Please, let me explain..
i've been looking for these gonyosoma janseni adults for about a year now, dreaming more and more about producing my own young of this species after dealing with gonyosoma oxycephala for so long, and i could not find even ONE adult pair anywhere.. i've been begging frieght freitas for almost a year for a pair, and i've run into a few people selling babies, but no luck finding adults of this species.. let alone exceptionally pretty ones. so when i finally saw this pair available, my heart dropped.. and i was so happy to find them, that i thought that even if they had a few mites or a light RI, i would Still have been so happy to have found them at all.. especially since i felt that if anyone could treat them like the amazing species they are, i could.. and i felt that i'd be able to handle it because i not only have access all of the meds i could need, but i also have a great vet and a lot of experience with gonyosoma ilnesses, thanks to dealing with so many wild caught gonyosoma oxycephala. also, they're worth much more to me than their pricetag value, so i was pretty sure that there was no medical bill that would stop me from bringing these beautiful creatures back to perfect health. so the fact that they even had this pair available after a year of looking, and that they were more than average beauty, is worth atleast a rating of 7-8 points to me out of 10.. so that's where the 7-8 points out of 10 came from.. not because i was pleased to find mites or RI or anything, but because they opened a door for me that i've been looking for for a while. i've been getting gonyosoma oxycephala for a while now, a lot of them come with free mites and RI, and they (the dealers) all tell me pretty much the same thing: they were wild caught/imports.. mites, RI and other illnesses are just something that come with them, there's nothing anyone can do about that since it's expected in the wild caught/import world of the snake hobby. the first few times, i didn't believe them, and i'd buy from someone else.. but they all told me pretty much the same thing at one point or another, so i just assumed that mites and RI were an unfortunate, but accepted, part of purchasing wild caught/imports, so i didn't deduct a whole lot of points from my 7 out of 10 rating. however, after Rapture's post, i started to see that the puzzle pieces actually fit together in a more logical way HER way, than the way that my "blinded by the fact that i finally found them" eyes had previously put together. she pointed out that just because i wasn't Aware that i was "robbed of what i SHOUILD have had", doesn't mean that i wasn't actually "robbed". * As far as the "adoption/rescue" comment is concerned, it is as ophidile said.. i don't ASK for animals (though i Will give them a home when they have nowhere else to go), nor do i ask for (or have ever recieved) donations or any kind of money.. it's all out of my own pocket. i just provide a service simular to an adoption/rescue service, because i AM willing to give any animal a home and care for it until it is healthy again, whether that takes medicine, a lot of rehabilitation, or just a clean friendly house to stay at until a new home is found. since i have the time and desire, and like i said, i have a great exotics vet, i felt that i should offer my services to any animals/reptiles/etc who need it. * about the business name: i do not currently do business under that name as of yet, since it's not registered yet, but i do like to get the name out as much as possible, and let people know to keep an eye out for that name, because i Will be doing business under that name in the future once the registration is complete, and i'd like to have people recognize the name as being linked to me when they see it and trust that the company has my passion and integrity behind it. * about the comment cat_72 said: supporting it was never my intention, and i felt very ripped off the first few times i had recieved sick snakes with mites, but was told over and over (usually post-sale, After i actually FIND the mites/RI) that those things are a common part of the business and part of getting wild caught snakes. i realize that the act of buying them at all, in some ways, makes me seem to support it, but i was made to believe that it's practically industry standard for imports/wild caughts to be sick with mites, and then felt that they'd be much better off in MY hands where i can give them meds and one on one care, than stuck in a small tank in a store with minimum (if any) attention given to them.. please keep in mind though, that each time, i am told they are "in good apparent health", and sometimes they actually are, but often they have some sort of illness or mites. also, i was to understand that this was just the way it was, and so i could only hope they were actually healthy and deal with the consequences when i got them, and just be happy that i have the species at all, then give them the care they need. * about the x-mas rush post: i knew that under normal circumstances, i'd never purchase from someone like what i about read in those posts, since ANY chance that i'd get an unhealthy animal is usually enough to stop me from even considering an animal from that person/company.. but i must admit: the fact that i've been looking for these for so long, and that she had a PAIR of them and they were Beautiful.. it made me WANT to believe they were a good company, and believe the unlikelyhood of their flaws being x-mas based only, and i subconsiously Wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, and believe that they could send me these apparently healthy animals in a professional manor as to get them to me unharmed, even though it was winter. * well, since i think i have just written the longest post of all time,i'll end it here to see if anyone else has written in this topic.. oh, actually, about the pics: before i even had a chance to pull them out of the box, i saw the order form, saying that i'm not covered under any kind of live arrival OR guarantee! ... so once my heart started beating again, i went to open the box fully expecting them to have sent me week-old corpses, since i had just been informed that what i got is what i'm stuck with.. no refunds, no warranty, no guarantee, no exchanges, and no live arrival.. nothing. i pulled them out, and thank god they were alive! however, once i saw the mites, i threw the box out right away. i didn't see any reason to take pics of them while they were this bad, since the less stress the better, and pictures of these snakes sick wouldn't do me any good anyway, since they wouldn't reimburse me either way, whether they died before or after i opened the box, and i'd much rather let them acclimate with as little added stress as possible, instead of getting pics of them at their worst and adding stress without a reason. however, the mites aren't gone completely yet.. their eyes are still puffy and the scales/skin around the eye is sticking up all around the eyes on both of them, but the baytril has helped them enough to where i might be able to take them out for a few quick snapshots of the eyes tonight, if you're sure that would help my case enough to risk possibly adding some otherwise unneeded stress? they've had a few days of alone time to acclimate to the new house, so hopefully it won't be too much trouble for them, either.. but i'd still prefer to only do it if you think it will help my case. i'll keep checking this topic for posts, of course, so just let me know. thanks everyone! oh, and i only put the *'s there to let you know that a new topic is starting at that sentance, just to make it easier to skip around, since it's a long letter. -Ryan
excuse for shipping out sick and mite infested snakes, imports or not...not only is it poor business, it's just plain cruel. Someone who would ship out animals in this condition shouldn't be dealing with live animals at all...and someone who would condone it probably shouldn't either.
