I’ll post the pictures further down, but I wanted to caution everyone about the potential hazards of using plastic mesh bags to ship reptiles in. I honestly didn’t know people still used them, so this was a surprise for me.
I recently received a WC emerald tree skink, and she was delayed during transit by a day. When I unpacked her, I discovered she was packed in a black plastic mesh bag. This wasn’t soft like cloth mesh, it felt like hard plastic - much tougher than window screen.
One side of her lower jaw, the tip of her nose, and her front right foot was completely rubbed raw from the bag. Her injuries were almost bloody from how much she had rubbed herself against the bag trying to get out. I know these couldn’t have been injuries from her being in the seller’s care by how fresh they looked.
I regret not taking pictures at the time, but she was incredibly stressed and I didn’t want to handle her more than necessary. I have not contacted the seller as their response to my concern about the shipping delay felt rather callous.
She’s active and eating at least. I’ve got her on topical antibiotics, and every few days I gently flush her wounds with chlorhexidine. Once she’s more stable, I’ll have her tested and treated for parasites. Here’s to hoping she’ll be alright.
Here are some pictures I took of her injuries two days after arrival, after one round of antibiotics + chlorhexidine. I’ve also included a picture of how she packed in her shipping box.
Poor little thing. I hope she manages to heal up as well as possible in your care.
So I would definitely recommend contacting the breeder even though you had a bad experience with the delayed shipping. Also, contacting the MorphMarket support. A delay itself isn’t unheard of as much as it sucks… But the injuries make this a different situation.
That said…
I don’t know the condition she was in before she was shipped. I hope that they didn’t just send a representative photo as a WC and any potential ‘flaws’ were already disclosed.
Thank you, I appreciate the advice given. I contacted the MM Support team shortly after posting this and gave them more details.
To clarify about the shipping delay and the seller’s response - they did not inquire or show concern about the skink’s wellbeing during the delay. I have had delays happen before, but nothing like these injuries.
And yes, it was a stock WC photograph for the group of WC skinks. There was a vague description along the lines of “dings and minor injuries that will heal up.” It was only after I asked if I could possibly have a female then they split that ad into more specific, sexed individual skink ads. The original ad seems to have been removed too.
I know WCs often will come with scars and other old injuries, and she does have some minor, old scars on her back. This though? It’s pretty upsetting to see.
Poor little thing. I am glad she’s landed where she will get good care. No matter how careful we are, animals can find ways to injure themselves. Thank for you the PSA. Maybe it will prevent bad things from happening to another creature.
That’s so sad, unsettling but above all unnecessary! This breeder should put him or herself in an imagined situation of being confined to a stiff plastic bag for an extended period of time. Not a pretty picture. Here’s hoping your sweet little critter recovers quickly. Kudos to you for bringing this incident to light. You are a caring voice for the silent victims…..
Yikes, that’s an awful bag to ship an animal in, I’ve never seen a bag like that. Almost reminds me of the specimen bags my geologist father uses to collect rock samples in the field. That doesn’t look safe even if there hadn’t been any delay.
Poor thing. Glad she’s at least getting proper care now, hopefully she heals up well and does well for you. Disappointing that the seller seems to lack compassion.
Right? Not to be too graphic, but the bag acted like a kitchen grater on her face. Where she got caught on her front foot there are such deep slices on her first (thumb?) and third toes…I’ve asked my vet for his opinion of it, haven’t heard back yet.
Those were not caused by the bag. All that damage is older, and was 100% there when that animal was shipped. That is something you’ll have to take up with the seller.
Those bags are perfectly fine to ship in. It’s not hard mesh at all. I’ve sent many animals inside and outside of this country in those bags with no issues what so ever. What you see in that animal isn’t reflective of rubbing against the bag.
So these bags look like mesh net? They look a bit different than the one in the op’s original post. I recently received a baby rat snake that was in a deli cup and then tucked inside a stretchy mesh net bag, in lieu of taping the container. I had never seen anything like that before but I thought it was a better than using tape.
The op’s bag I thought from the description and picture given is more of a plastic type material? but if it is in fact the same type of mesh net as my breeder used then I truthfully don’t see how the animal sustained such injuries. Again, the bag in the picture looks plastic to me and not the same material as the bag my breeder used.
Since the animal was wild caught it could have already sustained the injuries before it was ever shipped but after rubbing against the bag for a couple of days the old injuries could have been irritated?
Some of the injuries look newer or irritated… The front of the nose or some of the toes. The side of the face is an older wound and mostly healed over. The one foot is a fresher injury and still seems to be healing so the mesh may have irritated it more.
Some of the injuries being fresher may have been from other lizards they were housed or something like rubbing on or climbing on the side of a metal mesh enclosure. But the front of the nose irritation is the only one that I could say is bag related and could have happened in a cloth bag as well with enough rubbing.
I left it open in my comment above by mentioning ‘the condition before shipping’. From the sound of it with OPs reply, they had a representative photo for the ad which probably had the healthiest example as the focus.
If the seller didn’t disclose the condition of the animal beforehand that can be an issue. Wildcaught animals can have so many issues internal or external… If the seller had it listed with mention that the animals are imperfect, that may be enough to consider a warning on condition and it would have been up to ntam to have asked more info. It’s a matter that needs to be decided through support really.
That’s the impression I got but I wasn’t sure so I didn’t include it in my second response. To me WC purchases are a risk in general. The seller should definitely include the word “imperfect” in the ad description if the animal is truly imperfect.
Do you think there is a possibility that this lizard was shipped to the seller in this bag? But that doesn’t make sense so probably not…..
I would say they did. Without having the bag in hand I can’t say how the mesh on that particular one feels. But these sort of bags are required when importing unless you use clear deli cups. So they’ve been proven with animals before this.
I doubt the breeder is making these themselves. They are most likely purchasing from one of the shipping companies. So the material should be safe.
I have seen some gnarly face injuries from rubbing in bags and delis. Heck I had one of my own hatchling BPs rub it’s face so badly that it swelled terribly and scabbed over like a bad case of mouthrot.
As a matter of fact my rat snake breeder started to use the mesh bags in lieu of taping deli cups because he had an incident where a snake got its nose stuck to some tape that covered one of the vent holes….
Oh, that’s so sad. Little guys sure do find all sorts of ways to hurt themselves, even when we do the best we know how to help them. Hopefully now that he’s safe, things will heal over and he’ll live a long, happy life.
The skink’s injuries were not old, or due to being WC. I’m aware WC are “imperfect,” I own other WC reptiles that have their own scars from living in the wild. Please, explain how fresh, nearly bloody injuries upon being unboxed could be the result of being a WC animal.
I reached out to the seller a few days ago. They apologized, admitted the injuries were “really bad", and said they would switch over to deli cups or cloth bags. The skink did not have these injuries prior to being shipped.
We all know that a massive part of this hobby/industry operates under the “cheapest possible option” and ‘best for animal’ coming in a (very distant) second (or third or fourth or…)
Just because something is being sold by a company does not necessarily mean that it is safe. You can still walk into PetsMart/Co and buy a heat rock and we all know that those are about as safe a taking a toaster in the bath. Additionally, while an item might be safe for some species it may not be safe for others
