Hello,
On Jan 21, 08' I made a deal with a guy that wanted to buy my late 06' female albino that was 500g-600g at the time for $1,050 shipping. I was selling her to raise funds for another snake and already had other female albinos with better color so I decided that this one could go. The deal was that he would pay me 25% down ($278.75) on Jan 21, 08' and 25% payments on Feb 4, Feb 18, and Mar 3. I originally purchased and payed off this snake and a male pied from a well known breeder on the east coast between the end of April and the end of August. The albino cost me $1,200.
On Mar 11, 08' I shipped the snake to the buyer. In June I believe the buyer sent me an e-mail saying that the snake would not eat. I had never had a problem with her feeding and anyone who is experience with balls know that sometimes they go off feed for various reasons such as; environment changes, enclosure changes, stress etc... Usually as long as they don't start loosing a significant amount of weight it's not a big problem.
I e-mailed him back and asked for: her current enclosure dimensions, cage temps, what it was heated with, if she had a hide etc... The enclosure was about twice as large as what I had been using for her and her hide was now 7"x9" instead of the 4"x6" hide that I was using. I told him to put her in a smaller enclosure if possible and used a smaller hide, which her said he couldn't do either. So, I told him to put crumpled up newspaper in the cage and the hide so the snake would feel more secure.
The buyer e-mailed me back a couple of other times, and I responded trying to diagnose the cause of her not eating. I told the buyer everything that I could thing of . Late July I received this message:
she is still off feed. she is going on 7 months or so w/ out food. i have done everything i can to try and get her to eat. she is not eating. there was nothing in the ad about her being a problem feeder I'm not pleased. the last thing i want is a Dead $1000 dollar snake. she is an o6 an my other 06 snakes are almost 3 times her size.
1) He says that she hasn't eaten for "7 months or so" but he has only had the snake for 5 months.
2) He also says, "there was nothing in the ad about her being a problem feeder I'm not pleased." She had never been a problem feeder with me. This was another sign showing the inexperience of the buyer. I know that just because a snake does well with someone also, does not mean that it will thrive with me.
3) The last the he says is, "she is an o6 an my other 06 snakes are almost 3 times her size." I own over 100 snakes now and they all vary a great amount of weight, even between clutchmates. I have late 07' animals that range from 400g-1,100g and 06' animals who range from 600g-2,000g who all feed well and I wouldn't worry about.
The reason I said that 2) was another sign showing me that the buyer was inexperienced is that he asked a couple of questions before purchasing the animal that I felt was basic snake knowledge like; is she ready to breed and a couple of others that I can't remember which have been deleted from my mailbox.
The last e-mail I received Aug 12th said this:
Matt,
I brought the 06 albino to the vet. i currently have her on Fortaz/Ceftazidine injections once every 3 days for the next two weeks. i had a fecal exam done that came back negative which was good. she was also given Metronidazol and tube feeding because she was so under weight. she has lost about 18 grams since I've had due to her lack of wanting to feed. she was also X-Ray ed and because of two areas on the spine that look like they could potentially be infected we have her on the antibiotics listed above and have given her a " hunger inducer " to encourage feeding. if she is not better after about a month and is not showing progress i want a refund of my money or another snake of equal value. i have no problem returning the the 06 albino. its not right that a $1,200.00 snake was shipped to me that has the potential to just wither away. Because live food i believe she was fed prior to my owning her i think she is now afraid of rats/mice and may not eat for me. after her treatments are done if she still wont eat we will have to work something out. i don't mean to sound like a scumbag but i really care about my snakes and i don't want to be out $1,200 on a dead snake.
He says he took her to the vet and she has no problems like parasites or anything that would have been a problem the months ago when I had her. He did say she potentially has an infection but i'm sure that if she had an infection when I had her I would have seen it and he would have said something to me about it in the 5 months that he's had her. Also, i'm pretty sure that infections don't show up on x-rays.
Honestly, this part of the e-mail irritated me:
if she is not better after about a month and is not showing progress i want a refund of my money or another snake of equal value. i have no problem returning the the 06 albino. its not right that a $1,200.00 snake was shipped to me that has the potential to just wither away. Because live food i believe she was fed prior to my owning her i think she is now afraid of rats/mice and may not eat for me. after her treatments are done if she still wont eat we will have to work something out. i don't mean to sound like a scumbag but i really care about my snakes and i don't want to be out $1,200 on a dead snake.
Here's why:
Just as every experienced ball python breeder, I to have had feeding problems at one time or another. I would not assume that because I can't get a snake to eat that the buyer sold me "a bad snake," especially when it's roughly 550g. Snakes are not like dogs you can't "guarantee" that this animal will eat because as a species the go off feed for many reasons. You can say it feeds well, or maybe it's a picky feeder etc. I have been in the same situation where I contacted the breeder and he worked with me to replicate the previous living conditions in which the snake thrived. This snake cost me $3k and I never saw him eat in almost a year. I took him back to the breeder and within a week the snake fed 5 times or more over the next 2 months. I didn't go to the breeder and say I want my money back because he won't eat. I don't believe that he was responsible for the snake not feeding, I was. I did end up selling the snake to a friend who has not had any feeding problems with this animal.
"if she is not better after about a month and is not showing progress i want a refund of my money or another snake of equal value. i have no problem returning the the 06 albino."
I would not take an animal back. I have no idea what conditions the animal was if when she wasn't in my care. She could have been exposed to a number of diseases or mite which I am certainly not willing to put back with my collection. I take very good care of my animals and I only buy from select breeders. I've also spent over $100k on my collection in the last 5 years and would not jeopardize exposing them to anything.
"its not right that a $1,200.00 snake was shipped to me that has the potential to just wither away."
Any animal has the "potential to wither away" or thrive depending on the knowledge of the owner and how well the animal is cared for by the owner. When someone that owns an animal is inexperienced, the animal pays the price. I have people all the time come to my job asking me what the animals that they've owned for a week eats, or wanting to keep hatchling red ear sliders in small kritter keepers with no filtration, no uv or basking lighting, and an inch of water. I can only do my best to educate myself and try to educate them.
"Because live food i believe she was fed prior to my owning her i think she is now afraid of rats/mice and may not eat for me."
She was never harmed by any feeder rodents prior to or during my ownership of the snake so I don't see why he would believe she "is now afraid of rats/mice"
after her treatments are done if she still wont eat we will have to work something out. i don't mean to sound like a scumbag but i really care about my snakes and i don't want to be out $1,200 on a dead snake.
This is a contradiction, in the beginning of the sentence he says he really cares about his snakes and the second half he say he doesn't want to loose the money if she dies... Which is more important loosing the money or the animal actually dying??
Basically, I write all of this to ask: Do you feel that a breeder who sells a healthy snake to someone is responsible if after 5 months the animal doesn't eat?
If any of this is confusing, i'm sorry I have been moving to my new place for the last 5 hrs and am writing this at 6am in the morning which was the only time I could find to do it.
Feel free to e-mail me with any questions
thanks for reading,
Matt
