Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I wanted to share a warning with all herp enthusiast looking for good deals without researching the buyer, or checking out the animal in question. My hogg island boa was bought at the Northern Virginia Reptile Expo last February for 150$ from a guy walking around w her in his back pack, which i thought was a steal for such an awesome animal, but in the months to come i would learn better. Upon examining the animal , i found an eye injury and scale rot on its belly ! ( the examination didnt happen until she was brought home) well it all ended up w her not eating for about two months , and coming close to death because of a bad shed and scale rot , and an eye problem.( if i had only known ) Through alot of patience and hard work , i have brought my animal back up to health , and i am very thankful that i didnt give up work on her. Ive told u guys this story to warn u against sellers at shows , no matter how good of a steal the animal is , you should always be certain of the quality of the animal AND the seller , for me , i learned this lesson the hard way
John

You brought up a good point. You bought from someone just walking around and not a vendor. Scott Sthal is the vet for the NVRE. Scott goes to all the vendor's tables and checkes all thier animals before the show and during the show. I have seen Scott demand animals be removed from a table due to thier poor health. I hope this doesn't stop you from attending future shows.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. There are a couple of regular guys who walk around NVRE working trades and selling animals that are actually associated with one of the vendors, but there are also all the different folks that bring in their own animals with the intent to sell or trade. In both cases, Dr. Stahl isn't able to inspect them as he does those displayed on tables. That said, I am personally not against purchasing from these individuals but only if they allow me to inspect the animals prior to purchase/trade. I've gotten a couple of nice snakes, though one was misidentified (which I had suspected at the time). I've also seen some animals that were not in good health or fit for sale. As you said, live & learn...at least after your good care & medical attention your snake is healthy and happy now.

Best of luck from here on out.

Raven

That is illegal and very wrong to be peddling any animals at a show like that.
This time around, he took advantage of the 'don't let anyone see' and gave you a sick snake.
Next time it could've been a perfectly healthy snake... that was JUST STOLEN from someone's table!
Then as you're walking around the show nonchalantly, you get surrounded and arrested for posessing a stolen snake!

These guys are taking food from the mouths of the vendors and others who work hard and put in the time to produce and raise these wonderful animals, pay for tables and drag all their stuff to these shows to hopefully make a few bucks and get to meet some great people..
These 'back packers' (lol) then just walk in and disrespect all of this effort just to make a quick buck.
Makes me sick...

Thanks for posting.

Take care, Joe Rollo - BciJoe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

trading is allowed. There isn't a lot of trading going on between consumers and vendors, though vendors tend to swap animals quite a bit, but the random person does show up with an animal or two. And not everyone who brings in a trade is necessarily a bad guy. I personally enjoy trading occassionally for animals that may or may not be at the show - both of my trades there were for carpets (one coastal, and one Irian Jaya) that were not being offered on any of the tables. Even so, I wish there were a way for Dr. Stahl to check any animals being brought in as trades and be able to turn away animals that are unfit for sale. Basically the main thing is to thoroughly check over any animal before a trade or purchase...regardless if the animal is coming from someone who brought in a pet or an animal that a vendor is selling.

Call me skeptical, but I don't trust anybody.

Raven

I've seen this taken seriously at every show i've been at..
I've seen someone almost get chased and jumped because they tried to sneak an animal into the show and undercut a vendor.

I agree, i'd love to come in and work out trades and such, and i'm sure the vendors do it together.. I don't see a problem there.

My experience with the larger shows is that they usually don't allow animals in, other than what was purchased from that show on that day.

I didn't mean to label anyone who is interested in trading or selling their animals as a bad guy. If so, I would probably be the worst of the worst !!!! I probably spend most of my day working out trades with other breeders!! It's great fun!

Thanks and take care, Joe Rollo - BciJoe
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin

Hey raven , ive been really interested in irian jaya carpet pythons , but havent been able to find ne on the web ,and i was wondering if u knew if the upcoming NVRE show in august would have any , and if so , how much would they be for , im hoping to find them for around a 100$ , or possibly lower , thanx to all for your responses to my story
John

Offhand I don't know if any will be available or not. I usually see a lot of jungles, a few coastals and sometimes some different crosses. NVRE is where I've gotten all but one of my carpets - a pure coastal female, a jungle X coastal male, a diamond X jungle female, and my Irian Jaya male. This should be a good time of year for the possibility though, because on another site I frequent I've seen quite a few people talking about their litters of carpets hatching, including IJ's. Check out www.moreliapythons.com for IJ's, either in their 'Classifieds' section or the 'Morelia spilota' forum. There have been some excellent pictures posted of them lately. By the August show date, there should be plenty of hatchlings that are well started. A good table to check at the show is Ian's (Outback Reptiles of Fairfax, VA) as he usually has the several carpets and I think I remember him having IJ's at the last show. Feel free to stop by my table and say 'hi' too.

Raven (aka Dianne in the real world)

You are correct in that most shows don't allow trades or outside animals, especially the bigger shows, and it's not right for someone to be sneaking animals in for sale or trade to those. MARS in Maryland is real strict about it and checks bags at the door before allowing entrance...a good thing in my opinion. The NVRE (Northern Virginia Reptile Expo) is still a pretty small show by most standards - generally local breeders and dealers from the Maryland and Virginia areas, with a few others from nearby states. At this point they're still allowing trades, but it's the only one in the area that I know of that still does so. And yeah, the vendors are always trading stuff back and forth. I usually sell jewelry that I make, but that rarely stops me from coming home with an animal. Once I even traded jewelry for a snake I liked. We're all addicts! LOL

Raven

hey raven , what booth will u be at the show , cuz ill make sure and say hi , and if i find ne ij's ill make sure and show u the animals, thanx for the help
John

I don't know which booth I'll be assigned to yet, but I'm usually in the center section towards the back. My table usually only has an assortment of handmade jewelry, and I'm known around the show for my spider pins. You'll know it's me when you see aberrant boas & jewelry all on the same table.

Oh yeah, in the 'real' world, I'm known as Dianne.