David, hey I apologize if the mention of all this other stuff makes SERPENTBOY hide so deep in a hole that you eventually do not get your money. And it might be because of me. On that note, I think, but not sure, but it might have been you that dragged my name into it, and I was not going to say anything about that but in the interest of protecting the public, I was compelled to speak up. And I am not upset at you for it or anything. Much less if the bastard does not send you your money, hell I run into a dozens of tricolored snakes all the time and get them very cheap or trade a few water snakes I find crossing the roads, you just tell me if you get screwed out of the money and the pair you want I will send you for free, Delta Dash of course. Just kidding, I will send you the snakes for free if you pay for the shipping. And on your money issue, the only thing SERPENTBOY did say about me that was close to the truth and factual was that he did indeed send me my money for my snakes in trade the next day after I got his dead coral snake and he did so WITHOUT ever seeing the dead snake he sent because he refused to speak to my reference on the phone who was standing there with me smelling the stinking snake, and it was not Ben Siegel, and SERPENTBOY knows who I am talking about, it was someone with a swifter foot than Ben. But that story is for a later post. But his mention of sending my money is misleading and false, and at best half accurate, because he sent only half the money of their retail value and he positioned to hold my snakes hostage or hang up the phone and I would never hear from him again. And people somehow thought I could trust him and get a fair resolution to this on the BOI? Ha. Ha.
Tim: Yet another customer of SERPENTBOY screwed again. You mean you bought that Texas Coral snake he misrepresented as feeding on rodents? I now feel worse that I did not stop SERPENTBOY sooner.
I just saw your post. Heck, this website is not sending me emails when someone makes a post so I have to log on and see what's happening? No big deal. And I never really looked at my private email box, heck, someone sent me a few emails in there months ago and I never even knew I had such a private email box? I guess I should get with it huh?
It is no surprise that SERPENTBOY advertised a rodent feeding Texas Coral Snake and it is not feeding for you. Guess how many people called me and told me that he was back up to his old tricks when they saw that post? Hell, the day he first put that fraud up on kingsnake.com, my computer started to smoke and shake.
You asked me if I also bought that Texas Coral Snake, heck I almost broke my back and fell out of my chair when I laughed so hard at SERPENTBOY's advertisement for that rodent feeding Texas Coral Snake. I knew he would screw someone again, and I knew that person would make a post. I am sorry it was you actually. SERPENTBOY again has proven with your coral snake that does not eat rodents as he represented, that this is indeed further evidence that he is a master con-artist. Plain and simple, no need to waste a nanosecond of your valuable time even thinking about it. As you know, coral snakes do not typically feed on rodents, and some starving examples might, but it is indeed rare. Regardless of whether his did or did not, if the photo was real, he either witnessed a miracle or he stuck the rodent in its mouth. If you bought that one, I respectfully submit I am sorry for your purchase and your time and frustration with SERPENTBOY, but join the ever growing club. And if you are indeed entitled to a refund, as SERPENTBOY clearly misrepresented the snake, and used misrepresentation and fraud to rob you of your money, no other way to see it. Trust his word it ate? Nope. Next thing you know he will start selling kingsnakes that eat bananas. Now if someone with a deserving reputation said it ate rodents and candy canes and lollipops and it did not for you, but did for them, then I might sway to ask you what you are doing wrong with the snake. But I doubt your doing anything wrong and you sound very experienced to me. If its SERPENTBOY who is selling the snake, hell, you just lucky the snake was alive when you received it and it lived more than a week. Be glad it either was not dead or has a disease to spread to your entire collection.
And if I were you Tim, I would demand he financially compensate you to have his misrepresented snake sent back to him the "legal" shipping fashion and let that crook be responsible for the $75.00 shipping headache he perhaps dumped on you. And demand a refund, and give him back the burden of a snake that only eats snakes, unless you are slighted to accept his offer for a discount. And that is what he is best at, sending misrepresented crap and negotiating a discount that makes him look like he is a reasonable businessman.
In either case, you perhaps know they do not commonly feed on rodents, so this is a touchy situation. I mean if someone sells baby chondros at high dollar guaranteeing them feeding on rodents, and the customer can only get his new pet to take lizards or frogs after hours and weeks of trying rodents, then that is perhaps borderline misrepresentation of the chondro, and it perhaps should have went for 50 bucks less than the rodent feeder, and the guy is entitled to 50 bucks or exchange the snake. However in your case with a snake feeder, heck now your big-time out on a limb because you have to either assume the larger expense of feeder snakes and lizards or go out and chance them down yourself.
I do know some people that have kept eastern corals on rodents for a year or so, but they all eventually seem to go back to snakes, Texas Corals perhaps are a bit easier? Did you pick it up, or was did SERPENTBOY send yet another deadly snake via UPS or Postal Service? Perhaps Fed Ex? I hope you picked it up. I do not think the authorities have enough room in their files for another case about SERPENTBOY shipping venomous UPS again.
By the way, did he also tell you it will wear a top-hat, sing and dance while balancing on a walking-cane sticking out of its ass? Well, perhaps he is saving that particular snake for a summer sale for bail money. He perhaps stuck a fuzzie in front of it and made it angry and it bit on to it, and perhaps it swallowed it, or perhaps it was so weakened he put a fuzzy in its mouth and took the picture, or perhaps it was starved and ate by itself as some recent wild caughts will do. In either case, just be glad you had only a brief encounter with him and left the deal with your shirt on. But how he could claim to put a rodent in the cage and be present when the snake actually took the food and he had his handy dandy camera ready is quite a miracle of coral snake feeding evolution. I mean I have a ton of nocturnal and diurnal snakes that are very sensitive like corals and shy away from attention and I cannot see them eat a lizard if I put a camera near them and hid it under a log? How did he get that photo? Hell, I would more so believe someone who did not even have that photo as most people who have experienced a coral taking a rodent, have done so the next day when they noticed the pink gone and the snake fat. Man this industry needs an acid bath to clean itself because the government has nothing better to do but put an end to their listening to people complain and just make it easier for them to shut it all down. Heck, some other criminal recently stole my 150 dollars for a central American coral snake that he sent me dying. And it died weeks later as predicted and his "defense" is that he has a picture of it eating and has witnesses it ate. Hell it ate for me too but that does not relieve him that the snake was dying a deadly disease and it was starving all the time from vomiting snakes? I mean who do these children snake dealers think they are fooling? Do they think because there mother bought them a computer and camera, its now the time to screw the public out of money? They take a picture and that is there way to avoid prosecution? Hell they should see how their mug shot is going to look when they are arrested for it. Hell the picture is only more evidence the bastard misrepresented the snake because I requested a picture of the snakes spine and backbone as I suspicious that the snake was sick and thin, and he sends a picture of the snake feeding with the food half way down its belly inflating the snakes overall appearance. He sends the opposite of what I ask and he thinks he can fool a 40 year old man? I guess these youthful energetic bastards who rip off people just need a good kick in the ass. And they will get it one day, if not by me, someone will clean their clock for them. And if they think they got the distance or high testosterone to keep eight eyes out like a spider, and they are such bad asses themselves, then they ought to visit the jails and prisons, because there are more bad asses like them in there, if not the grave already.
One way that does work or fool a coral snake into rodents, and perhaps how you were fooled is to take a washed pink and scent it with a snake or put snake poop or snake "scent" from a live snakes vent and put it on a rodent and they urge of a hungry or pissed off coral will make them jump right on to it. However this works best with starving corals, not your typical fattened coral snake. And it only works for about 4 or 5 feedings and then the coral gets withdrawals from a nice snake meal and has to have a snake to satisfy its natural instincts.
How much did you pay for the "rodent feeding" Texas Coral? Did you pay extra for it feeding on rodents? I did not get a Texas Coral from SERPENTBOY. I traded him for an Arizona coral last summer and he sent stubbed tail, dead, and obviously diseased ridden perhaps defrosted stinking snake to my front door via UPS when he knew better to use Delta. Do not take this con he pulled with you lying down. The longer he is permitted to screw people over the more he gets a rise out of it. The boy is sick with a thirst to steal and con people out of money. And he is more interested in screwing people out of money than he is interested in the hobby. He loves it, he wants it, and he WILL do it again. He will not post now but he has been viewing all these posts for quite some time as when I check on fauna a few times, he was always logged in. Send an email to my personal email if you want to discuss further. Oh, I bought a beautiful central American coral snake yesterday, a Micrurus diastema. Send me an email and I will send you a picture. It looks like a cross between an eastern coral snake and a mountain kingsnake with a ton of bands. Cool stuff.
Dan