Local Pet Store Visit!

Sooo I buy my mice for my BP at the local pet store. My sister and I went there today for a mouse cause it was feeding day! This will be my LAST TIME buying from this particular store. My sister is a vet tech so she knows her stuff fairly well. In one cage there were two Hamsters. BOTH with wet tail. (chronic diarrhea) So needless to say one of these hamsters was dead laying in the corner. And the other half dead. Breathing slowly with little to no movement. My sister took the dead one out and walked out to the counter with it in her hand, the woman there simply stated "Man, these things drop like flies!" My sister was very angry at this. Sooo I went to the reptiles since I love them! The chameleon tank was the best one! Lots of things to climb on, plenty of fresh water and all that good stuff. Bearded dragon was alright had a hide and water and stuff. Then comes the ball python tank.... This I was very P _ _ _ ed off about. It was obviously a baby ball python. Very smal, very thin little guy. So his tank a 10 gallon.. IF THAT.. there was a water bowl... The water bowl had moss or whatever you call it growing in green stuff haha. So obviously the water was NOT fresh. There was NO hide at all. the snake was just right by the window sitting there not even balled up! Seemed very unhealthy. No branches to climb on. the only thing in this poor guys tank was that unfresh water. Oh.. and crickets. there were 2 dead crickets and one live one.. Do snakes even eat crickets? I know they eat frogs and stuff in the wild but shouldnt they be eating pinkies???? I was sooo mad at this set up, if thats what you can call it. I already had my mouse and he was more lively then I was so I immediiately left after that very angry. Next time im going somewhere else!

Pet stores, like every business, is all about the bottom dollar. They want to move their merchandise as fast as they can while only spending the minumum amount to care for their animals. Thus making more money. It is my understanding that some pet stores will have wild caught ball pythons therefore creating a headache for the new owner. Just a fact of life.

Ive seen a lot of posts about bad pet store experiences but this is quite horrific..

if you dont mind what petstore and where? I am in Akron Ohio and we have 1 good petstore the rest are like your experience

Well, technically....


I would say the size (10g) is big enough for one baby ball python.

And they don't really need branches to climb on.

:gj::gj::gj:


But yeah, everything else was pretty horrific :tears:. Poor guy. I would have been very tempted to "rescue" him from the pet store.

It is this kind of stuff that makes me want to open up my own pet store. You can always try to educate the employees and the manager, but most of the time, they do not listen. :mad:

that sounds terrible :(

but, they might not have been trying to feed the bp crickets.. crix escape from almost everything, and get into whatever they can find. its not uncommon to see crickets in enclosures where they have no business being there (like in a ball python enclosure).

make a complaint to the manager and tell them exactly WHY you will not shop there. they only care when you will impact their bottom line.

Call you local animal authority, if they have to have a permit contact their permit holder. There isn't much you can do but tell them how you feel and not do business there. If you contact the owner of the establishment and let them know they have lost a customer and you will be letting your friends know about them they might change, but I doubt it.

Mike

Most large chains have wild caught ball pythons. They get them imported, buy them for ten dollars and sell them for $65. Most of these animals are full of parisites and have RI's. Unfortunatly the animal hospital I work for has contracts with these large chains and I see this all the time it is heart breaking.

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Originally Posted by bman123

if you dont mind what petstore and where? I am in Akron Ohio and we have 1 good petstore the rest are like your experience

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It was in Austintown Ohio its not neccessarily a large chain. Its called complete petmart. By Coldstone Rulli Brothers restaurant.