I recently purchased a pair of Dominican Red Mountain Boas on kingsnake.com from Ken Foose in Las Vegas. I do not think I will be purchasing from him again for several reasons.
1. The Boas he had pictured in the ad were not the same ones he sent me. He listed in the ad that they were ALL red but the ones I received were much more brown colored than I anticipated. Whether they will turn red over time I do not know. I just wish he had told me this or sent me pictures of the actual animals I would be receiving. When inquiring he told me that one of the boas I was getting was the one pictured. Needless to say I do not think it was the same one. I suppose its possible that they turned browner over time but even so that means that he did not have recent pictures on his ad which is still unacceptable. Here are the pictures: the first and second one are his kingsnake.com pictures and the second and third one are the boas I received. He still has these same pictures on the ad for DRMB's that he has for sale right now. BUYERS BEWARE you will likely receive animals similar to mine.
2. He said in the ad (still says for a matter of fact) that the boas are feeding on hopper mice. When in fact they were clearly MUCH too small for that and are in fact feeding upon pinky mice. He even told me himself that they were eating pinkies while deliberately lying on the ad and saying they were eating hoppers. Hence I was ONCE AGAIN surprised when unboxing them because I was expecting snakes at least twice as big as the ones I received.
3. In speaking with Ken, he told me these animals were born last spring which would make them almost a year old. Call me critical, but I do believe these snakes should be a good bit bigger if they were a year old. So Ken was either lying or underfeeding them. To give you an idea, the male was 16 grams when he arrived. With regular feeding in my care he has nearly doubled in size in 2 months. So I do think he was either lying or underfeeding them.
4. I hesitate to say this last part because I do not want to make blatant accusations without the proof but take it for what it is: a speculation. A few weeks after receiving these boas a mite infestation broke out with these animals and the snake bins nearest to them. Now I didn't add any new snakes to my collection for several months so I don't see where else the mites could have possibly come from. I acknowledge that this is my fault for not checking the boas and quarantining them to begin with but I do not believe it is acceptable for ANY breeder to sell animals with mites. As I said, I didn't see mites on them when unboxing, but I also didn't look very carefully and I do not know where else the mites could have possibly came from. There is a good chance these snakes came in with mites.
Overall, there were several problems with the seller which all revolved around honesty. I do not believe he was being forthright with me when selling and I didn't receive what I expected. I will not be buying from him again. I caution all other buyers on kingsnake to make extra sure you know what you're doing when you buy from this guy.
I love the animals I got and will be taking excellent care of them. I'm just disappointed at the dishonesty in this transaction.
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