BEWARE OF RANDY MCDOWELL.. AKA THE SNAK SHOP. LAS VEGAS NAVADA

I'm not quite sure if it's relevant here, when the matter seems taken care of, but I had a similar experience with The Snake Shop. Everything's handled now (I am NOT making a complaint; I am merely recounting my experience with the store), but the experience made me very wary of any online store, as this was the -first- online herp purchase I had ever made. I've only made two more since, both from here. Lesson learned.

I had purchased two male juvenile ATB's, both garden phases, for $100 from the shop. It was January, and I was unsure whether or not the temps would allow for safe shipping, but I was assured that, despite temps in Texas being below 40 F, they would be all right. They arrived promptly, ice cold and four feet long. (Which, in retrospect, I find it odd that animals that are so dependent on humidity were shipped in a box with nothing around them but a pillow case.) Now, I had never kept an ATB before, but few "juveniles" get that big. One seemed healthy enough, even with a kink in his spine near the vent. The other was less so, skinny even by ATB standards; I could count ribs easily. I informed the owner of this, and he once again assured me that they were fine. The vet checked them and whatnot-- that song.

I attempted to feed them, which they both refused, the day after they arrived. He told me that this was normal, and that they're very easily stressed-- which I don't doubt in the slightest. But his advice was all to "raise the humidity, everything should fix itself", so I waited. On the sixth day of him in my care, I came down to spray them when the smaller one had partially collapsed out of his limb, head upside-down on the substrate.

I called a herp rescuer, who makes a living out of recuperating sickly herps, and we tried to help him. Sub-que fluids and tube-feeding only worked for about twenty minutes before he finally succumbed. Upon post-mortem examination, she saw a very acute infection of mouth rot, much like Jrod found on his GTP. We checked the other, healthier one, who also had mouth rot.

In tears, minutes after literally watching my ATB die in my hands, I called the shop, where I was, admittedly, very terse. I told him -as best I could- what had happened and I was promptly scolded for force-feeding him. That these animals are very easily stressed and susceptible to its effects. When countered that it was a last-resort effort to save him, he assured me that he knew his stuff because he's a herpetologist.

Which, I'm going to say here, a herpetologist is NOT a veterinarian.

After some more debating, Randy offered me a replacement, but I declined, saying I just wanted my money back. He obliged, paying back for both ATB's. I got the money pretty quickly. I felt that this was a kinder gesture, but the other ATB racketed about $100 in vet bills. Thankfully, he survived and is doing well with a new owner who specializes in ATB's.

Again, I'm just recounting the experience. None of the animals I purchase are merely notches in the collection. Each of them are my pets, and are always named once purchased. It meant a lot to me to get the ATB's in, and then hurt substantially when I watched, helpless and confused, as one of them died in front of my eyes. Randy did right by refunding my money, but that situation shouldn't have happened in the first place. The mouth rot had to have been there for at least a month or two for an animal to die a mere SIX DAYS after shipping.

Also, I was wondering, since it seems quite a while since this whole debockle-- how is your replacement doing, Jrod?

I must say that after reading all of this post, I am curious as well as to how your GTP is doing.
The one thing that i am noticing on most forums (i'm new here but not to the hobby) is people calling themselves herpetologist !!!!
Unless they have a university degree in that field all these people should be saying is they have experience with herps.
very few universities offer that field and most people into it specialize in a certain area.. not many real herpetologist.then even the vets, they all have a section that includes herps, but by far, ubnless they had the herp specialty course, they should at least get into contact with colegues who do, in order to give a proper diagnosis.. but this is a complete other subject sorry for side tracking..

hope the new GTP is doing great..

Hi guys sorry for the late reply.. I of course just wanted a refund.. What I got was a half refund and a replacement.. The replacement was not an Aru however I wasn't going to wait for ever till I was forgotten so I took a CB female biak which this time was clear to be a CB as the other two were said CB but the one surely was not..
To answer the question the female replacement was in great health and is still is and hope
to breed next year.. Susan Lewis was the one that really help me.. With the partial refund Followed by Josh with the replacement.. Susan Lewis quit The Snake Shop after the partial refund so that is why I took what they would give me the fastest for a replacement as I was unsure if they would follow through after Susan was gone. Thanks for checking up on the replacement guys.

What a horrible mouth infection looks like cottage cheese.hope it works out for you.

Green tree pythons are a very tricky species. Arus are consistently illegally collected from the wild (it is against indonesian law to collect green tree pythons), and marketed as farmed.

There are no green tree python farms except for one, that captive breeds their animals.

All adults, sub-adults, large juveniles, etc. are illegally collected.

The parasite burden in these animals is intense and can include every genera of helminth, including pentastomids for which there is no cure.

This is excluding viruses, for which most are not known.

Your post is old, last year, but the wild caught aru and biak suffered a fate that is typical for this species. Have to work fast and pull out all tools for them to make it. Some are too far gone. The biak appeared to be septic.

Google:
adenovirus smuggled green python

pentastomid

green tree python parasites

Captive bred and born chondros from a reputable breeder avoids all of this. And prices have dropped to the 400 range for most types of regular green tree python.

They are out of business. Back in April of this year.