bear
Recovering Boa addict
I've been a member of fauna for many years, it's almost unbelievable that I've been addicted to reptile keeping this long when I think about it... But here is my story of why I swore off reptile ownership all together and haven't had anything but my two loyal doggies for the last 5 years or so.
Years ago I had a large and expensive ball python and boa collection. This was in the days of $23,000 Lesser platinum ball pythons (which is exactly what I paid for one of my males.) and $2,000 sunglow boa babies
Needless to say I had sunk a large amount of money in this obsession and was thoroughly enjoying it... Long story short, I got busy. I started a new business and was swamped with being a very young man not even able to purchase alcohol yet but trying to make my own way. I was going through a lot of changes in life and was overwhelmed with the collection I had accrued so I partnered with someone who worked for a major breeder and was very talented with reptile keeping. The deal was he got a 50% stake in a top of the line breeding business with putting out no cash, all he had to do was take care of and breed my animals which was the same thing he did for a large breeder so this should have been no big deal for him. I dropped off all the equipment and animals and felt relief knowing they would be taken care of and I could focus on my personal issues and business.
Long story short I kept in phone contact with my partner for 6 months or so and he would tell me everyone was doing well and on schedule. I should have made time to drop in but I was just being stupid and keeping the situation out of sight and out of mind.
Towards the end of this six months I had a mutual friend tell me "go get your snakes now" I was thrown off and confused. He didn't really want to say anything but that so I got around to getting over there to find my entire collection dead and or dying from basically starvation and filth. I took what was left and rehabbed what I could but all of my expensive ball pythons were dead and gone. It was horrifying and I was embarrassed. Again I just cut my losses, could I have sued him? sure, but he was broke and just had a baby, I knew I would spend a fortune in time and money doing it and would likely never get a dime. Why didn't I post about it? I was mortified and this person doesn't deal in online sales or even local as far as I know, they just worked for a major breeder and kept some things as pets.
This was phase one of the end for me.
In starts phase 2
At this point I had rehabbed and sold what was left of my ball pythons. I still had some boas that I never let that guy raise as boas were my passion and honestly I never liked keeping ball pythons, I just got sucked in to the hype which was to my eventual detriment... I started getting back to my roots and accepted what had happened. I still had love for boas and wanted to reignite my enthusiasm. So in my typical fashion I went and bought some of my dream projects. I purchased some beautiful T+ BWC visuals, some Motley het T+, hypo mot het albino female, some nice sunglows, arabesque het albinos, jungles etc... mostly t+ pattern projects and sunglow pattern projects. All very nice and of excellent quality. I was very happy. with a smaller collection of boas and felt I was in a much better point in life.
-The nail in the coffin-
In the process of building my boa collection I got in contact with someone I had purchased from in the past and been happy with. I knew this person (over the phone) and had many conversations and purchased multiple animals years ago. They had an adult breeding pair of a male sharp sunlgow and a female sharp albino. They were going to sell them for something like $3,500 for the pair (which at the time was a deal.) I agreed and purchased the boas. They arrived with severe URI and mouth rot, one of them couldn't close it's mouth because one side was so swollen and they were bleeding out of their mouths. The male was skinny with spine showing but the female (who had the worse of the mouth issues seemed muscular. I didn't even contact the seller and went straight to the vet. They told me straight up that these boas would likely not make it regardless of treatment. I left the male with the vet to be cared for over a few days, he was on a feeding tube and receiving antibiotics. The female I took home and after they had removed some mouth tissue I had injections to giver her and solution to clean the wounds etc... I attempted to rehab these boas for 6 months or so and they both died anyways. I told the seller when I returned home from the vet and I told him I would not ship them back to him. He partially refunded me I think $1500 which was a scam as these were almost certainly dead snakes, but even if he offered a full refund I would never send these back to this guy.
After this I just couldn't do it anymore, I felt that everyone in this industry was a scum bag and I started hating keeping reptiles. I buried the dead ones and put everything I had for sale (obviously my collection was quarantined from the sick ones.) I got out and had zero reptiles of any kind and felt relieved. I couldn't go to shows, I couldn't look at snakes online, It made me angry to even see old pictures of my snakes and I'm pretty sure I deleted all of them.
I had been burned so many times on such a massive scale I was just absolutely done and my wife and I swore to never own anything but dogs again.
So why the hell am I back?
wellllllllll I said it was an addiction right? I ran across a video on youtube of a tour of Tom Burke's collection, it showed the blood albino and blood sunglow boas. These weren't around to my knowledge back when I was around and people were speculating what they would look like. It was so cool to see all of the new combos that I missed out on all at once. Everything from J stone's lucy boas, blood sunglows, leopard sunglows... and I can't believe how much prices have changed. Anyways I started talking to my wife and showing her some things and she was still in the no reptiles mindset, but she loved to see the spark in my eyes again and just over new years told me to pick out a couple boas and go for it. So just yesterday I paid for my first two boas in years, they will be arriving this weekend and my kids are so excited as my son wasn't old enough to remember my snakes and he loves animals. I actually feel excited again and my wife is excited that I'm excited.
Things I've learned
- I will never buy anything but boas, If I don't WANT to care for them with my own hands I don't like them enough to own them
- I will never buy a boa unless I can honestly say "I don't know if I'll ever see one that nice again"
- I will never buy a boa that is a "steal" and am more likely to purchase from a seller with firm high prices
- I will never have more than 5 pairs of breeders (not including offspring)
- I will never buy an animal if the seller won't send me a picture from that exact day of the snakes head. If you want to charge me $1,000 for a snake and it's a problem to take a close picture of it's head with your phone, then I'd rather pass...
I'm sharing this horrifying tale because first off I need to get this off my chest, I clammed up and didn't discuss it with anyone, I just disappeared. Also, maybe some newer people can learn from the lessons I learned.
The good thing that's come of this is that I am absolutely obsessed with boa care, I know how to care for them well but I re-read the most elementary info and custom built enclosures for my new friends. My boas will be the cleanest, most pampered and monitored snakes on the block and keeping it to 5 amazing pairs will ensure that I will never be overwhelmed or too busy to handle them.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far and please do tell, is the industry these days as messed up as I once thought? Now that there isn't huge money being thrown around, did most of the scum disappear?
Years ago I had a large and expensive ball python and boa collection. This was in the days of $23,000 Lesser platinum ball pythons (which is exactly what I paid for one of my males.) and $2,000 sunglow boa babies
Needless to say I had sunk a large amount of money in this obsession and was thoroughly enjoying it... Long story short, I got busy. I started a new business and was swamped with being a very young man not even able to purchase alcohol yet but trying to make my own way. I was going through a lot of changes in life and was overwhelmed with the collection I had accrued so I partnered with someone who worked for a major breeder and was very talented with reptile keeping. The deal was he got a 50% stake in a top of the line breeding business with putting out no cash, all he had to do was take care of and breed my animals which was the same thing he did for a large breeder so this should have been no big deal for him. I dropped off all the equipment and animals and felt relief knowing they would be taken care of and I could focus on my personal issues and business. Long story short I kept in phone contact with my partner for 6 months or so and he would tell me everyone was doing well and on schedule. I should have made time to drop in but I was just being stupid and keeping the situation out of sight and out of mind.
Towards the end of this six months I had a mutual friend tell me "go get your snakes now" I was thrown off and confused. He didn't really want to say anything but that so I got around to getting over there to find my entire collection dead and or dying from basically starvation and filth. I took what was left and rehabbed what I could but all of my expensive ball pythons were dead and gone. It was horrifying and I was embarrassed. Again I just cut my losses, could I have sued him? sure, but he was broke and just had a baby, I knew I would spend a fortune in time and money doing it and would likely never get a dime. Why didn't I post about it? I was mortified and this person doesn't deal in online sales or even local as far as I know, they just worked for a major breeder and kept some things as pets.
This was phase one of the end for me.
In starts phase 2
At this point I had rehabbed and sold what was left of my ball pythons. I still had some boas that I never let that guy raise as boas were my passion and honestly I never liked keeping ball pythons, I just got sucked in to the hype which was to my eventual detriment... I started getting back to my roots and accepted what had happened. I still had love for boas and wanted to reignite my enthusiasm. So in my typical fashion I went and bought some of my dream projects. I purchased some beautiful T+ BWC visuals, some Motley het T+, hypo mot het albino female, some nice sunglows, arabesque het albinos, jungles etc... mostly t+ pattern projects and sunglow pattern projects. All very nice and of excellent quality. I was very happy. with a smaller collection of boas and felt I was in a much better point in life.
-The nail in the coffin-
In the process of building my boa collection I got in contact with someone I had purchased from in the past and been happy with. I knew this person (over the phone) and had many conversations and purchased multiple animals years ago. They had an adult breeding pair of a male sharp sunlgow and a female sharp albino. They were going to sell them for something like $3,500 for the pair (which at the time was a deal.) I agreed and purchased the boas. They arrived with severe URI and mouth rot, one of them couldn't close it's mouth because one side was so swollen and they were bleeding out of their mouths. The male was skinny with spine showing but the female (who had the worse of the mouth issues seemed muscular. I didn't even contact the seller and went straight to the vet. They told me straight up that these boas would likely not make it regardless of treatment. I left the male with the vet to be cared for over a few days, he was on a feeding tube and receiving antibiotics. The female I took home and after they had removed some mouth tissue I had injections to giver her and solution to clean the wounds etc... I attempted to rehab these boas for 6 months or so and they both died anyways. I told the seller when I returned home from the vet and I told him I would not ship them back to him. He partially refunded me I think $1500 which was a scam as these were almost certainly dead snakes, but even if he offered a full refund I would never send these back to this guy.
After this I just couldn't do it anymore, I felt that everyone in this industry was a scum bag and I started hating keeping reptiles. I buried the dead ones and put everything I had for sale (obviously my collection was quarantined from the sick ones.) I got out and had zero reptiles of any kind and felt relieved. I couldn't go to shows, I couldn't look at snakes online, It made me angry to even see old pictures of my snakes and I'm pretty sure I deleted all of them.
I had been burned so many times on such a massive scale I was just absolutely done and my wife and I swore to never own anything but dogs again.
So why the hell am I back?
wellllllllll I said it was an addiction right? I ran across a video on youtube of a tour of Tom Burke's collection, it showed the blood albino and blood sunglow boas. These weren't around to my knowledge back when I was around and people were speculating what they would look like. It was so cool to see all of the new combos that I missed out on all at once. Everything from J stone's lucy boas, blood sunglows, leopard sunglows... and I can't believe how much prices have changed. Anyways I started talking to my wife and showing her some things and she was still in the no reptiles mindset, but she loved to see the spark in my eyes again and just over new years told me to pick out a couple boas and go for it. So just yesterday I paid for my first two boas in years, they will be arriving this weekend and my kids are so excited as my son wasn't old enough to remember my snakes and he loves animals. I actually feel excited again and my wife is excited that I'm excited.
Things I've learned
- I will never buy anything but boas, If I don't WANT to care for them with my own hands I don't like them enough to own them
- I will never buy a boa unless I can honestly say "I don't know if I'll ever see one that nice again"
- I will never buy a boa that is a "steal" and am more likely to purchase from a seller with firm high prices
- I will never have more than 5 pairs of breeders (not including offspring)
- I will never buy an animal if the seller won't send me a picture from that exact day of the snakes head. If you want to charge me $1,000 for a snake and it's a problem to take a close picture of it's head with your phone, then I'd rather pass...
I'm sharing this horrifying tale because first off I need to get this off my chest, I clammed up and didn't discuss it with anyone, I just disappeared. Also, maybe some newer people can learn from the lessons I learned.
The good thing that's come of this is that I am absolutely obsessed with boa care, I know how to care for them well but I re-read the most elementary info and custom built enclosures for my new friends. My boas will be the cleanest, most pampered and monitored snakes on the block and keeping it to 5 amazing pairs will ensure that I will never be overwhelmed or too busy to handle them.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far and please do tell, is the industry these days as messed up as I once thought? Now that there isn't huge money being thrown around, did most of the scum disappear?
