Petco Ball Python "caresheet"

i think the BP's at our petco are captive bred since we get them from zoo med, but im not completely sure. most of the time people ask for a caresheet on these guys but i fix the small problems on there before handing it to them.

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Originally Posted by MelissaFlipski

You have got to be kidding me. You suspect the BP's at your Petco are wild caught? We learned about all those sorts of issues AFTER we got our BP from a Petco. So we later asked and they said they were bred in captivity. Our snake visited the vet and got a clean bill of health. But we didn't do a fecal. Should we?

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well if they arent wild caught then how do you explain all the ticks i pull off week after week and mites i kill day in and day out and all the substrate changes i do just about every other day. i hate that we have to use aspen bedding i wish i could just use paper towels or newspaper till i get rid of the mites.

and most of the time when they come in they are all dehydrated so it takes me about a month to get them back up to health in order to sell them. and my managers tell me im wasting my time and should just sell them. and i say why if we sold unhealthy animals they would be returned or the people wouldnt know what to do.

o well im done ranting here yea and i also tell people to go to breeders or reptile shows. but if someone really wants the animal that day im not gonna deny them. and i've never got commision for anything although i complain about that all the time with all the tanks and things i sell but i also let people know to go to the dollar store or loews or home depot for stuff that they could get there cheaper then at the store

I personally will never purchase any pet from any large chain pet stores! Everytime i walk in those places the cages are so crowded and dirty with poo and dirty water bowls. Its amazing that they sell as many as they do! I get all my herps from local breeders that know what they are doing and actually care for them as if they were going to keep them all for themselves. :rockon:

Buying from Petco should be considered a rescue.

The people who work there are nice but usually pretty ignorant about specific species. Sure, the 'reptile expert' might know 'a lot' about 'reptiles'- as in more than your average guy walking down the street- and the bare minimum to keep several species alive for <6 months. But they don't know much, beyond their sometimes flawed care sheets (which I am sure they are told to memorize), about any one species. The Petco guy told me that I need a UVB bulb for a ball python. He might have been trying to sell me crap I don't need to make money but I really think he thought that was right.

In the end I bought all the equipment I needed from Petco and then went to a breeder.

wow hes an idiot if he told you that. i only tell people to get a uvb light for only uvb specific animals.

and i have ball pythons so if someone comes in for them i give them all the basics and i even tell people to buy what they need and set it up before they actually buy the animal and look around most of the time they come back to me. i guess cuz im an honest person about the animals if they are unfit to sell i wont sell them and ill send them some place else to look. till i get the problem fixed like all the snakes that came in this week had mites will my manager tried to sell one and i told her not to and she was askin why and i showed her and she went oh ok. so now im treating them it wasnt a bad infest but still its an infest.

o well im off my soap box.