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Inquiry Underground Reptiles...

A

AfrocskNeedsLoveToo

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I recently purchased a male het piebald from them. He was in shed when I got him and he was stunning. However, after he shed about 4 days later, he would not eat. To date, he still won't eat for me, I've had to force feed. This has been about 3 months going on. Plus, I got him professionally sexed and was told 'he' was a definite female. Which was exciting to me about how much of a steal I just got a female het pied. But, now I'm worried that she might not even be a het pied. I've tried multiple ways to get a hold of him, mostly about the feeding issue, to no avail. I'm wary about doing business with him again... Does anyone else have similar stories?
 
I personally have never purchased anything from them, but I dont know... something just always seemed fishy to me about them.. I don't know what, but something always was..
 
Personally, I do not feel you can hold them responsible for the non-feeding. I have had several ball pythons that, even after being in my care for months and moving to a new home, have kicked off food for months. It is incredibly common in ball pythons. The incorrect sex, however, would be an error on their end, and should be corrected.
On a separate note, if I do not know the breeder personally, I get genetics papers so if the animal does not prove out, you have more proof than your word versus theirs that it was purchased as a genetics guaranteed animal.
 
JSchup said:
On a separate note, if I do not know the breeder personally, I get genetics papers so if the animal does not prove out, you have more proof than your word versus theirs that it was purchased as a genetics guaranteed animal.
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+1 for that. definitely always get papers with hets. if they don't have papers most reputable breeders will just list them as normals and take the loss no matter how certain they are.

i've worked with a normber a snakes and BP's are definitely the most common problem feeders of them all but ive yet to see one that wont ever eat. i've taken in, or "rescued" snakes that hadn't eaten for months and they would eat within a day or two of being in my care. however i have sold several snakes and been contacted soon after saying they wouldn't eat even though they never missed a meal in my care. i think the deal is the change in husbandry, plus learning the snakes feeding habits. some snakes will only eat live. some snakes only take gerbils or ASF's, some snakes will only feed in the dark. just make sure your temps are all correct. make sure they have access to water and try feeding it after the lights are out and give it some alone time. 99% of the time this works for me.
 
Have you tried different feeding tricks to get him to eat. While it could have just gone off feeding after being transported it could also be that you may not being feeding the same style of food. ft/pk what have you and also just the way you feed it. Unless of course you asked them prior to buying the snake and told you what and how they were feeding. I have to agree with always requesting paperwork it is a good idea for future reference. Hopefully you can get ahold of them and get the feeding figured out but ball pythons are so inconsistant when eatings you may just need to give it time.
 
I know now that I should request paperwork, (this was my first time buying a het ball, usually the het burms I get do come with paperwork so at the time it didn't pop into my head.) As for the feeding thing, I've tried everything. Live pinky, fuzzy, rat pup, hopper, frozen as well. In a paper bag, over night, in a cup, with his tank wrapped up in newspaper, anything. He's in a 10 gallon with a monitored heat ceramic bulb with a hide box and everything in text-book conditions. Although, she does seem to have gotten better. I used to have to force it all the way down, now all I have to do is at least put the head in her mouth and she takes it from there.
 
I've tried calling and e-mails.

Also, I didn't personally buy her. My breeding partner Ash Reasor bought it, but it stays at my house and I'm the care taker, lol. The ball doesn't seem to be losing any weight so I'm not terribly worried about it. I'm just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences with them.
 
How long did you have the snake before force feeding? That should really only be done as a last resort. Going off food for a few months isn't uncommon for some ball pythons, especially if something in their environment isn't quite right. If it's not losing weight, you shouldn't panic. If the snake was a healthy weight when you got her, you need to consider that the problem might be the environment.

Ball pythons don't feel secure in aquariums, generally. They really aren't the best for the snake, even though we might like them because we can see them more. If you want to give her a less stressful environment to settle in with, I would switch to a rubbermaid or sterlite tub that's on the smaller size for her, and keep it out of bright light and high traffic areas. Once she's eating better, you may be able to keep her out in something like the set up you have now.
 
Since she's so young I waited a month before forcing. I tried to offer her food every 3-5 days. She was in a rubbermaid until I got her to take the food easier. I'm not so upset about the feeding, she's a healthy weight as of right now, nor am I upset about getting a supposedly het pied female for the price of a male. I'm just concerned now that she may not be what they said she is.
 
AfrocskNeedsLoveToo said:
I know now that I should request paperwork, (this was my first time buying a het ball, usually the het burms I get do come with paperwork so at the time it didn't pop into my head.) As for the feeding thing, I've tried everything. Live pinky, fuzzy, rat pup, hopper, frozen as well. In a paper bag, over night, in a cup, with his tank wrapped up in newspaper, anything. He's in a 10 gallon with a monitored heat ceramic bulb with a hide box and everything in text-book conditions. Although, she does seem to have gotten better. I used to have to force it all the way down, now all I have to do is at least put the head in her mouth and she takes it from there.
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Let me start by saying that I am currently writing from my home, so I will have to check into who bought the snake and what snake was actually purchased. As far as unreturned emails or calls, I really do find that odd. Anyone who has ever asked for guarantees on het. animals has always been given one, and I nor any of the staff certainly would not have shunned someone who was just seeking info on a ball pythons feeding. To date we only have two ball python breeders that we purchase pieds and het pieds from. One is a close friend we absolutely trust and have worked with for many years and the other is Kurt Decker, also a good friend. I am pretty sure I still have an add up for his ringer poss. het albino babies. In any case as I mentioned before I will look into this matter in the morning. In the meantime if the person who started this thread could help by providing receipts, email correspondence, or anything of the like, it would help narrow down our search a little more.
 
Samantha,

If you could also provide me with the email address you emailed us from I can also check our junk mail folder to see if it got tossed in their. Even providing your friends email address so I can see if we had any communication with him concerning a snake. Lastly the biggest help would be if you could tell me what form of payment your friend used to purchase the snake. That would help narrow things down tremendously. if you don't want to share that info publicly you can pm it to me. Thanks.

Ryan Borkan
 
AfrocskNeedsLoveToo said:
I've tried calling and e-mails.

Also, I didn't personally buy her. My breeding partner Ash Reasor bought it, but it stays at my house and I'm the care taker, lol. The ball doesn't seem to be losing any weight so I'm not terribly worried about it. I'm just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences with them.
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IMHO this may sound rude some may even take it as disrespect
( Not intended that way but cant please everyone )
The statement in bold IMO make's this thread third party info as it clearly state's I didn't personally buy her. with that being said yes, I can see how and why your trying to get this situation revolved but since your breeding partner bought her wouldn't it make more sense to have the partner try and contact them to get this settled?

I've ordered twice from Ryan and each time I was more than pleased not only with the way he handle's things or his customer service skill but the animals he offer's as well...
 
I understand that, but she can't have snakes at her house. I am the one who's been taking care of the ball for her, among with other snake's she's bought, but since this is our first big het purchase, I'm the one who wants to really get things straight. It's not a huge deal, we both have the same concern.
 
Cp3_Pythons said:
IMHO this may sound rude some may even take it as disrespect
( Not intended that way but cant please everyone )
The statement in bold IMO make's this thread third party info as it clearly state's I didn't personally buy her. with that being said yes, I can see how and why your trying to get this situation revolved but since your breeding partner bought her wouldn't it make more sense to have the partner try and contact them to get this settled?

I've ordered twice from Ryan and each time I was more than pleased not only with the way he handle's things or his customer service skill but the animals he offer's as well...
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I think really since it is in her care and she is the one having troubles with it that it is easier for her to be the one trying to figure it out. While it would help to have the buyer helping figure it out. They may just not have a good enough understanding whats going on since it is not in their care. I think if someone buys you an animal to care for then even if you weren't the one to make the purchase the burdan still falls on you when things aren't going as planned. I dont see a problem with it so long as the OP can procure all of the info that the seller needs to track down the sale then it is not a majure issue IMO. Hopefully you two can get this all worked out. I would like to give props to both partys. One for the OP for not attacking or going off and instantly making a bad guy thread. And for the sellers timely response here and their effort to try and both of them seemingly working to resolve this in a friendly manner.
 
Revolution1221 said:
I think really since it is in her care and she is the one having troubles with it that it is easier for her to be the one trying to figure it out. While it would help to have the buyer helping figure it out. They may just not have a good enough understanding whats going on since it is not in their care. I think if someone buys you an animal to care for then even if you weren't the one to make the purchase the burdan still falls on you when things aren't going as planned. I dont see a problem with it so long as the OP can procure all of the info that the seller needs to track down the sale then it is not a majure issue IMO. Hopefully you two can get this all worked out. I would like to give props to both partys. One for the OP for not attacking or going off and instantly making a bad guy thread. And for the sellers timely response here and their effort to try and both of them seemingly working to resolve this in a friendly manner.
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If thats the case say I get an animal from a friend it's spose to be a female het whatever. The friend says I got it from SO_SO. I breed it it doesn't prove out Or I sex it and it's a male I can call email phone SO_SO to get the animal in question replaced or a refund?? Even If Im not the origanal buyer??

IMO maybe The reason for the no return of phone call's or emails may be becuase there's no record on file of Ryan selling the animal in question to the O.P??

Question for the O.P how long after having the animal did you/ your partner sex the animal to see if it's male or female??

I do give prop's to Ryan the way he's handling this. Just goes to prove my previous statement on him
 
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