Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I think my situation may help others so I thank you in advance.

I recently purchased three supposedly adult females weighing 3-4lbs for $65 a piece from a private person that I found on the Internet. I knew I was taking a dice shoot but decided to go through with the transaction using paypal (who by the way can't help me now).

I received the fedex package today and it contained three large ball pythons in a sack along with an invoice from a reptile dealer that I did not do business. He must have ordered them from there and had them shipped to me. I phoned them and inquired about the snakes. The lady told me they were wild caught and weren't treated for anything.

I observed them and there appears to be ticks, etc. on them! I contacted the seller but he's not available now (in different timezone) but I want to be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Since I have zero experience with wild caughts and to be honest, I don't want to put up with the hassle of tick removal, etc. what should I do?? I want to be prepared for him possibly telling me that he won't refund me for the snakes.

What should I do??????

thanks in advance

if he actually told you they were CB and they are not thats fraud, but otherwise there is not much you can do except get them treated, although $65 for adult females should have given you a clue.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. That's pretty much why I took the gamble with them as I couldn't turn down $65 for females.

How would you recommend that I go about treating them? I have a few cans of provent-a-mite and I sprayed the tubs in the rack with it, let the vapors dissipate and introduced the snakes to the rack. I'm hoping that the provent-a-mite will kill the tick, mites, their respective eggs, etc. but I'm told that I will still have to remove the ticks with tweezers (ugh!).

Since 100% of imports have internal parasites, I'll have to address that issue as well. The good thing that I can take from this is that I will now have wild-caught experience

BH

Having these snakes for one day does not give you expericne.
You will have a long road ahead of you. Good thing is, most WC ball pythons settle down and thrive in captivity. Bad news, most WC ball pythons are not very good breeders. Some do, some don't. It's just the game, well to the game.

>I'm hoping that the provent-a-mite will kill the tick, mites, their respective eggs, etc. but I'm told that I will still have to remove the ticks with tweezers (ugh!).

I've done the tick thing with a boa constrictor. We stopped counting after 100 ticks.

It is a lot easier to get the ticks off alive than after they are dead. Get hold of the tick with tweezers close behind the head and gently pull back on it. Be patient and don't break the mouthparts off the tick. The tick doesn't like the pull and will slowly disengage its mouthparts from the snake skin. Then you can drop the tick in a small bottle of alcohol. A dead tick can't disengage its mouth parts, which are likely to be left in the snake's skin and fester.

Good luck.

Paul Hollander

From the information in your post I'm not sure you intended to get captive born and bred but for the argument I'll assume you did. Since you paid through PayPal, I would call them and explain that the seller misrepresented the snakes and that you want the transaction voided. Furthermore, you can contact your credit card company and explain to them the situation and that you want to dispute the charge because the seller did the old bait and switch on you and that the sale is fraudulent. Continue to send emails and try to call the seller to get satisfaction.

Remember in the future, I

If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Please don't argue that giving us his name would be improper... if he sold these animals as captive born, then a better argument could be made that it would be unethical if you were to NOT let us know who did this.

Email us individually if you must, but please let use know.