Tim Koppenhofer, Special K Reptiles

I had heard bad things about Tim on here and on other forums, but when I met him at the Cleveland Reptile Expo he seemed super nice and kind of sucked me in... So I bought a male Het Anery off of him... Turns out the guy has mites, now he has them even worse because I didnt catch it in time! I am so pissed off at this guy right now for even letting an animal live in this condition, let alone sell it at a show around other animals that can also get the mites! Luckily I kept him separate from my other 3 animals and they are mite free. I tried calling Tim and am getting no response, even left a nice voicemail... I promise that he will never sell another animal at the Cleveland Reptile Expo if he doesnt do something to correct this situation because I will stand in front of his display and tell every single person there about Tim and his animals!

He usually does the White Plains show which is tomorrow so you probably won't be able to get a hold of him till the start of the week.

How exactly do you purchase an animal from an expo and not notice it has mites until "it is too late"?

Because I am still new to reptiles and was lucky that my first 3 boa's didnt have problems, so I never thought to check for anything like that. Now I know differently, lesson learned. But my problem is is that he knows these animals have issues and he brings them to shows anyway which could possibly cause anyone else around him to have their animals also infected.

Originally Posted by Jayson1892

Because I am still new to reptiles and was lucky that my first 3 boa's didnt have problems, so I never thought to check for anything like that. Now I know differently, lesson learned. But my problem is is that he knows these animals have issues and he brings them to shows anyway which could possibly cause anyone else around him to have their animals also infected.

Jason, i keep a bottle of reptile relief on hand and treat EVERY new snake while they are in QT.I dont care if it came from God himself i treat them to prevent problems.I suggest you give it a try it kills the little snots on contact .Sorry you had this happen to you

These are the lessons that shape you for tomorrow.. Betcha $$$$ you never get a snake with mites again my friend!! Lol (kinda, but not really!) It's almost a prerequisite to have something like this happen to you to become un/non naive?? Lol..

Right now I have my guy soaking, plus I have sprayed down his enclosure and everything in it with RID, going to let that stuff sit awhile then wipe it all down and go from there... Just so pissed off because my boa's are like my children.

I suppose that you didn't handle any other reptiles at the show, right?

ha, yeah I did, thats the bad part... So who knows if I unknowingly passed mites along to other breeders.

So, if you didn't see them on the snake at the show...did you, maybe, for just a minute, stop to consider that maybe they didn't originate on that snake? That you might have picked them up by handling other snakes?