James Mulford @ jta pets-Bad guy

About a month and a half ago I ordered 3 LTC (5 months) adult ball pythons from him. I asked him to make sure he put heat packs in. He said he would, and said that the $40 shipping included winter packing. Now keep in mind that the temperatures in Wisconsin were about 10-15 degrees. So he shipped them and they arrived the next day. When I opened it up and took thje snake out of the first bag. It wasn't even moving, it couldn't breathe, and couldn't upright itself, and felt very mushy. Then I opened the second bag. IT WAS THE SAME AS THE FIRST-DEAD. The third one was the same. I looked in the box, and noticed that THERE WS NO HEAT PACK, no insulated box, nothing to control the heat. I really thought that the snakes were dead, so I called him and told him about, and he said that I could send them back and get three new snakes. I warmed the other ones up, and after about three hours they were staring to show signs of life. I waited till the next morning and they were all alive, but still, it must have been ALOT of stress to them being so cold. I waited  a week and tried to feed them. Supposedly they had been eating great on live mice and rats. I put a live mouse in-nothing. Rat?-nothing. Niether of them ate. I waited another week and tried a f/t rat and mouse-nothing. I kept trying to feed them once a week but none have showed even a little interest. When I ordered he told me that there was a 100%satisfaction garauntee, but now he just tells me "try gerbils, otherwise I don't know what to say"
And for those of you who say "well $120 isn't much to lose" it is for me. I am 14 years old, and if I want snakes I have to sell a different snake to get money.
So anyway, I wouldn't order from him if I were you.
Thanx for listening

Philip,

I agree with you, he should have sent the snakes in a styro box with heat packs. I can't believe why people don't do it. probably they don't know where to purchase them. I usually buy them for $.90 a piece! As for the feeding issue it could very well be they never ate. In "my book", a 5 month ball python in captivity is not a LTC. Ball pythons are really unpredictable they can be the best of feeders one month and a couple of weeks later decide not to eat any more. What has happened to me in general though is that after even a short "cooling period" such as a shipping trip they will start feeding again. It seems yours are WC. With regards to the ones in my collection I have some that have never touched a mouse in his life but are crazy about gerbils and small hamsters.

Good luck!

Daniel

well that is a poor way to prtray his buiness name  to ship to your reagion and or any region in colder months w/ no insulated box or heat packs. and that age i agree there not LTC  there just over a normal quarintine age and being that young balls can be very very picky eaters to deal with . Now i have one other  question . you say you are 14 ? please dont take  this wrong im in noway coming down on you just would like to know if this guy knew your age ? and if he did did he make phone contact with you after knowing this to speak with your parents on the deal? i am pretty sure in all 50 us states  what he did could result in him oweing you a full refund  on everything no matter what he would want to do as at he age of 14 esp you by law could not be held to that purchase as you are not of age . What im saying is if he didnt make contact with your parents he did the deal totally wrong to start with on top of the other problems. so that in itself would be very suspect in my book that a person would knowingly sale you a 14 year old snakes  w/o having spoken with your parents as thats just bad buisness period on his end from the start. I surely hope that they will comearound for you and eat  if not i would definately seek repercussions on this deal. just my .02

OMG. I meant James MULFORD. James Dixon is very good. I have sold him snakes before and he was very honest and good. I can't believe that I did this. If you are going to buy from james Dixon, do it. He is a good guy. James MULFORD is the bad guy. James Dixon I am very, very sorry for the mixup.

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I edited the topic line to show James Mulford instead of James Dixon.

WebSlave
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Oh yeah, the snakes I got from JAMES MULFORD also had mites and ticks. They shouldn't be on a winter fasting period, because he told me that they ate only a few days before shipping, and again before that. He didn't know my age, but we did talk on the phone before he sent them, and he may have been able to tell that I was not over 18 on the phone.
Once again I would like to say sorry to a good guy-James Dixon. To clear this up the "Bad guy" James Mulford- is located in FLORIDA, and had me make the money order out to TABITHA MULFORD.
Thanks for your posts

I see James and Tabitha Mulford are still at it, it seems.

They screwed me over with some snake bags I contracted them to make for me in the Spring of 2001. spam_I prepaid for them, since they sounded like they were in financial straits, but they only sent me half of them after several phone calls and MANY emails. spam_The rest of the bags never showed up, and none of my later emails were responded to.

The contact information I have on them is:

James & Tabitha Mulford
2734 Carolina ave
Lakeland,Fla 33803

Home(863)-680-3496
Cell(863)-640-4565
Creepy Crawly Pets
creepycrawlypets@yahoo.com

Thanks Rich!!!

Well, you know what? None of them would eat a live gerbil. They just get scared by it. Any ideas?

Phillip,


Make sure they have an adequate hiding spot (cereal box for example). It is important that the box is small enough so most of the body of the python touches the inside of the box. That will make them feel more secure. Leave them alone for a couple of weeks. Then try again with smaller prey (a fuzzy rat for example). Feed at night and leave the rat for a couple of hours (never an adult rat! Just a fuzzy&#33<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>. Repeat every 10 to 15 days. Make sure that at least part of your enclosure has a spot between 85-90 F. Very important, do not handle the ball pythons until they have eaten at least 2-3 times.

Good luck! &nbsp;<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Please! &nbsp;The BOI is not intended to be used to discuss feeding habits or husbandry of the animals. &nbsp;If you want to discuss such things, please take it to the General Discussion board where it is more appropriate.

Thanks.