Spruce Nubble Farms... any reviews?

[Nourdmrolnmt1]

They seem like an outstanding location to purchase from. I emailedthem and got a response within a few hours. The one im looking at is $695 its about a yearling, female. they keep all kinds of records on the animal.

Just wondeirng if anyone has personal experience with them as a breeder.

[qiksilver]

they have beautiful animals and appear to keep meticulous records. THe only odd thing about them is there was a run around on the morelia viridis message boards about how they refuse to show any pictures of enclosures. People were skeptical about what this meant about their husbandry, but it was never resolved. They claimed it was a security issue, I'm not sure how that makes sense, but that's what they say.

I would talk to them, because other than that and some odd things I've noticed about them on my own I haven't heard anything bad. But I also have not bought from them.

[Colin Vestrand]

i've never bought from them but the one bad thing i see when i look at their pictures and (extensive) records is that their animals appear to be tiny... for example they were selling 05 carpets that were like 3 feet long and looked like yearlings? their records show they're feeding them very small prey items too..

i dunno, i can't say that those are really even 'bad' qualities, just different from the norm.

[Jonny2184]

I've atucally been in touch with Amy at Spruce Nubble Farms and she is very helpful. I've been looking for a good breeder of Morelia Viridis and she is answering all my questions about everything from prices to husbandry.

They even have great care sheets on there site and they show you how you could be setting up the enclosure.

Haven't seen anything weird with them yet! Go check em out!

[Nourdmrolnmt1]

I actually think i will be going with an animal from Greg Maxwell, as he is actually somewhat close to me (id guess 2 hour drive) which is nice, and he is very useful with Emails.

[qiksilver]

They even have great care sheets on there site and they show you how you could be setting up the enclosure.

They say to set up their enclosures with no substrate, just water, talk about outdated methods and a terrible way to do it. IMO

[Jonny2184]

They say to set up their enclosures with no substrate, just water, talk about outdated methods and a terrible way to do it. IMO

I know what you mean but I've heard about lots of people doing that kinda setup... I was thinking about it but it would be mighty hard to keep clean after a good poo.
Also I think most people do it for Emeralds and maybe a ATB because from what I've read they need more of a "constant" humidity level.
But from what Ive read Morelia Viridis only need 100% humidity during shed and probably for an hour or so after they are misted. but they have told me to let it drop to 50-60% then mist again?!?!?

Can I ask you a friendly question? Why you think having water in the bottom is a bad idea?
I realize it makes it easy for bacteria and infections... but what other reasons would you give??

the good thing about it... I think is... that it helps with humidity... but thats the only positive thing i can think of... and maybe makes it more "pretty".

Let me know your opinion when u have a minute!
Cheers!

[Jonny2184]

I actually think i will be going with an animal from Greg Maxwell, as he is actually somewhat close to me (id guess 2 hour drive) which is nice, and he is very useful with Emails.

Kinda the same reason I'm going with Spruce Nubble Farms... They are only 4 hours away I believe, but I'll probably have the girl shipped anyway... unless I can get a buddy who wants the go across to Maine and pick him up... which would save me 100... but that would be gas money anyway...

Greg Maxwell looks like he has some beauties too eh... good luck!
By the way.. do u know what his prices are like?? I couldnt find any...?

[SiscoReptiles]

I do know Ross and Amy from Spruce Nubble Farms in Maine. I have been to thier location and I will state that they are both great people with wonderful animals. Thier enclosures were spotlessly clean with fresh water and the animals were all healthy and alert. They are always honest and helpful.. I would say they are both an asset to the hobby/business.

Rick Sisco
Sisco Reptiles

[sprucenubblefarm]

Hey everyone,

A friend told us we getting "chatted up" on this board, so I thought I'd pop in and answer some of the questions people had posted. I don't post on the boards very much, so I'll do my best to be clear and concise.

First off, thanks for all the feedback. While it may not all be positive, we are a fairly new business and we really appreciate any suggestions people may have. All this feedback helps us do a better job, and that's why we're in this business to begin with. We're really trying to provide the best husbandry we can.

To answer the question about our enclosures, I just went and took a couple of pics. They're just o'naturelle - everything probably isn't "perfect", today is muck day, when we clean out every enclosure.

Here's a pic of one row of breeding enclosures (made by Boaphile):
http://www.sprucenubblefarm.com/imag...ros/adults.jpg

Here's a pic of our rack room (where most of the animals we have for sale are living):
http://www.sprucenubblefarm.com/imag...s/rackroom.jpg

And here's a pic of our generic setup for subadults (pardon the terd
http://www.sprucenubblefarm.com/images/chondros/tub.jpg

I'm sure it all seems pretty sterile, but that's the idea. We mist every day around 5PM, so they're all on the low end of the humidity swing right now.

As far as our feeding practices, yes we probably feed differently than you would at home. Our goal is to get our neonates to a sexable size (about 50 grams) within the first 6 months of their life. After that, we aren't trying to get them to grow quickly. We want to feed them enough obviously, so they can mature and be healthy, but we don't power feed by any stretch. Generally we feed every 4-5 days as neonates, then every 5-7 days once they're yearlings. We keep our prey items on the smaller side to avoid any prolapse issues. We can't in good concience sell a snake that has prolapsed, so we're pretty careful about that. These are things that we do differently depending on if the snake is one of our personal collection or is for sale. Our own snakes, we feed pretty aggressively - often feeding multiple adult mice at each meal.

On the topic of substrate, we use commercial cage liners in all our enclosures, except one, which has a water bottom. We have one of those ExoTerra cages which we bought as an experiment. A lot of our customers asked about them, so we bought one to try it out. We found that with the screen top that comes with the cage, it didn't matter what kind of substrate we used, we just couldn't keep them humid enough. We even took tinfoil and covered over the screen. So on those exoterra cages, yes, we do recommend a water bottom. They need a lot of maintenance, but they keep the snakes humid and happy. Otherwise, we recommend and use cage liners, but lots of things will work. We talk a lot about substrate on this page on our site, for anyone who's interested: http://www.sprucenubblefarm.com/chon...goesincage.php

I hope I've covered everything. There are lots of opinions on the right way to care for GTPs, we just do what works for us. The info on our site isn't the end all be all of care information. We're just trying to share what we do with the public, and hopefully someone gets something useful out of it. If you have info you'd like to see added there, please drop us a line. We'd like our site to be a good resource for everyone, and are always interested in making it better.

Thanks!
Amy Lasley
Spruce Nubble Farm
http://www.sprucenubblefarm.com