An interesting seqience of events, and a lot of pics!

Thanks for the price range, who knows, maybe one day I will be inclined to buy one.

"who knows, maybe one day I will be inclined to buy one."

I hope so! I have kept many different snakes, and I can honestly say that I have never kept a more rewarding snake than a Rosy Boa. As far as I am concerned, they are the best!

Very nice snakes, Very nice pictures, sorry about the losses but i believe you were still blessed. thank you for sharing

Beautiful babies James. Thanks for sharing with us, even the deformities. It's good to see pics like those so that if the same thing were to happen with my own snakes I would have reference to it happening previously and not feel quite so bad.

I checked out your website and am very impressed with your snakes. You really have an amazing collection. I would love to purchase some of your Rosys, but I have this thing against shipping lately and only want to buy at shows. You wouldn't happen to be going to Tinley Park this year would you?

I pretty much just go to the shows in the southwest (San Diego, Los Angeles, Tucson, and Phoenix). With all of the nightmare stories out there about people cutting corners on their shipping, I understand your dislike for it. I also understand the appeal of being to pick out your animal and see it first hand before actually buying it.

I will say this. I have shipped in the hottest of hot weather, and if it is done properly with a Styrofoam lined box that has the appropriate cold pack(s) secured inside and sent for a morning delivery, then you will end up opening up a package with a cool (in regard to its temp) snake even if it is over 100 degrees outside. I have had the same results with shipping in freezing cold weather. I just use 35 to 40 hour heat packs in a Styrofoam lined box and the reptile arrives nice and toasty (but not too toasty ).

In the last 6 years I have shipped close to 400 packages, and it has been a process of evolution to get to the methods that I use today. I have only had one problem, and that was with Airborne Express a few years ago. I sent out a package on a Thursday for a Friday morning delivery. Well they lost it, and it was not delivered until the following Monday. The weather was very hot, and 6 of the 9 lizards died. I refunded the customer his money, and tried to file a claim with Airborne only to be denied because they do not ship lizards (just turtles, bugs, and amphibians). It was a lesson learned. I do not use Airborne anymore. It was also a wake up call, in that errors on the part of the shipping company are always a possibility.

Before this happened to me, my packing methods were pretty good, and I had never had a problem, but pretty good does not always cut it when a package is lost in bad weather, and there is always room for improvement. Now I really I try to use my head. When I pack something I try to pack in a way that it will be able to survive with no problems even if the package is lost, and I pack it in a way that the delivery guys can play succor with it (if they want to) with no harm being done to the reptile inside the package. I pick up tips from those that have shipped to me with great results, and I also try to learn from the many mistakes that I see others make as well. I also like to check with the customer to find out the temps of the animal when it arrives so that I can make adjustments if necessary in regard to the # of heat packs or cold pack that I should use in the future when shipping to a place with similar temps.

In short, I think that shipping and packing methods are things that we as hobbyists should always try to improve on when ever possible. This is not meant to try to convince you to buy anything from me, it is more to let you and others know that there are people out there that really do put thought into their packing shipping methods. If we all do out best to improve on our own packing and shipping methods, there will be much less apprehension about this aspect of the reptile hobby/business, and that will improve business for everyone. I did not mean for it to sound like a cheap plug or a lecture.

James, I haven't had a problem with anything that has been shipped to me, really. Once a package didn't make it when it was supposed to, showed up the next day, the snake inside was cold, but today she is a sweet little spitfire of a red blood python. Nothing ever came DOA.

After dealing with the USPS on a near daily basis for the past 5 years I've come to appreciate dealing with reptile sellers in person rather than risk the animals health to the shippers. I've seen overnight express take 4-5 days. I know the packages get banged around. I've read negative things about ALL the shipping companies. I've just gotten the attitude that if I can't find it close enough to home to pick it up myself, I just don't need it.

HOWEVER, I may contact you in the future about getting Rosys. I'm picking up 2.0 adult Whitewater Rosys later this week and they will need girls eventually.

As far as buying the animals without seeing them live and in person....I would easily trust your judgement in picking snakes for me. You really seem to care about your snakes and to be very knowledgeable about them....I am just an egg.

I have a question for you! Do you breed locale specific or do you cross your Rosys? (I don't know much about them at all except what I've read recently. There seem to be differing opinions on how many different Rosys there are.) If you cross them what do the babies look like?

I have a lot more reading to do about these snakes, but they really have peaked my interest. I'm greatly looking forward to getting my first ones and then getting more!!!

Your question would require some serious typing on my end. I have local animals, but I have some animals (my different color morphs) that you could call crosses, but that really is a matter of opinion. I will say that many crosses are pretty muddy looking, but I have seen some real beauties as well. Feel free to e-mail (pch101@cox.net) with your # and I can discuss your questions in great detail. If you like you can e-mail me and I can send you my # if you are more comfortable with that..

Beautiful babies, and thanks for the pics of the slugs as well. Don't mean to be morbid, but it is always of interest to see what turns natures can take during such an intricate and delicate process. Congrats on all the healthy ones, though!