Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Look at the spots at the base of their necks.
Female on the left side - male on the right.

on the right

looks like i'm seeing spots

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e-mail me!

They both look sick to me...

See how even in the, erm, "plumper" of the two, a cross-section of the body looks triangular, like the skin is just draped over the sekelton? Think of it this way: a snake's body has a stomach, a good deal of muscles, and countless other organs... where are they on your snakes? A BP, and any other snake (Ok, with exception to vine snakes and the like) should be round. Just like a dog, you shouldn't be able to visibly make out their spine.

Sorry if I'm coming off as offensive, I don't mean to. It just pisses me off beyond reason that there's actually a f#$%er out there, soul-less and evil enough to sell animals like that to people. Both of those snakes were in no shape to be sold. Period.

Any luck with trying to feed them? The vet is definitely a must, but getting them to survive until then is more important.

...Man, there's got to be some sort of animal cruelty violation to give the shop that sold you these.

And it gives a bad name to petshops, too. The shop I go to provides breeding records, will NOT sell you a snake without demonstrating its willingness to eat, etc. I even got a business card for the breeder if I had questions. Then you have places like this that treat their animals just well enough to survive until purchase, and my place loses business because the latter can afford to sell them cheaper because of the saved money in proper husbandry.

I'm sorry, dude. I really hope they make it. The proper thing to do is return them with a lot of yelling and a rebate, but I'd rather see you keep them, even if they don't survive. At least they'll have a good life from here on out. If you've got other snakes, don't let them near those guys. It'd be damn hard to get in that condition without a disease.

Good luck,
Baz

.

I've spoken to the owner of the shop. His excuse is a bad shipment of snakes. Apparently a new batch is coming in on Saturday and he's going to replace mine and joey's snake.

I wish you all wouldn't judge me. I tried to do some good by giving the snakes a good home. If they made it or not at least I tried. They weren't housed together when I had them but they were at the store (they were together only for the pic).

When you come to a forum you come here for discussion and help, not judgement and accusations. It's no wonder some people never post here again. Don't know if I ever will.

1. Ask the shop owner if any of the original batch had been regurging.

2. Ask the shop owner how long he quarintined those animals before putting them up for sale.

3. Ask the shop owner if he has wormed the remaining snakes from that batch now that he knows they are sick.

4. Ask the shop owner WHEN he/she intends to worm the snake that you purchased and is still alive, or WHEN (not IF, WHEN) is he going to pay for a vet visit for Flagyl and panacur.

5. INSIST on a refund for the dead snake (If he will only give store credit, then buy supplies with that money, no more snakes from him) Maybe return the live snake as well, it really looked bad in one of those pics and it has been exposed to whatever killed the other.

6. Look around the net and find a local reptile breeders show for your area. A male ball python will go pretty cheap this time of year. Probably ahlf of what you paid at a pet shop, and if you get one from the breeder the breeder usually garantees health. Sorry about all that.

Like I said the reptile expo for this area was this weekend. He organized it. He is the big name around here. If anyone would like to know the name of the store you can e-mail me. The breeders here deal with morphs no normals and I'm not paying hundreds of dollars on a snake that is just a pet. I don't see the logic.

Horrible to know the reptile expo is run by an jerk.

JM thanks very much for your help and info.

You need to re-read what a lot of us have written you. I neither judged nor accused you, I felt bad for you. Not once did I yell/blame anyone but the breeder. At the end, I even wished you good luck and said that "at least they'll have a good life from here on out".

I really wish you wouldn't think we're all out to get you. I was sincere, polite, and completely on your side, dude.

Here read this. I never felt so horrible.

forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=76950,77049

I apologize. It was in reply to my post, I thought you were referring to me as well.

Dan was overreacting a little, IMO. The first pictures you sent, be it the angle, the lighting, etc. made that top snake look literally on its last legs. His point, thought it came across harsh, was simply that he wanted to know why other in the forum predicted the death of your snakes before you seemed to even know something was wrong with them.

Again, it was partially misunderstanding, and largely our anger with bad keepers/breeders. Bad shipping or not, those snakes had something wrong prior. I'm sorry our bad temperment towards people like that came out on you.

Once more, best of luck. Hopefully in a few months you'll be posting pictures asking the forum if she should be this fat

I think that maybe part of that guys problem may have been this;
Some of us have seen some severely abused and neglected snakes. So many of these animals live thier entire lives in absolute agony. I have rescued several of these myself. So many more will never be "rescued." It is a pathetic shame! And, yes, it truly enrages me! The sight of something like that will stir up a gret deal of anger in some people. And the blame must be aimed at somebody. It was at you.
Bless your heart for trying. For giving those babies the best home you could at the time. Don't stop trying. Don't stop caring. And don't stop asking for help!

Best of luck!
GratefulFred
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GratefulFred

Candie,

Are these imported babies ("farmed" or domestic captive bred?

Katrina

How long have you had him? They are so cute. But I would let them get settle in first for about a week before disturbing them.

n/p

I didn't see anyone judging you, only the shop. I would have a hard time passing these guys up if I had the money and place to quarantine them! I would want to bring them home, and let them have a good place to die if they were beyond saving.
It really is a Catch-22 isn't it? Leave them there to die for sure, or take them home, perpetuating the cycle? You did what YOU thought was best Candie. No one can fault you for that!

Oh candie! I am sorry! You tried so hard to help them! I am sorry they didn't make it!

I can almost guarantee that these were imported or 'captive hatched' babies. This is unfortunately an all-too-common occurence but most of the people that get these don't know about the forum so we don't see a lot of them here but I'm glad you did.
Every year 100s of thousands of all pythons are imported from overseas (Ghana being the most popular I believe). Although it has gotten better through the years, these snakes are still contained in vats with hundreds of other snakes making parasites and ticks VERY common. I have seen very few imported balls make it to adulthood (and especially as breeders) without Panacur/Flagyl treatments.
Although I understand how much this boosts their economy, it is a very bad situation for domestic breeders who have to sell their captive-born babies for $20-$25 when they should sell for much more.
Another sad part about this is that this is the first investment for a lot of potential herpers. They go into a pet shop/reptile show and see this cool little ball python for $12 (which cost the dealer probably $6 if he bought it in a 100-lot) and they buy it. It dies 3 weeks later and these people are turned away from reptiles, which in the end, takes away business from each of us.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. Candie, I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck. This was out of your hands and has to deal with the animals themselves and the pet shop who knew exactly what kind of crap these animals were and still sold them to you.
Good luck and best wishes!
Jason @ Jason's Jungle