# CB, CF, WC and LTC Better Explained In Reptiles



## Synergy (Dec 5, 2007)

*CB* = Capitive Bred
*CF* = Captive Farmed
*LTC* = Long Term Captive 
*WC* = Wild Caught. 

The number after this code (*ie 02 / 03 etc*) is the year the animal was born. 

Therefore *CB01* means an animal that was captive bred in the year 2001

So one of the common questions that comes up for new comers to the hobby is:

What do *CB*, *CF*, *WC* and *LTC* mean?

With that in mind I decided to put a little page together explaining the terms, so without further ado:

*CB – Captive bred*

CB is short for captive bred. This means a specimen has been bred and raised in captivity. Whenever possible you should always buy CB animals for a number of reasons. Most importantly, if you are buying CB specimens you are not depleting animals from the wild. Second to this is that captive bred animals tend to have far fewer problems associated with them. They are usually parasite free, feed more readily and generally just produce less headaches for the owner.

*CF – Captive farmed*

Captive farmed (CF) reptiles are somewhere between captive bred and wild caught. Whilst captive farmed means a few different things in reptiles, more often than not it involves pregnant individuals or eggs being collected from the wild and the young farmed, before the adults being released (in the case of pregnant females being harvested). Captive farming isn’t ideal as it does deplete natural stocks of reptiles, however it is arguably much better than wild caught individuals. CF animals tend to adapt to captivity much better than wild caught animals, however they do carry a risk of parasites and care needs to be taken when acquiring them (ie quarantining is essential with CF animals).
When buying a CF animal it is important to aquire feeding records if you can as feeding in captivity can some times be problematic with CF animals. This is particularly true for royal pythons.

*WC – Wild caught*

Wild caught reptiles are the least desirable option, however oftentimes they are the only option. These are animals which have been collected from wild populations and imported in to the pet trade. These reptiles may carry parasites, adapt poorly to captivity (causing problems with feeding, etc) and can generally be problematic. That said, some WC animals do cope well with captivity. Invertebrates such as tarantulas and scorpions often do well as WC individuals in captivity. In fact, a large proportion of the adult tarantulas and scorpions sold in the hobby are WC.
When buying WC reptiles quarantining them is essential in order to prevent parasites and infections spreading to the rest of your collection.
As a final note on WC, if it is an option you have a duty as a responsible keeper to avoid buying wild caught specimens. However I acknowledge that sometimes they must be purchased and can carry some benefits (ie introducing new genetics in to tired captive bred lines).

*LTC – Long term captive*

Long term captive is a tricky term to define, most people have their own definition of it. In short, it means a wild caught animal which has been in captivity long enough to have adapted to it and therefore carry few/none of the problems normally associated with WC reptiles. Many breeders use the 6month mark to decide when a reptile stops being WC and starts being LTC. Personally however I think a year is a better option. When purchasing LTC specimens always try to get a feeding record where available and make sure to check the animal over for any signs of parasitic infections etc.


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## Synergy (Dec 5, 2007)

Up top


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## Synergy (Dec 5, 2007)

STICKY ???

This is very indepth


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## Hannah81 (Nov 19, 2008)

There's already a sticky for abbreviations, you might have to add it to there.

Sent from my ST18i


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