A cricket eating BP?!?!

I just thought I would share this fun story with you.

I was at a large retail chain pet store the other day to pick up some mice. I always like to check out the reptile section, and sometimes like to ask the employees questions about them just to see what kind of fun answers they come up with. Well, this last time they did not disappoint!

They had some baby ball pythons that I was looking at. The store employee asked if I needed any help.

I said, "Gee...these are really small, what do they eat?"

He replied, "Well, when they are bigger they eat mice, but they eat crickets now until they get bigger."

I just said, "Yeah, bp's don't ever eat crickets -- they eat mice from day 1" and then proceeded to pick up my mice.


I feel sorry for the people that come in there relying on him for advice. In a month or so they will wonder why their baby bp died even though they were providing it with crickets all the time.

Later,

Wow. Thats one of the craziest things iv"e ever heard! some times people who work at pet stores are very uneducated and ignorant.

Feeding a ball python crickets pshh.... whats next feeding a green anaconda meal worms??

That is hella crazy. He probably has the IQ of a two–year–old.

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Originally Posted by lesserlover

That is hella crazy. He probably has the IQ of a two–year–old.

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haha

I would have demanded to talk to the owner or manager. This is just wrong. How in the world can they be that dumb?

Jim Smith

LOL crickets. Thats a new one.

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Originally Posted by Theartisticgemini

Wow. Thats one of the craziest things iv"e ever heard! some times people who work at pet stores are very uneducated and ignorant.

Feeding a ball python crickets pshh.... whats next feeding a green anaconda meal worms??

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what anacondas dont eat meal worms that is news to me:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Yeah i had a co worker who works in the petcare area put crickets in the milksnake enclousures, i about lost it, are you kidding me? These aren't lizards!

Wow that is one I have not heard yet. I quiz the reptile people at my local petsmart just to see what they answer. I managed to find one female employee that works with the reptiles, and owns BPs and few other reptiles. She impressed me compared to the other idiots I have found.

Let me just tell you how ignorant they can be....I had one gal said little Alexander could eat full sized rats now. :O

The problem is with any retail store---chain ones. That they see employees as disposable and don't even bother to train them. I work for one of the biggest mass merchandisers--Not Walmart. I would say who but part of their rules is you can't :colbert: post stuff on the internet about them. :bow: You know all hail the great grand 'Bulls eye' The all American Nazi Corp :salute:

Anyway this 'un named' store will not train their regular workers, anyone below a team lead, nor even particularly expect anything of them. They are just the disposable dinks who fill space there. Even team leads are just marginally trained. And when you get to the level of leads on duty or exec team leads, frankly they aren't much brighter, just more arrogant........Thank god this bunch doesn't sell anything alive.

If it was a Petco or a Petsmart, call the number on your receipt. Complain. Be specific. Name names if you remember them. You may get a followup call in a few days from the store manager.

If you have a receipt that has a survey coupon, call the number. Give less than perfect feedback. Tell them you're appalled employees are giving such horrid husbandry advice. They will fix it.

It's a losing battle -- they'll just replace him with another moron.

I purely do it for entertainment anyway -- just to see if they come up with a good line I can post on here! :D

The world is full of people who just don't know. Some might even really care, but they just don't know. Some don't ever care to know in the first place. All we can do is plant the seeds of responsible keeping. Those seeds will flourish within the ones who care. BUT...if you go around slamming every ignorant soul you come across, those seeds are just thrown away and won't ever reach the fertile soil of those willing to learn.

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Originally Posted by chapskis1

It's a losing battle -- they'll just replace him with another moron.

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No it's not. It's superbad for them to get a complaint. When I complained about a BP that had retained head shed (that had been like that at least a month) and an employee brushed me off about it, I both called and sent email about it (to Petco corporate). Less than a week later the manager called me to tell me they had taken it to the vet and had the stuck shed removed. Talking to the store manager first is not the best move. You have to go over their heads.

And yes, the employee that brushed me off told me something stupid. He told me they soaked the python every day to deal with the shed issue. I was later told they didn't do that, and the employee was "confused". Hopefully he was fired too. :P

This same situation happened at one of my local chains, only with a corn snake. They still regularly fed it fuzzies and such, but they still insisted on throwing in small crickets, anyway. Sigh. :mad:

I was buying a rat today at one of my favorite pet stores today, only because they have a varity of snakes, and I looked for the bp enclosure, they havent had any for the past 3 months but It was feeding day, when i looked in the cage I saw 3, 2 feet long bps and 3 mouse hoppers... it was sad... they lost my respect...