got extremely ripped off !!! Help???

[Floyd]

Since I can't give you names of the place I bought this animal I tell you the story and hope that someone will tell me what I can do to get these people back.  About 2-2 1/2 weeks ago my friend and I went to a store with the intent to buy a male for my big female and try this new breeding thing and see where it takes and how far we can go with it.  So first we bring my female up to this place and we had her probbed to make sure it was in fact a female.  Then we started asking questions about this one particular snake they had that was extremely pretty...turns out, it's a male.  (woo hoo!!!)  so instantly we are excited.  we purchase the male after asking a few questions here and there about the snake and so on.  The next morning we take the male, my female and about 3 other red-t's out to a park to just let them roam God's green earth.  Well, as I am watching the newest member of our collection I look down and noticed these 2 horrible looking wounds.  I said heck nah!!!  there is something wrong with this animal it's going back.  (mind you this is within 24 hours)  THAT day we go back, hour and a half drive to this place.... the  s5.gif said well, that wasn't there when you bought the animal so that just happened...SAY WHAT!  the snake is in a tank on it's own, you just told me yesterday that he already ate so there was no need to feed, and now he has these mysterious wounds on his body that show up just for fun!  what the heck are you talking about....well she walks off and this dude comes up and says hey...to be honest with you those wounds happened a few days ago and it was because we switched the animal from mice to rats...DUH ! You are supposed to knock the freaks out before you throw them in there! SO we left.  I called them repeatedly only to be ignored.  It's now about 2 maybe 2 and a half weeks and about 180$$$ worth of vet bills later.  Tube feeding (WAY UNDER WEIGHT-they lied to us about a lot more than you could imagine), injections 3 times a week, and ointment on the wounds 3 times a week.  I'm meeting with the vet today to get a report stating that the wounds happened WAY before we brought it in to the vet with hopes that if worse comes to worse and we have to go to court that we can get these JERKS for whatever we can.  BOTTOM line is ......
Make sure you examine every freaking scale on your animal...
Make sure that you buy from a quality breeder....(jeff you are about to get some business as soon as I can get some darn money)
Finally, if you ever get ripped off, make sure you document everything.  Vet bills, receipts from purchase, dates, witnesses everything because I am going through hell right now with these people and as much as it's not worth it....I'm still concerned over the animal...That's why I didn't just get my money back and live it there.  Obviously they weren't taking care of it, and I love animals too much to put them into an environment that will kill them.

Anyway, I'm sure that some of you are going to tell me I am very stupid for even buying the thing in the first place and maybe you are right, but now after all of this I love this little guy.  he is goregeous and keeps me on my toes....(sir bites a lot!)

please get back to me on this if any of you have any suggestions....especially if you are a LAWYER!!!!

[Doug]

hI,
 You may have made addtional mistake by not keeping that snake in strict isolation.  cwm24.gifHe could have mites ,RI and even worse may have been exposed to IBD and that takes a while to show in Boa's. With your next snake only buy from people you know or people reccomended, many breeders are just in it for the money. The good ones  (Jeff/Clay) really love the animals :D and are trying to improve the quality and over all health of the species. There are numerous other good sources that are known by people from positive experiences,
its a small world when you keep boa's only trust the few reccomended by freinds.
 My first boa came from a pet store 220.00 dollars she was sickly the first year and nearly died.a very sick Guyana I didn't help due to my learning curve poor cage low heat low humidty.
 My second Boa came from Clay  English cost about the same with shipping and has been healthy as a horse.
  The incentive for most pet store  breeders of boas is to crank out them boa's like a puppy mill. The horror stories are posted on many web pages. Ive never seen IBD I hope I never do.
   Read the care sheets about buying new reptiles don't repeat your mistake.. If you keep that snake you better get stool sample asap thats proably why he's under weight loaded with worms from live feedings. Keep that snake away from your collection of snakes no group outings ,, wash before and after handling keep him in a seperate room, treat his tank wtih prevent-a mite for at least four months..
  If your lucky you will have  a healthy snake in  about 6 mos.
   Ps only feed rats from a reptuable rat breeder that the  quality of the rats is 100% better than rats at petstores eating dog food cwm8.gif or worse each other. Train him to eat frozen thawed rodents and maybe he willnot have to many scars and you willnot have to worry about future worms and mites and such in his gut
  good luck
  the hard way seems to make you stronger but can be expensive learning curve s3.gif
  doug s31.gif
 excellent care sheets cwm15.gif
http://www.redtailboas.com/carelinks/carelinks.html

[Floyd]

thank you,.....I have taken in a stool sample, in fact it was rather funny because he pushed it out 10 minutes before we left to go to the vet on Saturday. She said that he obviously has swallowed some type of rocks which tells me these people feed there snakes on aquarium rocks or even worse cat litter s17.gif!

She didn't say that there were any signs of worms or diseases, just 2 wounds were obviously from rat bites. The animal is showing signs of healing after these past 2 weeks of treatment, and was a little active thanks to the tub feeding. My concern now, is to make sure that this boy lives, and that I can make a very SERIOUS point to this store. It is a very reputable store here in texas, and they had well over 3-350 snakes all of which seemed to look healthy and set up very well to include emerald t-boa, and gt-pythons of which you know are a little more of a pain in the butt to take care of. I'm really pissed that this lady had the nerve to tell me that these wounds happened over night and blamed the health of the snake upon me cwm8.gif....

We have had confirmation that no U R I was infecting the animal but as far as any other diseases go, there were no obvious signs.

I just want to screw these people over the way they did me...

Thank you very much for the suggestions...

BTW, what kind of issues can occur from breeding your own rats feeding them dog food...??? I 've never heard of that before.

[justsnakes]

BTW, what kind of issues can occur from breeding your own rats feeding them dog food... I 've never heard of that before.

Rats are not Dogs  ;) Dog food has dyes and other junk like that added in. Have you ever stuck your hand in a bag of dog food? Its all greasy  cwm13.gif

Snakes are what they eat. You would feed your snakes a high quality diet wouldent you? Well, most snakes eat rats as a stable diet so you want to keep those rats fat and plump, not greasy and unhealthy and the way to do this is to feed them a quality diet, I.,E Rodent chow.

How do you tell a rat is healthy, simply look at it. They should have clear eyes, be alert and have a nice coat. A healthy rat = a healthy boa*

Rodent chow is a little expinsive, but I think in the end, its worth it.

* provided you do your part to keep it healthy  ;D

[Darrin_Brasher]

Purina dog chow has almost the exact same ingredients as Purina rat chow yet much cheaper. Ive bred thousands of rats and mice on Purina dog chow without any probs for over 10 years now producing excellent prey animals .Never a single diet related problem with any of the snakes or lizzards fed the prey items .

[surfimp]

Floyd: one word came to mind when I read your post.

PETCO

I hope I'm wrong, but I fear I'm right...