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I sold her a snake now she wants to breed - Yikes!!

CandyCorn88

CandyCorn88

New member
We are getting ready to move and I am rehoming a couple of my snakes. A girl came over and bought an 07 and an 08 from me, then she came over the next night and bought another 08 from me. Now these are her first snakes besides to adult females she bought off Craigslist a short while ago. Now I believe I may have put myself in this situation because I told her that if she had any question about anything at all let me know because I was willing to help her out, which I am, up to a certain point, that point being this afternoon when she emails me and tells me she wants another one of my snakes, the female to the male that she bought, because she wants to start breeding. Now don't get me wrong I don't care if she wants to breed snakes, but so far she hasn't shown me that she is willing to research anything on her own. She has been using me to get all of her information and that is the certain point I am talking about. I love helping people, up until I can see that they aren't into helping themselves. Now she told me in her email that she wants to cohab the male she bought from me already and the female she wants to buy from me, thus I do not want to sell the snake to her. And another male I sold her she wanted to know if I had a mate shose out for him that I would be willing to let go or if I knew of someone that had one, we are talking 08's here. I honestly do not think that she knew she couldn't breed them now. So I emailed her my opinion, in a very tactful way, stating the responsibilities of deciding to breed and not taking it lightly. I gave her a list, off the top of my head, of just some of the things that go along with breeding.

So I guess my question to you is did I do the right thing, and is there anything else I should tell her?

I have already given her all the links to all the forums I belong to, but I haven't seen her yet. Herp shows, Herp societies, ect.

Please let me know what you think?

Thanks in advance for your advice!!
 
I'm not sure if you did already, but you should tell her to read and research more before getting any more snakes. You may loose the costumer, but you may save some snakes as well.
 
Does she know cohabbing can lead to her 08s eating eachother?

I would not sell her anymore of my animals if I was you.
 
Ya,

All you can do at this point is to refuse to provide her with further animals. It will not, of course, prevent her from purchasing from another person.

She may just have her 'wires crossed' atm & once she reads up on the species she will realize that her enthusiasm to breed is a little far fetched, especially at the '08 stage.

It is an unfortunate truth that one can advise some people in an intense manner, but, they do not all take 'on board' the information that you provide.

Regards. Lex
 
Lexcorn said:
All you can do at this point is to refuse to provide her with further animals. It will not, of course, prevent her from purchasing from another person.
Click to expand...

This is very true.

At this point I think the best thing you can do is provide her all of the appropriate care and breeding information you can and then point her here. None of us can control what buyers do with the animals we sell and if you refuse a sale, those buyers are bound to find somewhere else to get their animal(s) from.
 
I have said no more than once when I questioned peoples intentions or ability to care for one of my animals so of course I think you did the right thing!! I also think its good you have been helpful and tactful something a lot of breeders aren't after a sale, but in the end the responsibility to learn about her new animals, their care needs, and breeding how to's down the road are hers. I would be hesitant to sell her another snake it sounds like she is out of room or cages as it is.
 
Sounds like you did a great job so far. If she persists, send her a few good links from this site about co-habbing and breeding. And tell her to let you know what she thinks about it all after reading it. Then if she comes back with more questions or bad ideas, your first question can be "what did you think of the links I sent?". If she says she didn't read them or you can tell she didn't, you can say "It is really good info - read it first and tell me what you think. Then I can answer any questions it didn't cover". That puts the ball in her court to do something before being spoon fed more info. And it will give her a lot more info than you are going to be willing to write up at one sitting. I feel that is a way to be polite and helpful, yet still require a LITTLE effort from the new keeper.

If I get a customer who keeps asking basic questions over and over, and won't read the simplest thing, I will EVENTUALLY tell them they need to read my book. But I do tell them that I will be more than happy to answer any questions that aren't covered, or are not clear in the book.

Good luck!
 
I think it's terrific that youare so responsible, even though it appears like this buyer is not. It's obvious that you care about the animals, and are trying to help a new keeper discover and do what's right by the snakes in her care. Kathy's advice is excellent!

I know exactly how you feel about being the apparent sole source of info, with frequent requests for more that show bad judgement already in place. I've been there when I used to breed dogs.

Keep up the good work!
 
I thank you all so very much for the great advice and helpful information. She called and emailed me again yesterday wanting to come by my house and the mate of the snake I had already sold her. I have already decided in my opinion that she is just not the type of person that I want to be rehoming my snakes to. Since I do not breed myself right now and will not be doing so for 2-3 years I have the great luxury to pick and choose to whom I sell my snakes to. At this point we are moving and I am just wanting to get down to a more manageable number with all the comotion going on. Anyway back to the story. I told her, very tactfully, for that I would not be selling anymore of my snakes and if I did decide to sell I would take them to the local Herp Show to sell for now on. She just didn't like that answer, she wanted to come by my house and pick up Butter right now. Worst of all I just found out yesterday that my Gram has colon cancer and I was leaving town, actually leaving the state to go be with her, she calls me again and emails me telling me that she is coming up our way to pick up another snake and she wanted to stop by our house to pick up mine too at the same time because it is quite the drive for her and she did not know when the next time she would be able to come back up this way. Can you believe that craziness!! I told her over and over again, very nicely and so that there is no possible way the you could misunderstand what I was saying , but that I would not sell her any more of my snakes. I would definately help her out by providing any information that will help her in her future endeavors. I told her if she ever had any questions or concerns about the two snakes I did rehome to her she could get ahold of me anytime, even though I sent detailed records with them that I have kept on them scince I have purchased them myself. But anyway, it hurt when I told her I was leaving town because of my Gram and she could have cared less, she didn't say anything about it. She actually asked me if anyone else would be home to give her the snake. Some people's kids, that's all I have to say!! Ok enough venting!!!

Oh and then she has the nerve to email me and actually ask me if I am going to be at the next show, holy cow!!
 
Did you allow her to come to your home? I never let anyone do that. Too many crazies out there (case in point).

Sorry to hear about your gram. :(
 
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