• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Kaytee aspen bedding

juggalo

juggalo

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I am going to say stay away from this brand myself as well as a friend 389 miles away from me have had the same problem MITES. lucky for me i keep a very clean collection and was able to kill this problem before it went anywhere but when I looked for the source I found that the bag of aspen was infested I would have blamed myself but i have been keeping reptiles for a long time and have never had not one mite. I practice safe and clean quarantine procedures and even when I help at the local reptile shop I strip in the yard and then come in and go to the shower I chance nothing.As I said I have a friend who had the same problem same brand it was Kaytee's largest bail which is i believe 8.0 cu.ft.

I have been in contact with Kay tee and although they are very nice people they really can not do anything for me to fix what has already happened and I will not use their product anymore. I hope this saves anyone else the headache I went through.
 
?

Did both of you guys purchase it from big name Pet Stores like Pet Smart etc? Or were the bails from small Reptile shops? Just curious. I am currently only using it for mice, but any which way I don't want it in my snake room if there's any chance it commonly has mites in it....Thanks for the heads up
Tom Stevens

TomsSnakes.com
 
I bought mine from Super-Petz and I believe his was bought at a Petco in Florida.At first I thought it could have come from the actual store I got mine from but when I was told by a fellow breeder that he had the same problem I realized it was not that at all it had to be something either in their warehouse or in the transporting the Aspen somewhere down the line the Aspen came in contact with mites.

As I said the folks at Kaytee are very kind but can not fix the fact that for the first time ever I had to deal with mites.
 
Ditch that junk! It's soooo dusty. I know a few breeders, along with some friends and my self... we all use NEPCO Aspen. It's not dusty, I've never seen any "bugs" in it, it's nice nice stuff.

The NEPCO bales are 9.0 cu feet compressed into a 3.0 cu feet bale. I can tell you (and I am being honest) the quality of the NEPCO aspen is outstanding. I can remember the first time I opened a bale to take a sample and I was very impressed. I've been buying that ever since. I'll never go back to using Kaytee or the TSC brand of aspen bedding ever again.
 
lillyorchid said:
Ditch that junk! It's soooo dusty. I know a few breeders, along with some friends and my self... we all use NEPCO Aspen. It's not dusty, I've never seen any "bugs" in it, it's nice nice stuff.

The NEPCO bales are 9.0 cu feet compressed into a 3.0 cu feet bale. I can tell you (and I am being honest) the quality of the NEPCO aspen is outstanding. I can remember the first time I opened a bale to take a sample and I was very impressed. I've been buying that ever since. I'll never go back to using Kaytee or the TSC brand of aspen bedding ever again.
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do you have a website or were I can purchase that brand.
 
LoneStarPetSupply (San Antonio) 8.0 cubic ft. Aspen Bales

I use Kaytee bales..Last purchased 4 bales 12/01/06..I inspected and found no trace of mites in my open bale..Still have 1 unopened...........We'll keep a eye out....Keith
 
I find it hard to believe that mites would survive very long on/in aspen chips, shavings, etc. They are parasites that need a host for blood to survive.

Randal Berry
 
Are the mites you found Snake mites, or wood mites? I have found wood mites in a few of my bags as well.....and they are a pain to get rid of. I have stopped using it also due to this problem. What color are they and what is their body structure?
 
Jasin said:
Are the mites you found Snake mites, or wood mites? I have found wood mites in a few of my bags as well.....and they are a pain to get rid of. I have stopped using it also due to this problem. What color are they and what is their body structure?
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I am no expert on mites as I said at the begining of this post I have never had a single mite. I also told Kaytee I am not placing blame solely on them maybe it is their packaging that allowed the mites to infest the Aspen.

The mite were black and were really easy to squish not like a flea these just smooshed in between your fingers with very little effort.

I am sorry for the fancy educated words like smooshed and squish just could not put it any better.
 
I am wondering. The aspen was purchased at petstores. Would you happen to remember if they were stacked on shelves next to/near bags of forest litter or other shredded bark mulch type beddings such as cyprus? Those mulch type beddings are often very damp when packaged up and that dampness with the warmth of the store provides a perfect breeding ground for mites and other bugs.. then after a while they start migrating through small holes in the bag to other parts of the shelf where they are stored. I know the petco near me stores reptile type beddings all on the same display and I have seen some bags of mulch bedding literally crawling with bugs to the point that the clear bags are opaque from all the white wood mites. I prefer getting my aspen from the local petsmart as they don't stock the mulch beddings with/near the other types of beddings such as aspen, pine, etc. If I have no choice but to go to petco to get aspen, then I steer clear of the aspen found in the reptile section. I'll go to the other side of the store and get the aspen off the rodent shelves.
 
Wraith said:
I am wondering. The aspen was purchased at petstores. Would you happen to remember if they were stacked on shelves next to/near bags of forest litter or other shredded bark mulch type beddings such as cyprus? Those mulch type beddings are often very damp when packaged up and that dampness with the warmth of the store provides a perfect breeding ground for mites and other bugs.. then after a while they start migrating through small holes in the bag to other parts of the shelf where they are stored. I know the petco near me stores reptile type beddings all on the same display and I have seen some bags of mulch bedding literally crawling with bugs to the point that the clear bags are opaque from all the white wood mites. I prefer getting my aspen from the local petsmart as they don't stock the mulch beddings with/near the other types of beddings such as aspen, pine, etc. If I have no choice but to go to petco to get aspen, then I steer clear of the aspen found in the reptile section. I'll go to the other side of the store and get the aspen off the rodent shelves.
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i do recall it was actually along the wall with dry goods but such as pine and what not corn cob and other items as I told Kaytee I wanted them to look into it because when you buy the big bails they are packaged in a brown paper stapled on both ends so there is openings that any kind of bug to get in so even though Super-Petz does not carry reptiles here someone could have came in with mites from their snakes and there you go. So I just think maybe they may want to change their packaging since it is just asking for problems. I saw a post on Bob Clark about aspen and this brand was metioned there also.So I believe it is a situation that needs to be looked into and as I said Kaytee has acted like they are really interested in looking into this problem.So I hope they do.
 
I use Harlan/Teklad aspen and never had any problem. I store it in a plastic garbage barrel not the bag and treat it with Equate head lice spray for precaution. It contains permethrin. I think nomatter what bedding you use it could be contaminated any time during shipping/storage its up to you to make sure its clean for your self.
 
as well as a friend 389 miles away from me
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That would be me. We got mites in our entire collection from Kay-Tee aspen purchased at petco. We switched back to newspaper for a while and treated the collection then started using another brand of aspen that we have only seen at Pet Supermarket and haven't had any problems since.
 
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