The decision to get him is totally yours.
Here is my story of Izzabella. I'm a softy but not a stupid softy. So when I went for feeders and found this A.T.B. who just looked horrific. My first response was "there is no way this thing is going to make it" She was shiny looking all over. not like the powdery white you see with balls with a bad shed. She looked like someone had coated her repeatedly with polyurethane. They had her in a ten gallon aquarium with a dry water bowl, one stick and a big fat heat lamp. The picture does not do justice to how bad she looked and was in her enclosure once I got her home.



I talked to the manager and he agreed that she was not in good shape at all. I did my best to talk him down from the 99.00 price. The lowest he would go was 79.00 and a 24 hour guarantee!
Well I just could not justify 80 dollars for a snake I was certain would die. Probably not in 24 hours but I just didn't really see her making it. She was so weak she could barely strike.
I got home and my conscience just kept digging into me like a splinter. So back to the store we go.

I spent well over a week working on layer after layer of shed. She had, I think it was 3 layers of retained eye caps. God alone knows on layers of shed because it came of in tiny pieces for days and days and days as I gently soaked her then worked her through warm towels.

Her cloaca was so badly covered that she could not poop. There was a bulge and a partial prolapse. When I got that part uncovered she pooped and pooped and then she pooped some more.
That was May of this year. Izzabella is still with us and doing very well. She can definitely strike now, no problems what so ever in that respect and she is just as mean as heck and I just adore her.
Here are a few pics from about a month ago.



So, for me, it was definitely worth it. Every time I spray her I remember that I almost didn't give her that chance and she was so worth that chance. She will probably never be a "peaceful" snake but she's a beauty in my opinion and I'm glad she came into my life.