Hi! We recently acquired an indigo snake that spoke to us at a convention. I messaged the original breeder about the line and inquiring to buy a mate for him. The original breeder no longer works with this specific lineage and offered to trade me for a pair of babies.
We love the indigo we own, but it’s hard to turn down a pair. We’ve only had him a week but still feel bad about giving him up. What do you guys think?
Yea that’s a tough one…Is the female you have breeding age yet? Me personally if I had not had the animal for a long time (and took a liking to it) I’d trade for the babies…Its a future investment. Unless you find a male for the one you have of course.
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The one we have currently is a male, he’s about a year off from breeding size. I haven’t seen many females up for sale so I’m thinking I need to buy a baby female anyways
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Sounds good…If you’re getting two healthy babies of the opposite sex for one Indigo I’d rip their hand off.
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Very good point to be noticed
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In parceltongue?.. Sorry, I couldn’t help it.
Personally I would go ahead with the trade. You will be saving a nice chunk of money by not needing to buy a female in the future, and you will alread have to wait for a female to get up to breeding size when you do.
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I would think very carefully about this. I find I need to take my feelings into consideration. If I really “clicked” with an animal I would keep him. Also one wonders why the breeder is so eager to get your boy back. His line may be worth 2 to 1 trades and you might be better off keeping the line. Maybe the breeder would sell you the female or the pair. Think with your head but listen to your heart as well.
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My 2 cents on this is if the 2 babies being traded are siblings or not. Not that it’s the worst thing to breed siblings on a single generation(IMO) but I wouldn’t want to start any long term projects that way. As for time you’re in it for about the same. I highly doubt anyone will be selling a breeding size female Indigo, especially for a price most would be willing to pay. So if you’re looking @ needing to raise a baby female then doing the male at the same time isn’t an issue, no need to have a male ready years before except for the obvious reasons of having a mature size Indigo… which is awesome!
Send some pics!
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I would be extremely cautious. I am willing to bet the pair are siblings, or are otherwise closely related. Drymarchon do not tolerate inbreeding at all, and part of ethically breeding this species is keeping the gene pool as diverse as possible. It is highly frowned upon and unethical to inbreed Drys, but especially Eastern Indigos as their gene pool is already very limited as it is (assuming that by “Indigo”, you are referring to the Eastern Indigo). I personally would not trust a breeder that is so eager to trade a 1.1 juvenile pair for a sub adult male. Screams red flag to me personally. Proceed with extreme caution.
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This. Makes no sense to me that he would want to give you 2 back for one male that isnt even breeding age
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If the original breeder no longer works with that specific lineage, it does make me wonder why they would want your male, other than maybe having a soft spot for the animals and wanting to keep some around for the love of them. And with getting any animals, either in trade or from buying, you have to trust that the pair they send you will indeed be a 1.1 (and then hope that they will fix their mistake).
Just some food for thought. It sounds like you’re going to need to raise up a female either way, so if the babies look good and the breeder is trustworthy with good reviews then it might be worth looking into. I honestly don’t know anything about the indigo community though so I wouldn’t rush to make a decision.
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Thank you all for the responses!
It’s a really hard decision to make for us. The breeder offering the trade is one of the largest drymarchon breeders out there, so I trust him in terms of the pair being unrelated. It’s a Mexican indigo black phase, only 2-3 breeders that I know of in the US at all, and he’s definitely the largest and most well known.
Attached is a pre-shed photo of Midnight, the indigo in question
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Based on what I’ve seen, he has a whiter neck than most Mexican indigos, usually the chin is white and the neck fades out sooner. I’m assuming this is the desirable part of the line
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Well if he is a large breeder then he can probably afford it so maybe he just wants that particular snake back
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I only have a Royal myself, But I’ve read through and I will say, if I brought a snake or any reptile for that matter, I really liked and instantly took a liking to it, and was offered a trade for 2 young, it would have to be a no. I do get attached very easily though, but I could be offered 10 Royals for my 1 and it would be a no as I love my Banana.
Same with my Cresties, I’ve been offered silly amounts for some of them that are breeding age and because of the lineages and structure/colourings etc. And was a firm no from me! No amount would make me give them up.
Just my thoughts! At the end of the day it’s up to you, but he’s a stunner and if you really loved him when first seeing him I’d keep but ask the breeder to buy a female young if you’re looking at breeding in the future 
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I will say this, just because it is a large breeder doesn’t mean they are completely ethical when breeding. There are plenty of large breeders out there that inbreed a lot.
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Midnight looks like a keeper to me. If you trade off Midnight, would you be waking up in the middle of the night hoping he is well and in good Home.
Another thing to think about. 2 for 1 sounds like a sweet deal, sweet deals that are too good to be true aren’t. I am bettng there is some reason he wants midnight back, maybe because he turned out a lot better than he thought he would and the breeder realized that he’s a much more valuable snake and is trying to trade 2 nickles for 1 silver dollar.
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Indeed, in some ways I feel like the bigger the breeder the more likely they are to have done some unethical stuff, at least at some point. They might act like angels on YouTube, nowadays, but some of the big names in the game have done shady things in their pasts and would prefer not to talk about it. I’d give everyone three guesses on who, and any two of them would probably be right. There are also really good folks out there in the game, ones who may not have all the hype or marketing money of others, but who have great business ethics and customer service for multiple decades.
OP: The deal raises red flags to me, seems to be good to be true, I’d ask more questions and if the information stops flowing, be wary.
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I’m aware of the inbreeding problem especially with Drymarchon and larger breeders. The community for indigos is very small from what I can find, and this seller has a stellar reputation and is guaranteeing unrelated animals. I asked for photos of the babies he has on offer, I’m curious as to if I can tell what’s remarkable about this particular line
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I would defer to creatures on anything Indigo related
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