Arrrrrg!!!!

Yesterday during a unexpected break at work I wondered into the local place of animal suffering 'pet store' some are good some are bad this one is bad. I rarely go into it and almost never go to the reptile section. Yesterday I did both. I saw the most sad looking little no tiny royal I have ever seen, stuck shed, weak, eye caps, dangerously dehydrated... the list continues. After begging the clerk to do something. I went back to work heavy hearted. By the time I got home (late) I was quite bothered.

My partner after hearing the story just said you had better hurry they close in 20 min I'll get the tub ready.

I don't agree with supporting a store with bad practices by buying from them but I just could not stop myself. No scolding please I already hate the weak will of walking in the door the first time.

I brought her home, (no I have not sexed her so yes I picked one for no reason) My partner and her daughter both were on the verge of tears she looked so bad. We soaked her for 45 min and most of the stuck shed came off. She looks 100% better this morning but still very very under fed. 31 gms and they had her for 4 months. :mad: I wanted to tear a piece off the sale person but he just about hugged me when I asked for her that saved him. I did write to the head office and regional manager and the head of the rescue organization I belong to as well.

Anyway here are some pics from this morning, I couldn't bear to do any last night.

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I think you did a great thing. Good luck with her and pease keep us updated!

Honestly that was such a sweet thing to do :gj:. She probably would have died if you didn't save her; she looks so thin. However she is beautiful and in caring hands :). Keep us updated, I would love to hear how she progresses.

What an adorable little snake! You did the right thing! I would have taken that poor animal in too!

Wow, thats horrible.

If the store doesn't change it's practices then I think you should reveal the stores name and number and let the internet do the rest.

I absolutely hate that I gave 70$ to a _____ so he (yes I have met him) can buy more 8$ snakes to sell. I am very upset that * I * increased his unscrupulous profit margin!

:rage::taz::rage:

I simply couldn't live with myself if I had not. Rock and a hard place. I have hopes that the letters will do something!!!

I really should have photographed her last night the improvement is actually staggering. I figured she would not make it yesterday, today I think she has a fighting chance. She actually had some strengh and will today yesterday she was limp.

Like I needed another normal... :oops: oh well.

Such is the life of an animal lover. :sigh2:

Sometimes I wish I didn't have a heart, then it wouldn't hurt so badly when I saw something like this. Which is all too frequently.

When I got my beagle puppy, it was from a puppy mill I got suckered into driving 4 hours to reach. I won't tell you what I saw, you'd have nightmares. Suffice it to say the LAST thing I wanted to do was give this person any of my money. But if I had left that unspeakably sweet puppy there, I would never have forgiven myself. I contented myself with reporting her to the police when I got home with my new puppy. She was arrested within a month. :D

Back to your new snake. I know what you mean, your darned if you don't and danged if you do. I'd have done the same thing in your place. Console yourself with the fact that if you can't save them all, you did save this one, and that's all that matters to you. :P At least you made an effort to change things, which is more than some would do.

Gale

Get that baby fattened up :), let karma handle the rest

I after some digging have some new information. The store where I got this little one from can house about 4-6 ball pythons, last month there was a sale on them and the head office shipped 300 to the local store. They managed to pass off 125 or so to the other stores but were left with the rest. The sold a number quickly but the remaining ones they were left with for a while the healthiest were sold and then they were left with the weakest. This one is one of the last ones. The other was taking food so this little one is the end.

I have a hard time placing a massive amount of blame on the local store and the staff in the reptile department. I think they could have done a lot more than they did but they did keep the cages quite clean and fresh clean water. The temp was ok they didn't manage humidity well they expected it to look after itself as the reptile area and fish area is in one location. The humidity is higher there than anywhere else. The staff simply didn't know what else to do. I am not defending them I think they should have done more, but understaffed and having to manage everything else and customers it would be hard to try to nurse one snake back to health.

The blame can be laid at the head office whom over shipped too many animals, whom is the reason why the floor staff is understaffed. Who refused to allocate 8 new tanks set ups to as temp housing.

I know we all have seen worse and it is a collision between head are heart, we know it is wrong to support unethical business but the heart says to get that animal someplace safe. Thank you all for your support! I appreciate it.

Well done for saving her! Btw: I love the pictures, the last one especially looks really cool x

Good for you. It's so hard to walk away.

Think of it this way: When you've gotten her nice and strong again, she can be your daughter's personal pet. In the pictures it looks like she's already taken to her.

The heart always leads the way......................no matter what you think you know is right:cool:

R,
thank you. It means a fair bit coming from you.

Update,
Today was feeding day I had not planned on offering the little one tonight as she has been here for such a short time but on seeing the little nose poking out of her hide I thought why not so I thawed a mouse pinky and offered. After a few moments she struck. I though hey that was quite small even for her and thawed a second one which by the time I got it to her the first was gone, she took it too, and then a third. :D:D:D

I am beginning to think that she might have a fighting chance. I'll get some mouse fuzzes and try her again Thursday night or friday night and see if she will take something a touch bigger. If I can get some weight on her she hopefully will pull though. They are so incredibly resilient! I wish now I had photographed her when she arrived so was awful looking! I few good soaks and now a meal and perhaps in the next few days she will look like a real snake not just a ball python coloured pencil.

Again thank you for all the words of support. I really appreciate them.

Alex

Good for you for getting that baby girl out of that store. :3
I know what it's like to see an animal like that in a petstore and need to take it home.
I felt that way about a bearded dragon in the awful petstore at the mall. :( Seh was all brown, had stress marks, skinny limbs, missing half the tail, had an underbite caused by Metabolic Bone Disease, ect... They wanted $75 for her. e.e
I had heard of her before from both my sisters before, but hadn't actually seen her for myself. I had about $100 from a camera I returned from Christmas and my sister and I pooled our money together and bought her. She's in much better condition now than she was when we got her! :3 It's really awesome to see them gain wait, become better from being ill, and just look so much healthier and more comfortable that they originally did.
Her colours are so much prettier than they were. Her beard/throat when we got her had just a little tiny bit of orange on it. Now,(tomorrow will be 7 months since we got her), her beard is COVERED in orange and yellow and it goes all the way down to her chest, around her shoulders a bit and on her spikes. Her happy colours are bright sandy yellow/tan and blue, with some orange and red in her tail as well.(She's beautiful when we're lucky enough to see her pretty colours. She's often just brown).
It may cost you a lot in the total to get them healthy again(we spent over $200 on fecals alone for her) but it's worth it and makes you feel good, able to say how you rescued a living creature.

....Plus there as a little kid there saying that she wanted to eat poor Riza! We HAD to get her out of there!

So good luck with your little one. I'm sure you'll take great care of her. :3 It's really worth it.

Update,
The little one nick named 'wiggles' (i don't know if that will stay... but for the moment) has eaten two more meals with us and is starting to fill out some. She is still on mouse pinkies as rat pinks are simply too large still... :O and I am waiting for some small mice fuzzys to arrive. She is starting to show strengh and character. The mites are gone, or seem to be anyway. It is beginning to look like she is going to make it. I have a fecal bottle waiting for her...

I was in a similar position when we answered an ad in the paper for boxer puppies - we went to their house to see the pups - I was devastated by the conditions that the pups were kept in.

I wanted to just walk away but I felt that if we could at least save one of them. So we paid big bucks for a flea ridden, wormy, hernia, etc - the list goes on and on.

We got him to a vet right away - had everything treated after spending yet aonther $400 in vet bills but he is now going on two years old and just the most loveable little guy.

Maybe we should have walked away - but just couldn't leave him there - we wouldn't part with him now.

Some people should not be in charge of other living creatures - that is for sure.

I commend you on taking in that little snake and giving him/her a chance at a good life.

Kudos to you.

It always is a tough choice between saving the critters and putting money back into the system or not to... But i think you made the right choice; it's not the snakes fault she was thrown in there :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DemmBalls

I think you did a great thing. Good luck with her and pease keep us updated!

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x2, definitely don't get down on yourself!

Glad he/she is in good hands and getting better. This is what I love about this website. There are actual human beings on here! I used to frequent Fauna until I got belittled and attacked for making a thread just like this one.

Keep us updated on her progress. :gj:

Update,
The little girl who is at least temporally dubbed 'Wiggles' seems to be growing well, she is now up to 47 gms that is good news and is continuing to gain strength. Things are starting to look quite good for her (I still haven't probed her so her him is just a guess based on nothing. 50/50)

New photos...

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Yet another update...

This is interesting, (don't ask names at all please open investigation) There is now an open investigation on the chain that the little one came from. I have been contacted and spoke to authorities. The chain currently has lost its ability to sell cats and dogs... and the rest is under assessment at this time. :D

The time spent on letters seems to have been worth it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Yet another update...

This is interesting, (don't ask names at all please open investigation) There is now an open investigation on the chain that the little one came from. I have been contacted and spoke to authorities. The chain currently has lost its ability to sell cats and dogs... and the rest is under assessment at this time. :D

The time spent on letters seems to have been worth it.

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Go you! I just can't believe how skinny that snake is.

Small update 'Wiggles' ,the name seems to have stuck now, just shed and is up to 70gm! Just short of double the weight she was and the best part is she is no longer triangle shaped but round and full looking.

I have also just switched her from mice to rats she has eaten a rat pinky now for the first time. She is finally large enough to manage them. :P I am so very pleased with her progress she is alert and strong again. Her fecal came back clean, there are no sign of the mites she arrived with. (to any doubters soapy water, isolation, combined with obsessive cleaning does work, I didn't want to subject her to chemicals when she arrived) everything so far is looking up. She seems to have acquired a name now we didn't want to mane her when she first arrived as my partner and I were afraid to get too attached as we were not sure she would make it.

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She's a beautiful little girl! So glad to see her getting better!!!

I think you did the right thing. And I would have absolutely reported them to any agency that would have listened! Cheers to you!!!

Congrats again and wait till your "Wiggles" is over the 1000g mark, you wont believe how much she changes.:cool:

congrats on the rescue. glad to hear she is doing well. hopefully she is really a female.

I am not really interested in breeding in a serious way so female or not it makes no difference one of these days I'll check now she is getting bigger. I am very pleased that she is bigger hatchling weight...

WOW!

You'd never believe that was the same pitiful little baby. Now, don't you feel better about getting her ?

Sure it was a no-win situation, but for her life is great, and we can always hope that horrible place will be banned from selling animals of any kind.

Gale

That snake... makes me so sad! Four months old, and she looks like my month-old pastel... :(

I'm glad you rescued her. And I'm so happy to hear that you managed to get the store under investigation. You shouldn't feel bad about giving your money to them - hopefully because of your experience they won't be so easily selling unhealthy animals.

I know everyone says they don't support the pet stores, but you did a good thing. For such a malnourished and mistreated snake she is a beauty. I think everyone is confident that she is in 98753286324635637457869875 times better hands now that she's gone. If nothing else she'll make an amazing pet! :gj:

Good on you. I hate to see the animals at the pet stores. The problem with alot of them and their reptiles especially is that they buy the cheapest stock they can and try to sell them for a crazy markup without feeding them. Most of the cages dont have good heat. There used to be a pet store here locally and the owner used to call me weekly looking for my normals id produce in clutches. I wouldnt sell him a thing. He then had the nerve to ask me to put a morph in his shop to help him sell snakes. I was like wth your nuts. Now heres where it gets sad. He had one of the largest retics in private collection. It was a 32 ft retic. She was basically the shop snake that drew a crowd especially when it was time for her to feed on pigs. I told a good friend of mine about the snake and he begged me to get a deal done with the owner to buy her. So after a back and fourth over money a deal was reached. We prepared a shipping crate that was a 10 foot by 4 ft by 4 ft wooden box. We installed 3 stansfield 5 ft heat pads for heat during her 7 hour trip to new york. It took 10 guys to wtestle this beast into her shipping box. The temp in the box was about 88 degrees for transport and was probablly the warmest she had ben in years. After she arrived in new york she was showing signs of resp. After about 6 months of treatments and her going from getting better to getting worse she died. I was devistated. I was so emotionally invested in this animal and she was amazing. I am glad to report that pet shop went belly up about a year later. The vets said this animal had been dealing with the issue for along time but because of her size she was able to fight it along time. You may have only rescued one but you rescued one and for that you should feel good. 2 thumbs up from this part of the world