers making money, its about a level playing field for everyone, not the artifical environment we have at the moment

Sten

I'm not attacking John either - everyone of us would take such an opportunity if it was presented to us. I don't begrudge anyone for taking a legally provisioned opportunity - that's just the politics of envy.

Reptile Trader does have excellent marketing skills, but you can easily cover that with a little thought and planning. The issue is though once you go down the business path you often get side track into the business rather than what you are passionate about.

Speaking of work I'd better go and do some - I can see a crisis mounting with a client as I type.

Sten