Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
Was just thinking..... I would never house BP's together.....but I'm wondering what BP's living conditions are like in the termite mounds in the wild? I have the DVD, "Ball Pythons In the Wild" and it looks like they pull out one snake from each mound...but that could be editing?? Some of the termite mounds are huge and could conceivably house more than one snake. Also, when baby snakes emerge from their eggs, how long to they hang around before they disperse, in the wild? Do they all stay together in the mound for quite awhile? Anyone know?? :)
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
I was under the assumption that it is common practice for breeders to house multiple BPs together until they had shed about 10 times or so.. that being said, I never think it is OK.. too much risk of a food-fight, too much stress if one snake wants to be in the same spot as another in its cage. The best you can hope for at Petco is that they have their temps/humidity right; none that I have ever seen housed BPs seperately.. they do house their corns in rubbermands seperately though..
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
The reason them living together in the wild is so much different than housing them together in captivity is that they have the option to leave and go else where if they feel the need in the wild. If they are being dominated they can go somewhere else and get away from the problem. If they have other snakes trying to "steal" their spot they can go find another similar spot, or if they are more dominant make the other snake go find a similar spot. In a tank they cant do that because there isnt enough room, and there aren't likely to be many different areas with the same conditions.
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
Ya...that makes sense....the tanks in Petco's aren't usually very big at the best of times either...poor snakes.....thanks!
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
hey i work at a petco now i can only vouche for mine that is good with the animals because i take care of the snakes and reptiles and the bp's r in one tank but the tank is a huge in wall walk in multi level habitat i take care of all the reptiles i had one bad shed this month with them and they are all better then when i first started out there so im not vouching for all petco's just mine because i know the work and the care i put in to all the animals i spend about 3/4's of the day caring for the animals playing with them and handleing them and feeding them. the other 1/4 im running aruond doing stock or im on the register. but yes i have seen horrrrible petcos
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
(appending first entry) all of our animals also come from private breeders sept for the ferrets which come from marshells
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonGranger
The same problems apply that apply if it was at your house. Is it that hard to have a hatchling rack out there with one BP per tub?
I keep all of my snakes separate, but that is impractical for a pet store. First off the animals need to be easily seen in a pet store setting in order to sell which in a rack is not really possible. Second, you can't really expect a pet store to spend $1000 on a rack for normal ball pythons that they are selling for $50. If it were a reptile pet store and they sold more than just normals maybe but not a petco type store. For a temporary situation in a pet store I don't see a problem with keeping hatchlings together. As long as they separate them to feed I don't have a problem with it. I know it is not the perfect situation but for the first poster to call it a "horror story" is a pretty big stretch IMO.
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
Quote:
Originally Posted by pfan151
I keep all of my snakes separate, but that is impractical for a pet store. First off the animals need to be easily seen in a pet store setting in order to sell which in a rack is not really possible. Second, you can't really expect a pet store to spend $1000 on a rack for normal ball pythons that they are selling for $50. If it were a reptile pet store and they sold more than just normals maybe but not a petco type store. For a temporary situation in a pet store I don't see a problem with keeping hatchlings together. As long as they separate them to feed I don't have a problem with it. I know it is not the perfect situation but for the first poster to call it a "horror story" is a pretty big stretch IMO.
If PETCO took care of its ball pythons properly, you likely wouldn't see much of the ball pythons anyway. Normal ball python behavior is to hide away all day. If you're saying a rack is impractical because of price, then why do some PETCOs pay to have the gigantic "reptile dens" or whatever that have sliding out tanks, climate controlled, etc. that probably cost well into the $1,000s as they are even better than Cages By Design? I'm not saying "get a rack for every species," but it's really important IMO for ball pythons to have their own living space aside from breeding. As for temporary situation, I see snakes in there that have been there for eight months.
Horror story is actually fairly accurate at some PETCOs. The one I go to regularly for supplies and crickets used to be fairly good, but sometimes I would see ten hatchling corn snakes in a 12inx12in partition in their "reptile den" thing that I described above, and things similar to that. Currently there are about 8-10 ball pythons, all with some sort of bad shedding problems, in a partition about the size of a 20long. The only thing that they can hide in is a half-log up against the glass, so even if they did go in it, they can still be clearly seen, defeating its entire purpose.
Sorry, but I just don't agree with thrusting a dozen snakes in a 30" cage, which is something that I would NEVER do. The guy in charge of the reptiles even said that most of the ball pythons they get either A) won't eat or B) are "aggressive."
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
then they have over stressed there snakes we feed all our snakes in seperate cantainers and all of them will eat f/t mice no problems
Re: Another fun PetCo visit...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Monty
then they have over stressed there snakes
...Yeah. 12 snakes + 1 cage = stress.