• 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.

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    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.

switching from live rats to frozen bunnies

I do humbly apologize for not using proper grammar. I worked as a secretary for a while and short hand was how I would document the meeting minutes. It then became second nature to write as such, because I never actually wrote anything official. Leading to me not keeping that job.

but my english comprehension has nuthin to do with the issue. instead of grillin us and giving us useless information, shouldnt u be sharing that 10 or 20+ years of expirience with the next generation? im sorry i dont know everything about snakes in a year, but i obviously know enough to keep happy, healthy snakes. so instead of just being pig headed and saying "over feeding is well documented", u should have just told me to check out ronnes site in the first place. bcuz at first i thought u meant u were documenting it in some file in this website or what not, but now i understand u meant otherwise. therefore avoiding all this confrontation.

thx for showing how great it is to use fauna classifieds and how in only three days a moderator personally insult a customer.
 
I didn't see how Harald insulted you. He simply stated that it is just as easy for you to search for the information you are asking about (and yes over feeding in boas is well documented, if you look you will find cases where females, the most commonly over fed gender, dying at the 6/7 year mark and upon investigation finding they had extremely high levels of fat build up on their organs.) If you meant his comment on the short hand being insulting, you will find many people get asked/told to change their particular method of posting due to it being difficult to follow. (the lack of punctuation and use of all caps lead those requests).

Regarding your stance that the animals know best. Have you ever kept any dog breeds that are working breeds, such as Siberian Huskies or Alaskan Malamutes? They are notoriously known as gorgers, eating to the point of causing damage to themselves if given the opportunity. Snakes have been shown to do the same.
 
Insults a customer ? :rofl: not HHH :shrug01:
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Its just sad to see people "buy" before they learn.
Y'all keep killing them and we'll keep breeding them.
Solid Economics :thumbsup:
 
Bob O, here is your issue. You do not understand the animals you keep. Boas are ambush predators. They lay in wait completely still until something passes that is edible. They will take in just about any amount of food when it is available. This is an evolutionary characteristic that is necessary because there is no telling when the next meal will come by.

Like goldfish and five yr old kids, they will eat far more than is good for them. 5.5' is much too large for an '07 boa, my largest girl from '07 is right at 4' and eating med rats every ten days. I do not have a boa that needs to eat rabbits in my collection and I have a good number of adults. You need to re-evaluate what you call caring for your boas, because just like a bad parent with a child, giving them everything they want is setting them up for failure.

Now as for what damage can be done. Along with what has been said about fat deposits, what actually kills them is fatty liver disorder. Boas are particularly pre-disposed to this. You are basically making foie gras out of your boas liver.

Chris
 
see now that is how u address an issue. before jccs no one mentioned a damn thing about liver issues, they grilled into me and said useless information on the topic of over feeding. now i disagree in my complete misunderstanding the animals i keep. ive known they were ambush predators (as with MOST, not all, snakes) and i knew that they never know when they r gettin their next meal. but i didnt think it was detrimentally harmful to strongly feed them. and how jccs put it makes sense. give a kid Mcds his whole life just cuz he wants the happy meal toy will make him obese as an adult.

thank you and i appreciate the info, i now must rethink my feeding schedule.
 
I have seen snakes (boas and corns) take in the prey's head and then spit out the rest was because the prey item was too big. I only have 2 boas that are large enough for rabbits (one is 11 and the other is 20, both about 7' in length). When I feed them rabbits, they get one rabbit a month. Otherwise they get 1-2 jumbo rats every 2-4 weeks. I like to vary the feeding schedule and I am pretty conservative. I have '06 boas that are just getting to the 4' mark. Healthy tone and muscle mass is a great indicator of a healthy animal.

Overfeeding any animal can cause health problems. I could eat 2 boxes of Cheese-its in one sitting (probably more, I love cheese-its!) but it's not healthy for me. I'm glad you are willing to look into this and show a willingness to learn.

I was not able to find it but a while ago someone on another forum had a boa that died, autopsy was done and the boa was full of fat deposists especially around the heart, it was thought this caused or at least contributed to it's death.

Here are some links and info since you asked earlier:
from: http://www.riobravoreptiles.com/care_raisingboas.htm
"The single most frequently identifiable factor in premature death, poor fertility and other problems with captive boa, especially red-tails, is obesity resulting from over feeding."

from: http://www.reptileallsorts.com/boa_care-cs.htm
"Please do not overfeed your boas at anytime as this will lead to severe constipation and bloating and even pre-mature death."

from :http://www.redtailboas.com/care/TheUltimateCareManual-Published.pdf
"Power Feeding is not recommended because in almost EVERY case it shortens the life of your boa drastically. Boas powerfed from birth generally die very young at 4 or 5 years of age. Jeff Ronne talks about his early efforts in breeding boas and the fact that EVERY boa he powerfed died before the age of 5 years."

Hope those help.
-April
 
Oh, and surprised no one mentioned this as well, but please switch to feeding f/t rats instead of live, it's safer for the snake and more humane (IMO) for the rat.
Here are some more links
http://redtailboafaq.com/feeding.php
http://www.mccarthyboas.com/RatBitePage.html
http://www.redtailconnect.net/forum/feeding/1726-dangers-live-feeding.html
http://www.lbah.com/reptile/snakeskin.htm
If you need help making the switch we can offer a bunch of tips. Just trying to help.
Thanks again for your time,
-April
 
i dont feed live unless thats the only way the snake will take it. and whether it fresh killed or f/t someone had to kill it, and id rather have my neck broke or my skull crushed before i freeze to death, or have the life squeezed out of me to be honest. and i will never feed a euthanized rat to any of my snakes, for fear of the chemicals affecting my snakes. so sadly i cant see a humane way to kill the rats i give my snake...

sorry, got any suggestions?

(btw to clear all confrontation before there is any, there is no sarcasm what-so-ever in this reply, just seriously how i feel about it)
 
The easiest way is CO2. Buy a canister of CO2 from a welding supply store, it will last forever. You basically rig up a hose from the canister that goes in to a hole in a rubbermaid tub. Insert rats into rubbermaid, cut on CO2, wait about two minutes and whammo, dead rats. This is the cleanest, quickest way to kill rats or any mammal.

Chris
 
buts its not very different from a a snake suffocating it to death, effective yes i have no doubts, and actually an excellent idea to the originator of it for mass rat genocide (feeder dealers i assume) but i dont think its much more humane, doing that would make me feel like a nazi and the rats were my jews, id rather smack them into a counter.
 
Bob, comparing CO2 to Zyklon B is just not accurate in the least. There is one hell of a difference in the two forms of death. I have witnessed rats dying from CO2 on many occasions. The rats looked panicked for a period of 5-10 seconds and then fall over. I have seen rats survive being slammed on many occasions, I have never seen a rat survive CO2 administered properly.

Chris
 
well that is a good point,

i wasnt comparing the chemicals to each other, but the act of using gas to kill.

if i had large amounts of rats to kill i would definitley do that, but just one or two rats a week, it seems like too much. plus as we all know money is tight, i cant afford wants and conviences like that, even if its just a CO2 can and a tupperware, i dont have it.

to be honest i dont feel much pity for the rats, but i dont feel much pity for humanity either so i guess it balances, dont get me wrong i feel bad that the rats life is meant to be food and that kinda sucks, but its part of the hobby and needs to be done one way or the other. im just not going out of my way to kill rats, i dont torture them, sometimes dont even kill them i just at least stun them so they dont bite my snake.
 
IMO, the good old blunt trauma method is pretty quick as hell. Gotta do it right the first time, though, I've missed and had the poor bastard live through the first one. That sucks serious ass.

Asphyxiation would be my preferred method. Wondering why I can't breathe, panicing a bit, then sleeping. Instead of being grabbed by some teeth and constricted. Live always seem to know they're in a bad place, too.
 
The rats you buy frozen were not frozen to death. Most places kill them with CO2, which when used properly just makes them go to sleep, then you up the amount which kills them in their sleep. It's very humane.
Slamming a rat into a counter may only stun it, which means it would be in great pain, and helpless while being eaten, much less humane. I've done it too, but it's not the preferred method of killing.
The health issues of overfeeding snakes, especially boas is easily searched on Google. The fatty deposits in the organs doesn't mean the snake "looks" obese. Some snakes might not even look very fat, but have all that fat deposited in the liver, which makes them die very young.
You sound like you do care about your snakes, and I hope you look into the feeding issues, because I'd hate to think it's too late and your snakes wouldn't live very long. Just like dogs, or cats, or any animal, we have to regulate the amount and kinds of food they eat, for their well being.
Good luck! And make sure to read through all the information on those links!
 
yea i under stand the feeding issue and have made appropiate changes

now this is just my theory of gasing the rats

when ur r short of breath or have lack of oxygen ur chest cramps and u panic, thats usually painful if i remember correctly.

so instead of the rats "falling asleep" what if they r just slowly shutting down organ by organ and suffering for a whole two minutes? cuz im pretty confident if u have organ failure ur gonna feel it.

and ive noticed that when a snake kills it generally takes about two minutes for the prey to stop breathing

so the only difference in my opinion is that either a snake is killing it for two minutes or the person is for two minutes. if by snake the rat knows exactly what is going on, but if by gas then he is clueless.

if u smack a rat correctly then its instant death, no suffering, no panic, but agreeably messier, especially if u do it right.
 
Slamming rats is not always instantaneous. The rats can move while being slammed, resulting in inaccurate hits. I have had rats I thought were dead come up conscious and paralyzed a good bit after I slammed them. The longest I have ever seen a rat in panic mode was 30 seconds with CO2. As Theresa stated, if done correctly, CO2 is completely humane. I see where you are coming from with not needing to kill alot of rats at a time. But if you go ahead and kill a chunk of rats, the system only costs about $30 to set up and is much cleaner and more organized than slamming them.

Chris
 
Oh yeah.. and you can kill a bunch of rats, and freeze them, then use them as needed, rather than having to constantly buy live, or feed a stockpile of rats that might get too large for your purposes(more of a problem for ball python people than boas or burms of course), thus saving you money and time and effort.
 
Ask Pete Kahl some time how long his very first female Het Albinos lived. He openly admits to feeding them generously, to get them up to breeding size. But when you get 3 litters out of her, and she dies from all the fat lining her heart and internal organs..... how beneficial was it really?

I'll speak for myself here, you feed them too frequently, they WILL die an early death. I been keeping Boa since 1975, and I lost many that weren't even 10 yrs old yet, some as early as 7 yrs old. Why? I believe it's due to my propensity to feed them what I thought they wanted at the time.

You'll find that if you feed sporadically, they'll live longer, be healthier, be more active, and have a better live baby count as well. I don't feed any sooner then 2 weeks apart. Sometimes 3, 4 or 5 weeks apart. They get one item only as well. I ain't got a skinny unhealthy Boa one either. :)

It would just be best for your animal if you took head to whats been said above.
 
yea ive made the changes as i said, do u think i should feed her once a month for a while to help get rid of all that fat? cuz i really dont want my snake to die. shes the first snake i had that was ever really mine. my first was a male ball given to me but i had to keep it at my buddies house so i really didnt take care of it, and the next was a pissy brb i traded the next day for the snake this thread is about. btw i have a pic of her finnaly and im gonna post it now, lemme know if u think shes a fat snake.

<img src="<a href="http://s647.photobucket.com/albums/uu199/rcpreis3/?action=view&current=korajimi5.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu199/rcpreis3/korajimi5.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>">
 
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