I just wanted to mention to everyone that I took my Super Pastel (bought from TSK) and my bumble bee both valued over $1000 each. I was not going to let anything bad happen to them. My wife and I did inspect the store the night prior for sick looking stock and mites, also a side not for all of you who hate pet stores, I understand your reasoning but just so you know most name brand national pet stores have a sick policy that if at anytime someone notices a ill animal in their stock, employee or customer and reports it to a store manager they are to remove it from availability and have it treated prior to being put on the shelf again. My step mom is a vet sees this all the time. So please if you see sick snakes or anything at the pet store tell the manager and demand its care. My wife and I do this all the time because lets face it most people buy snakes at pet stores, so if you have a trained eye why not help those who don’t. Also the pet store that we took them to is the cleanest, as far as care and heath that I have seen in the city of Springfield. The manager does a great job.

When we were at the store we did not mix our snakes with the stores nor did we let just anybody handle them, we were waiting for the manager to finish helping a customer and in the mean time we got to see a big man scared of little snakes and yes we did find some humor in it. Also I should note that when he circled and yelled that is not funny, he was circling because he was waiting on his wife and he was yelling at her, not us. My wife and I did not know that this guy had this fear at all prior to his reaction and it was is wife that completely set him up for it.

As for the stress of the snakes the entire time they simply remained calm sitting in our hands, which I think they would prefer rather then some small bag or caring cage because they have something more firm to hold onto in case of a bump, like my hand or fingers. They seemed to enjoy there visit.

As far as the whole why do you need to show off your animals or have press issue? The truth of the matter is I have a bumble bee, a super pastel, 2 normals, and I am thinking about picking up 1 clown and a pied early next year. All of which are high dollar snakes with the exception of the 2 normals, and yes I plan on breeding them which means I am going to have some lovely babies but I would rather sell them locally if possible then ship them all over the us. Kingsnake is a great set up but I personally would use it as a last resort for selling. I prefer to meet the people I sell to so that they can get a feel for me, and really see the true value of the snakes before they hand the money over, where on most online orders you get one camera angle and that is it, infact most online sellers sound irritated when you ask for more pics.

In the end the store manager, after looking over my male super and female bumble bee told me to give him a call when I have my first clutch with them because he wants to get one of the babies for his own personal collection.

As far as my snakes go, I see them as a God painted work of art that I do not run all over the world showing off, but I also do not by any means intend to keep them hidden from everyone I don't know all the time. I still think it was well worth the time to see the little girl and her mom look closely at the snakes and admire their lovely color.

Matt

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