Craigslist Depression

[Bassball Fever]

I was looking to see if I could find some racks or cages on Craigslist when I came across all of the BPs for sale. I could not believe how many of the ads listed "not having enough time" as the reason for selling. How much time does it take to take care of a single BP? I don't have one yet, I'm still in research mode, but it seems like once you have the snake home and the husbandry is fine tuned, it doesn't take that much time.

I'm doing my best not to judge, I know that I've made mistakes and rash decisions. My guess is that the novelty wore off. Maybe some day I will be set up so that I can provide a home for some of them, once I have some experience and can handle potentially mistreated animals.

[predatorkeeper87]

its a mix of impulse buys, the "cool" factor of owning a snake, and the thought that a BP is going to be such a badass snake. Then IF they get the husbandry right in the first place, they realize that BP's hide 24/7 and they no longer want them.

[CALM Pythons]

You Both hit the nail on the head... People want what they want right at that moment and then after a couple months when there done playing Snake Keeper/Lizard man or The Dog Whisperer onto Craigslist the poor things go... I see how I've changed myself over the years and I think most of the problem is immaturity and no understanding of life other than "Me".
Some people grow up very privileged, ungrateful and almost with a sense of entitlement in this country and in return we have screwed up all kinds of other living things. Not to change the subject but in the 80's & 90's Pitbulls were known to be healthy, thriving dogs that could beat most diseases and genetic disorders that other dogs died & suffered from. Parvo was one of them. Most Pitbulls that came into the Rescue I worked at would beat Parvo once we got them hydrated where German Shepard's and others did not have a chance. Now days the health had been breed right out of Pitbulls and most labeled as Pitbulls nothing but Bull Dog/Bull Mastiff/ even PUG Muts that have all kinds of disfigures, eye, skin & joint disorders. Not only that but every idiot on the block that wanted to act like a tuff guy got one and months later dropped it off at the pound.
Its so sad how destructive we have been to other living things only having our own interests in mind.
Whether its a spider that my girls want me to kill in their room or a mouse that got into the basement I teach my kids that these are all Gods creatures and deserve the Gift of life they have been given as we do.

Wow, theres my 2cents, sorry about that Rant.... Ive been off work for almost 2 months and Im feeling a bit Crazy waiting for spring hahahahahahaha.

[Meerna]

I agree that it is sad to see so many snakes listed for sale just because the person is tired of them. I know it's bs when they say they don't have time, because I have 3 snakes and they don't take up much time at all. I check them every day to see if anyone soiled the tub or spilled their water (little buggers do that a lot) but unless I have to clean a tub it doesn't take more than a minute. Even when I clean all 3 tubs it takes maybe 30 minutes. I'm fond of low maintenance animals myself because I have days that I don't have the energy to deal with anyone or anything. I've learned recently just from dog sitting for my sister that though I love dogs, I could never own one anymore. I wish people could figure that out about themselves without making these poor animals suffer.

[cchardwick]

That cracks me up too, don't have enough time LOL. A snake is just a little more work than a pet rock! Just change water, feed and spot clean once a week and you are good, especially if you use coconut husk substrate, don't even have to spot clean very much. Maybe if you feed live and have to drive to the pet store every week, or maybe if you raise your own rodents... Raising my own rodents saves me a ton of money but it takes me about three hours a week in cleaning and maintenance to produce about 160 rodents per month. I probably spend less than an hour per week on all 20 snakes, mainly just feeding and occasional spot cleaning. And maybe a couple hours every other month for a full substrate replacement.

[Meerna]

I gotta get me some coconut husk, I bet that would solve my water spill problem.

[Vipera Berus]

The not enough time is total nonsense, I work 45 hours a week or more without including travel time and still manage to look after 4 reptiles three of which are tortoises that currently have a separate pen each. Snakes take far less time than tortoises do on a daily basis. Impulse buys are so frustrating.

[JessPets]

It really is horrible. So many snakes get dumped into the wild and get a bad reputation (like burms) just because of people's stupidity. I mean, really, all it takes is a 5min Google search to find out such basic (yet extremely important!) things about snakes!

[tttaylorrr]

i do the same thing and it does upset me. the snakes i've seen are usually with terrible husbandry; i want to take them all in. i remember deciding to get a ball python because they were such low maintenance. how do people decide to buy an animal they know nothing about? the knowledge of the WORLD is at your fingertips; ignorance is not acceptable. how can they be so disassociated to not recognize it is a living being, not a cool necklace to show off? it just boggles my mind; i can't understand the (lack of) thought process.

[Paty]

My friend, who I got my Green Beans from said "Well, I don't really have much time anyways and I know you'll be good to him, bla bla..."

I didn't really think much of it because I had spent a few weeks convincing him to give me his snake because I just really wanted one. I knew GB was friendly and I wouldn't be getting a stranger snake. That made it less scary to me since I wouldn't have to learn (the hard way) how friendly my new snake is.
Now that I think of it though, that wasn't a valid excuse at all to give him away.
I guess you can make them time consuming, like I did. I built his entire enclosure besides the tank itself, by hand. It's a little over 100gal total so it took quite some time to make it "worth showing people" when a simple tub would have been just fine. 😅


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