Quote Originally Posted by wolfy-hound View Post
Reptiles react very poorly to being rehomed? Where is that info?

Snakes generally don't care who owns them, as long as the husbandry is close to correct. I've never ever seen a snake pining after his first owner. Same with 99% of other reptiles.

People usually "swap" and trade reptiles because the animals don't care who owns and feeds them. If you're breeding and at a certain point you no longer need a certain snake, and someone else does need it, why not switch out and both of you have new animals that you can use in your breeding programs? The snakes don't care who's name is on their cage. As long as they get their rat, the person holding the tongs doesn't matter.

I'd ten times rather see a person who needs/wants to get rid of a pet GET RID OF IT. If you're "tired" of your dog/cat/horse/guppy/snake, then you're way less likely to continue to take proper care of it. Giving it away, selling it, taking to the humane society... all prospects for the animal to find a new home with someone who does want it. The same applies if you have something in life happen where you need to get rid of the animal. It's better for it to go to a chance for a good home, than to stay just because some random person might judge you for not being a "forever home".

Most people won't advertise a pet for free on craigslist because certain people continually tell everyone that ANY person looking for free pets is only going to feed them to their snake/use them in dog fighting/kill them in arcane rituals/send them planet X/ or whatever alarming situation MIGHT happen. So they put a "rehoming fee" in to prevent a new owner who will only want it because it's free, not because they actually want the animal.
I'm assuming this reply is aimed at my comment. I never said anything about a snake being stressed because it misses or loves it's owner. I said being re-homed is stressful on any reptile - not because they miss their owner but because anything that's changes or disrupts their routine can cause stress. Moving cages, plane rides, car rides, different husbandry....all of these can create a certain amount of stress for a reptile. Usually when I've taken in a female that's of breeding age, she often won't breed if she was re-homed too close to breeding season and I've found that generally I need to wait until the following season to breed. Why do we wait a week or two to feed a new snake and why do we wait even longer to handle them? Because they need time to adjust to their new surroundings. Whether this is extremely stressful or just a minor adjustment for the animal, usually tends to be dependent on the specific animal and/or other factors but there's no
Way anyone can say that a snake who gets re-homed every couple of years for the duration of it's life isnt Going to deal with a certain amount of stress.

And my reason for not particularly understanding the whole trading of snakes isn't about the snakes attachment to me (or lack there of), it's about my attachment to the snake. My snakes are not just breeders, they're my pets and my post was in regards to the OP who was talking about people constantly selling and attempting to trade reptiles on Craiglist - some may be good owners, I can't judge those who I don't know but I've seen it myself with rescues that I've taken in, many are not and often times the new homes these snakes go to are not either. So yes if the husbandry is spot on then a snake doesn't care who feeds it and cleans it's cage, etc. But I'm not referring to owners who's husbandry is spot on. I'm referring to owners who decided that their snake has become an annoying responsibility and they'd prefer to trade it for an x box on craigslist. Or the owner who buys the new boa or retic or croc or monitor bc it's cool and soon tires of all the work and decides to unload it. I'm referring to a level of committment that is lacking. And again, I was not referring to my snakes attachment to me but rather my attachment to them.