Should I take this deal?

[BlueMoonExotics]

Friday??!!!!! We cant wait until Friday......... If the snakes are healthy, and you are willing and ready for the challenge, I say GO FOR IT! Please let us know asap with pics!

LOL Will do! I've already had someone interested in "taking some off my hands" and felt bad I told them no way. I got plans already floating through my head for them now. Is it ok to still be stingy with your balls even if you have 18 of them? LOL

[BlueMoonExotics]

Ok so today was the big day and I know you all are looking forward to the pics which I do have and I'll upload here in just a minute. However, there is some bad news..... he lost some of the snakes last night due to the cold . They were kept in a travel trailer outside which was insulated but with no heat as he had told me and he lost the butter, 2 spiders and a normal to the cold. Apparently, a well known breeder and seller (not going to name names but I do know of them) told him that they don't use heat and it's not needed. I asked to see the dead snakes still as I still wanted to see what kind of shape they were in before they died (I know but I really felt it needed to be done).

The rest of the snakes (13) I went through one by one checking for mites, any stuck shed, wheezing or clicking and there was amazingly none that I saw. However, the snakes were quite cold to the touch and they are currently warming up and becoming more active. He did show me that the albino female had been bitten by a rat which looks healed but I'm not sure how old the wound is. I would assume that it will take several sheds for the scars to go away. She also seemed to have a few areas where her scales were not flush up against the others. I'm assuming that may be from not enough humidity or something that can be fixed with good husbandry.

With that being said, most of them looked pretty good other than being cold and some I thought were thin. He told me that one of the normals was bred to the butter male that died and that once she warms up to not be surprised if she lays a clutch of eggs. I just couldn't walk away from them knowing that he had already lost some from the cold. The final price settled on was $1550 and I got them home as soon as possible. I gave them all clean water and checked them all over again once I got home and my boyfriend is headed to the store now to get some supplies for building their rack which should be done this weekend. I still have a long night of organizing, shopping and working on their tubs to try and make them as comfortable as possible until it is built but I'll post some pictures for you guys to let me know what you think. Needless to say none of these guys will be leaving my care for quite awhile since I wan't to make sure they're all nice and healthy before any of them leave my hands.

[BlueMoonExotics]

I don't think some of these were labelled correctly so if you see something wrong please let me know. Some I knew right away were wrong so I crossed it off and wrote the correct morph. I think there was 2 of the cards were mixed up with 2 of the balls that died.





This girl was sold to him as a vanilla but he sold it to me as a normal. What do you think?

[SnowShredder]

That's crazy he had such a nice collection and never even kept them warm...And very sad a few animals paid for his mistake with their lives. Sweet deal though! Everyone looks great, and you're right those cards were all mixed around that's a little strange

[Pythonfriend]

a snake is not dead until it is WARM AND DEAD.


if its cold, it might look dead, not be breathing, feel really stiff.... and it still can recover if you get it up to temperature. You can really be sure that its dead only when its warm and dead.

i hope you tried warming them up already or that its maybe not too late.

EDIT: just in case you have the "dead" snakes, warm them up now. i mean, gently, to hotspot temps. might still work if they are not frozen but also havent been warm since then.

[BlueMoonExotics]

I know he said the butter was starting to get stiff and he thought it must have been the first to die. The others were limp and one I saw had it's head upside down. I'm pretty sure they were dead unfortunately.

[Pythonfriend]

I know he said the butter was starting to get stiff and he thought it must have been the first to die. The others were limp and one I saw had it's head upside down. I'm pretty sure they were dead unfortunately.

oh, too bad i hope something like this will never happen to you again, but just in case, and for others reading it.... if snakes die due to cold, always warm them to hotspot temps when you find them. i remember a forum thread here, about a cold incident, 2 snakes dead one cold and stiff.... people advised to warm them up anyway, the original poster did it, it was quick enough, all recovered, all survived. And he really believed at least two were gone. So.... i had to point it out.

[C&H Exotic Morphs]

Though the animals in the pics look good and appear healthy from the outside, There is NO WAY I would buy even a single one! He just lost 4 of them supposedly to the cold from one night, but you wouldn't know if there was an underlying issue from the extended period of time exposed to less than decent care without a necropsy on the animals that had to die due to his poor husbandry.

Though it may seem sad that if you don't buy the remaining animals they will continue to suffer; it is also not your responsibility to pay this person for them and fix his :cens0r: ups!
And if you are still interested I would have him pay for a necropsy on the animals that died and a vet check on the remaining ones, like was suggested by Jerry.

[BlueMoonExotics]

I know most people probably would have walked away when he said he lost some to the cold. I told him that I was taking a risk and I do understand that it is a huge risk but if I didn't think these guys had a chance then I wouldn't have done it either. Yes on the outside they look not great but most look okay. The reason he was selling is because the trailer that they were being kept in was at a buddies house and the buddy decided he didn't want to let him keep the trailer on the property anymore. Therefore, I'm pretty confident that he won't be getting anymore at least not for awhile. So at least I know I'm not giving him money to get more snakes. He did admit that he regrets not getting them the heat they needed. Hopefully he has learned his lesson now even though it did cost some animals their lives. I didn't want the ones that were left to suffer the same fate especially with how sweet most of them are.

The good news is they are moving around more now and more alert. I'm slowly warming them up as I don't want to put them in shock from a sudden jump in temps (it really was super cold in that trailer) but they're actually doing much better than what they were when I first saw them. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that everyone pulls through fine and if they don't make it then I know I gave it my best shot and it wasn't from a lack of trying. Poor babies!

[angllady2]

Boy sweetheart, this is a rough way to go all the way around.

After having found out the animals died, I would have refused to pay him. If you want me to take these animals and care for them fine, but I am not paying you for animals I am rescuing. That being said, I am guilty of being a sap more than once in my life when it comes to animals, and I know for a fact I'm not the only one here who has done it.

Now, as to your animals, some of them are pretty nice indeed, some are average. The cinnamon in the first picture is super nice in my opinion. The low contrast albino is really nice, you don't see too many like that any more since high contrast became so popular. I suspect that female might indeed be a vanilla. I have some of my own, and she's got some of the traits for sure. The first pastel is above average, nice and light, the second is average. Nice busy pinstripe. LOVE that genetic stripe! If that were a girl I'd be whispering in your ear about her. Decent normals, not real outstanding, but not bad. That first yellowbelly has got me scratching my head, I'm gonna need some more pictures of that one for sure! The second yellowbelly looks pretty good, like you'd expect a yellowbelly to look. That last pastel is really sweet, light and yellow, very nice.

Let me see. I'd like some additional pictures if I can be so demanding. The "vanilla" female. I'd like a good closeup of her head, please. And a belly shot. Put her next to one of your normals for comparison please. I really have a suspicion she just might be a Vanilla. And that first yellowbelly. Close up head shot, belly shot or two, and one of each side please. That one really interests me. I mean really interests me.

Since I don't think much of this guy or his so called snake keeping experience, do you have someone who can sex these snakes for you? Because I wouldn't believe for one second they are what he says they are. And I would love to know who this "big name expert" who told this guy you didn't need heat is. You can send the name to me privately, but I really want to know who would be handing out such poor information.

You are in for a long, rough road hon, but you just might find it worth your while in the end.

Gale