What the Heck!?! Another Rant...

[Junkyard]

This is really bugging me. I have a neighbor who has been really on my nerves since the day he moved in. Why is it that he thinks I am going to just give him a bearded dragon? He keeps telling me "when you give one away, let me know, I want it" I constantly tell him I am more than happy to sell him one, he is quick to respond "nope, I do not want to buy one, just let me know when you want to get rid of yours". What the heck, dude!?! Sorry, I do not keep, breed, and sell "throw away pets".

Why is it that reptiles are throw away pets? Okay I know the answer, but I am always quick to respond to those that have that mindset, that they live longer than cats and dogs. Has this happen to anyone else, or am I the only one who gets asked when I am going to get rid of my pets?

It really is hard enough as it is, I have a father, sister(along with some that I know who lie to me) who disapprove of me breeding snakes. These two in particular will not speak with me now, I have not spoken to them in over a year now. I have tried to reconcile things(though there was nothing to reconcile in the first place). I actually thought my father and I had patched things up, but when my grandmother passed away last weekend, I have learned my father still has issues(many before I was ever born). My brother in Arizona, I am in California, had to e-mail me and tell me she passed away. When I called him later that evening, he just got off the phone and my stepmother was wanting to know if I was going to be at the funeral. What the heck!?! Why is it that they cannot just pick up the phone and tell me she died or ask me if I will be around? This is how I am treated for owning snakes.

I have such a passion for these snakes, my aunt still talks down to me, because she owned one boa for over 10 years so she knows more about reptiles than me. Of course when I speak with her, she really knows nothing at all, the first time I spoke with her about my snakes, she informed me that ball pythons were noting but vicious and could never, ever be trusted. I was trying to teach her the difference between BCI and BCC, I was holding a Suriname Boa at the time, looked passed that and refuse to accept that I actually am quite knowledgable about boas. My older brother, who has owned a snake long before I was ever allowed to growing up, now asks me for advice.

Here is another one, I have been asked be members of my family if the current snake I am showing off is venomous. Okay, no big deal, they do not know so it is valid question I am happy to answer. No! I do not deal with venomous, I have been bit too easily by nonvenomous, so I will never own any. That being said, everytime I have a different snake with me, they always ask if it is venomous, no matter how often I tell them I do not keep venomous, they will always ask. I feel like taking a hot branding iron and placing it on their foreheads backwards, so everytime they look in the mirror it reads "Michael does not, and will not ever keep venomous snakes, so stop asking!"

Just to add, my wife breeds hairless rats, people always ask her "did you shave it?" What the Heck!?! No she waxes the hair off.
"Here's your sign" -Bill Engval

Okay, I am done ranting for now, I am sure I will have more to rant about later down the road. I guess this is a lot more than I wanted to share, but hey, that is what I have to deal with. I guess I just needed to get it out.

 

[Ginger Ambrose]

It will be okay

Michael, I understand. My sister just found out I have snakes and raise
rats. We do not have alot of contact (mostly email),
Her comment, "you are nasty" "that is just gross". My answer was well, I
guess we won't be discussing that. LOL
I love my snakes, and just because someone (even family) does not understand or does not care for them has no place in my world.
I try to keep "Ginger World" as stress free as possible, so if you do not like snakes, you cannot come in.
And yes, people are always asking "do you still have those snakes?"
Like maybe I had decided to "get rid" of them.
I must say to those who feel these pets are a passing fancy...............
get over it, these "snakes" are my babies, I do not get them on a whim, I
choose them for life, and plan on a life time with them just like my human children.
Now if I could just get the human children to eat a rat a week, I could save sooooo much money LOL.

 

[Bill & Amy]

Aah Michael, I think we are all freaks in our parents eyes. LOL!! My stepfather is scared to death of snakes, he leaves the room if we even talk about them. My mom will talk about the snakes, but is scared of mice and rats. So they won't even come to my house and its for totally different reasons. My dad, uncle and grandfather think I've lost my mind, they just make the "face" and change the subject. Hell, most of them can't except I work from home, they think to have a job, you have to go somewhere and punch a timeclock. I get the "Have you found a job yet?" everytime I see them, WTF!! So I gave up, I just say "No". I actually had someone call the other day and offer me a job, found out my grandfather called him and told him I really needed a job. HELLO!!

So in the family I am the unemployed snake and rat freak!!

 

[Cat_72]

So in the family I am the unemployed snake and rat freak!!

LOL, I've been called a lot worse.....

I'm lucky.....my Mom thinks the snakes are cool. I have several friends that won't step foot in my house however, if I want to see them, I have to go to their house. I've gotten the "You still have those snakes and stuff?" a lot too...drives me nuts.....and then of course there's the people who think it's funny to make comments like, "I chase snakes around my yard to run them over with a lawn mower, that's the only thing they are good for!".

Some people just don't get it....and never will.

I will say I've had a few folks that always have said they are terrified of snakes see mine, and end up deciding they are pretty cool....there was a whole group of us standing around watching my butter corn shed one night, and even those "scared to death" of them found it amazing. There is hope for some of them yet!

 

[Junkyard]

Thank you for the kind words. I do try to just not worry about them, they do want anything to do with me because I own reptiles, so I have no need for them. I have just been a bit edgy since the passing of my grandmother, it is sad no one even bothers to contact me. All because I own snakes, what a sad pathetic bunch. I do not complain about their kids screaming and punching everything in sight, yet they are allowed to tell me how horrible snakes are.

 

[techgirl]

wow i thought my family was the only people like that. when i was pregnant, my mom demanded that i get rid of my 11 year old cat because she was going to kill the baby(no lie). when i got the bp, she hit the roof and said it's going to kill the baby(don't have the heart to say it's set up in her room). when i got my leos, they were going to pass some nasty disease to my daughter and kill her. i'm not even telling that i'm getting a bearded dragon. she doesn't even know about the discoids,mealies, and crickets that i keep(could you imagine that response?!?). mind you this is from the same woman who loved my iguana many years ago but that was ok because i was single at the time. surprised she hasn't called dyfs on my butt LOL

 

[ZenReptiles]

That sounds like my grandmother on my mom's side. (We almost never speak.) When I had my daughter, that lady drove me up a wall. My mom is really ill these days, and my grandmother does the same to her and tells her that she needs to get rid of her "disease ridden" cats and dog. When it's the animals that are a real benefit to my mom. My mom can sometimes barely remember her own two daughters' names (or sometimes even remember she has daughters), but she always recognizes her animals.

My neighbor/landlord/childhood friend (yes, he's all of the above), keeps telling me he has an aquarium set up for when my leo has babies. It's like, "did I say I was giving you one?" Lol!

 

[gothra]

Lol, this thread is fun to read, I have similar experience as well.... I keep leos and everytime I see my relatives and "long time no see" friends, I kept being asked how my leos are doing, and how big they are now. I can't even remember how many times I told them leos will only get to approx. 9-10 inches full grown....still, everytime I see them, they ask me the same stuff over and over and over again. geez, my leos aren't going to grow to 2 ft long even if they ask me a zillionth time (unless I have a super gigantic giant mammoth leo)...

With the idea of keeping cold-blooded creatures as pets, my mom can't understand their beauty as well. See, my sister have 2 chins, and while she was on holidays a while back, my mom looked after her chins for her and ended up falling in love with chins. Just yesterday, she told me how I made a wrong decision to keep leos, and that I really should get into chins in the first place...(sigh) they won't understand...

 

[Xelda]

I actually don't have much of a problem meeting people who like reptiles whether or not they know much about them. But I also keep about 30 different species of cockroaches with some huge colonies I use to feed my animals and my friend's animals. THAT is what freaks people out, including quite a few herpers.

Family-wise, I lucked out. Since my family is from Asia, the whole reptile and giant bug thing is old news to them, though not in the same respect. My dad thinks everything I own is awesome. Whenever I'm showing him a new tarantula, gecko, or snake, he'll ooh and ahh over it, then say, "Yeah, he's a good pet." I'm pretty sure my compassion for animals is something I picked up from my dad. I remember him bringing home a baby garter he rescued from some coworkers who were trying to kill it. And calling me outside one time just to show me a preying mantis that was on our porch. My mom loves the geckos and she makes an honest effort to like the snakes too, but everything else weirds her out. She can't understand why I intentionall raise these kinds of things. More importantly, she sees how much time I spend taking care of everything and consequently thinks I just own too much.

Still, I know what you mean about getting undesired reactions from people. I usually try not to let people know about what I keep at home. This became especially annoying when I had employers who tried to schedule me to work every hour I wasn't devoting to school. I could never explain to them why I needed time off in between school and work, so they thought I was just a slacker. One former boss got the info out of me, and then made fun of me ever since, which is why I stopped trying to tell people. I sometimes wonder who I see in real life is being low-key about their herp fascinations as well.

 

[Junkyard]

Just another rant, so I will keep it in my thread. My wife has a coworker who used to own a hognose("Used to be" is the operative phrase here) that her 4 year old daughter loved to death. They owned the snake for two years, one day it bit the girl and chewed on the girl's finger. Being most intelligent of all species, they never did any sort of research on hognose snakes at all. They went to the hospital thinking the girl had an infection or something. It never occurred to them that the snake was rear fanged and took a while for the doctors and the family to learn that while the girl was in the hospital waiting for treatment.

This person my wife works with is a vet assistant and works with animals for a living.

 

[Junkyard]

I should add that they return the hognose to the store they purchased it from and got a cornsnake for a replacement. At least they did not scare the girl away from snakes forever.

 

[Tim Cole]

vet tech...

I sold a Western Hog to a friend that was also a vet tech. She asked me what I had been feeding it. I told her "frozen pinkies". A week later I asked how the snake was doing and she told me that it had dropped the pinky that evening but ate it by morning. A few days later we were talkng and I mentioned that I was thawing rodents to feed the snakes. And she said "thawing the rodents"? That's when I realised that she was offering frozen and that's why it waited before eating it! Needless to say we got a good laugh from it. I didn't think I needed to tell her to thaw it first! LOL

 

[Karen Hulvey]

Oh Michael I feel for you. I deal with the public at the exotic pet store I work at and I've seen & heard it all and then some. But you, you have to deal with your own family. AAAAkkkk. You needed to vent.

We get rude people all the time in the shop. Just last week a guy was looking at the tarantulas and asked me: "Do people actually buy these things?" I said yes we sell a lot of them. He then asked: "For pets?" All the while laughing hysterically. Then the jerk goes on to say: "Why can't people just buy normal pets you know like cats & dogs." I just walked off. You can't deal with people like that. What I was thinking could not be said in the vicinity of children.

Then we get the people who are terrified of snakes. The door is clearly marked REPTILES & EXOTIC ANIMALS. Maybe to them a snake isn't a reptile or an exotic animal. I don't know what they're thinking or expecting when they enter the store but they start freaking out and making a fool of themselves when they see the snakes. It's in a cage, walk away. Sheesh.

Then there are the dumb questions like:
"Is there anything running around loose that's gonna kill me?" Like I'd be there all day long if there was something dangerous running loose that is able to kill people.
"Where are the exotic animals?" "I don't see anything exotic." (I have no idea what this guy thought exotic meant. I didn't ask either.)
"This hamster is running back and forth, back and forth." "Why is he doing that?"
I have a lovebird sitting on my finger showing a customer. Another customer asked me; "Is that bird tame?" The first customer answered for me, "Well duh, what's it look like to you?"
"What does a snake do?"
"Why would you want a snake?"
"Who in their right mind would have a snake in their house?"
"Why are there water bowls in with the snakes?"
"Will the rat/mouse chew out of this box while I get groceries?" (thin take home carrier) What do you think?
"If you can't keep kingsnakes together, how do you breed them?"
"If you can't keep bettas together, then how do you breed them?" Like I'm going to take an hour explaining to these people how to breed an animal they're never going to breed. They just want to justify keeping animals together when I told them they can't.

At least 10 times a day people look at the cage labeled: Leucistic Texas ratsnake and say: "Texas rattlesnake?" "How can you sell a rattlesnake?" "Aren't those illegal?" I simply say yes and leave them wondering. No one has called the Dept. of Conservation yet. I have been waiting for this to happen.

We get people calling all the time asking why their animal died. Like I was there taking care of it. They actually get mad when I can't come up with an answer for them. Most of the time to everything I suggest they say, no, no, no so I barely even try any more.

Last summer one lady came in and wanted a refund on the bearded dragon she bought the month before. It died after it ate a bunch of toads she had caught outside. I told her that toads are toxic and that's most likely why it died and we don't give a refund when she caused the death. She was furious because when she bought the dragon we didn't tell her NOT to feed it toads. No one told her TO feed it toads. How in the world can we tell people everything NOT to feed their animal when they buy it? Who would have ever thought she was going to feed it toads?

One lady bought a sun conure Christmas, 2001. It died last week. She called and wanted a full refund because one of us told her it could live for 20 years.

Then there is the lady who has a White's tree frog. Every time she comes in she complains that it isn't growing. I know she only buys 6 crickets a week and she got her 6 crix that day too. I told her again as I have told her multiple times in the past she has that animal on a starvation diet. Not only is it NOT going to grow, but she is slowly starving it to death.

Another guy bought 2 baby cornsnakes in October 2005. He came in last week complaining that one died. I asked him the basic questions about temps, feeding, handling, etc. He said it only ate 3 times since October, 2005. I tell everyone who buys baby snakes to call if they refuse a meal and bring it in if they have refused 2 meals so I can get it feeding again. I asked him why he didn't call me when the snake started refusing food and he said it never refused food, he only offered it 3 pinky mice since October, one in Nov., one in Dec., and one in Jan. One pinky a month! He starved it to death and is working on starving the other one too. He said that he read an article online that said you only have to feed a snake once a month. I tried in vain to explain to this person the difference in a huge adult snake eating a pig and a tiny hatchling snake eating a pinky and it all fell on deaf ears. He's going to kill the other one too and it'll be our fault I'm sure.

One fella couldn't understand why his ball python died. I started asking him basic questions starting with the temps in the cage. When I ask this question, most of the time people act really dumb saying they don't know how to find out the temp in the cage. He did just that and then said he didn't have a thermometer. He said he heats his house with wood and at night it drops down to the 40-50° range because the fire goes out. I asked him what sort of extra heat he provided the snake. He said he didn't have any heat in the cage at all but he did give the snake a blanket. No wonder it died. I explained to him that a blanket will not keep a snake warm, that the snake is cold blooded and is the same temperature as the air around it. Sarcastically he then asks me how the snakes in the wild here in Missouri live through the winter when it gets way colder than 40° outside if 40° is too cold for his snake.

Another guy wanted to see the ball python babies. I get one out and hand it to him. It barely touches his hand and he drops it in the floor. It didn't strike, hiss or anything. It was balled up. He kept saying it bit him even though he had no marks and the snake's head was in its coils. I put the snake in the back room to see if it lives and I come back out and the guy actually wanted to hold another one and I refused and I told him he was lucky I didn't make him pay for the other one. He got mad and left.

People come in all the time wanting feeder fish. We don't sell feeder fish. They browse around looking at the fish. Then they almost always come up and ask me, sarcastically, what we feed our oscars and piranhas if we don't sell feeder fish. Like feeder fish is the only thing you can feed those animals.

Most of those incidents happened last week and another great week with the public starts tomorrow.

 

[Junkyard]

Wow, Karen that looks like it is right out of your diary. Though it seems like most of those people you deal with are the kids working at the pet stores around here. I always tell my wife that it is a good thing I am not around people and animals like she is, I am way to sarcastic and critical in person. I am also too honest to be sympathetic. You have a lot of patience to deal with all of that. Hey, how is it that a ball python can survive in 40 degree weather in Africa but not Missouri?

That reminds me of another relative of mine, he got a ball python and was asking a lot of questions about it, making sure it was in good living conditions. The ball was under a year old, he said she loves eating live mice and she was doing well. A few months later I saw the snake, she was so skinny and cold I could not believe it. I was looking at her cage and it was bad, this relative lives up in the mountains were snow falls every year. For heating he had the snake's cage on the edge of the table were the under ground heater would blow air up onto the cage. He has a UTH that he did not plug in. So not only did he starve this snake which he fed only every other month, if that, he also froze it. He called us one day and said it died, my wife was on the phone talking to him, good thing it was not me. He also went through two hamsters in that same time frame, I guess he thought that they only needed to eat as much as snakes do. All this was in a 7 month time frame. Some people's children!

 

[Junkyard]

Just when I think my family cannot come up with anything dumber to use to push me farther and farther away, I get a new reason. I find that I am wondering why I was born into the family I have far more often.

My sister is pregnant, I would say gravid, but the reptile community does not deserve such an insult. This past weekend, my sister has told me(through my mother) that my wife and I are not allowed to be around her newborn baby(not sure when she is due) until it is at least one month old. Her reason, is that she does not want her child to develop Cerebral Palsy because we handle rats.

I know there are diseases that rats can give to humans that can be dangerous like the Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, Murine Typhus, and Leptospirosis which is found in wild rats. I breed my own rodents and do not take in any wild caught rats, sorry, but I value my snakes and would never endanger them in such a way. We use gloves when cleaning cages, I even change gloves when I think they are a bit dirty(I have a thing about my hands always being clean). Her children have a better chance of getting sick in my sisters home than in my home.

I should mail her an envelope full of fruit flies and tell her I have infected her house with the Black Plague.

 

[ladyserpent7]

wow..michael..thank god they didnt disown you...whats up with that...my god..sheesh...i dont get anything that bad...i have a few relatives that dont come over anymore..and i always get asked the STUPID question...oh.. you still have her..she didnt die yet.......now why on earth would she just die...if thats not the most stupid question ive heard...i dont know what is.....and i didnt know this.....but i guess the MAJORITY of ppl seem to think that all snakes are venemous...when really only 10% is....wow...the ignorance of some ppl,,its almost hilarious.

 

[Karen Hulvey]

This past weekend, my sister has told me(through my mother) that my wife and I are not allowed to be around her newborn baby(not sure when she is due) until it is at least one month old. Her reason, is that she does not want her child to develop Cerebral Palsy because we handle rats.

WOW!!! I wonder if an actual M.D. told them that little bit of fiction?
One lady gave me a couple of adult corn snakes because her OB/GYN told her that her UNBORN baby could get salmonella if SHE touched the snakes. Complete stupidity. I told her what her M.D. told her was not possible but only AFTER I had her snakes. She didn't deserve them. She told me her M.D. knows what he's talking about and she's not gonna listen to some dummy who works at a pet store. Her doctor went to medical school. Ahahahahahaha I laughed at her until she left.

 

[nicolai]

Well i have a large malaysian water monitor that Likes to swim. I walk him down to the beach every now and then during the summer. All the neighbors have grown to know him over the past few years but I still have people (out of towners) and others that call the police and say "theres a guys walking an aligator down the road" or "that guy has a komodo dragon" and stuff like that. I dont know why people cant mind thier own business and leave other people alone.

I had one guy last year pass me while he was walking his four rotties and say "you cant have that out here" the whole time two of his dogs are crapping in the street. I had my monitor leashed just like he had his dogs and i told him so. I told him i am walking my pet just like he is walking his and too boot his final remark to me was "yeah but my pets couldnt kill people like that thing". Hmmmm... four very large rottweilers cant kill a person but a hand tamed water monitor could. Time he got his facts straight.

 

[OBES]

Someone needs to be handing out signs to some of these folks! We had some folks call animal control to come out and see what we were selling because our business name has the word "Exotics" in it. The officer told us that they were told that we had alligators, tigers and such......now, why would I have that when it is illegal to keep such animals in my county?? He just laughed and then proceeded to asked us if we would be willing to take in rescues or come and get reptiles when they do raids.

We give specific instructions to a customer before they leave the shop about how to feed, house etc, as I'm sure others do also. When they call us up and ask what is wrong with their pet because it stopped eating and we find out that the cage temp is too low and we have them fix that, they come in to get feeders and tell us that we sure know what we were talking about!! LOL Well......duh.....ya think??? We only sell reptiles and other exotics.....but nope, don't know a thing about caring for them......sheesh!

How about this one.......a girl emailed the shop on a Friday evening (I didn't get her email until after the weekend as we were at a show) and said that her iguana had gotten too cold the night before and it was on the bottom of it's cage and wasn't moving and she couldn't see it breathing.....did I think it was dead. Now, I'm not a vet......but at least I would have called one to be on the safe side.

 

[nicolai]

Have you ever had the "mystery" boxes and bags turn up at your front door containing a reptile someone no loger wanted?? It sure has happened to me.