Petco Ball Python

Some of you may have read about my Petco BP purchase last week, or my variety of husbandry set up questions etc in the past few days. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was able to find out that the Petco by me was providing captive bred ball pythons, according to an invoice that a friend who works there was able to grab. So the invoice says the snakes were sold to Petco by "Gourmet Rodent."

I've seen packaging from this company relating to frozen food etc. So today I called, and the guy on the phone also reported that all their BP's are captive bred, without exception.

Has anyone else heard of this company and or its reputation?

-Camp

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Originally Posted by bcampos

Some of you may have read about my Petco BP purchase last week, or my variety of husbandry set up questions etc in the past few days. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was able to find out that the Petco by me was providing captive bred ball pythons, according to an invoice that a friend who works there was able to grab. So the invoice says the snakes were sold to Petco by "Gourmet Rodent."

I've seen packaging from this company relating to frozen food etc. So today I called, and the guy on the phone also reported that all their BP's are captive bred, without exception.

Has anyone else heard of this company and or its reputation?

-Camp

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Gourmet Rodent holds the contract for all Petcos as far as I am aware. I would find it nearly impossible to believe that all the BPs provided to Petco are CB. Most likely they are all CH or imported and the person you spoke to doesn't know the difference.

By the way, which Petco in NJ?

Thats what I was thinking.... The only thing that even begins to make me think is when I asked what the origin of the BP's they provide are, he specifically stated "captive bred."

To me that means one of three things: They are actually captive bred (unlikely), He is full of it, Or someone told him that (in which case he is full of it by proxy).

Just wanted to post that info to see if anyone else had any similar experience or knowledge on the topic....

Pecto in Verona, NJ

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Originally Posted by bcampos

Thats what I was thinking.... The only thing that even begins to make me think is when I asked what the origin of the BP's they provide are, he specifically stated "captive bred."

To me that means one of three things: They are actually captive bred (unlikely), He is full of it, Or someone told him that (in which case he is full of it by proxy).

Just wanted to post that info to see if anyone else had any similar experience or knowledge on the topic....

Pecto in Verona, NJ

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Do you know how many clutches they would have to be doing to produce enough CB babies to stock the Petco stores around the country (unless they only have East coast stores)? Petco has over 850 stores.

Yeah actually no I have no idea... I'm new to this snake thing - I had to look up what a clutch was. Before that I thought it was a series of plates in a transmission that allowed the drive to be temporarily disconnected from the motor to change gears.

I dont know how many clutches or clutchi they would have to have. JK

But on a side note, I stoped in the store yesterday to pick up some dog treats, and they had a (I'm using this term loosley) fresh batch of BP's. So the tag says "Baby" Ball Pythons. I'm no expert, but does baby qualify for 24" snakes?

Or perhaps, because they were likely CH, they figured, hatched in captivity, we'll call them captive bred.

Just throwing out a theory! :P

I did a little research and there are a few sourses that mention Gourmet Rodent as a snake breeder. One even went as far as to say they breed their own corn and ball python snakes.... But again what we call captive hatch they may call breeding...

Aparently they are quite a large operation though.

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Originally Posted by bcampos

But on a side note, I stoped in the store yesterday to pick up some dog treats, and they had a (I'm using this term loosley) fresh batch of BP's. So the tag says "Baby" Ball Pythons. I'm no expert, but does baby qualify for 24" snakes?

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Unless you measured one, I'd say that is a bit long for a baby. Ball pythons DO have large babies on average. My hatchlings were all around 73g out of the egg. I don't know how long they were as I didn't measure them, though I would guess them to be around 10-12". Depending on how long these guys were held before being shipped, they could grow quite a bit if they were fed.

No I didnt measure them.. They were shedding and I did not feel that was an appropriate time to handle the snakes. The salesman said they were a bit "fresh" and stuck at him a few times. But sarcasm aside, they were a good 1.5" thick in the center... Much larger than any I have ever seen for sale as "babies."