Petco Ball Pythons - really sad :'(

The Petco near me is horrible. The reptiles are in rough shape but the cats and birds are all in perfect health. They had 3 balls in their 20g setup on pine shavings with with 1 log to hide in and 1 branch to climb on. No humidity, not nearly enough heat, and all of them were infested with mites. I picked them all up to check them out and they were covered in mites, clicking with resp, and 2 out of the 3 had retained sheds and bad eye dimples.

I made sure I got all the employees I could find around so I could educate them on how to care for these animals. It just pissed me off to see the animals I've loved and lived with for for years being miss-cared for and neglected. One of the girls they had there was gorgeous and she was the one in the roughest shape. I think I spent $20 on her. They wanted $80 I had to soak her for days, mite spray her, give her batril, and feed her a few times but shes doing 1000x better than she was!

I still pop in from time to time to make sure they are doing better than they were. I think the employees actually hide when they see me come in........

I work with two Petco stores and the reptile caregivers at both along with their managers have been very good about learning. I think it all depends on the people there. I swung by one of them the other day and even though Shane wasn't working (he's the reptile guy there), the 2 bps they had in had clean water, 2 enclosed hides (not those stupid half logs), and over half of the enclosure had fake plants for added cover. There wasn't a single skinny baby or stuck shed. Last time I'd been in there a couple months ago, we'd gone over the rules of not soaking snakes going into shed and how to mist the enclosure to up the humidity. One of the other employees said that they had added misting to the regimen and they'd even saved a shed (a whole one!!!) because they thought it was so neat. Education definitely pays off and as long as the employees are willing to learn, I, and many here, are willing to teach them. The sight I saw this weekend was well worth all the time I've spent in there teaching them and answering questions.