While we are on the topic of unfortunate events that has happened to fellow members I am curious if any of you have lost a snake and found it awhile later? I found one of my snakes a couple months back after having lost her in my house for 2 months. You would think finding a 4.5 foot snake would have been easy but it sure as hell wasn’t. I ended up finding her in the closet hanging from the rod that held up my clothes…
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I bought 2 bp’s from a guy at a reptile expo (Don’t want to throw his name out and bash him) and they both were loaded with mites, both were supposed to be females, i sexed them at home and one was a male, got a bad deal, it was a mystic potion Female for 300$ but well, wasn’t a female. That was january 5th 2020. Also mites are unavoidable but come to find out end caps do imports.
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The second night after I bought my first 2 snakes they both escaped (same cage as I hadn’t planned for 2, guy gave me a great deal I couldn’t walk away from). Imagine this: wake up very sleepy, just walking to the stairs eyes half open, notice something kinda yellow at the edge of the step… Squat down and realize it’s my snake!!! Grab him in a panic cuz how’d he get out!? Realize the other isn’t in the cage! Start tearing my room apart cuz I have to find her! Mom tells at me for breakfast, why haven’t I come down already. (I’m in tears by this time cuz my dad said if they ever got out they gotta go, no second chances). Tell her the truth, she tries to calm me and get me to eat. Called my dad in a mess of tears cuz I already loved them and couldn’t stand to loose them so soon. Dad is laughing cuz I’m freaking out and manages to talk a little sense into me and I set out traps (hides) to catch her in. It was a week later and I had been tore up and checking everything for her and could never find her. That night I was in bed and I woke up to the cat hissing and screaming and swatting at the head of my bed. Jump up and grab her to find my snake all balled up. Drop cat, grab snake, put it in a box to check in the morning (it was 12:23). Wake up and start looking her over, she had a couple very shallow scratches on her back and one tiny spot on her head. As I ran my finger over a scratch, she grabbed my thumb and scared me! Gently put her back in the box and went to tell everyone she’d been found! She’s now my most trustworthy snake to let people hold, perfect angel!
The bite (I’ve had worse papercuts
)
Hard to see the marks with her pattern but it’s there
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I’m relatively new to the hobby, so I haven’t had as much experience as others, however here’s my bad so far (oops, word vomit, sorry!):
- Bought a house snake from a reputable breeder (I even overpaid because this breeder is strict with prices, and I thought I was getting quality). Waited three months for her to arrive (winter, but with almost no communication and taking over a week to respond when I reach out). She arrives, absolutely tiny (looks exactly the same size as the original photo I got of her). She eats fine for three months (almost weekly, smallest pinkies I could find), but only sheds once and stays incredibly tiny. Stops eating suddenly (no change in housing / temps / humidity / etc) and fasts for two months (breeder tells me not to worry, it happens; vet can’t find an issue but she’s not losing weight, so doesn’t recommend force-feeding yet). Then, one day, I open my enclosure to find her dead.
- Bought a different house snake from a “reputable” local store (that’s also all over classifieds online; I had responded to an ad online). Requested additional photos, saw photos, approved of photos. Allegedly, she’s CB. Prepaid in full because otherwise they wouldn’t hold for local pickup (and apparently people keep reaching out about this snake?). Arrived to pick her up the next day - she’s a completely different individual than the one pictured, covered in lesions and stuck shed. I want my money back, they refuse, citing some policy about how the ad stated the photo wasn’t of the exact snake (yes, but I had requested a photo of the exact snake and gotten one…). In addition, they have a second specimen, which they “throw in for free” because I’m upset. Stupidly, I agreed. I immediately made a vet appointment for both snakes. Of course, they’re both loaded with parasites (obviously not CB and never treated), and several rounds of Panacure and Metronidazole have not fully cured yet. I’ve spent over ten times the amount I originally paid on vet bills alone. One of the two escaped last time that I was at the vet (vet hadn’t tied the knot in the bag tight enough and the snake was able to push the warmed bin I had the bags in open), and I honestly can’t say that I’m upset. The other has to take a break in treatment because of the weight lost from fasting from the stress of treatment and get some weight back. To make matters worse, this local reptile store is one of the few places to get young live mice in my area, which this snake requires (despite “feading readily on f/t” in the ad), so I’m stuck still occasionally supporting this terrible business.
- Bought a KSB (along with a second snake) from a different allegedly reputable online store. They ship the next day, which I found surprising, but hey, hooray! Well, the snake arrives with a regurgitated meal (apparently it got fed shortly before being shipped?) and midway through shed. To make it worse, the regurgitated meal’s juices are all over the second snake’s bag. I tried to nurse the KSB back to health (including a vet visit), but it never took a meal ended up dying a bit over a month later.
Edit to add: I do have a collection of perfectly healthy snakes, though! The four I discussed above were the only four I’ve had issues with (and the only four that have needed a vet!). Only, when I’ve had a “bad”, it’s been really bad (at least, really bad compared to the rest of my experience).
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I’m so sorry to hear about the terrible experiences you’ve had!
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I’m really sorry for you. It really reads like a horror story. Hope it is not only the bad so far but for very many years.
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Honestly, thank you guys so much for your kind words!
It makes me feel like this was an usually bad spurt and my luck should turn around. Only time will tell!
Regardless of these issues, I’m glad I got into the hobby; all this bad was worth the good moments with my reptiles.
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When I first got my snake she was meant to be a gift she was a normal ball python and was adorable. But leading up to that I didn’t get the chance to have a proper look at her and I went to pick her up and I found that she had mites, stuck shed, and she was under fed she was a year old at 150g making her basically a rescue. I got her healthy kind of easily just a bit intense on the care. The point being that you should only get your snakes from reputable breeders because mine came from a family member who had been keeping ball pythons for a few years and she was a mess.
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Honestly I am kind of shocked at all of these stories regarding shady sellers! That is really unfortunate. I hope this thread doesn’t give newcomers a bad impression of the reptile hobby, because these experiences are not typical. Especially here on MorphMarket. I’ve met some really awesome folks here and bought a number of beautiful, healthy snakes from some of them without any issues to speak of.
But, that being said… there are unfortunately some shady people in EVERY hobby, including this one. It’s always good to be cautious as either a buyer or seller.
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This. A big breeder who just doesn’t care of their animals that well can sell you a baby which is too small or too messed up due to neglect because of sheer numbers of other snakes they keep. A small hobbyist with their first clutch can sell you a perfect animal despite having no previous experience because they did their homework and have stuff figured out thanks to other people’s experience. So in the end, it’s always about the individual.
About bad and scary, so far i only got myself 2 snakes, one came in september, the second today. The first is about a month older than the second. The difference? Helios is 478g, Artemis 136g. Luckily, there is no stuck shed or signs of her being underfed, but for being almost half a year old and only twice as big as a hatchling, well, what should i say. I will try to offer her a small mouse this sunday, so we shall see.
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Definitely, out of the six animals I’ve got from here (all different sellers) I haven’t hit a lemon once. So far so good, but I know it can happen eventually.
For those who have had a horror story type experience what have you learned and what advice would you give some people that are maybe just starting out and want to avoid similar experiences?
Re: size difference in ball pythons, I think it’s worth noting that natural variation can account for it in some cases. I’m really not sure why but I had a few hatchlings come out on both extremes of the size spectrum this year (even though they all incubated about the same time, at the same temps, and had average-sized siblings). One was an absolutely tiny 19 gram runt, not skinny, perfectly formed and plump for its size. And then one in a different clutch hatched noticably larger than its siblings, and in 3 months has managed to maintain a significant lead over them. I’ve also had pythons who were purchased at the same age and size, then fed on the same schedule, gain weight at different rates.
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Wish I had known about bioactive & proper husbandry off the bat. Wasted my money on a 40 gallon enclosure for my baby ball python (she uses every inch) and realized at a year old she’ll clearly need a 4-6 foot enclosure. Lots of wasted money on small, inadequate enclosures due to bad advice from minimalist breeders/keepers. One breeder seemed concerned I was putting a year old male into a 15 gallon for quarantine, because he thought it was too big. 
The breeders that aren’t upfront about health problems with different morphs when I’m trying to do research before I buy an animal. If I take my animal to a vet, when it has a health issue, it would be nice if I could save myself hundreds of dollars of tests, if I knew things the animal was prone to. 
Wish people who claim to love these wonderful animals wouldn’t treat them like widgets or baseball cards for collecting. Want to see more emphasis on appreciation for the actual animals by providing them adequate enclosures where they can act out their natural behaviors (which could actually be a financial benefit to the industry,) and less emphasis on every halfwit breeding .
Call your DNR before you buy an animal. 
Skip Discord if you’re over 14 or have more than one year of experience as a keeper: whichever comes first.
That’s the way it is. Every captive animal has compromises made on their behalf and the ball python has a very long history of captivity.
I wouldn’t be too quick to write someone off as a minimalist and point fingers until you’ve had lots of experience.
In my experience younger females will roam. Males usually don’t roam nearly as much. If you get a particularly nervous individual then $200 in PetSmart junk (the usual “enrichment” for some people) is not going to make a difference. Compound in the explosive dry sheds and damaged tails with keepers using aspen and a badly placed unused humid hide… 
There are still keepers out there claiming you are supposed to soak them for preventative maintenance 
Their natural behaviors are to sit in a hole in burrows and termite mounds shaped from loam. Before someone references the tree thing make sure to compare a tree in West Africa to a tree near you. Good luck if you have an individual imprint on birds.
If you manage it successfully then 
I’d love to see pictures from someone with a tree, burrows, and termite mounds in a 40ga.
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I was talking to my wife about this thread and saying how lucky we have been so far with the boas to not have any real problems like some of yous have had, and she quickly reminded me of the worst thing that has happened.
.
When I first got my 2 boas, I was only prepared for one of them, I only had the one enclosure ready at home, but what I did have was a small fish tank sat in a cupboard and a load of aquarium ornaments… One of them being this:
It’s a hollow shipwreck that comes in 2 pieces, it’s a really nice bit of decoration and acted really well as a hide on either side of the tank.
I woke up one morning not long after getting them to find the whole tank a mess with snake poop 
and decided to give it a clean. As I started pulling stuff out of the way to grab Khaleesi, he wriggled off into his boat to hide. I left him there while I got everything else out and as I eventually went to lift the boat up he wriggled off again… But this time not as successfully. He tried to squeeze out of a tiny opening/door (you can see it next to him on the picture) and got stuck with his head only partially through.
I panicked, he panicked and there was a whole lot of commotion. He was still trying to squeeze through and I couldn’t get to his body because it was inside the boat, so the only place I could get to was his half squished face that really didn’t appreciate being poked by a finger.
After about 10 minutes I was close to taking a small hammer to the boat to try and break it apart but my wife came to the rescue with vaseline and a whole lot of patience. She managed to use a cotton bud to push all his scales back down (that had became lodged awkwardly in his struggles) and work him out.
It doesn’t sound too bad compared to some of your stories but I really wish I would have taken a picture now, the weird angle he got stuck really made it difficult and worrying. All the damage he had was a few scratches on his scales and he shed a short time later and looked brand new. I filled all the small openings in the boat with aquarium silicon to stop it happening again but I ended up taking it out completely because I didn’t want to risk it.
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Don’t be seduced by big names. I thought it was ok to spend $650 on an animal others were selling for $350, because it must be of higher quality because it comes from A famous company with a cult-like following. Right? Wrong.
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If your face to face with a breeder in their snake room, what questions would you ask and what would you look at before even considering buying from them?
I’d ask to handle the animal, look at its parents and offspring if possible, and also look at his other animals to see if they are in good condition as well. Because some breeders take care of their animals they want to sell but dont take great care of their breeders.
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