Bad Guy Off the ark exotic pets

I wanted to write a quick review of 'Off The Ark Exotic Pets'. I recently purchased a Common Boa (BCI) from www.offthearkexoticpets.com upon receipt of the animal I was alarmed by the packaging. The package had NO air holes at all and was taped at all seems. I opened the box and there was some hand cut Styrofoam which was no big deal to me being hand cut. I opened the top and found a small wad of newspaper on top. I then removed it and there was a tube sock tied in a knot. The sock was clean at least. I removed the snake from the sock and placed it in my quarantine tank and let it be.

Now comes the fun part.

After 1 day I noticed the snake sitting in the water dish constantly. I then removed the snake and low and behold these wonderful people gave me some free snake mites. I rushed out to the store and then bought Nix and mixed it 1 part nix 68 parts water at the suggestion of someone online that I had read an article of. This killed all the mites but I ended up treating all my snakes because I wanted to be on the safe side.

After I contacted them and asked if the snake was WC they told me no. That the mites must have gotten on it from other WC snakes brought into the facility. They basically said sorry that was our fault and offered no kind of compensation for it. I thought the least they could do is send me some free mite meds since it was their fault I had to treat all my snakes. So basically do not buy from these guys unless you want some snake mites.

Now as for the nix treatment I cannot say enough good stuff about it. using it with a little common sense (not saturating your snake in full concentration.) works wonders at erraticating these things. The good thing is it is the only medication on the market that will kill both mites and eggs. Within an hour after treating the snake she was out of the water dish and has not soaked in it at all. She is still under quarintine and will be sprayed down again in a few days. Also when spraying your snake you don't have to avoid getting it on the face and will kill all the mites on the face when you spray it on. The snakes don't seem to be bothered by it and it works on both adult and baby snakes. Today dead mites are falling off of here but there is no movement among them so they seem to be all dead.

Anyhow thanks for reading this and I hope I save some of you a lot of trouble. cause this took about 2 hrs to treat only 7 snakes.

Shipping boxes aren't airtight, holes aren't necessary.

The Nix may have worked, but it's not approved nor professionally tested for use in reptiles.

My .02

I thought everyone knew not to use the chemical crap you buy at Wal-Mart to treat your reptiles.
Huh, that's what I get for thinking I guess.

Oh and to know that he sprayed this directly on it's face makes my cringe.

I have purchased a few snakes and monitors from Off The Ark. Vinny and Ryan are very helpful and informative. I was in their facility once, and liked it very much.

Mites are unfortunately part of the business. If you have never experienced mites, its something you will have to weather and get under your belt. I am sure Vinny did not give you a snake that had mites on purpose. He travels to shows on the weekends, so it was quite possible for someone to handle that snake you purchased that had mites on their hands.

I've been shipped in the dead of winter to Northern NY from Vinny and not had any problems with his packaging.

Im sorry you had a bad experience with your shipping, but realistically he is not responsible to cover your treatment of the snake for mites. Every snake your purchase should be treated for mites regaurdless with every purchase.

Also a quick reminder, check up on your snakes after 10-14 days. The mites egg cycle is 14 days, so be thourough with your follow up to make sure no eggs had a chance to hatch.

Heather82 said:

I thought everyone knew not to use the chemical crap you buy at Wal-Mart to treat your reptiles.
Huh, that's what I get for thinking I guess.

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Just want to throw in that i've been using nix for years and have never had any problems with nix, or with spraying it directly on my snakes. I've also seen many big name breeders recommend it as an effective mite treatment.

Mike Schultz said:

Just want to throw in that i've been using nix for years and have never had any problems with nix, or with spraying it directly on my snakes. I've also seen many big name breeders recommend it as an effective mite treatment.

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I agree. I think Heather needs to do a bit of research.

evilcowboy420 said:

I wanted to write a quick review of 'Off The Ark Exotic Pets'. I recently purchased a Common Boa (BCI) from www.offthearkexoticpets.com upon receipt of the animal I was alarmed by the packaging. The package had NO air holes at all and was taped at all seems. I opened the box and there was some hand cut Styrofoam which was no big deal to me being hand cut. I opened the top and found a small wad of newspaper on top. I then removed it and there was a tube sock tied in a knot. The sock was clean at least.

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Is this the first reptile you've had shipped, or just the first one that was packaged properly? While a tube sock would not be my item of choice, the animal was contained in a "bag" and not roaming the box. As you said though, at least it was clean

The mites situation does suck, but it happens. IMO proper business etiquette would have been to reimburse you for the cost of the treatment along with an apology, but you at least go the apology. I would be disappointed, but I don't think this warrants a bad guy title since mites can hit even the best of breeders. Did you ask them to refund you anything for the hassle, or are you just upset that they didn't offer it?

I did not ask them to refund anything. This is a practice even low-end stores use to keep customers happy. Since I wasn't irate or being belligerent I would assume the cost of the mite treatment would have been the first thing that popped into mind.

The guy was nice but I often think that this may have never happened if he didn't import WC specimens into his facility. Personally I just didn't like throwing away all my hides that were made from stuff that was porous just to make sure I didn't still have them.

Also let me be clear about the packaging. The newspaper was NOT enough to keep the animal from sliding around in shipment. It was simply one page wadded up and placed on top of the sock. There was NOT a note saying 'fragile, or perishable or live reptile' at all. There was NO this side up note on the box so it was handled properly and not turned upside down. Unless from what I have been reading about shaking a snake up is incorrect at saying they get stressed easily.

Now for Heather who apparently can't use google about the nix solution. I got it off Jay of PJCReptiles which can be found at http://myvivariums.com/2009/02/home-made-mite-remedy/ So until someone can prove that this method is not correct I will continue to use it. And I will spray it on their face since this guy obviously knows a lot more about keeping reptiles healthy and happy. Further more using the solution in full strength would kill a snake which is why common sense should tell you to dilute it. This method kills eggs and only has to be done 2 more times just to make sure. Also if nix is FDA approved for use on CHILDREN 2 months of age and older I would assume that it is a very mild formula. It may just be me but if my kids get lice I am gonna use nix to kill them. Must be me being a bad parent using "Chemicals from Wal-Mart". Oh and I bought it from Price chopper to clarify. Doing this solution 3 times in a 3 week period is way better than spraying down your animal with comercial mite treatment that only kills adult mites for 2 weeks everyday. So basically if you are using commercial mite treatment (which is a Chemical by the way) then you are spraying your snakes with chemicals waaaaaaaay more than me.

I don't think mites originate from wild caught snakes. I think it's more of a snakes in captivity issue.

KelliH said:

I don't think mites originate from wild caught snakes. I think it's more of a snakes in captivity issue.

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Good point! The guy was probably thinking of ticks.

Am I seeing things? Is everyone just blowing off receiving a snake with mites as "something that happens"? Mites just don't happen. Sending someone a snake with mites is inexcusable. Nevermind the fact that the snakes were in a freakin tube sock.

As far as Nix, I personally would NEVER recommend homebrew to anyone who doesn't have the experience to use it properly. It is NOT tested for use on reptiles and in the wrong hand s can be lethal. Have I used homebrew? Yes. Years ago I was sent animals with mites and didn't have anything on hand. I did what I had to. Now I always have a can of Provent A Mite in my place, just in case I need it. PAM is the only mite remedy approved for use with reptiles. It's also the only one that I would recommend to somebody who has no idea what they are doing.

I've personally heard more bad about Off the Ark than good so I wouldn't even consider a purchase from them.

Thats what I thought that getting a snake with mites on it that was suppose to be captive bred is a no no. Now I would never return a snake that has mites simply because I feel that it would be going back into a bad situation.

The homebrew stuff was something I used because there aren't many pet stores open at 12 midnight. The only place was a grocery store so I grabbed what I could. I don't have a car so I had to bike about 5 miles to get it which is what may have irritated me more than most people.

The main thing that ticked me off about the whole thing was having an animal with a parasite come into my house. If anyone would say they wouldn't be upset at receiving a package containing mites then they are either lying or they simply don't care. I personally believe if a large corporation like Bigappleherp can send a clean animal there is NO excuse for a private collector to not have clean animals. Mites can kill a snake and for it to be on a neonate is appalling and it can kill them faster. I guess I would have understood it more if it had been a WC adult and even then it is not excusable not to treat your snakes before shipping them. The guy I talked to said he had the mite meds at the store. Is it too much to ask for him to actually use the freakin product. Oh yeah Brian from the store also told me if I wanted to I could purchase the mite stuff and they sell it there. Basically the way it looked to me was here is a unclean snake we shipped to you for X number of dollars now after you discover the mites have spread through your collection then pay us more money to get the meds to eradicate them. This is a store that looks at it more as Quantity over Quality. Maybe for the people who says its not a big deal can go to McDonald's and order a burger with some hair on it and then it be up to them to detect and remove the hair. After all its not that big of a deal right?

Heather82 said:

I thought everyone knew not to use the chemical crap you buy at Wal-Mart to treat your reptiles.
Huh, that's what I get for thinking I guess.

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Actually i thought the same until i took a bottle of provent a mite to wal-mart and low and behold they sell the same product everything is identical!It is sold as a lice killer!Made by EQUATE

SSmith said:

Actually i thought the same until i took a bottle of provent a mite to wal-mart and low and behold they sell the same product everything is identical!It is sold as a lice killer!Made by EQUATE

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This is completely false. Provent A Mite is a patented formulation so it would be impossible for Equate to be the seem. Here is a thread which addresses this. Read or don't, but understand they are NOT the same thing.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=71721

Seem = Same.

jglass38 said:

This is completely false. Provent A Mite is a patented formulation so it would be impossible for Equate to be the seem. Here is a thread which addresses this. Read or don't, but understand they are NOT the same thing.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=71721

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Well you can do the same thing i did compare the chemicals they are the same no diff.Look for yourself

SSmith said:

Well you can do the same thing i did compare the chemicals they are the same no diff.Look for yourself

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Read the thread and learn something you clearly don't know.

Read your article see your point but it does match chemical for chemical and works just as good as PAM so to each their own everyone i know has used it for the last couple years and no problems.