Info Doc Walker, reptidoc, Dr. Daryl G. Walker = buyer beware

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

yes you can. In some really pale ones you can even see the heart beats But... when it goes from being just a spot to a 1/4 mark or even more, then that usually means the gallbladder is 'popped' and the snake is either dieing or dead. On the darker snakes you can sometimes see it through the underside but not always. But if you can? there isnt much hope.

Can't you usually see dark spots in light colored babies? I was told that for the light ones it's normal, but not generally the darker ones.

 

[reptilebaby]

Here's a pic doc sent me of the baby I am getting. He looks pretty good to me.
Thanks Dee, for your opinion on him. It made me feel much better!

 

[reptilebaby]

muscle tone looks good, and he DEFINITELY looks active, and his size is very similar to the other baby I got from a totally different breeder.

 

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

I still think he looks small but atleast he looks in decent shape full belly too by the looks of it.

 

[cornsnakekate]

yes you can. In some really pale ones you can even see the heart beats But... when it goes from being just a spot to a 1/4 mark or even more, then that usually means the gallbladder is 'popped' and the snake is either dieing or dead. On the darker snakes you can sometimes see it through the underside but not always. But if you can? there isnt much hope.

My hatchling from Darryl that died looked like this. She was an opal stripe, so I assumed her dark spots were normal organ spots. I'm calling around to find a vet who will do a necropsy. If I find one, I'll post the results. I'd ask for ventral shots of the baby if you can get them.

 

[Reptileman81]

It actually means a lot! I think every pair of eyes that sees this and remembers what has and is happening and can maybe warn even 1 person.... Its all worth it

I have warned several and will continue to warn people.

I have to admit that After what Josh (cant remember his last name) went through with his thread about Doc Walker.... I was simply terrified to come here! But with one very dear man (bob brown) helping me kinda through all this... gave me the courage to try. I am honored to now call him my friend So, Some good did come of this tragity!

Its Josh Hardee lol. It was really a horriable thing I went through back a year ago. It really put my selfeestem down really bad and made me dought myself for a long time. I stayed away from both here and CS for months because of all of these. I still to this day dont come here to fauna much at all because of the way I was treated. But my bad treatment and bashing on me was all worth it in the long run because everyone knows now that these issues with Doc have been going on for a long time. I think the number now of snakes from Doc that have died in the hands of the people that have come forward is like 40-50 babies. Now Doc doesnt only sell here he sells in many different avenues. So lets say that the 40-50 that we know of for everyone one of them one more died from Doc's stock with in a short time that we know nothing about. There could be hundreds of other animals that have come from him that people have lost where either Doc or the buy just pushed it off as "everyone losses a snake from time to time".

Cant speak for anyone else, but I will never purchase anything from him. I don't care if he fixes the problem, it doesn't change how he handled the situation for 2 years. How he mistreated good people and animals.

(Clarification so I don't . The "I don't care if he fixes the problem" is referring to it not changing my feelings, not that I don't care if the problem gets fixed.)

I totally agree with you on this statement. I hope for his animals sake that he does find the problem and fixes it but after the way I was treated, his denial of the issue, the loss of over $600 of his animals, having to go through emotionally the loss of so many snakes in such a short time I will never do business with him again EVER.

I alerted Josh Hardee to this thread, and the way I treated him in the other thread is one of my biggest regrets.

I think we have let bye gones be bye gones with that. I am so glad that you and a few others regret the way they treated me. I am now glad to call you a friend because of that.

Beth, thank you for telling Josh Hardee about this thread. It was because of his harsh treatment that I almost didnt post this thread.

I want to say a big thank you to Everyone who has come in and posted and supported me on this issue. It is wonderful how a community can come together to try to help fix a situation!
So far between Just between myself and Dakafall, we have lost 1/2 of the hatchlings we received. 5/10. That number is shocking to me! I can only hope the rest make it but its not looking promiseing. We may have won them in the raffle but they certainly werent free. Take into account the ticket cost, shipping and having to deal with sickness and watching them die off. I am very proud of what we all did for the raffle! Another showing of the community coming together in a wonderful way! The only dark spot is this situation and I hope that it doesnt make anyone feel badly towards anyone but the breeder in question.

So many ppl lost so many babies, money, time and being called so many things.... I am just so glad that Finally the community is realizeing where the problem stems from. I cant beleive it took 2 seasons for that to happen. I hope that Doc Walker will stop with the dishonesty and trying to grab any scapegoat he can and the false apologies and honestly trys to fix whatever is going on at his place.

Like I said all of the bashing I took was worth it. One thing that I have seen posted on this thread a few times now is "2 seasons". I think some of you should look at me thread. It is atleast 3 seasons. My snakes that I got from Doc back in Feb of 2010 were 2009 babies. Just as everyone has come to understand that these babies are far to small for there age. I informed Doc of this back then before I ever posted a BOI on him that I thought they were pretty small to be 2009's in 2010. He informed me that some were born in Aug of 2009 while others were born in Oct and Nov of 2009. So with the oldest being atleast 6 month old when I got them and the largest was 8 grams tells you something. So this has been going on for way more then 2 years. At least 3 that I know of if not more.

I also think besides his husbandry, feeding scheduale and cold weather shipping excuses he also needs to check his shipping methods period. I dont remember my package from him if it was insulated or heat packed or anything but I know a few of the people that came forward did have these issues. If I was Doc I would also check where I am dropping off my shipments. First are you even taking them to a Fedex Office or just dropping them in some drop off box in the middle of no where. Second maybe where ever they are ending up on his end there is some employee that doesnt like there job, doesnt take care of packages the way they should or even knows that it is snakes in the shipment and is purposely shaking and dropping any snake packages they find. I know this is far fetched and is only a theory, but what I am trying to say is Doc really needs to revamp and check every avenue of his operation. It could be more then one problem. None the less there is a problem and everyone now knows it is on his end.

There are several breeders of both corns and balls that I REALLY like and have not had to worry about the health of the animals.

The pics Doc sent me of my boy are beautiful-he's a pretty snake...but you can't tell if a snake is mushy from a picture.

That is the problem with all of this is that YES Doc has some great looking animals in his pics anyways. On top of that he has some great higher end morphs. Makes it hard to think that there is anything wrong with someone with such great morphs and pics of his animals. That is why the BOI is here so people have somewhere to go to check on a breeder before they buy from them. Now there are 3 bad threads on here for Doc which says alot.

There are many good breeders there and here as well. I even said that I dont think Doc Walker is a 'bad guy'. I basically started this thread as a warning that he is having some problems and is unwilling to address it or try to fix what may be wrong with his stock. AND to kinda stick my neck out when there seems to be so many ppl afraid to speak up because of what happened in Josh Hardee's thread. I did kinda expect the same treatment but I am so very pleased that ppl have taken the time to read and understand that SO many ppl Cant be wrong.

I am so glad that you did not get the treatment that I got. I would not wish on anyone what I had to go through to get the truth out that there is something very wrong with Doc's snakes/shipments.

 

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

Thank you so much for posting Josh!! Good to 'see' you and know that you didnt get out of the hobby because of that. It was very shameful but atleast some ppl were able to step up and say they were sorry. I admire that. I give you a Huge thumbs up for the other thread you did and for sticking up for yourself the best you could. Not sure I would have been strong enough. Anyway, atleast now ppl are really coming around to see that its not just a few 'newbies' that had problems!!

I hope to see you around more now Josh! We need as many good breeders around as we can get

 

[starsevol]

Josh, I am so glad you commented on this thread.
It is good to see you.....

 

[reptilebaby]

I will update when my boy gets here.

 

[reptilebaby]

Don't worry Josh! I'm not standing up for ANYONE! If my boy ends up fine and healthy, that's what I'll post. And yeah, I'll probably post a thread of my own about it. I can only wait and see what happens now.

 

[crotalis40741]

My hatchling from Darryl that died looked like this. She was an opal stripe, so I assumed her dark spots were normal organ spots. I'm calling around to find a vet who will do a necropsy. If I find one, I'll post the results. I'd ask for ventral shots of the baby if you can get them.

The only bad thing about waiting is that you have to freeze the hatchling within so many days and the freezing effects the results of the necro. Found this out with mine. Good luck on it
bob brown

 

[cornsnakekate]

The only bad thing about waiting is that you have to freeze the hatchling within so many days and the freezing effects the results of the necro. Found this out with mine. Good luck on it
bob brown

Thanks, Bob. I put her in the fridge right away yesterday. I've read that putting them in the freezer can corrupt results so I made sure not to freeze her. I'm taking her to a vet tomorrow morning for a necropsy.

 

[reptilebaby]

Update whatever you find out! Might help me out too.

 

[Nanci]

Not _everyone_ jumped on the Bash Josh Bandwagon. I said at the time it sounded just plain truthful to me. I don't care- I call it like I see it. I promise some day I will learn to spell Hardee correctly...

 

[cornsnakekate]

So my vet just called with the necro results of the opal stripe hatchling I bought from Darryl. I'm just going to copy and paste the email that I sent Darryl:


On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 3:17 PM, Katherine Fischer <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Darryl,

My vet just called me back with the necro results for the opal stripe.

He performed a gross necropsy and a gi swab. He found no obvious internal abnormalities: no signs of pneumonia, parasites, bleeding, twisting or blockages.

He said that she appeared emaciated and abnormally small for her age and size, with no muscle tone whatsoever and minimal fat (probably whatever she had left over from her egg sac).

When I dropped her off I relayed hatch date and your feeding schedule, and he seemed surprised that she could be as old as three months considering how small she was, and definitely surprised that she could have starved to death in as little as three months if she was being fed even every 10 days or so.

He didn't find anything suspicious enough to warrant sending out organ samples for biopsy, and told me that further testing would probably not return anything conclusive as far as cause of death. He posited that, considering her condition, she was probably starved to death. He's going to hang onto her remains for another week in case I change my mind or something happens within the rest of my collection that makes me think its warranted.

He'll be mailing me the results next Monday. I'll scan and send them to you when I receive them.

-Katherine

 

[Tara80]

I sure hope this is speculation on my part but what it appears to me (and I hope to God this isn't true) is that Doc mass produced massive quantities of high end morphs, didn't feed them and then sold them for a lot of money. If this is the case, it's one of the most deplorable actions I've witnessed thus far in this community.

 

[Cat_Eyed_Lady]

Well, That is what I get from the test results and it does explain why they were so small and felt mushy. I hate to say it but atleast it is something that can be corrected and isnt something that will spread to other collections.

I hope Doc does see this and remembers what Rich Z said and puts more effort into careing for his animals so that he can go back to produceing healthy animals.

thank you very much for having the tests done and posting them for us to see. I really appreciate it!

 

[cornsnakekate]

Well, That is what I get from the test results and it does explain why they were so small and felt mushy. I hate to say it but atleast it is something that can be corrected and isnt something that will spread to other collections.

I hope Doc does see this and remembers what Rich Z said and puts more effort into careing for his animals so that he can go back to produceing healthy animals.

thank you very much for having the tests done and posting them for us to see. I really appreciate it!

No problem. The reason I had the necro done was that I was worried about the rest of my snakes catching something in spite of my quarantine. I'll still be keeping an extra close eye on them, but I feel less worried now.

 

[Mystic Exotics]

He said that she appeared emaciated and abnormally small for her age and size, with no muscle tone whatsoever and minimal fat (probably whatever she had left over from her egg sac).

When I dropped her off I relayed hatch date and your feeding schedule, and he seemed surprised that she could be as old as three months considering how small she was, and definitely surprised that she could have starved to death in as little as three months if she was being fed even every 10 days or so. -Katherine

This part, especially the bolded part, really sounds like he never fed that baby, at all.

If so many other babies are dying like this, then it's likely that he's just not feeding any of them (or selecting some to feed, & not others).
If that's the case, he flat out lied, & made up feeding times for them, & is trying to cover it up.

I've seen some greedy people before, but to let so many animals suffer, to try & make some money, is absolutely horrible.

 

[SDiBiasi]

That just hurts my heart to know that these babies were starved to death! If you can't feed the babies you produce... than you shouldnt be in business at all!