Bad Guy Siren Exotics AKA SirenSanJose - SICK ANIMALS

06-30-2015, 10:43 AM

I tried putting this post off as long as possible because I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's been two months since I have had any contact with Siren after they sold me a sick snake.

We vended at the Reptile Breeders Show in Lodi, CA on April 25-26 of this year. Siren Exotics was also vending the show, and when I had a break I went around looking at everyone's booths. They didn't have anything I wanted so I didn't pay them much mind. On the second day of the show I noticed they had brought a chocolate female ball python that had not been there the first day, and I bought it without thinking twice. I paid $80 in cash.

I got her home and got her into her tub and didn't really think much more of it. We clean every Wednesday and Saturday, so on Wednesday April 29 I did the cleaning and didn't notice anything other than that she was shy and balled up. When I cleaned again on Saturday May 2, she tried hissing at me when I opened the tub and it sounded more like a gurgle. Obviously I freaked out, moved her completely away from all of the other animals, got her on high heat, and contacted Siren Exotics. Here is the initial conversation that I had with them.

So other than selling me a sick snake, everything is fine. They got back to me right away and seem genuinely concerned, so my priority is keeping her on heat and looking into a vet. I'm super paranoid for the next couple weeks, checking every single one of my other snakes to make sure they didn't get anything, but all of the other snakes remain healthy.

In the meantime, it turns out that every exotic vet I hear about in Reno has no clue about snakes, so I do my own research to try to get her better. I keep her on heat, monitor humidity, and her condition is stable. Not good, but stable. I check at the pet stores in town and even at feed stores trying to find an antibiotic for her with no luck, so I assume that I'm going to have to go to the vet and pay out the butt to get them. I don't have the money but I figure that after the next expo it will be no problem.

We went to the Norcal Reptile Show in Pleasanton, CA on the weekend of May 16-17, and Siren Exotics happened to have a booth just a little ways away from us. As soon as we get set up, I went and talked to who I'm assuming is Diana. I told her that the snake still wasn't better and asked her what she wanted to do. She asked if I wanted to return the snake and get my money back, and I said yes absolutely, the only issue being that I live 4 hours away and didn't bring her because I don't want her near any of my other snakes. I told her that if she could get me the antibiotics I have no problem treating her, I just couldn't find them and couldn't pay for them even if I did.

She told me on May 16 that she has a vet that she goes to frequently for snake issues (which should probably have been a huge red flag) and that she can get the meds and mail them to me. She also mentioned offhandedly that the snake I had bought had been lost in their garage for a couple months before they brought her to the show (another wtf moment that I initially didn't pay much mind to). This seems like a perfectly fine solution to me, I mind my own business until Tuesday May 19 when I still hadn't heard from them. I don't hear back so i send another message Wednesday. Still no response, so I send another message Thursday. Absolutely no contact made back with me even though facebook tells me they've seen my messages.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ictureid=27093

Now I obviously have a problem. I understand that mistakes can happen, and I told myself that maybe something came up, an emergency or something else, and they just literally were not able to respond. In the meantime I purchased antibiotics and started treating the snake, but I happened to decide to check out their facebook page. Turns out that while they didn't have time to get back to me, they did have time to post pictures of their new pickup from the show.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ictureid=27094

Since they hadn't responded to my messages, I thought that maybe posting a message on their page would get some sort of reaction. Granted, I was being a little dramatic in my post as the snake was already being treated, but I thought that maybe they would care enough about the snake to help, even if they didn't care about customer service. I was wrong.

You can see that I requested their phone number as well. Since there isn't much else I can do at this point I just forget about it. Until a week or so later when I'm browsing the BOI and happen to see that they posted on here. I didn't even know they had a fauna account, so this was interesting to me.

Now the most ironic part of it is that the post they made was in regards to someone not responding to them and not giving them a refund on an animal. Seems karma works very quickly.

I sent them a private message on here thinking MAYBE they would finally respond.

Then I posted on their visitor messages because at this point I was not too pleased with them.

There isn't really anything else I can do at this point. I have tried contacting them in every way I can think to do so, and they refuse to get back to me with any sort of solution. I'm under the impression that they should refund me the cost of the meds, refund me the cost of the snake, and pay for shipping to have her sent back to them.

I also want to post evidence that this was indeed an RI. She was taken to the microbiology lab at the University of Nevada, Reno and a stain was done of her saliva. These are the results.

06-30-2015, 01:15 PM

So, no quarantine and no funds put aside for unexpected animal medical expenses ? Strange strategy for keeping living animals. Sorry to hear you got a sick snake, but it sounds from the wording of your post you had the opportunity to look this animal over carefully prior to purchase but snatched it right up instead.

06-30-2015, 02:13 PM

Scott, if you'd like to start a BOI about my practices you are more than welcome to do so. This thread is not about me; I have done nothing wrong.

No, I did not set funds aside EXPECTING a snake to be sick. Why would I purchase a snake if I thought it was going to be unhealthy?

Also, I'm not sure if you're aware how respiratory infections work, but a snake can appear outwardly healthy and after moving around start to really show symptoms. What I'm getting from your post is that it's ok for them to not respond to me for two months?

06-30-2015, 02:19 PM

Also, I did not say there was no quarantine in place. She was never put anywhere near my others, the simple fact that she was in my house made me nervous that something would be passed around. Everything I have read about RI's is that they're like the common cold and go from one snake to another in a very short time. She went from a normal quarantine to being put on the top story of the house in the very back corner on a heat pad.