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Inquiry Fred Kick - Reptile Addicts

I've never done business with the Kick brothers, but I have met them at the first Myrtle Beach reptile show. Some people just set off your intuition that they are no good and I got that vibe from them - before I even knew that they were the Kicks. But I was well aware of their poor reputation prior to that.

Later that afternoon, I was helping USARK get donations for the auction on Saturday night and came to their table to ask if they'd like to make a donation. They donated a STICK - an ugly one at that and laughed and snickered about how clever they were. That just sealed my impression of them - not worth my time.

They were creepy guys, and I don't recall being impressed with anything that they had at their table.
 
I'm always impressed when I check things out on their tables at shows...

I'm impressed that they are comfortable having DYING or DEAD animals ON A TABLE... One show they had deli cups with DEAD frogs in them.. $5/frog corpse..

They also regularly have mites just crawling around visibly on their snakes... I remember the one show I was looking at a nice leucistic ball they had for sale, and upon closer inspection saw mites crawling all over it...

They are the worst of the worst...
 
Thankfully the snakes I got in from them did NOT have mites. BUT I am wondering if perhaps they sprayed the snakes prior to shipping, and did not clean the solution off, thus poisoning the snakes, being how they died so rapidly. I've seen it happen plenty of times with certain mite killing solutions. I got the snakes at a great low price from them. But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for! ;-(
 
My personal experience with them in person was pretty good. Not saying I'd buy from him again, he's no favorite of mine, but I did get an animal I'm happy with. My WC fire skink is mite free, shed right, friendly, bright, active, and eats like a champ. He's the only person in the show that could say they were de-wormed. Frank let me handle the skinks to inspect them up close and he took the time to answer my questions in between other customers. Now Kicksballs does sell a lot of imported animals and in my experience any seller that does that usually has mite problems, internal parasites, etc so you're taking a risk period. Now sellers could avoid some of those issues if they quarantined, didn't cross contaminate, sanitized more, and didn't get WC so close to CB animals.
 
Night10gail said:
My personal experience with them in person was pretty good. Not saying I'd buy from him again, he's no favorite of mine, but I did get an animal I'm happy with. My WC fire skink is mite free, shed right, friendly, bright, active, and eats like a champ. He's the only person in the show that could say they were de-wormed. Frank let me handle the skinks to inspect them up close and he took the time to answer my questions in between other customers. Now Kicksballs does sell a lot of imported animals and in my experience any seller that does that usually has mite problems, internal parasites, etc so you're taking a risk period. Now sellers could avoid some of those issues if they quarantined, didn't cross contaminate, sanitized more, and didn't get WC so close to CB animals.
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Funny because at the Cleveland reptile show (in ohio) they are known as the wall of death. I witnessed several infected, severely injured, and just plain disgusting displays at the show I went to. That was my first and last time going because I was horrified that show let them vend there. But all his ball pythons were in perfect condition in their own little containers, everything else was cramped, feces filled cages. Chameleons with severe nose rubs, legless lizard with a chunk taken out of its throat and scabbed over and swollen, iguanas with swollen infected eyes, baby boas with stuck shed that in no way was fresh. I wish I had taken photos but I was so disgusted I walked away before I ended up screaming at them. There's no way they couldn't have noticed any of that while packing and unpacking for the show. I would be utterly ashamed to show animals in thay condition much less sell them!
 
I just bought a pair of Abronia from him. Beside lying about the male being blue (Looked blue in the photos he sent me - but is absolutely green!) the female has so much stuck shed on her tail. I'm working with her now but it's looking like it might need to be amputated. I'm not sure if I should even bother contacting him about it since it's been 3 weeks since i've received them.

Will never buy anything from him again, thats for sure.
 
I would never buy anything from them that I can't see in person, inspect myself, and take home with me immediately. Heard so much bad things about them and have seen emaciated snakes at their stand before but you sometimes can find hard to get things at their stand that are in good health. Just I'd only buy from them in person so I know what I'm getting rather than taking their word for it. Fresh shipments are usually in good shape. Going to them is definitely a case of I can't find it anywhere else.
 
Bought a leopard gecko from these guys years ago when I was a beginner. A negative experience that you can read about on another BOI thread.

Fast forward to January 2015. I was vending at a show in Maryland and one of their guys was walking the floor with his cell phone out, pretending to be sending text messages, but "stopping" at each vendor's table. I was coming back to my table, so I observed him from the other side and he was using the phone to type in all of the other vendor's prices. I called him out on it and he just gave me a creepy smirk and walked away.
 
Fast forward to January 2015. I was vending at a show in Maryland and one of their guys was walking the floor with his cell phone out said:
Okay now that is low. At my local show what I got from him was higher priced than at another stand. I sorta just snatched up the calmest one I could find because last show I was hard pressed to find one at all. My skink was clean of dirt, stuck shed, mites, breathing problems, etc and is doing great. I bought the biggest one, which was the one they always handled to show to customers so he was pretty tame already. Still wish I'd kept looking up the row where other breeders had a few for cheaper but I am happy with my boy. Won't go back to Kickballs though except as a last resort for something I just can't find.
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Night10gail said:
Okay now that is low. At my local show what I got from him was higher priced than at another stand. I sorta just snatched up the calmest one I could find because last show I was hard pressed to find one at all. My skink was clean of dirt, stuck shed, mites, breathing problems, etc and is doing great. I bought the biggest one, which was the one they always handled to show to customers so he was pretty tame already. Still wish I'd kept looking up the row where other breeders had a few for cheaper but I am happy with my boy. Won't go back to Kickballs though except as a last resort for something I just can't find.
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And this right here is what allows bad sellers to keep on mistreating animals. Should be a won't go back at all if they are as bad as many people have said. Not even for something you really really want as the animals welfare should come before you wants.

If people continue to buy, for whatever reason, they will continue to sell and continue to mistreat animals for profit.
 
There are very few "Vendors" that I have really never heard anything good about, but these guys are one of them.

Dave
 
I have done business with Fred Kick for years and made a lot off purchases in the thousands
and all the snakes came in perfect shape and all are breeding like crazy when I need snakes I call him first.
Joaquin Vogel
Sparta NC
 
I bought a couple of yellow rat babies from them recently. They've both since died. I do see them regularly, and can't say anything against them personally, but so far, not impressed.
 
All I can say is they're known as the wall of death at the Cleveland Ohio show. I was disgusted enough by what I witnessed (wish I took photos) that I have not gone back to the show. Until they stop them from vending there I won't be going to the Cleveland show again.
 
joaco vogel said:
I have done business with Fred Kick for years and made a lot off purchases in the thousands
and all the snakes came in perfect shape and all are breeding like crazy when I need snakes I call him first.
Joaquin Vogel
Sparta NC
Click to expand...

LMAO!!! How much did YOU make off of this post?
 
joaco vogel said:
I have done business with Fred Kick for years and made a lot off purchases in the thousands
and all the snakes came in perfect shape and all are breeding like crazy when I need snakes I call him first.
Joaquin Vogel
Sparta NC
Click to expand...

Oh, and I have the cure for cancer. I got the recipe from the Kicks.
 
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