Opinions on experience with a breeder

[rlditmars]

What you're experiencing is not that uncommon. You have to remember that while this was born out of a hobby, and remains a hobby for many, it is actually an industry. Like any industry, maximizing profits is the first order of business. Updating ads is labor intensive and takes away from the matter of producing. There are some breeders who at any given time have hundreds and even over a thousand animals available on sites. To keep a 1,000 plus ads up to date would be a full time job for more than 1 person and would incur costs that don't provide a return.

Another, not an uncommon practice, is underfeeding. The benefits here are two fold. First is the obvious which is it reduces the amount of feed prey needed per week which is pure cost savings. While it retards growth, the only outward appearance of that is, the correlation of size to age and maybe color. Other than that the animal seems healthy. We have all been around long enough to see what is average. We would expect to see 1 year old animals at about 700 grams, 2 year old animals at about 1200 grams, and 3 year old animals between 1500 and 2000 grams. So when you see a 3 year old snake under 500 grams, you have to wonder why and what is the long term effects of the undernourishment. I went to purchase a snake that was hatched in June and posted in July at 67 grams. When I went to purchase it in February, I asked for an updated pic and weight. The pic he provided was a fairly colorless animal, which is indicative of a snake suffering from malnourishment. The picture in the ad showed a vibrantly colored animal. The second thing is it was only 80 grams. When I questioned them, they said the posted date was incorrect. Not possible. That is controlled by the site and is auto populated when the ad is created. Since he hadn't made a mistake weighing it, the snake had only put on 13 grams in 7 months, which is the equivalent weight of 1 rat fuzzy. I did not buy it. Miraculously the weight was updated to 167 grams a week later which again is not possible if the weight was correct that he gave me, so I reported the discrepancy to the site. Nothing came of it, so make of that what you will.

As I said there are two benefits to underfeeding. The second is that this industry is a race. A race to get out the newest and best, sooner than everyone else, so as to capitalize on a gene while it is hot. As we have seen, this is an industry of diminishing returns. The more of any combo produced, the more availability, and consequently the less value. Simple put, supply and demand. Now if an industry breeder grows their animals to be sold at the same rate of growth as those they are trying to use to produce, then they are essentially growing up the competition. This means they are cutting into their own future profits, as prices for a particular morph will fall sooner.

Going forward, you'll have to decide what is right for you. Depending on what that is, you will make choices.

I know I will likely get torched for this as it is not putting everything in the prettiest light. But that doesn't make it not true.