Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Noticed something not right with my little creamsicle corn , Pele, last night. She was weak and what i at first thought was food in her seemed to be stuck and she seemed to be filling with air ahead of it and getting skinny behind it, and it was hard feeling. Took her to the vet first thing this morning and my fear was confirmed she (Dr says it was in fact a she as i thought) was impacted with a piece of Repti Bark. She was only suffering and on the verge of death so we humanly put her to rest. Lesson learned i should have waited and ordered a hatching from a breeder this summer/fall, but she was too cute to resist. Called the shop i got her from and they wanted nothing to do with the situation, and could care less when i told them the vet recommended taking the Repti Bark out of the other snake cages to avoid this problem with any of the other snakes.

I know it does not help much, but at least you learned a valuable lesson regarding pet shops and their typical attitude toward the health of their animals. Some of them are dedicated to the animals and their welfare, but the vast majority of them are ONLY in it for the money.

Making money is great, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to increase profitability. But when it comes to pet shops looking for a quick sale of poorly animals, with no intention of standing behind their "product," no one needs to suffer what you have, and this hobby can do without such "representatives!"

Take heart, though. There will be babies galore in the classifieds before you know it. Then you can get an animal that you can rely upon for its health from a breeder you can trust.
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

>>Long time no see.
How are things going in Missouri?
I saw where you were getting extremely busy and wanted to thin down your snake numbers a little.
Did you sell the ones you wanted/needed to?
good luck
Jimmy

Yeah, well they're all spoken for, at least. We'll see if they actually stay sold! LOL
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Darin Chappell
Hillbilly Herps
PO Box 254
Rogersville, MO 65742

I am so sorry for your loss..... I send my care and condolences.
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Becki, loved by:

1 pet hubby
1 fur-angel, Great Dane, Lucky
1 lab/great pyr. mix, Bandit
1 grey banded king, Nitro (aka The Pig!)
1 snow corn, Nessy

Petstores use reptile bark because they sell reptile bark.They make a tidy profit from it.Im waiting for my leapord tortoise to pass the rock he ate last week.It's in the pic in the little hole.Im sweating bullets.

Thanks for all the kind posts/emails, i really appreciate it.
What really took me by surprise is how she seemed fine then the night before she was put down she was very weak and seemed to be half filled with air in front of the impaction and behind she couldn't move right, but still was getting around fine then in the morning she seemed much worse with little control of her movement. The vet said she would have died that day and was only suffering so i asked her to put her out of her misery.

Gargoyle420 -
Sorry to hear your leopard tortoise hope it passed it safely. And i should have listened to you when i asked about the other corn i found at a shop, but when i saw her i couldn't pass her up. Lesson learned

There is a show/sale coming up on June 5th in Hamburg that i plan on attending to get a hatchling Normal, Miami Phase, or Okeetee if possible. Is June 5th unrealistic? should i wait for the August show?