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    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....

Jerry Conway - Unethical Practices

First let me say, I know BW, and he is one hell of a good guy. BW is one of the very rare ones out there, not only in our hobby, but also in life. He has a heart as big as the moon, and is always quick to help someone in need. He spends countless hours helping children learn about reptiles: http://www.reptileeducation.com/index.php


Sorry Jerry, but your story just does not fly. You fed off BW like a leach; BW was helping you get your collection back up. He was not giving you these animals for resale. You told him the adults were only worth $300, and the babies were only worth 5.00. Now you claim it is for your kidney stones and to fix your problem it will cost 10 thousand dollars, however, you never told him you were not keeping them. You could have offered them back to BW, instead you ran to post them for a much larger profit. What he done for you, you chose to profit from, knowing BW could have sold the animals himself. I don't trust you by your own words; I would also not recommend anyone deal with you. You took an awesome gesture and turned into an ugly self-profiting deal.

I could care less what operations you need; this was no way to treat a good-hearted friend. Your actions here show you to be someone that needs to grow up, you owe BW an apology for your actions, and he was trying to help you. But you are so concerned about yourself nothing else seems to matter, maybe one day you will see the truth.

BW, you are a good guy, I am sorry your friend crapped all over your kind gesture. IMO, Jerry is not a stand up guy, and seems to be all about himself and the money. To some people friendship means nothing, they are not wise enough to even know what it is.
 
i had broken my wrist on december 13th...i thought i would be able to obtain frogs and lizards to feed the babies but was unable to find any except for the few tiny anoles that i was able to grab at nite with a flashlite....a buddy of mine agreed to take all the babies from me just a few days ago.....he is able to take care of them much easier than i was able to
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Ok, so now it's not just about obtaining animals unethically, taking advantage of someone's kindness, whining about the quality of animals you got for a ridiculously low price, reselling free babies for a huge markup. It's also about responsibility of caring for animals you eagerly accepted for free in order to get them feeding. You broke your wrist on 12-13. BW shipped the adults and babies on 12-16, so your broken wrist has no bearing. You accepted 31 non-feeding babies without knowing how you were going to feed them??

If you were a 12-year old kid, it might be somewhat excusable. For a grown man, with your self-admitted "expertise" to accept a litter just "thinking" maybe you could feed them is NOT excusable.
Do you really think BW would have put them in your care if he'd known you couldn't care for them? Or if he knew you were just going to turn around and resell before they were feeding? Or if he'd known you'd turn them over to someone else because you couldn't acquire food for them?

I don't know BW, have never done business with him, but I'm willing to bet he definitely would not have. You used BW, plain and simple. And you know it ... broken wrist, kidney stones or not. At the very least, BW should have been given the option to get his animals back when it was apparent you could not properly care for them.

~ Laura Bolt
 
Something else that I found interesting is when you look at a number of his for sale threads, you see large numbers of babies.... has anyone ever seen his set up or has been to his place of "breeding?" I just wonder if this is a common practice, seem to similar.
 
jerry conway said:
i thought i would be able to obtain frogs and lizards to feed the babies but was unable to find any except for the few tiny anoles that i was able to grab at nite with a flashlite..
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I find that odd as well, is this normal practice to catch wild anoles to feed to captive bred animals?
:shrug01:
 
Not sure if I am understanding Hartsock's question, but Candoia drop large litters. I ended up with a total of 35 live (that I found) and one slug.

As far as feeding babies, they are tough. Quite often they require young anoles, young geckos, small tree frogs, minnows, mouse parts, and everything in between. So it is not unusual to use wc prey items when trying to get newborns (or fresh imports) to feed voluntarily.
 
BWSmith said:
Not sure if I am understanding Hartsock's question, but Candoia drop large litters. I ended up with a total of 35 live (that I found) and one slug.

As far as feeding babies, they are tough. Quite often they require young anoles, young geckos, small tree frogs, minnows, mouse parts, and everything in between. So it is not unusual to use wc prey items when trying to get newborns (or fresh imports) to feed voluntarily.
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I did a ad search for him and he seemed to have a large number of different babies for sale, boas, w. hognose, etc at different times. Is he really breeding these or is he a flipper like with the Candoia? Get them in and move them out with a profit. Again, I wouldn't have a problem with someone who does that. There are problems that can come from it, but it also meets a need in the hobby that prehaps can only be filled in that way. What I would have the problem with is decieving the seller, so he could get cheaper snakes to turn around and make a profit on.

Catching prey is one thing, but shouldn't you be sure you can have the food for 31 babies BEFORE you agree to take them? Of course, it wouldn't be an issue if you think you can move them out the door quickly. I am pretty much done with the thread because I don't know enough about him to make accusations and judgments other than what I have seen on here. But it is safe to say that I wouldn't purchase or sell to him.
 
hartsock said:
Catching prey is one thing, but shouldn't you be sure you can have the food for 31 babies BEFORE you agree to take them? Of course, it wouldn't be an issue if you think you can move them out the door quickly. I am pretty much done with the thread because I don't know enough about him to make accusations and judgments other than what I have seen on here. But it is safe to say that I wouldn't purchase or sell to him.
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In his defense, he did place want ads for tree frogs and anoles on KS prior to my shipping. So he was making an effort to acquire the prey items.

Trying to find prey the right size can be problematic. here is one of the babies next to a quarter.
web_p1010583.jpg

web_p1010582.jpg


Force Feeding/Assist Feeding mouse tails or drumsticks is quite common.
 
Suncoast Herpetological said:
I believe they are listed on Kingsnake currently by DTS Herps. They are stated as currently being assist fed mouse parts at $50 each. It always amazes me when someone retails hatchling animals that are not yet feeding voluntarily. Different strokes I guess
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Any confirmation on this?
 
I see nothing wrong with DTS Herps selling them, if that is the case. They are a noted reseller who (logically speaking) purchased the animals for the specific purpose of reselling. And of course, they went ahead and got some food in all them which is a good thing. There were no false pretenses involved.
 
jerry conway said:
a buddy of mine agreed to take all the babies from me just a few days ago.....he is able to take care of them much easier than i was able to....all 31 babies are doing well....
Click to expand...

Well maybe I have to give some credit to Dan... we all know I'm not a fan of his, but if he's salvaging this mess and actually making an effort to care for the wellbeing of these animals, that's definitely a good thing!
 
jerry conway said:
ok guys...this is officially my last comment here....i realize that none of you will be sending me christmas cards anytime soon....lol....but i want to publicly apologize for my harsh language and ranting today....please hear me out....i truly forgot what date the babies were born....when i made the deal with bw i honestly planned to keep the pair of adults and a trio of babies for myself....then i would sell the remaining babies to make some money back....i had broken my wrist on december 13th...i thought i would be able to obtain frogs and lizards to feed the babies but was unable to find any except for the few tiny anoles that i was able to grab at nite with a flashlite....a buddy of mine agreed to take all the babies from me just a few days ago.....he is able to take care of them much easier than i was able to....all 31 babies are doing well.... i have an ongoing kidney stone problem which has just recently reared its ugly head once again....a repeat of what i went through back in september and october....i wouldnt wish this pain on anyone...ask someone who has had them....i will most likely need an operation which will cost me 10 thousand dollars....i need to pay other doctor bills from my wrist plus this ongoing problem with my stones....im sorry if i offended anyone....i have had a very painful and stressful time lately....i need to sell some animals to make ends meet....this should have been my first post earlier today....but i felt the need to defend myself....i got very upset with all the personal attacks and overreacted....once again, i apologize to bw and the rest of you....i wish you all the best of luck with your breeding projects....jerry
Click to expand...

If this had been your first post then I might have thought differently than I do now. I had ..... HAD ..... you first on my list for when I was back on my feet and would be looking to pick up some candoia. Now you won't even be on my radar.
 
BryonsBoas said:
If this had been your first post then I might have thought differently than I do now. I had ..... HAD ..... you first on my list for when I was back on my feet and would be looking to pick up some candoia. Now you won't even be on my radar.
Click to expand...

I agree Bryon, if it took this thread to make him see it was wrong, then he is very lost when it comes to doing the right thing. We can hope he will learn from this mistake in the future, and value a good gesture from a friend.

I was looking at this: http://www.kingsnake.com/candoia/gem.html

It is very helpful information on these animals, I would think. I am not an expert on this species, and I really don't know too much about them. But Jerry could be very helpful in the hobby on this species due to him being one of the leading experts. I just hope he will get his act together and take a long look at what is right, instead of letting the dollar signs control his thought pattern.
 
I agree with BW on this. Anoles, especially in areas twhere they are plentiful are quite commonly used for both scenting and feeding to get difficult to start species of neonates going. I do it quite often with Graybands and some desert kings. My only point of disagreement is selling them before they are feeding on their own. Force feeding neonates is stressful no matter how skillful you are at it. personally, i would never sell an animal to a retail customer unless it had fed on it's own at least a half dozen times. It is just asking for a problem. Breeder to breeder as in this instance is another matter alltogether.

That said, it really has very little or nothing to do with the point of this thread.
 
The candoia are fine and all are doing well. Someone was incorrect to state they were hatched (John I think), but they are live born and it's actually quite common/smart to help such small snakes along with assist feeding verses the introduction of parasites via frogs/anoles which they would take without hesitation. And many a baby snake from several different species, especially frog/lizard eaters, are helped along this way to avoid parasites so I am not sure why some don't know that already? However I did frog scent some dead day-old defrosted pinks Saturday night and a good portion of the babies ate the pinks, so that is great and believe more will do so next week when I scent live pinks. Five pairs/trios have been sold and they are going to owners who are versed/familiar with assist feeding and they will also be sent free frogs for scenting purposes. All you do is freeze some frogs and defrost them and roll them in the goo from the frog skin and mouth, and that does it. Also, I put the candoia in six inch deli cups and inside that cup place a clear plastic container (4 inch deli) with a few small live frogs. And then put the scented pink inside the six inch deli next to the candoia. The snake views the frogs hopping around and cannot get to them but then nabs anything near it smelling like a frog and its quite amazing how many hard to feed snakes that can get started this way. This works best at dusk and its also helpful if the humidity is high and temps are warm. Many years ago I used to do this with candoia but might add that on some of them, I took them outside in my back yard (at dusk) under brush in their deli cups so they could receive the hot and humid air of the Florida evenings and it worked like magic and they ate. And sometimes did not even require a scented pink and took to rinsed live pinks. Inside the house, they did not eat, so figured the humidity and warm temps plays a factor in getting them the hardest ones in the mood to eat.

Dan
 
Glad to hear you are continuing to attempt to get them to feed on their own and not simply jamming a meal down their throats and shipping them out Dan. yor ad made it sound like that was the case. i have worked with Candoia briefly ten years or more ago and am aware of the feeding issues first hand. I disagree that assist feeding should be attempted on animals in preference to offering a food item that they will take on their own but that is a judgement call. As i said earlier, sending out animals that are not yet feeding freely is always a dicey topic but again, all breeders do things differently.

Oh and the term hatchling is quite often applied to any type of neonate reptile regardless of the method of birth as a generic term to illustrate age. I do not believe that i said anywhere that the animals were hatched.
 
Sounds like a really low thing to do. Of all the ways to make a buck..Sounds like YOU put your stomach in knots.
 
Actually John the advertisement states they are being assist fed and I think it was you who earlier said they were being force fed. There is a big difference actually. Also, your earlier statement said they were not feeding on their own, but they do and would feed on their own with frogs/anoles and scented pinks. And it's not a judgement call as parasites should be avoided at all costs, including the mere few seconds it takes to put a mouse tail into a snake's mouth. And what's dicey? The buyers are hobby folk who are experienced to raise their own newborns and thousands of new born candoia and other snakes have been moved in the hobby without incident.

Dan
 
I'll add a little to what Dan has said, I have some experience with these Boa's the ground as well as the even smaller tree boas. Your only choices are to give them small frogs and or lizards or try scenting very very small pinks. One thing I have done is to force feed chick drum sticks and usually they will take food on their own after one or two force feedings. It is hard to find anything small enough for these guys to eat especially in winter so you have to do what you have to do.. Randy
 
Anyone who has dealt with specialty feeders knows it often takes quite a few tricks to get some of these snakes feeding. It sounds like Dan has done well with them. Just for scenting purposes, I keep in the freezer frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, toads, snakes, lizards, birds, fish, various obscure rodents and rodent furs, snails, crickets and probably a few other odds and ends.
 
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