Dianne Johnson
New member
I know this is preaching to the choir but had to get this off my chest. <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='
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I drove a friend out of state this weekend for a trade, a neonate boa she produced for an adult burmese python. All seemed well and good because I know her animal was well taken care of and the other person stated his animal was also in excellent condition. Upon arrival, we were both stunned to see the conditions this animal had been kept in. The cage was filthy, urates and feces smeared across the glass doors, dried urates in a number of places on the floor and in the substrate, no heat source was hooked up (the temps outside were okay, but this was in a garage against cement) and the water bowl provided for a 12 foot snake was one of those rock style bowls that held maybe 2 pints of water. The snake had retained eyecaps and several patches of old shed still stuck to her and number of her ventral scales are split or cracked - most likely caused by laying in urine and feces for extended periods from what I can estimate from past experiences with rescues.
On the plus side, the snake is an absolute sweetheart - very docile and gentle, handles well (from the travel home and the subsequent bathing once home) and is eatting quite well (got her Saturday, fed her Sunday). The body weight is good for her size, not overweight or underweight. My friend did go through with the trade because she wanted the burmese and the boa would be more suitable for this individual (the python's owner supposedly did have a setup for the new boa in the main part of the house). The trade was also with the agreement that if the boa did not work out for him we would come back and get it. Overall we're both quite happy with the python itself but appalled by the conditions in which it was kept. We understood that the owner didn't have a 2nd person to assist with the snake and that can hamper cleaning and husbandry issues with such a large snake, but this was beyond one or even two missed cleanings. It took two hours once we got home to clean & disinfect the cage (wood), clean the glass doors & tracks and then add another 20-30 minutes spent soaking the snake to clean it (she had a strong urine odor about her). Essentially this went from a trade to a rescue.
Neither of us would have minded the situation quite so much if we had been warned ahead of time. We could have accepted that the cage wasn't clean and the snake needed some TLC because the owner was limited in how much he could work with it. The problem was that we were told the snake was in excellent condition, had been well taken care of, etcetra, when in fact it had been somewhat neglected due to circumstance. It's an old gripe I know, but honesty really goes such a long way - whether it's a trade or a purchase - in dealings with an individual. While I wasn't completely surprised because of the dealings I've read about on the BOI, it's left my friend with a very bad taste for trades or purchasing from individuals. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I'd like to think these circumstances are the exception rather than the rule - although I sometimes wonder after reading the stories posted here.
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>
'> I drove a friend out of state this weekend for a trade, a neonate boa she produced for an adult burmese python. All seemed well and good because I know her animal was well taken care of and the other person stated his animal was also in excellent condition. Upon arrival, we were both stunned to see the conditions this animal had been kept in. The cage was filthy, urates and feces smeared across the glass doors, dried urates in a number of places on the floor and in the substrate, no heat source was hooked up (the temps outside were okay, but this was in a garage against cement) and the water bowl provided for a 12 foot snake was one of those rock style bowls that held maybe 2 pints of water. The snake had retained eyecaps and several patches of old shed still stuck to her and number of her ventral scales are split or cracked - most likely caused by laying in urine and feces for extended periods from what I can estimate from past experiences with rescues.
On the plus side, the snake is an absolute sweetheart - very docile and gentle, handles well (from the travel home and the subsequent bathing once home) and is eatting quite well (got her Saturday, fed her Sunday). The body weight is good for her size, not overweight or underweight. My friend did go through with the trade because she wanted the burmese and the boa would be more suitable for this individual (the python's owner supposedly did have a setup for the new boa in the main part of the house). The trade was also with the agreement that if the boa did not work out for him we would come back and get it. Overall we're both quite happy with the python itself but appalled by the conditions in which it was kept. We understood that the owner didn't have a 2nd person to assist with the snake and that can hamper cleaning and husbandry issues with such a large snake, but this was beyond one or even two missed cleanings. It took two hours once we got home to clean & disinfect the cage (wood), clean the glass doors & tracks and then add another 20-30 minutes spent soaking the snake to clean it (she had a strong urine odor about her). Essentially this went from a trade to a rescue.
Neither of us would have minded the situation quite so much if we had been warned ahead of time. We could have accepted that the cage wasn't clean and the snake needed some TLC because the owner was limited in how much he could work with it. The problem was that we were told the snake was in excellent condition, had been well taken care of, etcetra, when in fact it had been somewhat neglected due to circumstance. It's an old gripe I know, but honesty really goes such a long way - whether it's a trade or a purchase - in dealings with an individual. While I wasn't completely surprised because of the dealings I've read about on the BOI, it's left my friend with a very bad taste for trades or purchasing from individuals. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I'd like to think these circumstances are the exception rather than the rule - although I sometimes wonder after reading the stories posted here.
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='
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