• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Attention Ron Billingsley Customers!

Gecko_Den said:
Your full name is required when posting on the BOI.
:thumbsup:
Click to expand...

That, and I don't think this is really a joking matter.....nothing funny about it. :shrug01:

Put yourself in poor Jenna's shoes, and see if you still think it's funny.
 
LeosForLess said:
Well http://www.ronbillingsleyreptiles.com/ his site is down now.... Is he pulling a Chris Johnson??! My friend thinks he got tricked into buying somthing related to a Kenyan Sand Boa and it was an easten or western or somthing, but basically he didnt get a kenyan.
Click to expand...
Grow up. No one here has suggested that Ron has scammed anyone. If your friend thinks that he got the wrong $60 animal that hardly qualifies as "pulling a Chris Johnson". And if your friend has something to say, let him say it himself. Anonymous third party quotes (especially about something you don't even know) are not allowed (or wanted) here on the BOI.
 
The site has been down for quite some time, but I still had no problem contacting him by email a couple of months ago.

I think it is quite a stretch to be comparing him to Chris Johnson, and rather off the wall.
 
If someone said YOU were "pulling a Chris Johnson", just because your website was unavailable...wouldn't you take it seriously?
 
i was sort of trying to imply with the "!?!?!?" i wasnt totally serious. I forgot i was on the most serious forum in the world
 
I wasn't posting any information that was for or against anyone mentioned in this thread. This isn't even a matter of anyone doing anything wrong so it shouldn't be on the boi anyway. And it doesn't matter if the post is deleted. It was just a joke so please feel free to not laugh but don't presume to tell me what not to post. I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt but you really want to act like you are somebody of importance. Your avatar is reflecting your personallity quite nicely.
 
Helvis said:
I wasn't posting any information that was for or against anyone mentioned in this thread. This isn't even a matter of anyone doing anything wrong so it shouldn't be on the boi anyway. And it doesn't matter if the post is deleted. It was just a joke so please feel free to not laugh but don't presume to tell me what not to post. I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt but you really want to act like you are somebody of importance. Your avatar is reflecting your personallity quite nicely.
Click to expand...

You still need to post your full name on ALL BOI posts, regardless of their content.
:yesnod:
 
Jenna...

What was the out come of this?

I purchased a WC gravid female from Ron in Jan. and she had ticks on her as well. I just cleaned her and got rid of them but she had at least half a dozen on her. I did e-mail Ron to let him know I had found some ticks on her but I didn't think it was a big deal. Infact I recently purchased two more girls from him and I didn't see any mites or ticks on them.

For the record I think you and your vet did the right thing. I hope every thing turns out good for you. Please let us know what they find.
 
Cat_72 said:
The site has been down for quite some time, but I still had no problem contacting him by email a couple of months ago.

I think it is quite a stretch to be comparing him to Chris Johnson, and rather off the wall.
Click to expand...

Ditto to what Cathy said. Ron's site has been down for awhile, he's aiming to have a new one developed but is still shopping for a designer. He's not hard to get ahold of, I've e-mailed him a couple times since January and we've spoken often on Yahoo Messenger.

In regard to redbird's comments -- Jenna took her snake to the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, which is one of the only trustworthy and educated places to take reptiles for treatment in the Madison area. They're ranked #8 in the country and have experienced vets as well as student interns working in the clinic. The other local vets have stopped treating snakes and will almost always direct a customer to the UW. I called around extensively when I recieved a WC female with a severe RI (not from Ron) and the UW was the only one who would see her. I'm sure there's a reptile vet somewhere outside of Madison, but seeing as Jenna's a UW student without a car, that's not an option for her. It also wasn't her decision to send the tick out to pathology, it was the vet's decision. Not only was the vet doing what she thought was right, she was probably also following clinic policy. In regard to her decision to get the snake treated by a vet vs. treating at home -- many hobby keepers go this route if they don't know how to handle treatment on their own. I see novice keepers all over other forums that bring their snakes to the vet for everything from mites to bad sheds. They're playing it safe vs. taking a risk. I for one give that a :thumbsup:
 
Update

It has been a while and it's time for an update.

On Thursday two government vets came over to my house to explain the quarantine in more detail. The ticks that were found were not identifiable to my vet (who is a very qualified exotic animal vet) so she sent them to the veternary pathology department. They could not identify them so they sent them to a lab higher up. That lab narrowed them down to two different tick species-one kind is already in the Unites States and although is pesky is not worrisome for them; the second one is not found in the United States at all and is a carrier for the disease that was mentioned before on the forum (not Heartwater, but the one which causes reproductive problems). That specific tick is a multiple host parasite, so it will go from snake to camel in Africa, thus the US is worried about it getting directly to cows (which usually isn't a problem since snake mites are snake specific). I was quarantined because none of the labs in Wisconsin could identify which of the two this species of tick was.

The specimens were then mailed to Iowa where the national database is and they were examined. It was (thankfully) found that they are the species that are already in the United States. My quarantine has semi been lifted, I just have to finish up the medical regiment that the snake is under before the vet will give a clean bill of health. The USDA pretty much is standing at, "we're sorry your snake has ticks, but since it is not an exotic species we are no longer interested."

I talked to Ron in person today and apologized to him for any stress or damage I have done to his business or his reputation (which I did not mean to do at all).

I am extremely relieved that everything has turned out for the best, and like so many things in life I have learned many things and some things I would/would not do differently:I would take ANY of my animals to a vet if I did not feel adequate enough to treat them for something, but I would wait to see the outcome before I brought it up. It was a weird predicament though, with how fast ticks multiply I assumed that the faster we got a hold on this, the better it would be.

I think Ron is a great person and he was very understandying and compliant with the entire issue. He was easy to get a hold of and handled everything like a professional. I would not hesitate to do business with him again, and my friends did do business with him today. The most important thing to remember is to know exactly what you're getting into when purchasing any animal and to know where you need to ask for help.

It took me so long to update because I was asked (not ordered) not to say anything until the tick was identified because people will do silly things when they think the government was going to get involved. If it was an exotic tick they did not want people to hide their animals in fear of them being captured. They specifically said they weren't interested in doing anything with the animal, it was merely the tick they were worried about (so my quarantine was as simple as not allowing my snake off my property).

She is currently undergoing treatment and has completed round one out of three. I expect her to be up and going by May.

I apologize if I caused a scare that was unwarranted, but this is the easiest and fastest way to spread information.
 
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