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serpents den

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jmkhet

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has anyone out there dealt with SerpentsDen owned by Steve Markevich... im thinking about buying some snakes from him just wanted to know if anyone of you went through this guy, any past experiences thanks...
 
nice animals

I have bought several snakes from Serpents Den at the local shows. His snakes are always some of the nicest. I would not hesitate to buy from them.

Allan Shultz
 
I bought a northern diamondback terrapin from him 1 1/2 weeks ago. It's in excellent condition and is already eating out of my hand. :D

I wouldn't hesitate to buy anything from them.

dbt1.jpg
 
steve

so no bad input all animals arrived safe, they were on time, the right animal?Great thanks for the input so far startin to ease my mind a bit.
 
I have been to his shop several times. His animals all look healthy, clean, and free of parasites. He was also more than willing to come out and chat a while, and even show his "prize" boas to me, although I had admitted I wasn't buying.
 
His store is about an hour from me and we have stopped their 3 or 4 times. He always has beautiful animals. We met with his wife there and checked out their argentines but none had the personality I wanted. But they were very healthy. I had the pleasure of meeting their breeders and they are gorgeous also. Cages are clean, always water in cages. And they are very upfront and honest about their animals.
 
great guy

hi there stev is a great guy i have bought many snakes from him venomous or not and everything is doing great you should have no problems with him at all
steve burke
dragon herps
 
HE is a nice guy and all but My step daughter had her snake up there to be bred and it came back with neumonia and a broken back. It was a 6 ft female ball python that weighed 6 pounds. Animal control and the Humaine society are investigating this incident. Our vet did a necropsy on it for her and found that the back was broken about 5-10 days prior to being put down due to the injuries. At that time she was in Steve's care. He has some great animals but please be careful. I don't want anyone else to experiance what my step daughter went through.
 
Steve is a great guy and i've known him for quite a long time. I go to his shop often and everything is always in tip top shape and all his animals are very well cared for. Also, I've always been more than happy with every animal I've ever gotten from him (quite a few) and he always has time to chat about new projects or show me some of his prize ball pythons. Thumbs up Steve!;)
 
redrex said:
HE is a nice guy and all but My step daughter had her snake up there to be bred and it came back with neumonia and a broken back. It was a 6 ft female ball python that weighed 6 pounds. Animal control and the Humaine society are investigating this incident. Our vet did a necropsy on it for her and found that the back was broken about 5-10 days prior to being put down due to the injuries. At that time she was in Steve's care. He has some great animals but please be careful. I don't want anyone else to experiance what my step daughter went through.
Click to expand...


Please ignore the above post Originally posted by redrex . This was made by someone who is trolling the site under a false name after his real name (Clif Hallman, aka blu93stang) was banned due to his behavior in this topic: http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/for...=5&pagenumber=1


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Dr Owens Captive Bred Reptiles
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Hi Evereyone,

I have met Clif Hallman and his girlfriend Stefanie Saltzman when they come to my store to purchase a Ball Python and they seemed like nice people to me at the time.
While visiting to make a purchase Stefanie mentioned to me that she had a male Ball Python that was doing very poorly and has not been interested in eating anything for many months. She took the Ball Python to a Vet Clinic but "Not Write's Veterinary Clinic" and the Vet gave them a medication I'm not familiar with and the Vet told her that her snake was terminally ill and was not expected live. Anyway I asked them to bring this sick snake in so I could give her my opinion and I treated her Ball Python with a dosage of Panacur & Flagyl and sold them a tube of Bene-Bac “Live Microorganisms” to administer. Anyway within a week Stefanie told me her snake has doing fine and started feeding once again which I was happy to hear.
Stefanie & Clif mentioned they had a 6’ female Ball Python which I was very interested in using to breed to either my male Spider or Pastel Ball Python. She agreed to leave this 6’ Ball Python in my care throughout the breeding season. They brought this Ball Python to my store and it was a good solid 4’ and looked quit healthy by first appearance but far from being a six footer. From that very first day I was getting daily e-mails from Stefanie asking how her snake was doing and I would reply and told her the snake was doing fine.
The next day or two after I received her Ball Python I fed it a large rat that she took without hesitation and a day or two later I noticed there snake laying in an inverted position which sometimes they do after a large meal.
Anyway I seen there Ball Python twisting up and inverted in a weird position a week or so later I asked Stefanie about it and she told me that her snake normally done this only sweater boxes and would not do it in a larger cage. I told Stefanie I would like her to get blood work and a fecal done on her snake and recommended Wright’s Veterinary Clinic and they elected to take it to there own Vet. Stefanie mentioned having the snake x-rayed before even picking the snake back up from me and I thought that was kind of strange.
Clif & Stefanie picked up the snake and called after the trip to the Vet and told us her Ball Python had a broken back which if it did I could not explain or believe that it could have happened in our care since it was in a rack system and left untouched.
We got another call from Clif and he said the snake was diagnosed with IBD and Pneumonia and tried blaming me for this. In my opinion I have seen no signs of any respiratory problems and wondered what happened with the broken back story.
I spoke with Clif on the phone to discuss this situation and thought we had this all cleared up until he showed me another side of himself on this site.

Bottom line is I think Clif & Stefanie were trying to set me up with a snake they knew had problems because Clif said they wanted me to give them one of my large adult females in exchange which I would not do unless I was at fault and I don't feel one bit responsible.

Thanks to those of you who left words of encouragement

Sincerely,
 
I purchased a very nice Bredls python from Steve, it was shipped properly and was in perfect condition when it arrived. I would recommend the Serpents Den to anyone considering buying from them. Regards, Jim Elliott
 
I'm very sorry for what my other half Clif Hallman (AKA blu93stang) and step father Michael Travaline (AKA redrex) started here on the BOI.
To start with I have no problems with Steve at Serpent's Den I don't believe he is responsible for the loss of my Ball Python. I personally seen how all his reptiles are cared for and have to also have to give them credit for the
amazing job they do there and not to mention helping me out on several occasions.
My last purchase I got a gorgeous male Ball Python and a couple really nice Bearded Dragon morphs all are perfect and doing great.
My step father was over the same night Clif posted $hit and that is the reason for the same IP address. So I am so sorry that I my step father posted in this thread I was just very emotional and placed blame before really thinking.
I will post a sorry post in the Prehistoric Pets thread also. That post was over read and Clif didn't read to which Prehistoric Pets it was. The store we had problems from was the one in Fountain Valley.
Once I was banned off the site for a while, I kept myself away till I can afford going back on. I told Clif that I wanted nothing to do with what he does on this site. But what I see, he has started some stuff that I woudn't have done. I'm brave enough to come back on and clean myself up by stating
I'm sorry for the wrongs that have been started. Clif has his own problems to clean up. I'm here like everybody else, trying to sell some great animals and have a great time talking to
people who have bigger experince with reptiles. Please, if I have forgotten something to say or to say sorry about, please let me know. I will gladly explain any problems the right way.
 
Given the time period of the snake's supposedly contracting IBD from the facility it was sent to and then being positively diagnosed with IBD presumably from a biopsy, I'm deeply suspicious. It takes some time for IBD lesions to form to the point that you can get a definitive diagnosis.

What laboratory made the diagnosis, and what organ was biopsied? And could you post a digital photo of the x-rays please?
 
T-The female didn't have IBD. We thought she did, but it wasn't IBD at all. Broken back and Pnemonia. We have no idea how her back got broken. It was probably something she had from her last owner and she reaggravated (sp?) it over at Steve's shop.
 
Just out of curiosity did this snake with the broken back go to a Wildlife Rehab in Maryland. I got in a boa with broken back (in three places) in January through that rescue...
 
I know of some clinically healthy, normal appearing and acting snakes that had fractured vertebrae as well as a number of broken ribs on x-ray, but they were all very large pythons that were on the obese side. Best guess is that their own body weight possibly combined with a lack of Vitamin D and/or absorble calcium/magnesium caused the problem.

Dietary deficiencies can and do cause osteoporosis in reptiles which can lead to unexplained fractures. This is considerably more common in lizards than snakes, but I wouldn't rule it out in a snake.

There is always the possibility of physical trauma. A competent reptile vet would stand a fair chance of diagnosing the problem more definitively by checking the animal for indications of osetoporosis or other systemic problems. In the absence of such indications, trauma would have to be assumed.

Snakes are not too bright and will traumatize themselves on the cage furniture if that's even remotely possible, but I'm not sure how a ball python in a standard rack setup could manage the trick unless it got itself pinched or squeezed between drawers.
 
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