| Author | Subject: Karl's Kreatures- Good or Bad? |
| Jenna | Posted At 14:01:43 02/20/2001
I'm thinking about buying a snake there and wanted some feedback first. |
| Steve |
Re: Karl's Kreatures- Good or Bad? (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 17:48:49 02/21/2001 Be careful of the quality you recieve, I'm not saying he's a bad guy but his animals always seem in poor health. |
| Todd |
Re: Karl's Kreatures- Good or Bad? (Currently 0 replies)
Posted At 19:32:52 02/27/2001 Jenna, This is what happened to me when I bought a GTP from Karl at a reptile show, this was quite awhile ago and I had been discussing it with other people to find out what went wrong. Anyway, this is the long version of what happened..... I called Karls Kreatures about what happened and I personally feel that snake was ALREADY AT DEATHS DOOR when I got her, it just wasn't showing. The contradictions over the phone and at the show are incredible and I'll lay out the conversation as accurately as possible so you can see what I mean. At the show Karl said by the shape of the tail she was a female, and seemed about ready to pop the hatchling right there in front of me but I stopped him from doing so, doesn't mean he hadn't done anything to her before hand. He also said she was captive born, the gallon jar she was in was labeled "CB Aru Green Tree Python". While in the jar and when I held her she was very active and alert, no sign that anything was wrong with her at all. I saw nothing wrong with her while at the show. I won't go through with the whole issue of her having mites and refusing to eat because we talked about that while it was happening. If you would like to have me go into more detail please email me and I will. On the phone he started out by saying how excited he was to here how she was doing. Strange, the last email I sent him was that she had died he either forgot or didn't receive it. Karl said that he had just found out that she was Wamena bloodline (not Aru as he had said at the show) from his "friend" in Indonesia that breeds them (from what Karl said this guy is the biggest breeder of GTPs) and exports them to the US. We started talking about the husbandry of the animal and he didn't seem very happy that I had been talking to you and others on the forum instead of him about the trouble I was having with her. Apparently he keeps all his IMPORT hatchlings in gallon jars with about an inch of water on the bottom in a room that has a temperature of 90degrees. He's getting another 100 in a month he said. In my opinion this would bake the animals, the holes in the tops of the jars wouldn't allow for enough ventilation and they would be smothered by the humidity which would probably be too high and the heat would cook them in the jars. Karl also said he was friends with Tracy Barker and that this was how she kept her baby GTPs, Hillary Webb is a friend of Tracy Barker and would probably have a better idea of how Tracy Barker keeps her baby GTPs. For getting rid of mites he said he would put a two inch long by half inch wide piece of NO-Pest strip in a small deli cup and leave it in the cages for a couple of days at a time and that he really didn't like the Pro-vent a Mite spray. The veterinary books that I have say to use one square inch of pest strip three hours a day, 3 days a week, for 3 weeks. Karl also said that he only cleans the cages of his animals ONCE A MONTH, and that he does his own fecal exams to check the animals for internal parasites. Another thing that he said was that "Pandora" was bred right in his own shop in Mass. and that he lost 5 or 6 GTPs before he figured out the proper husbandry for them to be maintained sucessfully. Karl suggested that by assisst feeding her the pinky could have blocked her airway due to swelling caused by decomposition. Karl also said that he would give me another GTP for only $200, which is what he pays for them, he also said he only makes $25 off of each GTP that he sells. Karl also said he breeds his ball pythons at 2years of age, which according to Dave and Tracy Barker is too early and not good for the animals health. As you can see Greg this animal was definately NOT in good condition when I got her. I couldn't believe the contradictions! He found out from his friend in Indonesia that she's Wamena bloodline (very rare to my knowledge) yet she was born in his shop in Mass.? A captive born import, What is that? He doesn't like provent a mite but he'll put no pest strips in for a day or two? Cleans cages once a month? The idea of the pinky cutting off air due to swelling? that would take some time wouldn't it? Besides she had gotten it all the way into her belly. A couple of friends of mine and I have talked about this and feel that she was so active because the mites were driving her crazy, unfortunately I wasn't able to see them before I bought her. At the show NERD, and Regal Reptiles had GTPs that just sat there and didn't move, as a friend of mine put it "They didn't have mites so they were doing what chondros do, sitting around." The no pest strip being left in for so long most likely had poisoned her and having to drink water contaminated with her own urates and feces would also have poisoned her. Being kept at a constant 90% in a gallon jar I'm sure didn't help her well being either. The last thing Karl said to me was that GTP are hard snakes, that sometimes they eat then they stop, off and on again like that, that they're just hard snakes to keep. Karl also offered to let me have another one for $200, the price he pays for them. The way he was talking he obviously thought he was doing me the biggest favor in the world in my opinion, so I didn't bother asking for my money back, I wouldn't have gotten it. On his website is a picture of a baby blood python, in sopping wet mulch, (he uses cypress mulch for substrate) it looks like their's standing water in the bottom of the tank. Like GTP these animals need high humidity but not like that. I'll never buy from him again. As I said before Greg none of the advice, either about husbandry or assist feeding, that you gave me killed this animal. I would like to thank you again for all of your help and support while I had "Pandora". ..........This was some time ago so the website may have been changed since I wrote this but this was my experience with buying from Karl. If you buy from him I hope things go better for you than they did for me. Todd |