Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know what you gathered from my post but in no way did I knock emeralds. All I said is they are a little harder mainly to do with the fact that they never go to the ground so you cannot count on them going to the floor for heat. Can you argue that emeralds do not go to the floor and amazons do? It also seems to me that amazons do better in slightly less than perfect humidity levels. I would say the same for chondros, they are hardest to keep...eventhough I do not keep them, I have looked into chondro investments for a while and three people I talked to buying trios ended up with dead animals...how many eggs go bad that you know of. I may not keep Emeralds, but I certainly am close enough in the hobby to have plenty of friends who do and I just pass what I hear. I also believe my statement was "Ill speak for ATB" and I said that ATB's you can mostly expect to get bit and it is rare occasions they don't. I never said a word about emerald temperment since I don't keep them and I can't judge on something I don't have multiple animal experience on. I did say if you do get bit, it will be fun since they have impressive teeth...you don't want to argue that do you...I have seen them eventhough I don't keep them...they are big! calm down and dont't get mad...I didn't insult your emeralds personality all I did was speak for ATB's and I spoke of their flaws too. We can all live longer if we don't get worked up over little things : )

Perhaps it is the owners that are fiesty and not the snakes

Chris

Perhaps it's exasperated owners of calm, placid, green tree slugs (AKA Emerald Tree Boas), and that's exactly what the vast majority of them are during the daytime, who are just simply tired of people passing on incorrect information about these animals. If you try to handle them at night when they are in hunting mode, you deserve whatever you get as a result of "feistiness". Yes, there are demon ETBs that are difficult to handle all the time, but these are a very, very small minority.

Karen

Craig didn't say you knocked emmies, nor did he imply you insulted our animals in any way. I don't understand where your comments about the heat/ground thing come from or the chondro eggs. BTW, if they are cold, emmies will go to ground if there is under-tank heating and a solid substrate (not water like we use), that's just not something you really want happening. Don't know about eggs, we don't keep chondros and emmies have live-born.

What Craig said and I agree is that people who HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE really shouldn't be giving advice!! or telling people how tempremental emmies are. We very rarely (and only when someone is being totally ignored) give any kind of advice on ATBs and chondros, and then it is always very, very general advice with the caveat that we don't keep those animals and so what we are passing on is simply heresay.

As far as what you wrote, you did write this

"...Emeralds are much harder to keep since they are not giving with less than perfect conditions..."

Frankly, if you cannot provide the proper conditions then you shouldn't buy the animal, regardless of whether it is a mammal, a reptile, a bird. When people say Emeralds are harder to keep, what they REALLY mean is:

a) Emeralds are a lot of work to keep properly with daily maintenance tasks that get to be a dreaded chore after a while.

or

b) Emeralds are a lot more expensive to keep if you set up housing that satisifies their environment/living conditions without you having to provide constant daily maintenance.

Books and care sheets on the net (well at least some of them, cause I've seen some that would get you a dead animal if you followed the directions) are great reference sources, but are not the be all/end all.

Just to demonstrate the point, would you take advice on wiring/rewiring your house from someone who had read a few books on electrical wiring or an electrician???? Sorry, but it's my feeling that advice from someone who is successful in their field is always going to be a better choice, especially when you combine it with reference material. That's the point Craig was trying to make.

Karen

I agree with everything you said. However, I do not see how my advice that emeralds are harder than amazons was that big of a deal...It appears you agree. I also never made any statements that you can argue against. I guess if they go to the floor and you have seen that...sorry i was wrong about it...I didn't think it was something they did or should do while amazons it is not a big deal. They also need less of an extravagant setup. Sorry if you are offended...I just don't know where my any of my statements spoke for emeralds or were advising something that was particular in keeping emeralds. I said very simple things that you yourself would not argue much against (except the UT heat, but even you said its not great) I guess I don't understand where the hostility is?

I really don't want this to get like the ball python forum and others where people just argue about pointless things. I am sorry if you think I made some bad advice that I could not back up, Im sorry. Lets try and get along since we all keep some unique snakes and have no reason to argue over this.

IMHO, once you provide ETBs with the proper enclosure and needs,
Cage, heat panel, proportional thermostat, bowl of water, perch, you put them on autopilot and thats it....They always seem to want to eat, but only have to feed them every 2 weeks and maybe, just maybe, you will have to clean their dumps once every 6 - 8 weeks.....no eggs to incubate....no brumation...no scenting of prey.....their position at night tells you if they are ready to eat.....just a few simple rules to know and obey .
but they are not for beginners IMHO, because of their expense, and because beginners make mistakes, and we all learn by our mistakes, and it isn't fair to "learn" at the expense of the most beautiful snake on the planet (I guess I am prejudiced!).