by kivr & fireflii » Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:15 am
I think the thing I don't like the most is just how many people (mostly breeders) just repeat traditional methods. That is things like "it's worked for # years", "I have ## of snakes and they all do well", or the worst one, "if they eat, shed, and breed they're fine." Like oh my god... raise your standards?! Living is not thriving. Ball pythons are not rocks! They do move around if you give them the space, they need enrichment just like any other animal, they're not supposed to live in shoe boxes with only paper towels, a water bowl, and MAYBE a single hide their whole life where they can't even stretch out all the way. :X Like I cannot believe people keep their adult ball pythons in a 41qt its whole life. Soba is about 900g in a 42q, and he's been a bit too big for it for about 200g. People outside the reptile hobby would probably look at those sterile, breeder, rack systems and compare it to a puppy mill because that's basically what it is. The fact that most people in the hobby encourage others to go as cheap, easy, and basic as possible is so harmful to the snakes and the hobby. We should be ashamed of ourselves for encouraging that IMO.
And also with that, as y'all kind of mentioned above, I really wish people would be a bit more open minded about other methods. Tubs is not the only method of keeping, and yes while tanks aren't really suggested, they CAN work. People need to stop shaming others for feeding live or keeping their snake in a tank or not doing bioactive, etc. Some understanding and kindness in this hobby toward new keepers wouldn't be amiss.
(I speak of the general hobby community of course. CS ball python community here is very friendly in my experience.)
-fireflii
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