Yes, breeding and selling involves some degree of intentional doublethink -- the evaluative thought that breeding is a good thing for those offspring, and the basic reality that many keepers are pretty far off base with their care.Originally Posted by Bogertophis
That makes me want to scream! It's also one of the reasons I stopped breeding snakes...too many buyers cannot be trusted to take proper care, & it's not like the information isn't available.
I'm not so sure about the information availability, since SEO is such a big factor. The first hit for 'ball python care' on the wild web is the most well known collection of files about reptiles, where glass enclosures are one of the recommended enclosure types along with heat lamps, with a basking surface temp of 95-104F; rotating in ASFs, gerbils and hamsters as feeders is recommended, as is multivitamin supplementation (with reasoning and product suggestions that indicate a very basic lack of understanding of the situation).
To circle back to the vet topic, a novice keeper might get their BP hooked on gerbils after getting some off Craigslist and thinking they'll be giving their BP "a spectrum of nutrition". Then when the snake won't go back to rats, they might take it to the vet who may well not realize the connection unless they're actually a snake keeper (and at any rate this won't be an 'illness visit').
I realize that a bunch of this is pretty tangential to the pet insurance topic. Hopefully that's OK, Homebody.
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