lack of paperwork or info when buying online?

[Miranda2]

I almost always buy my reptiles online. One thing that has always disappointed me is the lack of paperwork for the animals.I get zilch. No hatch dates, no receipts, no caresheets. I have only gotten records from one company but the snake was 6 years old.
I have boughten from several reputable and bigger breeders too.
I find the lack of paperwork unprofessional. If I want to resell the snake the buyer has to rely on my word that the snake is so old and from such and such breeder.
Does anyone else find this annoying?

[BCS]

It does not really bother me. Even if they had paper work, the snakes they breed you would still have to rely on their word anyway.

[M.P.C]

Papers or not your relying on there word that they arent forging the papers.... you really only need papers when your talking about hets.... other wise its your responsibility as the new care giver to ask about those things and write them down for your knowledge.... breeding snakes takes up alot of time and not many have the time to make a sheet for each individual snake they sell, most breeders just keep a log book for personal refference

[Daigga]

If nearly none of the professionals do it then calling it "unprofessional" not to kind of misses the mark, doesn't it? The closest thing I've gotten to papers is the receipts Ben Rennick sends with his animals that have the picture of the animal you bought, but that's it. My bumble bee was from Wilbanks and she didn't come with anything (bought her online, picked her up at a show). Lack of papers isn't a big deal because no matter the situation you're relying on the person's word anyway. Even with hets, the papers don't mean anything if the seller has a bad reputation or if the animal doesn't prove out, does it?

[Marissa@MKmorphs]

When purchasing an animal I ask for all of those details before purchasing the animal, and document in my own records. I will also request any and all records when an animal is shipped or have it sent via email. I usually ask hatch date, pairing, what it is eating, how often it is eating, what size tub/enclosure it has been on, what type of substrate, etc.


I provide full documentation with any animal I sell, whether I produced it or not. If I didn't produce it I include as much information as I can.

[bcr229]

Care sheets you should have read before purchasing the animal.
Hatch date, weight, pictures, pictures of parents (if I have them), feeder size, live vs f/t, etc. are in the ad.
"Papers" are appropriate for hets but are only as good as the breeder's word.

[Jhill001]

Tim Gebherd over at Vivid Reptiles gives you the animal # and his paperwork came with a receipt and a pretty detailed caresheet that has some interesting insight not mentioned in most care sheets I found online. For example with my Baird's Rat Snakes he suggests keeping them at 80-100% humidity while still at hatchling size as they have a habit of getting dried out. This is an interesting wrinkle in their husbandry but when you see the pictures of where his original stock are from and think about the habitat it makes sense that a small snake would regularly be in much higher humidity than your average "desert" species.

Other breeders have not really sent me anything other than a receipt along with the shipment. But to be honest this doesn't bother me so much because selling reptiles its more about pre-sale support and probably the first 48 hours you have the animal. Other than that you really are on your own in terms of making sure you are taking care of your new pet and making sure you are doing everything right. Tim is in Texas and I'm in Ohio there isn't really a lot he can do for me other than say here are these 2014 snakes, here's how you keep it alive and then subsequently getting the snakes to me alive and uninjured.

With a snake like a ball python where the species is so much more popular that there are entire forums, books and web pages dedicated to them there really shouldn't be a need for a care sheet along with the snake. With my Baird's the only resources available are some of the most basic care sheets I've seen most which are copy pasted from one another and some that in the middle completely switch the species they are talking about along with a few that completely contradict one another. They are briefly mentioned in the Corn Snakes and Ratsnakes book but that's it.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Paper is good to start the BBQ pit.
I give a fewding card on ones I hatch.
Adults that I sell, no.