Going back to the first page for a minute here. I have occasionally come across the long time snake keeper that has the attitude of being better than everyone else. But that is extremely rare. Most of these long time keepers on sites like this are very experienced and know what they are talking about. More often I come across new keepers who've barely kept one snake for a couple of months thinking that they are qualified to give advice to anyone else. Or that they know their animal better, so therefore these experts can't really know what they are talking about. And this does far more harm. They aren't experienced enough to be advising others, and this can actually have a negative outcome. Ive seen a ton of "advice" given that could potentially harm an animal. I've kept reptiles for almost twenty years now, but I still won't hand out advice on species I haven't had experience with.
The other side to this is that keepers who have been keeping for a long time need to understand that they can always still learn. No one is perfect and they should always be open to new ideas. That's why I don't keep ferrets the same way I did twenty years ago.
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