Richie was a baby from my first litter of KSBs ever back in 2018. Yes, you've read that right- 5 years ago, and yet he is the size of a one year old snake. This is due to many factors; for one, Richie was the smallest of his litter, and was the one I had the most trouble getting to eat. Not only did it take over a year to get him to actually start eating once a week, at the time I was too scared of hurting him to assist/force feed him as I had no prior experience, and had no one to ask help from and being mocked/judged in forums for asking for help. So I only started assist-feeding him, along with his sibblings which did not start eating after a long time, after around a year of being born.
Sadly after finally getting him established on food, I was just about to start university and made a big mistake which I still regret to this day. Instead of selling most of my snakes (since I had to move on campus in a dorm room for 3 years, 3 hours away from home meaning I couldn't come back home to care for my snakes), I trusted someone to care for my pets while I was away. While I was away, I was lied to, told that my snakes were fed once a week the appropriate food, and that every one of them were doing good and none were refusing food. It is sadly only in summer 2021 that I finally got to get back home, after many life complications, that I discovered the truth. As it turns out, my pets, my babies, especially the snakes from my litter of 2018 (some being holdbacks and others babies that I had not sold due to them sometimes skipping meals) had NOT been properly fed and cared for for the 2 years and half that I was gone. The babies from that litter had stopped accepting meals once again (which I was not told about) on top of the person in charge of caring for them not trying to feed them once a week, only once ever 2-3 weeks with the excuse of "they wouldn't eat anyways." Had I known that they would not be properly taken care of, I would have given away the remaining snakes of that litter I had to someone who could have given them the time that they needed.
After getting all my pets back I was so ashamed of the state of these poor snakes, along with feeling so guilty about it that instead of giving them away to people who would have given them the hours they needed to get them back up, I kept them. I slowly restarted the process of getting them to eat without assistance/scenting, as well as moving them back from live food to f/t, on top of still dealing with university (thankfully mostly from home at this point) and some health issues.
I have since then been keeping these snakes out of a mix of guilt, shame, and love for them (after spending so much time caring for specific snakes, you grow very attached to them), and trying to make it up to them by giving them the best care I could. But I am at a point in life where I realize that not only could they be much happier if in the care of someone else, but they could also make someone out there very happy.
This story is the reason why these snakes are marked pet only and sold at a much lower price. I would give them away to someone I know would care for them as their lovable pet, but sadly the world doesn't work like that, and so I know that if I was to just give them away or at even lower price, someone greedy and with bad intention would just snag them to resell them. These snakes are marked as pet only because it will take them YEARS to grow to a "breeding size" (if they ever do), and due to their neglected past I do not recommend ever breeding them if they reach breeding size. Chances are they will remain that stunted size, or will only grow slightly over the years. One thing is for sure- due to their age they are past their "baby growth" phase, meaning they cannot grow fast like (non stunted) babies would.
