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View Full Version : Helpin Out a Young Herper


ballpython5000
05-08-03, 01:59 PM
ok so here i am walking home from an unsuccessful herping trip in the nearby woods when i see a kid who lives on my road. my sis is best friends with his sis so he comes over every now and then and checks out my herps. i guess two weeks before he had gotten some new anoles from a local pet shop, he refered to them as chameleons. i personally hate that pet shop because i bought my first tokay there and it died within 5 days. so he takes my to see his tank. it looked good, but horrible conditions for an anole. it was a 10G tank with desert sand calcium crap and a rock. also a fake cactus and a huge water dish. i told him that he needed to seriously fix it. i told him it needed something like repti bark and that it needed a uvb light. he said he liked how the tank looked and the nice lady at the petshop told them that it was fine too keep them in that *pulling hair out by now* so i told him to come to my house and see what i got going on and what he should do. in his tank the only thing heating it was a 40 watt placed up against the back glass. it got no direct sunlight at all. but hey if the pet shop says it is good then it must be. so he came over and i brought him to my tanks. i showed him my substrate and said this is what he needed because anoles come from places like florida when it rains a lot and is nice and humid. he agreed that it might be best but he still like the sand better cause he could see where they pooped, i told him the pros far out weigh the cons. i told him how he must mist the cage 2 times a day because they probably wont drink from the water dish.. then i directed his attention to my uvb light fixture and i told him he absolutly needed this, then i went through a disscussion on what could happen to them if he didnt. i had to give him some of my own personal reptile supplies to help him out. he needed some cricket dust so i gave it to him, then he needed cricket gutload. then we came and printed off a good anole caresheet for him and he said he didnt need it because he had a pamphlet the store gave him, he pulled out a piece of crap blue paper. i directed him to the trash can. i gave him that and the recent anole article from reptiles magazine. it didnt really bug me much that he needed my supplies cause it all came from my box of spare reptile supplies in my room. so he went home with some new supplies and info for his cute lil guys.
his anoles were in not too bad of a condition but the female was horribly thin and brown because of stress. apparently the male had been eating but the female hadnt. i personally held the male, didnt wanna touch the female and cause stress. the male was very timid and not too jumpy and he was in perfect health. he went from a light brown to a lime green faster then any anole i have ever seen, it was cool. he decided to get a herp after checkin out my snakes and the tokay. an anole being the most readily available and the cheapest he got two of those. theres hope for him as aherper and maybe later on you will see him here. i showed him a couple sites he could visit (GI, KS, here, LL, ect...) to think i made that lil boy a herper, feels good. felt better to help the herps. he is young and not experienced it wasnt really his fault i had to remember that when i was feeling like punching him. i had to keep in mind the pet store did that to him. i set him off on the right track. haha the lil moocher tried to get a light fixture off me for a uvb light. i told him if worst comes to worst he can have one. i told him id be going herping saturday and he could join me if he wanted he seemed very pleased with that. then we went in my back yard and blew sh*t up with firecrackers.


just a "lil" story i figured id tell ya.

ballpython5000
05-08-03, 02:00 PM
my fingers have gone numb

Tim and Julie B
05-08-03, 02:49 PM
Believe me I come accross that a lot. "But the pet store said....." B.S. :mad: It's good he has you to talk. That way at least he will learn.

RachelS.
05-08-03, 02:55 PM
your sis is best friends with your sis??

Katatonic
05-08-03, 03:16 PM
Interesting you blame the pet store for your tokay gecko dying. Forget the fact that they're 99.8% wild caught and heavily parasitized, I'm sure that had absolutely nothing to do with the death either.
Great job converting the lil guy into a 'herper'. Good to see/hear.
LATER.

JeffT
05-08-03, 03:54 PM
I know how you feel. A kid in my class has bought an adult bearded drag and is keeping him in like a 30 gal tank. I tried talking to him but he kept saying that his dad is an expert and thats all they need to live in. MAN i hate it when people say stuff like that!

hip
05-08-03, 03:57 PM
your sis is best friends with your sis??



I was wondering the same thing myself reminds me of a little ryme I know.


Roses are red violets are blue I am a Schizophrenic and I'm one too lol.




Hip

XxRachxX
05-08-03, 05:41 PM
aaw i like little herpers! theyre the only kind of kid i like:)
theres a kid over the road from me and he says he wants a snake, after playing with my corn.....he wants to get one when hes 9:) how cute is that?
its really cute when they get all excited and ask loads of questions at the speed of light:)
its cool to think that we can implant ideas in to unsuspecting little kids minds.....they are the mini-me's of the future...muwhahaha!
its nice that you gave him all that stuff and helped him out man:) maybe you'll get free stuff back when he's a fully fledged herper:)

Mike177
05-08-03, 06:10 PM
What the pet store needs to do is give an up-to-date care sheet. But that’s not it. I have also come across pet stores like that, that sell red-tails, burms and retics, personally I don’t think pet stores (except like ones that specialize in herps) should carry that kind of stuff because I bet you good money some 14 year old (not to say anything bad about kids who are 14 because I am 14 and have a burm, and I know 14 year olds who keep them in a good environment and keep them responsibly (ex. Rachel) but in general your "average" kid who is 14 inset really able to fathom the care it will need and the poor snake will probly end up getting euthanized well anyway back to the rant) they will buy a retic and be like COOL and take it home and put it in a 10 gallon and go play soccer or something. But most people who are going to end up keeping a snake like that responsibly will do a good bit of research and know not to pay $150 for a normal at a pet store. The herps that belong in a pet store are corn snakes, king snakes, ball pythons, berded dragons, and leopard geckos. Not retics, burms, bloods, greed tree pythons, emerald tree boas, and viper boas ex. they also need to highly recommend you do proper research or sell some kind book about them. just my $00.02

Thomas
05-28-03, 08:27 AM
Don't put down all pet stores! The two I got my corns from were great! Then again I live in England.

XxRachxX
05-28-03, 10:31 AM
yay Thomas!!!!!! more england people!
i think "herp" shops over here are probably better because there doesnt seem to be as many keeping reptiles over here, therefore it becomes more of a "specialist" subject, plus i dont think there is as much as a target audience over here...i dont know.....
but all of the shops ive been to have been really good!! yay for england!!!

snakemann87
05-28-03, 10:40 AM
thats good you helped him. Because of me, one of the kids my mom watches owns a baby kingsnake, i helped them out and its in GREAT condition. Did i mention the owner is a "she"? Oh and shes 9

Samba
05-28-03, 01:30 PM
BallPython I thought that was a very charming story. Perhaps he'll be more receptive to change if you come over to 'help' him with his anoles? Take him shopping and buy him little things, like the plastic plants that stick to the backside of a cage (PERFECT for little anoles!) Keep us updated on his progress! =)