So got a call from a pet store....

[Scaleyz]

The guy just opened up his own pet shop in a small town not terribly far from me. He ordered 9 babies from a distributor in CA, I never heard of them, so I forgot their name by the time I tried to look them up. He said he purchased a bunch of reptiles and supplies from them, 6k worth! But those BP babies are dying left and right. He's had them less than 2 weeks and 5 of the 9 have already died. 2 of which he had sold and the people came back to get a refund. I tried asking him questions, but he's not familiar with ball pythons. He doesn't think they looked thin or orange-I told him some people/distributors will dip bps in Iodine. I'm guessing they were imports or maybe domestic and hadn't ate if they are already dying??? His temp is 87 on the hot side and 75 min on the cool side. He keeps his shop at 75 because he breeds hedgehogs and they need higher temps apparently. He's using some sort of slab rocks stacked, or something, so there is room for all the bps to hide in.

I have NO clue what sort of advice to give him! Does anyone else have some ideas? He said two of the four left have eaten, but the other two haven't. I told him to assist feed the two that aren't eating that way if they die at least he tried to do something! I'm thinking they are probably thin and he just doesn't know that a thin bp is bad, not normal. IDK....I've got nothing. I also told him if it were me I would put them in tubs for awhile, but I don't think he was too keen on that idea.

I'm not really looking for advice for him, more for me because it's driving me nuts wondering why they are all dying. My guess is that it's probably already too late for the 4 left.

Well if all else fails, to the trickery for the feeding offer them small ASF's or if that fails offer them small gerbils. Something anything at this point if this is what seems to be the case of them really needing to eat because they are dieing. . My female normal hadn't eaten a thing for nearly 2 months and started looking sickly but a gerbil sparked her and now she's back on regular feedings. Just a thought.

[Homegrownscales]

I was just reading an article on the different types of gout in herps. I'm not an expert by all mean but someone had an experience with a very young baby ball dying of this. From what I read gout can be induced by starvation and the. Uric acid building up in there system. Depending on if they were imports or even a shady dealer this could be the reason why all of the babies started dropping. I will try and find it so that this isn't quite so vague.

[Homegrownscales]

gout in reptiles
from google.com.

Quote:
In secondary gout, the high level is due to the inability of the kidneys to adequately excrete the uric acid. This can be caused by medications, chronic diseases, kidney disease, starvation, improper diet, decreased water intake or chronic dehydration, and other environmental factors which affect the kidneys' ability to eliminate uric acid.
Quote:
With reptiles, environmental factors are most often implicated in gout leading to renal failure, especially chronic dehydration, diet, and suboptimum temperatures for the species


Hopefully this isn't the case but there really is no good reason for that many babies to just up and die like that. That's very sad. Hopefully this helps the owner of the petstore atleast prevent this.

[adamjeffery]

your over thinking this.
its going to be one of two things.
1. either the distributor seen someone new and figured he could dump his garbage on them for a quick profit or
2. this guy who admits he knows nothing is doing something so wrong he is kiling them quickly.

i dont believe you can kill a ball python from shipping it to young. they are hardy animals.
they wont starve to death in 2 weeks unless they had been starved for months before shipping.
maybe this guy is cooking them with over heating. under heating wouldnt kill them that fast, if his shop is 75 then their not "that" cold.
has he used any flea medicine in the shop? flea powder = death quickly
i personally wouldnt give him any advice until you have seen the setups and the animals. hes willing to learn if he called.
i give advice for free to petshops. the person that recommended you charge is wrong. if you are gonna charge then he isnt gonna pay and will continue to lose animals. most mom and pop shops will hook you up if you hook them up. i get EVERYTHING at cost from my local shop for helping them out. i also get wholesale lists forwarded to my email from her as well. all for giving her free advice and giving her deals and guarentees on my offspring.
adam jeffery

[darkbloodwyvern]

Yeah, you should probably see th setup before you give advice, but if he can give you something in exchange like supplies, that would be great! Obviously, you should be happy with the store before you send any snakes there and if you help him, they will have a much better future!

Good luck!

[Big Gunns]

The guy just opened up his own pet shop in a small town not terribly far from me. He ordered 9 babies from a distributor in CA, I never heard of them, so I forgot their name by the time I tried to look them up. He said he purchased a bunch of reptiles and supplies from them, 6k worth! But those BP babies are dying left and right. He's had them less than 2 weeks and 5 of the 9 have already died. 2 of which he had sold and the people came back to get a refund. I tried asking him questions, but he's not familiar with ball pythons. He doesn't think they looked thin or orange-I told him some people/distributors will dip bps in Iodine. I'm guessing they were imports or maybe domestic and hadn't ate if they are already dying??? His temp is 87 on the hot side and 75 min on the cool side. He keeps his shop at 75 because he breeds hedgehogs and they need higher temps apparently. He's using some sort of slab rocks stacked, or something, so there is room for all the bps to hide in.

I have NO clue what sort of advice to give him! Does anyone else have some ideas? He said two of the four left have eaten, but the other two haven't. I told him to assist feed the two that aren't eating that way if they die at least he tried to do something! I'm thinking they are probably thin and he just doesn't know that a thin bp is bad, not normal. IDK....I've got nothing. I also told him if it were me I would put them in tubs for awhile, but I don't think he was too keen on that idea.

I'm not really looking for advice for him, more for me because it's driving me nuts wondering why they are all dying. My guess is that it's probably already too late for the 4 left.

Big Gunns is gonna "tell it like it is". You're looking for "advice"...well BG will give you some.

You said that this pet store is "not terribly far". Well Big Gunns "guess" is that it would be best for you to go there and try and save their life. Since it's quite clear that something "terrible" is going to happen unless someone that knows what they're doing helps....Big Gunns "advice" is to try and physically help instead of "guessing" that it's "too late". Big Gunns can save almost any baby ball from death. "Clearly" this guy can't, but Big Gunns "guesses" that you might be able to drive "not terribly far" and save them.

It's just a thought, but as we all know. Big Gunns has GREAT thoughts.

[Big Gunns]

Offer to help him for a small fee or say you can do consignment with your normals you hatch out. You help him out he allows you to sell your normals at his shop.

Forgot to comment on this. Why do we need to be paid to save a life? Now BG can understand if he continues to do this, and needs your help constantly Slither, but this time BG thinks these LIVE ANIMALS desperately need your help.

Yeah yeah, BG knows how he sounds here, but come on fans, BG knows you all better than this. We all know what the right thing to do here is. Big Gunns is just pointing it out.

[darkbloodwyvern]

It's true. If you can help out, do what you can for them. If the guy's got good manners he'll do something in return, especially if you two can save his snakes. If not, then you can ask for favors when he calls you again. Not saying he will, but he may and hopefully he doesn't just jump into selling another animal he doesn't know much about. I personally wouldn't ask for anything, but I don't know how much a pain it is for you to go there and help him out ^^

[SlitherinSisters]

Big Gunns is gonna "tell it like it is". You're looking for "advice"...well BG will give you some.

You said that this pet store is "not terribly far". Well Big Gunns "guess" is that it would be best for you to go there and try and save their life. Since it's quite clear that something "terrible" is going to happen unless someone that knows what they're doing helps....Big Gunns "advice" is to try and physically help instead of "guessing" that it's "too late". Big Gunns can save almost any baby ball from death. "Clearly" this guy can't, but Big Gunns "guesses" that you might be able to drive "not terribly far" and save them.

It's just a thought, but as we all know. Big Gunns has GREAT thoughts.

You caught the "not terribly far" huh? Lol, well it's roughly an hour drive from here, so it's not a trip that I would take just for fun. Yes, I *could* physically go there, but I'm not a pet shop bp fixer-upper. I gave him what advice I could over the phone and if he doesn't want to head it, that's all on him. I gave him all my information and told him he could email me. When I eventually make it there, I will definitely stop in to chat with him and figure out his set up, but I'm not going to make a special trip. You could sell one of your snakes for some plane tickets and head right down there if you think we are responsible for fixing other people's problems in person Oh and I'm sure you know this, but I'm not BG, I can't save every bp. And no I would not charge him for my advice.

[SlitherinSisters]

your over thinking this.
its going to be one of two things.
1. either the distributor seen someone new and figured he could dump his garbage on them for a quick profit or
2. this guy who admits he knows nothing is doing something so wrong he is kiling them quickly.

i dont believe you can kill a ball python from shipping it to young. they are hardy animals.
they wont starve to death in 2 weeks unless they had been starved for months before shipping.
maybe this guy is cooking them with over heating. under heating wouldnt kill them that fast, if his shop is 75 then their not "that" cold.
has he used any flea medicine in the shop? flea powder = death quickly
i personally wouldnt give him any advice until you have seen the setups and the animals. hes willing to learn if he called.
i give advice for free to petshops. the person that recommended you charge is wrong. if you are gonna charge then he isnt gonna pay and will continue to lose animals. most mom and pop shops will hook you up if you hook them up. i get EVERYTHING at cost from my local shop for helping them out. i also get wholesale lists forwarded to my email from her as well. all for giving her free advice and giving her deals and guarentees on my offspring.
adam jeffery

I'm on the same page. I'm guessing the distributor is pretty shady. From what he told me I don't understand why they would be dying. If his temps are accurate, 87 hot side, and I'm guessing 75-80 cool side, there's no reason they should have died in such a short time unless there was an underlying issue.

I didn't think about cleaners though. Wouldn't most of the other animals be dying though? He has a bunch of other snake species, rodents, frogs, etc.