This Time of Year Always Depresses Me

Those puppies are from Mills, and from local breeders who drop their puppies off at dirt cheeap prices. I know ;) I talk to a few people who sell to Dave. I used to sell him Ball Pythons....I can say, not anymore! Betcha didn't know, Dave also got slammed with some fines for selling native reptiles!!

Pets over in the Polish village, was horrible too. Brian used to call me up, wanting to buy snakes here and there, but didn't want to pay my asking price. Wanted Ball Pythons for $5, Burms for like $25 etc etc. no way! Ontop of that, majority of the B. c. i.'s and Burms they sold, as well as the other giants were snakes people dropped off at his store for "getting too big".....

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Well at least that hell hole over in the Polish Village closed down (there is a god apparently!) I went to Dave's once and never again. Bunch of idiots, snakes horribly kept, treated me like a "girl who will scream if she handles a snake" and I would put my last dollar on it that those purebred puppies are from puppy mills! Oh and his "small" rats for $3.99....heck I have bigger rats on their mother's teats! GRRRRRRRRR

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even though i am still probably considered still a new snake owner, i have had my bp since march and my corn snakes since early may. but with all the stuff i learned from this place, books, and other internet research, i feel like i have kept snakes for years. so i try what i can to help people out, not only on this site, but outside the internet. i have visited my local petco, which is the only reptile shop for 20 miles, and helped the manager rearrange the set ups to better keep the animals. i was just luckily enough that the manager was willing to talk with me and learn. i just hope it will help educate a couple of people and help them provide the right care the snakes need. if there was anyway i could do more i sure would.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I know it's ultimately the owners responsibility to be well informed but most don't come to a snake forum like BPNet before they buy the poor baby. They come here when trouble hits and hopefully they learn and the snakes make it.

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exactly...

I lurked around this site for months before registering so I could learn before I actually purchased my first bp. I finally registered 3 months before I got my bp to ask whatever questions I had unanswered. When I finally did get a bp I bought 2 from NARBC Chicago and from well known breeders.

I wish that more people would realize that they should think about the care first and get the animal later instead of the other way around.

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It's just so sad to me though. Watching myself and my friends struggling to help over the internet, wishing I could just get my hands actually on these babies and get them set up quickly.

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Don't be sad. As with everything in life there is a bad to go with the good. There is a happy Ball and Blood Python in my home with new enclosures and better husbandry because of you and 8b8ll and all the info on this forum.


:rockon:

I know how you feel i went to petco today to get some stuff and the way they housed their ball pythons made me so angry i didn't buy anything from them. :( I'll just order off line, but anyways its good to know that there are people out there like everyone on this board that do care.

Here is my story... I did not want a snake. Frankly, I did not want a pet. My wife kept asking for a snake pet. I said they are slimy, and any other excuse to avoid dealing with the pet issue. We live in an appartment. Two summers ago, my daughter went to a summer camp that had a "zoo" which had several snakes, spiders, toads, turtles, bunnys, rats, and birds. All in cages which were a NO TOUCH ZONE.


Last summer she went to a sleep away camp which had a petting zoo, sheep, cows, rabbits, various large birds (owl, parrot, etc.) and one 4ft female Ball python. My wife said "hold the snake you'll love it". So to quiet her nagging, I held the snake. What a wonderful experience. Very docile, held on just snug enough, did not smell, was very smooth and clean. OK, so I said maybe we could get a snake. But I want to do some research first.

I found BP.net and we went to all of the pet shops on RT 100 (the 10 mile long strip mall in Westchester Co., NY.) EVERYONE had BPs, multiple to a 10gal tank. One has BPs with visible ticks running all over them. One snapped at my son.

I knew that I was going to need to see a VET if I got any of those snakes, so I called the "best snake vet in NY" in Mount Vernon. He said wait for next NY Reptile Show at the Westchester Co. Expo center. WOW what a difference.

So, be relieved, not all NOOBs are uninformed.

What gets me upset and sometimes mad is when someone buys a snake and comes on a forum asks questions and when you tell them something that is wrong (husbandry, etc...) they are so set on what a pet store told them to do and the proper way to care for the animal that everything someone more experienced tells them has to be wrong.:(

This is the first forum I have ever spent any real time at, because usually I hate all the nonsense that goes on. I have my moments when I hate this place too, but overall it's a great place to be, for the most part people real care about their animals. I think it's a great resource but I just wish people would put the time and effort into really finding out about things, I just feel like very few people actually care to research about the animals before getting them and I feel like this goes hand in hand with what you're saying Jo. It's just frustrating all the animals that suffer due to people thinking, oh, whatever, it's just a snake. I could go on for a while, but I think I'll spare all of you.

Thanks everyone. It's just always been a sore spot with me that it's hard enough to adjust to a pet you've never owned before but if you start out with one of these sad pet store babies, you're just almost set up for problems. Mix that in with someone who hasn't done the research many of you did before purchasing and in the end, it's the snake that's paying the cost.

Being part of BPNet is a pure joy to me. I've made such wonderful friends here and if I'm in anyway part of a helping group here, then the time and effort will always be worth it. BPNet was and continues to be a huge part of our family's learning curve with the snakes and lizard so it's a great way to pay back a bit of the time given to us by other members. :)

It's also a great excuse to get another snake LOL. I can always point to someone on BPNet and say "ohhhh but so and so has WAY more snakes than we do! one more can't hurt!" hehehehehehehe (some of you are such enablers...you know who you are! :D )