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Bad Guy Tim Koppenhofer, Special K Reptiles

Jason,

I understand your frustration, but dont give up on reptile shows/expos. You are on the right path by now understanding what to look for in an animal, an by being more discriminating and cautious of who you by from. There are still many reputable breeders that vend at these shows that you can buy from. Do your homework first, utilize the BOI.

As far as Tim goes, I have known him for a very long time. When he first came more prevalent at the shows I purchased quite a few animals from him, mainly boas, and only had one problem with a group of sub-adults I purchased, where the end result was 2 of them died shortly after I took possesion. Thank God for quarentine. I later found out that they were not Tims animals, and were taken in on a trade not long before I aquired them. Tim did make good without hesitation.

Now that was quite awhile ago, and since then I do still talk to him at shows and browse his table, but I no longer buy from him ....ONLY.... , because he generally does not have what I am looking for, and if he does, I can usually find it from another quality vendor at a lower cost.

So, like I said, dont give up on the shows. They can still be a positive experience when the right research is done.
 
All the previous things said are what make dealing with mites almost a given when working with reptiles. I have talked to Tim and looked over his tables quite a few times and his animals are always clean and outwardly healthy. I know Tim wouldn't purposefully sell a snake with mites.

Someone could have handled the snake before you bought it and transfered mites. Someone could have set an infected snake in a bag on his displays asking for a trade. The Cleveland show has a good number of quality vendors, but also usually has a few people slinging "rescued" animals and fresh imports. Add that to the show allowing outside animals in and you can see that there is little control on what makes it's way around your animals.

Make sure to start treating all snakes you get (online or shows) while setting them up in quarantine. I won't go into it here but if you need help you can ask in a regular forum thread and should get pointed in the right direction.

I would say trying to make a scene would be a quick way to get yourself show the door and asked not to come back.
 
After calming down I have come to realize that it probably isnt Tim's fault. I have taken 3 of my snakes out of their enclosures (I have a 3 high stack unit) separated them into Tupperware containers. Two out of the three had mites, I have removed the mites that were on the animals, threw away the green indoor/outdoor carpet that I had in their enclosures, sprayed RID in all three enclosures and on everything that was in their enclosures. I am going to leave the boa's in the tupperware containers for a few days and let the enclosures air out and let the RID do its thing. After that I plan on throughly cleaning the enclosures, rechecking the animals and if all looks clear then they can go back in their enclosures. I am afraid of exposing the animals directly to any pesticide, so hopefully this works.

I apologize for ranting the way I did and jumping to conclusions.

If there is a way to have this thread deleted by mods please do so, I rather not give someone else the wrong idea about Tim.
 
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Jason,
I see you realized they didn't come from Tim. Tim sets up behind me @ Columbus & he uses white subsrate in his displays. If any of his snakes had mites you would notice them right away. Any time you go to expo or even pet store you take the risk of bringing home a hitch hiker mite. The only fail safe way of never getting mites is to not attend expos or pet shops. My clothing goes right into the wash & shoes stay in the garage & I get a shower right after I get back before heading into my reptile rooms.
 
I was just going to comment on that, Chris - I saw Tim today, and noticed he is using (what looks like) Diamond Soft. Pretty hard for mites to go unnoticed in that stuff....but I looked a bunch of them over, anyways - particularly the albino and hypo boas. They were all immaculate.
Before I left, I took the liberty of telling Tim about this thread; so he may comment when he gets things settled...but I'd like to tell a quick story that pertains to this thread:
One of the things I was talking to Tim about was a potential trade (mind you, this was before I told him about this thread). I had a couple of albino motleys with me, and one had a few small black spots on it...which Tim noticed right away. He was nonchalant about it, but I noticed that he wouldn't touch the container until he had asked me about them (tactfully asking if she had a couple of paradox spots). He then admitted that, at first glance, he had thought they might be mites.

I've gotten a few snakes from Tim, and every one of them has been mite free and in good health. I've also spoken with him at multiple shows, and looked over his animals while he was dealing with customers. Neither of those statements mean that the OP couldn't have gotten a snake with mites from Tim...but they did make it easier to raise the possibility that the mites came from another source. (Admittedly, there are other vendors that I would NOT have done that for, because I've seen mites on their animals).

Anyway, thank you for being honest about what you found - not everybody is, after starting a thread like this. Too bad (IMO) it puts a big red x in front of Tim's name - it certainly seems unjustified, under the circumstances.
 
Each and every time that I go to a show, the first thing I do when I return home is to strip down, put my clothes in the hamper, and take a shower before even thinking of going into my snake room. No matter how many good breeders there are at each show, there are at least a few not so good ones!

I have received mites from snakes being shipped to me, too. One of them was a snake that I bought from Tim. I alerted him to the situation and he apologized and explained that they may have been picked up from the show he vended that weekend.

I didn't start a BG post then, nor am I bringing this up now because I believe him to be a bad guy for the couple of mites he sent me (literally were only a few so the snake could not have had them for very long), but rather because of the fact that mites do exist in our hobby and ANYONE can get them...especially when regularly vending shows. I basically told him not to worry about it because I was in the habit of treating each and every snake for mites as it's first step in quarantine. (Granted, the presence of mites does mean a minimum of 6 months in quarantine--my practices.)

As far as your treatment, try a product called Provent-a-mite. Just do NOT allow your snake to be near the treated enclosure until it is COMPLETELY DRY!! It works wonderfully, but the fumes/residue (if it's not dry) can cause neurological problems in your animal.
 
Tim Is a Good Guy

Just putting it out there, I have been a customers of Tim, and am 1Million Percent Satisfied. Bought 5 animals off him, perfect health, and everything u would want. I speak to him whenever he shows up to the Wheaton Show, and t tinley NARBC. Tim and his wife are very pleasant, and treats me with respect, even though we dont know each other that well.

Rule of thumb, whenever u get a new animal, treat with prevent a mite or equivilant, quarantine for a little bit, then go from there. Take precautions. I HAVE YET TO HAVE A MITE IN MY COLLECTION, and am very anal about my husbandry. I will continue to buy from Special K, without question. Great People to Deal With.:yesnod:
 
I thought I would end this whole thing by saying that Tim actually called me and gave me super good advice on how to rid my animals of the mites and we actually talked for awhile. After talking with him I came to realize that he is a good guy and that he lives not far down the road from me, which is awesome to have someone with such quality animals so close!
 
I'm glad that you worked things out with Tim! I have bought many ball pythons from him and have had nothing but good experiences buying and trading with him.
 
Looks like a happy ending to a bad beginning. I've done business with Tim and was SUPER happy with the pastel axanthic I got from him. I wouldn't hesitate to do business with him again.
 
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