Useless stuff...

[blueberrypancakes]

Ok, so when I first got Jackson I was told I needed all this stuff and I bought it all like a big SUCKER. Most of it is useless! Some of it is worse than useless, and actually harmful. Like the MiteOff (which I had faith in and prolonged my getting PAM). And the shed helper spray. And before discovering this site, no one told me about all the stuff I actually do need. What?! Why don't people who sell snakes know anything about them? And sell more quality product? ALL the pet stores around here sell exclusively Zoo Med products.
The only thing I'm still using that I was told to buy is the "make water safe for reptiles" water drops. Is this also useless?

[cmack91]

its because most pet stores are only in it for money so they sell stuff that SOUNDS like it works great lol. and yes they probably are useless unless you dont want to use spring or distilled water

[NotAvailable404]

Unfortunately, this is the way people are now. They produce bogus things and lie to sell them.

[blueberrypancakes]

Well, I would be more than willing to buy things from a pet store that were quality supplies. I don't get why they don't stock things that work- it's not like it doesn't exist. I'm just frustrated because the only way I can get good stuff around here is buying online, and I am so not an online shopper.

[Skittles1101]

From what I've gathered tap water is fine for reptiles. I personally buy the big jugs from the store for mine.

As for the useless products. Ball pythons are very resilient snakes. They honestly can live in horrible conditions. Look at some of the craigslist rescues. It's amazing how they can survive some houses. The "useless" products are a good way to get people not educated in reptiles to buy their products. It's the same reason why there is a picture of a snake on heat rocks, because there will always be people who buy them unfortunately. It's sad, but there's nothing anyone can do about it except try to educate people on, if anything, bare minimum care (example: regulated heat source, water, hides, etc) and also not buy those products.

You aren't the only sucker, I had a TON of useless stuff that I bought that are since in the trash or returned.

[Evenstar]

From what I've gathered tap water is fine for reptiles. I personally buy the big jugs from the store for mine.

As for the useless products. Ball pythons are very resilient snakes. They honestly can live in horrible conditions. Look at some of the craigslist rescues. It's amazing how they can survive some houses. The "useless" products are a good way to get people not educated in reptiles to buy their products. It's the same reason why there is a picture of a snake on heat rocks, because there will always be people who buy them unfortunately. It's sad, but there's nothing anyone can do about it except try to educate people on, if anything, bare minimum care (example: regulated heat source, water, hides, etc) and also not buy those products.

You aren't the only sucker, I had a TON of useless stuff that I bought that are since in the trash or returned.

Same here!! Another sucker, lol... My most "useless" purchase was the lamp and bulbs. Boy am I glad I found this site and did tons of research before I set it up so I could return it unused!

[Kinra]

You aren't the only sucker, I had a TON of useless stuff that I bought that are since in the trash or returned.

I did the same thing, but I also kept trying to improve my setup and bought useless stuff 2-3 times before I settled on a rack setup.

Edit: I also give all of my snakes filtered tap water. I don't put anything in the water.

[mechnut450]

I use straight tap water ( but bottle water for the hermit crabs), as some times it smells like a pool supply place when you first turn it on. I never got a bunch of the useless items I did get hte reptile relief while I was waiting on the PAM to come in with one set of snakes cause they had mite bad ( a white snake looke like it had freckles ) and people wonder why it had not been eating and was staying in the water bowl

[crepers86]

I got lucky when I got my first ball python. I bought from Petsmart (shame shame, I know) but I wasn't up on the herp community neither. Any who, They lady that told me about what I needed was an owner and breeder, so she told me what I needed. Two Hides, water bowl, UTH, maybe a mister or spray bottle if I went with a glass but she recomanded me to get a sterilite tub, and cheap shelf or stand from target or wal-mart. I actually bought a 20gal long tank but after a few bad sheds I switched her into a sterilite tube.

Go to petco and they will sell you what you don't really need, and even tell you what the animal your buying is another animal, like my friends dad bought a ball python, they told him it was a boa, told him to feed it a pinkie mouse once a month, and to use a heat rock. when I first seen the snake, I told him that everything in the set up was wrong. I made a list. my baby ball was younger but getting bigger then his. when I went back to his house 3 months later, the ball still had no hide, actually he had a ceramic tree in there with a hole underneith the snake gotten into. He told me he had to use cig smoke to smoke it out then taped it up. I told him He needed two like hides on each side. take the rock out and use a UTH. put the water bowl in the middle and two like hides on both sides. on the Second visit I had brought my sub adult female ball and he still asked me if his was a boa.

he had no idea. Since I gotten my first one I have aquired two more and I hate hate hate that people get wrong info on care and set up, and then when some one tells them what is wrong they still don't want to fix it.

I swear if the care and set up for a dog, cat, horse or something is not right the person is charged for neglect. But, to snakes oh its just a snake, lets treat it like a stuffed animal, put it in a cage, and admire how ugly it is because we don't know proper care. Let live a few months, die, flush it and go get a new one. Idiots that is whats keeping these no good pet stores in business.