Parasites and Nervous System Disorders Barcreptiles.com VERY UNHAPPY

A few months ago i purchased over 12 snakes from Barcreptiles.com which is owned and operated by Ray Torres and Christine Fletcher in Rotunda Florida.

I spent quite a bit of money because I didn't know no better. The guy was very professional and charismatic. Even showed up to the house wearing a nurses outfit. He showed me what I was intrested in and after talking with him and him giving me a few pointers on current reptiles I already had I bought the first set of snakes which were female ball pythons (regulars).

Well for one he normally charges (so he said) 25-45 for males and 75+ for females. so I bought a few baby females thinking they were indeed real females. He even probed them in front of me....Which later after all this I found out were all Males.

OK, so second dealing i bought some baby Female bermeses (regulars) and some baby Red Tail Females (Regulars not Surinam's), and also a large Female Suriname. I know I didn't spell that right sorry..

Third and last dealing i bought a albino Burmese male baby and a albino patternless female baby. Well he left and a day later i saw little black spots starting to show up on the albinos and they were moving. so we looked up treatments and found they had mites. so at that point i was trying to figure out where they got them from.

well, because he told me there was no issue with his snakes as baby's of course i didn't quarantine them from his other baby's he sold me. anyways, after treatments (non pesticide) and disinfecting the area. we split everyone of the baby's up to make sure the mites were gone.

One of the Red Tail Baby's dies. I froze her. Told BarcReptiles and he said that he will give me a replacement. Take in mind that he lives only 4 miles away from me but I didn't know exactly where. So there is no excuse for him not to return my calls and not bring me a replacement within 2 weeks...

OK, nothing happens. Then one of the Baby Burmese Normals dies. I froze her and called again. this time he answers and tells me that its the food or the environment. Funny thing is, he turned me onto the rat breeder and he still bought from the guy at that time. So why say its food related.

So, he tells me that he will come by and check things out and we will negotiate something. Never shows.

Now I was wearing thin. So i take the frozen snakes to a person referred to me to do a necropsy (basically a dissection). So she opens the berm up and finds its system clogged up by mites and the Red tail. The same.She tells me that they had been in there for quite some time and that there was a spread infection.

So at this point we new all his baby's had been exposed to mites at one point. Luckily they were never anywhere near the rest of our collection at any point ever or .

Now after hand feeding,Hand hydrating, watching convulsions, flushing, herp specialists visits, lots and lots of time out of work to try to keep these guys alive, blood draws, crying ALOT, Emails to Barc. Calls to Barc. Nothing but me left with 6 dead babys.... Last one, my patternless dieing in my hand this morning.

All this does is make me sick, and I hope it makes other people in the herp trade sick as well. this is why some people are scared to buy again from breeders. your so worried.

He has adds everywhere but as long as he pays they run them. Even on this site. Its not the sites fault. I'm just hear to warn people.

I wish that fellow breeders will see him for what he is when he is at shows as one of those guys that can make confidence drop in the herp community.

I know it happens. people talk about it all the time on here. thank god for the BOI.

Thanks for hearing me out. Its been sad. Not so much about the money but the time and caring for them after bonding with the little girls. I am just a hobbyist but we love what we have and wish to expand more. This is just a sick situation.

Lisa Roy
Lisamietz@yahoo.com

God Bless

Hmmmm, I have a sneaking suspicion.....does Ray's Reptilia sound familiar?

Sorry to hear of your porblems, Lisa....have you done a BOI search on "Ray Torres"?

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ghlight=Torres

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ghlight=Torres

No. really i just wanted to get this out of my system. i know there is pretty much nothing that can be done but he does attend shows or so the pictures show on his website. and maybe people will try to at least heed my warning and not make the same dreadful mistake i did.

People can do whatever they want. Its only my personal situation with him and his outfit. I just wish he would make it right, but at this point I would be afraid of anything I got from him.

I understand, Lisa, and as I said, I am truly sorry for what you went through.

The point I was trying to make, however, is that had you done a BOI search on Ray Torres before making any of these purchases, you may not have had to go through any of it, as others have posted warnings about him as well...

I just really wish folks would use the BOI before making purchases instead of only after things go wrong.

Originally Posted by lisamietz

So i take the frozen snakes to a person referred to me to do a necropsy (basically a dissection). So she opens the berm up and finds its system clogged up by mites and the Red tail. The same.She tells me that they had been in there for quite some time and that there was a spread infection.

Am I reading that completely wrong or are you saying there were mites... inside the snakes?

Originally Posted by Seamus Haley

Am I reading that completely wrong or are you saying there were mites... inside the snakes?

Eh, I didn't catch that Seamus...good question!

Mites are an external parasite, if their system was "clogged up", it must have been something else?

ray torres is yet ANOTHER well known lair and thief.

It is doubtful that he will do anything for you. He has a history of doing exactly what he is doing now.

I too was confused by your explanation of your vet report. Could you post a copy of it please?

thanks

Ditto to what everyone else is asking.

I've never heard of snakes ingesting mites and since they are an external parasite, I am a bit confused on how a snake could have a belly full of them.

i should have been a bit more exact. i can scan a vet report that is not a issue. what was stated is the animals had mites on the exterior of the animal but there was also a paracidic infection inside the animal as well. i should have been more clear but unfortunately i was typing a bit fast. sometimes its good to slow down when you are upset.

as far as the question of why i didn't not look up ray torres on the boi is because i did not know of this site until recently. Kathy love recommended me to post on here as to my dealings with Mr. torres and check the boi before dealing with anyone else in the community.