piedpipper
New member
I hesitate to put this as a bad guy thread because it was more of a middle of the road transaction.
I recently purchased a pair of Dominican Red Mountain Boas on kingsnake.com from Ken Foose in Las Vegas about 2.5 months ago. I do not think I will be purchasing from him again for several reasons.
1. The Boas he had pictured in the ad do not appear to be the same ones he sent me. He listed in the ad that they were ALL red but the ones I received were much more brown colored than I anticipated. Whether they will turn red over time I do not know. I just wish he had told me this or sent me pictures of the actual animals I would be receiving. Prior to buying, when I asked him for recent pictures he told me that the boas I would get were shown in the pictures on his ad. I do not think they were the same ones as you can see in the pictures. I suppose it's possible that they turned browner from the time he took the photos but even so that means that he did not have recent pictures on his ad which is still unacceptable in my opinion. Here are the pictures: the first and second one are his kingsnake.com pictures and the second and third one are the boas I received. He still has these same pictures on the ad for DRMB's that he has for sale right now. BUYERS BEWARE you will likely receive animals similar to mine.
2. He said in the ad (still says for a matter of fact) that the boas are feeding on hopper mice. When in fact they were MUCH too small for that and are in fact feeding on pinky mice. He even told me himself that they were eating pinkies while saying on the ad that they were eating hoppers. Hence I was ONCE AGAIN surprised when unboxing them because I was expecting snakes at least twice as big as the ones I received. I suppose this could be amounted to a typo on his ad but I'm not sure how you could mean pinky and write hopper.
3. In speaking with Ken, he told me these animals were born early last spring which would make them over a year old. Call me critical, but I do believe these snakes should have been a good bit bigger if they were a year old. So Ken was either incorrect about their age or underfeeding them. To give you an idea, the male was 16 grams when he arrived. With regular feeding in my care he has nearly doubled in size in less than 3 months. So I do think he was either wrong about their age or underfeeding them.
4. I hesitate to say this last part because I do not want to make blatant accusations without the proof but take it for what it is: a speculation. Several weeks after receiving these boas a mite infestation broke out with these boas and the snakes nearest to them in the rack. Now I didn't add any new snakes to my collection for several months so I don't see where else the mites could have possibly come from. I acknowledge that this is my fault for not checking the boas and quarantining them to begin with but I do not believe it is acceptable for ANY breeder to sell animals with mites. As I said, I didn't see mites on them when unboxing, but I also didn't look very carefully and I do not know where else the mites could have possibly came from. There is a good chance these snakes came in with mites.
Overall, there were several problems with the seller which all revolved around honesty. I do not believe he was being completely forthright with me when selling and I didn't receive what I expected. Perhaps Ken was not purposly being dishonest it may have just been carelessness in updating photos, writing descriptions, etc. but either way I do not think I will be buying from him again.
I do like the animals I got and will be taking excellent care of them. I'm just disappointed at the dishonesty in this transaction.
(Also, I know I didn't post this immediately after the transaction. I wasn't going to bother saying anything until the mite infestation was discovered which prompted me to write this).
Greg Pandelis
I recently purchased a pair of Dominican Red Mountain Boas on kingsnake.com from Ken Foose in Las Vegas about 2.5 months ago. I do not think I will be purchasing from him again for several reasons.
1. The Boas he had pictured in the ad do not appear to be the same ones he sent me. He listed in the ad that they were ALL red but the ones I received were much more brown colored than I anticipated. Whether they will turn red over time I do not know. I just wish he had told me this or sent me pictures of the actual animals I would be receiving. Prior to buying, when I asked him for recent pictures he told me that the boas I would get were shown in the pictures on his ad. I do not think they were the same ones as you can see in the pictures. I suppose it's possible that they turned browner from the time he took the photos but even so that means that he did not have recent pictures on his ad which is still unacceptable in my opinion. Here are the pictures: the first and second one are his kingsnake.com pictures and the second and third one are the boas I received. He still has these same pictures on the ad for DRMB's that he has for sale right now. BUYERS BEWARE you will likely receive animals similar to mine.
2. He said in the ad (still says for a matter of fact) that the boas are feeding on hopper mice. When in fact they were MUCH too small for that and are in fact feeding on pinky mice. He even told me himself that they were eating pinkies while saying on the ad that they were eating hoppers. Hence I was ONCE AGAIN surprised when unboxing them because I was expecting snakes at least twice as big as the ones I received. I suppose this could be amounted to a typo on his ad but I'm not sure how you could mean pinky and write hopper.
3. In speaking with Ken, he told me these animals were born early last spring which would make them over a year old. Call me critical, but I do believe these snakes should have been a good bit bigger if they were a year old. So Ken was either incorrect about their age or underfeeding them. To give you an idea, the male was 16 grams when he arrived. With regular feeding in my care he has nearly doubled in size in less than 3 months. So I do think he was either wrong about their age or underfeeding them.
4. I hesitate to say this last part because I do not want to make blatant accusations without the proof but take it for what it is: a speculation. Several weeks after receiving these boas a mite infestation broke out with these boas and the snakes nearest to them in the rack. Now I didn't add any new snakes to my collection for several months so I don't see where else the mites could have possibly come from. I acknowledge that this is my fault for not checking the boas and quarantining them to begin with but I do not believe it is acceptable for ANY breeder to sell animals with mites. As I said, I didn't see mites on them when unboxing, but I also didn't look very carefully and I do not know where else the mites could have possibly came from. There is a good chance these snakes came in with mites.
Overall, there were several problems with the seller which all revolved around honesty. I do not believe he was being completely forthright with me when selling and I didn't receive what I expected. Perhaps Ken was not purposly being dishonest it may have just been carelessness in updating photos, writing descriptions, etc. but either way I do not think I will be buying from him again.
I do like the animals I got and will be taking excellent care of them. I'm just disappointed at the dishonesty in this transaction.
(Also, I know I didn't post this immediately after the transaction. I wasn't going to bother saying anything until the mite infestation was discovered which prompted me to write this).
Greg Pandelis
