Did you know you all are "no better than Google?"

Was talking with a girl on my crested gecko FB page and she's been using coconut oil and water to get stuck shed off of her cresties toes. I mentioned that I have a BP who is having shed issues that have resisted my many attempts to solve them and wondered if she had ever used this on snakes.

So this one keyboard commando launches in to me about how my husbandry is clearly terrible. If only I had a humid hide the snake could fix the problem itself.

I said no really, I've tried humid hides, she won't use them. Have also tried misting in and around her favorite hide, putting damp moss in her favorite hide, adding a giant water bowl with a heat lamp above to increase humidity, etc, etc. The only thing that has worked to get the shed off is something I got here... putting her in a shoe box of tepid water with a towel for a little while, and then letting her run through the towel.

So she keeps badgering me... heat lamps are terrible and they dry it out... UTH's are the way to go. I have one I said. Well is it on a thermostat? YOU'LL COOK YOUR SNAKE. I said "Really, I've been keeping snakes over 10 years and BP's since 2007, I know these things," I'm trying to be as polite as possible and this woman just. won't. stop. badgering.

She finally tells me I need to join a ball python group on Facebook so "experts with 100's of BPs can tell me all I am doing wrong" with my BPs (nevermind that the other one is fine and has no shed issues at all). I said "Well how about Ball-Python.net, I've been a member there since 2009."

And that is when she told me that BP.net is "no better than google." At which point I said peace out.

You must of not read the welcome screen when you joined an animal facebook group. it says "Welcome, there is only one way to take care of an animal and your logic and experience doesn't matter."

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

You must of not read the welcome screen when you joined an animal facebook group. it says "Welcome, there is only one way to take care of an animal and your logic and experience doesn't matter."

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Yes, that seems to be par for the course!! I must have missed the fine print. :rolleyes:

Did you ask her how long she's been keeping snakes? I've noticed that people who have successfully kept a snake alive for a year or two are the only TRUE experts and if your husbandry skill varies from their experience (or at least the experience of someone else who has kept a snake alive for a year or two and are therefore an expert that THEY trust) you are WRONG WRONG WRONG...

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Did you ask her how long she's been keeping snakes? I've noticed that people who have successfully kept a snake alive for a year or two are the only TRUE experts and if your husbandry skill varies from their experience (or at least the experience of someone else who has kept a snake alive for a year or two and are therefore an expert that THEY trust) you are WRONG WRONG WRONG...

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I did not, Mark. But I can tell you that I took a peak at her profile pic and I think she may possibly have been in middle school when I was successfully raising my first BPs.

Was she trying to get you to join "the ball python people" because she sounds like a member from that group, bunch of people who swear they know everything, but give a ton of wrong info and when you correct the wrong information you get grilled by the admins and a threat to boot if it happens again.

She encouraged me to join the "ball python enthusiasts" FB group.

And this is the reason i refuse to get a face book account nor join a face book group,. I'll stay here where the real experts are thank you.

Ball python enthusiest isnt a bad group, im part of that one and everyone on there is helpful and knowledgeable... Only problem i have is the constant flow of people who claim to have read a ton of info and done all their research on bp care and always need to know what the basic husbendry is supposed to be like, what they should be using for heat or supstrate... But for the most part all the facebook groups ive joined are alot worse and the peolple running them arent much better or even mature at having discussions... Its just our way or you get the boot.

Here everyone is helpful, kind and appears to just be a big group of people with a common goal of helping THE SNAKE before holding someones hand

I struggle a bit with the crested gecko group myself. It seems to be very "all or nothing." For instance... it is impossible to keep more than one crested gecko successfully together. It does not work. They will die horrible deaths. And yet... I've done so several times in the past with females and it was okay. My personal favorite piece of knowledge they spread is relating to caging. According to the crested gecko FB group, an 18" square ExoTerra can BARELY hold one crested gecko... and it's absolute cruelty to keep a crestie in such squalor. They feel that an 18"x18"x24" ET is the minimum for an adult crestie. And that will only hold ONE crestie of course.

I just bought an 18"x18"x24" for my new day geckos and it seems overly large for two of them. I cannot imagine only housing one crestie in it. What a waste of space. My smaller females and adult males do quite well in 12"x12"x18" vivs, and my largest female is happy in a 20 gallon. But perhaps it's because my geckos don't have a FB account and aren't "enlightened."

I've been keeping my own snakes for less then a year, got geckos for about 5, and for one or the other I'm still learning a lot. The only difference is where I take the information and really, Facebook pages are the worse "just like google" places. That girl must've been told so many times that she could just look up her information by herself or one person took her in and their word was law. I've seen both kind of person and it's weird to see happen. Some peeps have those 100s of snakes and still make mistakes, but its the ability to know when you are wrong and learn from your mistakes :#

This place is just so much more great to ask questions, even if I find them stupid, I know I'll get serious answers. I've seen awesome FB groups, but some are less newbie friendly or have too many parents looking for a pet for their child and have no idea what they want.

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Originally Posted by M.P.C

Ball python enthusiest isnt a bad group, im part of that one and everyone on there is helpful and knowledgeable... Only problem i have is the constant flow of people who claim to have read a ton of info and done all their research on bp care and always need to know what the basic husbendry is supposed to be like, what they should be using for heat or supstrate... But for the most part all the facebook groups ive joined are alot worse and the peolple running them arent much better or even mature at having discussions... Its just our way or you get the boot.

Here everyone is helpful, kind and appears to just be a big group of people with a common goal of helping THE SNAKE before holding someones hand

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I'm trying to join that group on Facebook but my request doesn't get accepted... I don't think I'm cool enough

Since all our posts are available on google I'm not sure why she differentiated the two sites. :P

I disagree according to my husband I am better than google :rofl:

http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a...les/Google.jpg

He really has that shirt BTW :rofl:

I need a shirt like that :D:D:D

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Originally Posted by M.P.C

Was she trying to get you to join "the ball python people" because she sounds like a member from that group, bunch of people who swear they know everything, but give a ton of wrong info and when you correct the wrong information you get grilled by the admins and a threat to boot if it happens again.

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Whaaaaaat? A site where admins threaten to boot you if you disagree with them? No way!! I couldn't imagine being on a site like that.

Remember what we told you about time and place for those comments? This is neither and is plainly just designed to stir the pot and get a reaction.

Persistently ignoring rules and trolling isn't tolerated on many sites. Do it again and any patience we have is likely to disappear. Fair warning.

Please relax. I was making a joke, with indirect sarcasm.

I am not trolling. I spend a great deal of time offering very thoughtful advice and information on here.

However Dr Del, your last post does prove my point beautifully.

In my vast experience, the only person who knows EVERYTHING about ball pythons is the one who just "rescued" their first ball python just yesterday from a pet store for $99.99 and by the way, needs to know if it can eat tortoise food and what exotic breed is it?

Reminds me of a grooming seminar I was attending and two young ladies struck up a conversation and asked my opinion on the presenter. When I disagreed with several of the person's major points, they got a bit snooty and asked why I thought I could possibly know better than someone who had been grooming her own show cats for 4(FOUR!!) years?
Just imagine the faces... "Perhaps because I've been grooming cats professionally for over two decades."

But of course, I'm not presenting a seminar. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let me, because having to hire a live person to BLEEEP all my cursewords during my talk would be pricy.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

In my vast experience, the only person who knows EVERYTHING about ball pythons is the one who just "rescued" their first ball python just yesterday from a pet store for $99.99 and by the way, needs to know if it can eat tortoise food and what exotic breed is it?

Reminds me of a grooming seminar I was attending and two young ladies struck up a conversation and asked my opinion on the presenter. When I disagreed with several of the person's major points, they got a bit snooty and asked why I thought I could possibly know better than someone who had been grooming her own show cats for 4(FOUR!!) years?
Just imagine the faces... "Perhaps because I've been grooming cats professionally for over two decades."

But of course, I'm not presenting a seminar. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let me, because having to hire a live person to BLEEEP all my cursewords during my talk would be pricy.

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LMAO!!!!


I find it pretty much the same on all those fb groups regarding animals. The sugar glider facebook groups are terrible...they skin you alive if you have "stupid questions", have a difference of opinion, or want to buy sugar glider supplies from any one other than the vendors in their group. I swear they consider themselves the Stepford Wives of the sugar glider world. I ended up deleting my facebook account anyway, cuz it didnt do anything for me.

Sent from my SGH-S970G using Tapatalk

Don't know how I missed this but its probably best I did :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Originally Posted by blue roses

And this is the reason i refuse to get a face book account nor join a face book group,. I'll stay here where the real experts are thank you.

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I'm in this boat lol

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Originally Posted by blue roses

And this is the reason i refuse to get a face book account nor join a face book group,. I'll stay here where the real experts are thank you.

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I stopped putting any reptile stuff on fb. I can't stand the negative responses people feel they can put up about a pet of mine. I could only imagine if we responded the same to their "normal" pets. "Oh a puppy!? Gross that thing is going to pee and poop all over your house! "It's going to bite your kids"

I must be in the minority... I have under 50 friends on FB because I only friend people I actually know or have a connection to, and when my husband or I post snek related things (infrequently) the responses are mostly positive - we do get teased sometimes ("what is this, 1000 now? haha") but it's all in love. :)

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

.... I'm pretty sure they wouldn't let me, because having to hire a live person to BLEEEP all my cursewords during my talk would be pricy.

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LMAO Awesome.

I was in ball python enthusiasts very briefly. I wouldn't recommend the experience to anyone.

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Originally Posted by MandMac

LMAO Awesome.

I was in ball python enthusiasts very briefly. I wouldn't recommend the experience to anyone.

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Someone recommended that group. Why didn't you like them?

i got my first BP in 2008, and now own 36, and i still wouldn't consider myself an expert.

all i can say is that i've learned there is no surefire 100% solution to every issue.

trial & error seems to be the order of the day.


asking others for help is by no means a bad thing.

This site isn't as bad, but it has it's moments too.

Same keyboard samurai's here at times.

People here get pretty snooty about us guys (and gals) that use fish tanks with mesh tops...only to find out they use a rack with mesh tops, or my standard quote...the $7 Walmart tub.

I use fish tanks and I'm able to hit a pretty solid heat/humidity combo on both sides and in both hides too.

But generally when people hear my snake is happy, easily handled and eats on a regular basis...they have nothing to come at me and they back off :)

I quit facebook 2-3 years ago, I had a crazy useless ex wife that was pretty much printing my daily status updates and entering them as evidence during the divorce. Despite none of the posts having anything to do with her. I Tweet here and there, but I have maybe 12 people I'm following.

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Originally Posted by Hypancistrus

Someone recommended that group. Why didn't you like them?

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Personal opinion? They're self important zealots. I found the people who interacted with me to be very rude. I commented on someone else's question that I don't worry when my guys skip meals (particularly in winter), and people lost their minds. I gave these people grief (read light trolling), and I kept it within the original thread while the people who felt it necessary to school me began new threads advising other members not to ask questions if you don't want to listen to the answers (conveniently forgetting that I did not ask a question). Very shortly after, they banned me. Overall, I found the general 'our way or the highway' attitude to be quite stressful, and I'd just as soon steer clear of that group.

I you ask me for a facebook group reference, I would point people toward Royal Pythons UK/EU or Royal Python Care and Husbandry.

Ahh you lost a popularity contest with a bunch of nerds that sit in front of their computers all day, did you really lose anything?

Most of the time I don't care

As long as your method is working, it's working. Every snake is different, my guy has some strange habits and I deal with all of them. He's happy and we've never had anything close to a tag or bite. But we adapted to the snake.

Just be happy you know what works for you and your snake. That puts you ahead of most.