This message was posted in another thread in this site, but felt I would copy the text here to give you all a perspective of something that has perplexed me for a few years now:
As for photographs, this has been a kind of a thorn in my side for a few years now. I know everyone wants to be able to see the individual animals they are buying, and I do understand that. But many people don't realize what this means to someone whom is hatching out thousands of animals.
Suppose I were to take photographs of say 500 animals and post them up on a web page with a unique ID number. Someone says they want to buy ID number EGG024532. So Monday morning I go over to pack that person's box for shipment and find that that animal has regurged it's meal I gave it three days ago, or it didn't eat it's last meal, or I find a minor kink in it. What do I do then? I don't have the leeway to find a replacement because that person is expecting to get the animal in the photograph. I have my hands tied and have to postpone the shipment until I can contact that person about the problem. So instead of being able to send out the shipment with something that would certainly be just as nice, I have to keep them all (probably unpacking the rest of the order and putting them back on the rack), get the customer mad at me because they were really looking forward to the shipment when I promised it, and I have to care for and feed those animals an additional week.
A second consideration is the management of this situation. As I sell off animals, I can constantly moving the ones remaining around as some baskets in the racks have holes emptied by the sales, and I an compact them and keep them all in an orderly fashion. So these baby snakes will not stay at the same place very long. So Monday morning comes along, and I have 10 shipments going out, with 10 babies in each shipment. That means I will have to match up 100 ID numbers for animals that might be scattered over 4 racks holding 640 babies. Since I would be very hard pressed to be able to keep more than a couple of those ID numbers in my head as I searched for them, I would need to compare just about every deli cup I looked at to see if the ID number matched the list of animals going out the door that day. Realistically, I would have to start packing my Monday shipments beginning on Saturday to be able to get them all picked and ready to go. Obviously, this would be a tremendous increase in my workload.
Yes, I do know some people take photos of their babies and sell them this way, and it beats the heck out of me how they can do that.
As for photographs, this has been a kind of a thorn in my side for a few years now. I know everyone wants to be able to see the individual animals they are buying, and I do understand that. But many people don't realize what this means to someone whom is hatching out thousands of animals.
Suppose I were to take photographs of say 500 animals and post them up on a web page with a unique ID number. Someone says they want to buy ID number EGG024532. So Monday morning I go over to pack that person's box for shipment and find that that animal has regurged it's meal I gave it three days ago, or it didn't eat it's last meal, or I find a minor kink in it. What do I do then? I don't have the leeway to find a replacement because that person is expecting to get the animal in the photograph. I have my hands tied and have to postpone the shipment until I can contact that person about the problem. So instead of being able to send out the shipment with something that would certainly be just as nice, I have to keep them all (probably unpacking the rest of the order and putting them back on the rack), get the customer mad at me because they were really looking forward to the shipment when I promised it, and I have to care for and feed those animals an additional week.
A second consideration is the management of this situation. As I sell off animals, I can constantly moving the ones remaining around as some baskets in the racks have holes emptied by the sales, and I an compact them and keep them all in an orderly fashion. So these baby snakes will not stay at the same place very long. So Monday morning comes along, and I have 10 shipments going out, with 10 babies in each shipment. That means I will have to match up 100 ID numbers for animals that might be scattered over 4 racks holding 640 babies. Since I would be very hard pressed to be able to keep more than a couple of those ID numbers in my head as I searched for them, I would need to compare just about every deli cup I looked at to see if the ID number matched the list of animals going out the door that day. Realistically, I would have to start packing my Monday shipments beginning on Saturday to be able to get them all picked and ready to go. Obviously, this would be a tremendous increase in my workload.
Yes, I do know some people take photos of their babies and sell them this way, and it beats the heck out of me how they can do that.