Gee, I can't imagine why...

A week or so ago we sold a 2011 female normal corn snake to a local lady. Great eater, never missed a meal since two days after its first shed. She has been on f/t since day one. We kept her in small 2.2qt tubs with a toilet paper roll cut in half for a hide, a nice thick layer of aspen to burrow in and kept a temperature controlled rack. Pretty standard procedure, right?

Well we get a call from the lady a few minutes ago at around 10:30pm (who calls that late besides family?). She hasn't been able to get her to eat for her. So I proceeded to ask her your normal questions. So here goes. Her set up? A 35 gallon tank, no hide, cedar bedding and a heat bulb. She has no idea what temps are. Its kept in their living room and gets "lots of attention".

So... I'm stumped. Why won't it eat for the lady? (Sarcasm intended)

:rolleyes:

So after a 20 minute crash course in basic corn snake husbandry I told her to call us in a week and let us know if it eats for her...

Gnah! :mad:

Annoying...yet sorry to say hardly surprising....

Yup. I'm not surprised either, I suppose. I always try to place our animals in good homes and I always try to engage in proper husbandry conversations with people I don't know. We talked to these folks for a good hour when we sold her to them before parting ways and all of our advice fell on deaf ears apparently. I can only hope they heed our advice this time. If not I have the money in pocket to fully reimburse them and get our girl back.

when i was breeding corns i always handed out a care sheet with them. even if i sold them to the pet store. if i sold them 10 snakes i sent 10 care sheets with them.
adam jeffery

Great idea, Adam! I might start doing that. Even if it only helped one person it would be worth it. I always try to keep in touch with people when I can.

This reminds me of earlier this year when we rescued a ball we sold to a couple the year before. She left us fat and healthy and this is how she came back to us a year later:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...t/GEDC1046.jpg

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Originally Posted by adamjeffery

when i was breeding corns i always handed out a care sheet with them. even if i sold them to the pet store. if i sold them 10 snakes i sent 10 care sheets with them.
adam jeffery

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Thats a very cool idea for pretty much any breeder to do. Shows not only your knowledge, But its not only the $$$ for your breeding, But also you have a passion for the animals...


On the snake tho... Did y'all second guess that sale??? lol... We just "rescued" 6 BP's but it was for other reasons, The person lost their job and couldnt afford to feed them. Just being ignorant its a excuss... The tiny snake after a year.... a simple google search could fill anyone in with atleast the basics...

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Originally Posted by Quikcobra

Thats a very cool idea for pretty much any breeder to do. Shows not only your knowledge, But its not only the $$$ for your breeding, But also you have a passion for the animals...


On the snake tho... Did y'all second guess that sale??? lol... We just "rescued" 6 BP's but it was for other reasons, The person lost their job and couldnt afford to feed them. Just being ignorant its a excuss... The tiny snake after a year.... a simple google search could fill anyone in with atleast the basics...

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Yup, google is your friend. Common sense isn't so common anymore, unfortunately.

We rescued a normal ball, spider ball (who is now our best male breeder), a rtb, a hypo red tail, blue tongue skink and a pair of crested geckos from a lady a while back. All were in as bad a shape or worse as the ball I posted above. Their tanks were filled with 1/4" of standing cat pee and cat/snake feces. She claims she had the balls on a diet because they were getting fat and didn't move around a lot and she wanted them to be more active. :rolleyes: Another BP.net member has the hypo rtb. We got it halfway back to health compared to how it was. It wasn't pretty, but I have full confidence in the people who took her brought her back the other half because we know for a fact they are good people and have seen first hand the care they take of their animals.

Don't be afraid to repo ur snake. I wouldn't give u any flac for it. I really hope she fixes the husbandry and the other issues. Ya, common sense isn't so common.

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Originally Posted by mpkeelee

Don't be afraid to repo ur snake. I wouldn't give u any flac for it. I really hope she fixes the husbandry and the other issues. Ya, common sense isn't so common.

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Repo the snake. I never heard someone put it that way, I like that! :D

I am giving her the benefit of the doubt this time after our conversation last night. I have her phone number and email so I will be keeping in touch with her. If things don't work out I have already offered to refund her money and drive the 60 miles and pick it up myself.

That sucks and it again shows how lazy some people are. Doing a little research before you buy an animal should be common sense.
That said, caring for corn snakes is not rocket science and it sounds like you gave her a crash course on how to properly care for it so I think there really should be no issue. It makes you shake your head but I def would not repo the snake lol.

Well, I got an angry email from the lady tonight. She wants us to exchange it for another snake. Not gunna happen. I will offer to refund her money and take the snake back, nothing more.

She apparently took my advice about moving it to a smaller tank, although I don't believe it. She won't give me any specifics, but she claims that since she moved it to the new tank she has tried feeding it several times and it still keeps refusing. Several times??? Ok, our first conversation took place on the night of the 17th. It is now very early the 20th. It been 2 days and 3 hours since we talked! She did not take my advice on leaving it alone for a couple days. She didn't take my advice on not trying to feed it until next week after it settles in. I highly doubt she has done ANYTHING. She will NOT get a replacement snake from us!

:mad:

Hey, it's your business. You have the right to refuse business if she isn't going to treat your babies right!! :mad:

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Originally Posted by purplemuffin

Hey, it's your business. You have the right to refuse business if she isn't going to treat your babies right!! :mad:

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Yup. I tried being as polite as I could emailing her back letting her know I will not give her another snake.

Tell her if she doesn't heed every direction you give her, you won't take the snake back and refund her money. Some people got to learn the hard way I suppose.

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Originally Posted by guambomb832

Tell her if she doesn't heed every direction you give her, you won't take the snake back and refund her money. Some people got to learn the hard way I suppose.

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At the animals expense?

Just be nice and tell her u won't exchange for another snake but u will give her the money back when u drive over to pick up the snake. She obviously hasn't listened to ur advice. U gotta be nice yet firm with these people.

I hate hearing stuff like this....if your going to get ANYTHING, shouldn't you do some research on it at least a LITTLE bit???

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Originally Posted by Coils

I hate hearing stuff like this....if your going to get ANYTHING, shouldn't you do some research on it at least a LITTLE bit???

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Common sense ain't so common my friend

Looks like you got someone who didn't give a crap about researching their animal beforehand and lazy enough to not take your advice. Unfortunate situation but I hope you can get the little one back and get her to eating again. Make a mental note to not sell to this lady again.

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Originally Posted by mpkeelee

Common sense ain't so common my friend

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Truuuuue enough, just very sad.