making progress

[rlondon1231]

Last august I bought baby ball python from a local mom and pops pet shop. There were to ball pythons that were skinny as could be. i got money and the supplies i needed and i bought one of them. i got him home and he was only 55 grams and you could start to see his bones. sadly a week later when i went back to the store to get him food his tank mate sadly died. fast forward to December. The same shop has had these adult ball pythons there for as long as i can remember. The one was on sand and i don't remember what the other one was on. anyways i got my Christmas money and the 26 i bought him. he had rat bite on his tail and was in shed. when i he shed i noticed what were to look like wrinkled eye caps or retained eye caps from previous sheds. Someone else bought the other adult. they were both on live and the baby ball python was on mice and the store never had rat pups for him to eat so it was my goal to get him on frozen thaw so i could go to reptile shows and him rats. a few weeks ago i got him on frozen thaw and this last feeding he got his first rat he is now 240 grams(yes he is small for a yearling) and the bp just shed a few days ago and those wrinkles or retained eye caps are now gone and i believe he can see a lot better since he is now more shy around me.[IMG] the day i got my baby bp.

him now

[IMG][/IMG]

my adult at the pet store

[distaff]

I'm happy for the snakes you got them out of there.

Pet store negligence infuriates me. I might have have purchased the animal at a busy time, and then made a big scene. Not the sort at all for dramatic histrionics, but that would have slightly negated their reward of a sale.

The worst they could do is call the police.
Bet they wouldn't.

[bcr229]

Nice job with the rehab.

BUT

Never ever pay full retail for a sick or poorly-cared for animal from a pet store. The store will just take your money and buy another animal, and it won't stop (re)stocking animals and it won't correct its husbandry practices until it loses so much money on the animals that it's either forced to change or until it goes bankrupt.

[rlondon1231]

I stopped going there when sold me a frozen thaw mouse that had a tumor on its side and I didn't notice it until it was thawed out

[Capps14e]

It's always difficult to know what to do in these situations. Do you buy the animal in order to rescue it and further perpetuate their mistretment of them, or do you leave them be to be bought by someone else or potentially die? It sucks either way, but good on you for trying to do the right thing.