Pet Store Woes

So, went to a local (big chain) pet store yesterday, walked up to the only BP they had and noticed something a bit ‘off’. It was middle of the day and this poor baby was desperately flailing around the cage looking like he was almost in a panicked state of mind. He was stretching toward the top of the cage, bumping his head against the top, pushing with his snoot - it was disheartening to watch. Then, I notice the thermostat sitting at 100 degrees. [emoji34] Needless to say, I told the manager. He seemed receptive but it was probably just to get me out of his face. We were there about 20 min. after and they had not even come to check on it yet.

The pic was taken about 30 sec. after he stopped flailing around and he was just sitting there (under the hide) breathing heavily. Almost made an impulse buy just to save it. [emoji853]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...4c2d20383a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8911e94b3e.jpg


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I understand it's hard to be in those situations. If you buy the poor creature as a rescue, you just encourage and enable those jerks to abuse more animals, but you still feel guilty to that one snake...

I solved the problem myself by simply not going to pet stores at all! I buy all my supplies on Amazon, it's cheaper anyway.

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

I understand it's hard to be in those situations. If you buy the poor creature as a rescue, you just encourage and enable those jerks to abuse more animals, but you still feel guilty to that one snake...

I solved the problem myself by simply not going to pet stores at all! I buy all my supplies on Amazon, it's cheaper anyway.

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Yes, it really sucks. I mean PEOPLE suck. I totally agree with using Amazon. Only reason we went was due to finding 2 abandoned baby rabbits in the landscaping (mama rabbit hasn’t visited in 4 days as I get alerts on my motion-activated cameras) and we were getting a few last-minute supplies in case we need to intervene.


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Rabbits, eh? We went through that last summer.

Two baby rabbits were found absent the mother. The internet said to leave them where you found them and the mother will come back. Yeah, well that was a lie. One of the poor creatures died overnight. We struggled mightily with the second and ended up turning the poor guy over to a rabbit rescue specialist, along with a healthy donation.

Her house was literally a rabbit haven. She had several of them just free-ranging all over, you can imagine the condition of the place. She was wicked nice though and clearly loved rabbits, maybe a bit too much. It was explained that even in the best care most abandoned baby rabbits don't make it.

Not trying to be discouraging, but maybe you want to find your own local rabbit rescue, assuming there is one near to you. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

Rabbits, eh? We went through that last summer.

Two baby rabbits were found absent the mother. The internet said to leave them where you found them and the mother will come back. Yeah, well that was a lie. One of the poor creatures died overnight. We struggled mightily with the second and ended up turning the poor guy over to a rabbit rescue specialist, along with a healthy donation.

Her house was literally a rabbit haven. She had several of them just free-ranging all over, you can imagine the condition of the place. She was wicked nice though and clearly loved rabbits, maybe a bit too much. It was explained that even in the best care most abandoned baby rabbits don't make it.

Not trying to be discouraging, but maybe you want to find your own local rabbit rescue, assuming there is one near to you. Good luck!

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Yes, I’ve read that it’s best to leave them alone. Contacted our local vet yesterday and he got us in touch with someone “qualified” but they’re out of town. Hopefully they get home in time to rescue them. <fingers crossed>

Thanks for the insight!


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Why not try to build a relationship with the people that work there? It wont always work but I walked in with Rainbow my retic and she grabbed their attention right away. Then spent some time talking to them about their husbandry after a few minuets of getting to know them. As a result my local Petco comes to me about care when they have questions and is very receptive to advice given. They don't mind when I do my shows if I direct people to better products than what they have in stock. They now care about the quality of care more than the bottom line.

That guage is a thermometer not a thermostat. That style is also wildly inaccurate so with a reading of 100*F it could have been anywhere from 95*F to over 105*F.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if it really was 105*F right under all those lights.

I don't go into big box pet stores any more; I'd probably be trespassed from the property after I ripped the managers and staff a new one.

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Originally Posted by Skyrivers

Why not try to build a relationship with the people that work there? It wont always work but I walked in with Rainbow my retic and she grabbed their attention right away. Then spent some time talking to them about their husbandry after a few minuets of getting to know them. As a result my local Petco comes to me about care when they have questions and is very receptive to advice given. They don't mind when I do my shows if I direct people to better products than what they have in stock. They now care about the quality of care more than the bottom line.

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That’s actually a great idea. Thanks!


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Originally Posted by bcr229

That guage is a thermometer not a thermostat. That style is also wildly inaccurate so with a reading of 100*F it could have been anywhere from 95*F to over 105*F.

Also I wouldn't be surprised if it really was 105*F right under all those lights.

I don't go into big box pet stores any more; I'd probably be trespassed from the property after I ripped the managers and staff a new one.

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Thermometer, yes - my bad. I have a problem with my mouth too. My wife says I have no filter or fear, which can be a dangerous combination. lol


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I feel incredibly lucky that my big box pet store very infrequently has ball pythons because the staff don't like them. In all the times I have gone in, I have only seen one and the husbandry was good and because the staff didn't like the snake, they left it alone. When the snake was purchased,they put millipeds in it's former cage so I suspect I won't see another snake for a bit of time.

Now the leopard geckos on the other hand always seem to be poorly cared for.

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