Mike Fisher
Established Member
I figured I'd post a story here about an incubation escapade I had a long time ago.
I sold a local customer an unrelated pair of veileds because he wanted to become a "professional breeder" of them. He contacted me after they had bred and had not gotten an incubator and asked if I could incubate his eggs for him. I told him yes but my standard deal was I get half of the hatchlings. Or his other option was I would build an incubator for him for cost of materials plus labor. Well he didn't have any money so he said he'd contact me when the eggs were laid and I'd give him instructions to get the eggs to me.
Well he called at 5AM one morning to tell me she had died egg bound, so I told him that he needed to incise her and get the eggs out asap. He said he couldn't do it and begged for me to do it. So he brought her over and I took care of it, but I made him watch so that if he ever had to do it in the future he would know how. He nearly got sick all over my floor.
She had died sometime during the night, and I'd suspect she had been dead awhile because of rigor and smell, so I explained to him that the odds would be low because once the eggs have been deprived of oxygen for that long, their chances are slim.
Well half of them did hatch but when I called him to tell him the good news he was pissed. "Why only half?" he asked. Then he complained that after I take my cut, "he'll barely have any left to sell." That's when I carefully explained the situation from my viewpoint: I sold him the breeding pair, talked to him on the phone three times a week to help him, then I cut the eggs out of his female and incubated the eggs for him and for some reason he still believed that he was a "professional chameleon breeder".
He decided to not try to become a professional chameleon breeder at that point forward.
You really have to be careful of the customers you sell to, or it will bite you in the arse.
I sold a local customer an unrelated pair of veileds because he wanted to become a "professional breeder" of them. He contacted me after they had bred and had not gotten an incubator and asked if I could incubate his eggs for him. I told him yes but my standard deal was I get half of the hatchlings. Or his other option was I would build an incubator for him for cost of materials plus labor. Well he didn't have any money so he said he'd contact me when the eggs were laid and I'd give him instructions to get the eggs to me.
Well he called at 5AM one morning to tell me she had died egg bound, so I told him that he needed to incise her and get the eggs out asap. He said he couldn't do it and begged for me to do it. So he brought her over and I took care of it, but I made him watch so that if he ever had to do it in the future he would know how. He nearly got sick all over my floor.
She had died sometime during the night, and I'd suspect she had been dead awhile because of rigor and smell, so I explained to him that the odds would be low because once the eggs have been deprived of oxygen for that long, their chances are slim.
Well half of them did hatch but when I called him to tell him the good news he was pissed. "Why only half?" he asked. Then he complained that after I take my cut, "he'll barely have any left to sell." That's when I carefully explained the situation from my viewpoint: I sold him the breeding pair, talked to him on the phone three times a week to help him, then I cut the eggs out of his female and incubated the eggs for him and for some reason he still believed that he was a "professional chameleon breeder".
He decided to not try to become a professional chameleon breeder at that point forward.
You really have to be careful of the customers you sell to, or it will bite you in the arse.
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