FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Whose to blame for sexing mistakes?
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Old 05-04-2004, 12:21 AM   #4
Clay Davenport
The fact is mistakes do happen occasionally when sexing snakes. This is particularly true of some species more than others. Given enough time, everyone will at some point missex a snake. The more you produce, the higher this possibility is.
It's not necessarily a matter of not knowing how to do it properly, mistakes happen. Some species have overlapping scale counts on the probe depth. Sometimes it's a matter of accidentally putting the wrong label on a cup, not hard to do when you're caring for 100 hatchlings.

I believe it is unrealistic for a buyer to expect a lifetime guarantee of the correct sex. Frankly, if you are unable to sex a snake nor do you have anyone handy who can, I'm not so sure you should be undertaking a breeding project in the first place. What do you expect to do with the hatchlings, just sell them as unsexed? (I use "you" in the general sense, not directed at you personally Alvaro.)
Breeding reptiles isn't particularly difficult for most people. This results in every Tom Dick and Harry who keeps a pair of something to decide they'll breed them, often without bothering with the related necessary knowledge. I'm not going to be held responsible indefinately for the lack of initiative on the part of the wannabe breeder who makes no effort to acquire a means of sexing his snakes.

The problem I have is this. Say a buyer takes a snake and never bothers to sex it. Two years pass and due to lack of breeding activity, he finally locates someone to sex the animal and they determine it to be the opposite sex from what they purchased.
What is to happen now? The buyer is obviously not pleased, he has wasted two years on his breeding project.
The seller cannot be expected to replace the animal with an adult of the opposite sex that is ready to breed. The buyer will probably not be much happier with a replacement hatchling of the correct sex, since he still has two years more years to wait.
If a refund is requested, should the seller be expected to refund the value of the adult animal at the current market rate, or the purchase price paid two years before?
I see nothing feasible that will fully satisfy the buyer.

I do have a time limit on my guarantee of proper sexing. I have so far never had anyone report back to me that I made a mistake, but it's bound to happen eventually.
I used 7 days sort of as an arbitrary number when writing up the terms. In the instance you outlined above, of course I would go ahead and replace the animal if possible, or refund the money, but if the buyer decides to wait two years before contacting me, then I'm sorry, at some point the buyer has to assume responsibility for his animal. I'm not a nursemaid. I have no problem with those who lack knowledge, as long as they are actively trying to remedy that situation, but someone who is content to be lacking in a basic skill of reptile keeping doesn't benefit from much sympathy from me.

I can understand people keeping lower end animals not bothering learning how to sex them. At the same time however, a responsible prospective breeder of lower end animals should not be maintaining a single pair in my opinion either.
Those who are hoping to breed the higher end animals, where single pairs are common, or there is a significant price difference between the sexes should learn to probe. There's really no excuse for not doing it.
I want everyone who buys a snake from me to be completely happy with the purchase. At the same time however, I am not going to be shackled to every sale indefinately, just waiting for someone to show back up in 2 or 3 years or more claiming I sold them the wrong sex.
Unless it's a high end het or something for which there would be a reason for me to retain pictures of the animal with a record of the buyer, there's no chance of my recognizing it anyway.