|
1-5 of 5 messages
|
Page 1 of 1
|
|
Tiny New Born Snakes At Greenville Show
|
Reply
|
|
by Cro on October 31, 2005
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Random Thoughts: One thing that seemed a little odd at the Greenville Show was the very small size of many of the new born snakes for sale. This was especially true in the ``38 wierd color morphs`` of designer corn snakes, king snakes, and milk snakes.
I am guessing that this is because the commercial breeders tend to force the parent snakes to minimal breeding size very quickly with a lot of food and high temperatures.
The resulting offspring from these young ``adult`` snakes seem on average about 1/3 to 1/2 smaller than the offspring that would be produced by a wild caught snake or by a snake that reached breeding age at a normal pace.
I am sure that this lets the breeders start making money more quickly, but it also could result in fragile young, that are barely large enough to eat a pink mouse, and have a poor chance of living very long.
Several knowledgable folks at the show agreed with me on this theory, as they too have bred many of the same snakes in their personal collectios or at a zoo, or have caught new born young in the wild that were much, much bigger than those at the show.
I just wonder what the long term survival of these ``designer`` snakes at the show is going to be. They are starting off life smaller than they should be, and are being purchased mostly by inexperienced keepers and hobbyists who just thought they were pretty.
Anyway, I just thought I would throw this out to see what others think. Best Regards JohnZ
|
| |
|
RE: Tiny New Born Snakes At Greenville Show
|
Reply
|
|
by vampire on November 1, 2005
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
John:
I told my wife, I didn`t see how some of those babies could swallow a pinky. I hope they had fed a few times before they were brought to the "show". I don`t see anything wrong with people who breed snakes to make money, AS LONG as they don`t do it at the expense of the animal`s health. Many herps are paying the price of commercialization.
Best regards,
Vampire
|
| |
|
RE: Tiny New Born Snakes At Greenville Show
|
Reply
|
|
by Cro on November 1, 2005
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
More Random Thoughts: Mike and his wife were able to see what I am talking about with the small size snakes at the show. That is probably because they know what normal sized young of these snakes should be.
I guess the lack of response from others is because you all have never seen normal sized new born king snakes, corn snakes, and milk snakes in the wild. All you know is these dwarf, sickly snakes you have been seeing at shows, and you assume that tiny snakes that small are normal sized young for corn snakes, king snakes, and milk snakes.
That is not the case, the designer snakes offered for sale at the show are much smaller than their wild new born relatives.
As Mike said, I do not have a problem with a reptile breeder making a profit. I just hope that he feeds the snake a few times before offering it for sale. The average purchaser is only going to be able to get pet shop size large pinks, which are going to be way to large for many of these snakes to swallow. And most folks do not want to do the pinky head thing that is required to feed some dwarf snakes.
Perhaps the breeders should wait untill the young are six months to a year old before offering them for sale. Let them be the ones who have to struggle trying to feed these snakes, instead of a new reptile keeper. The worse thing that can happen in this hobby is for a young keeper to pay $50.00 to $100.00 for one of these designer snake young, only to have it croak in a couple of weeks. When that happens, that person might give up reptiles all together. It would be far better for him to pay a little more, and get a pet that was older, larger, and used to feeding in captivity. JohnZ
|
| |
|
RE: Tiny New Born Snakes At Greenville Show
|
Reply
|
|
by elapidking81 on November 2, 2005
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
That happened to me twice at a very young age. The first time I was 10 and it wasnt a designer snake but a very young garder snake it didnt live long. The second was a very young and small Snow Corn and I was 15 that snake lived about 3 months it was able to eat pinkies but only if I cut them in half and then it would some times it would regurgitate the meal. Its was very hard to take that leap to get another.
Shane
|
| |
|
RE: Tiny New Born Snakes At Greenville Show
|
Reply
|
|
by Cricket on November 4, 2005
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
There were a lot of tiny hatchlings at the Greenville show. One of the retail shops vending there had a very large quantity of them. But they were not bred by them(purchased for resale.)Most of the snakes they had should have been somewhat bigger. I could very distinctly see the backbones on them as well as the loose, floppy skin at the bellies. Definitely a sign of non-feeders. I actually heard these people tell potential customers that they were all feeding. And green poop in the too skinny ball python enclosures. This type of thing really ticks me off. Anyone vending at herp shows should make sure ALL animals for sale are healthy. My suggestion to this problem is- get a written guarantee on whatever you buy. If no guarantee in writing = NO SALE!
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to this topic.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Check our help page for help using
, or send questions, comments, or suggestions to the
Manager.
|
