Corn Snakes eating crickets?

I dont know anything about corns so correct me if Im wrong but baby corns cant eat crickets can they? Reason I ask is because today at PetSmart I was getting bedding and I saw an associate sell someone a 40 gallon Zilla tank for a baby corn and told him to feed it crickets until it gets bigger :mad:.... It should be eating fuzzies or at the very least pinkies, right? and that cage is WAY too big for it. UGHH some people at Petsmart/Petco are morons.

Yeah, that's terrible! I can only assume the store also carries rough/smooth green snakes and he got them mixed up(don't ask me how..).. Hopefully someone gives him better advice before that snake bites the dust.

That's actually an extremely common care tip given by petsmart employees for corn snakes. They are told to say that about corn snakes--because it helps boost sales. Oh look, a small snake you don't have to feed mice to. Helps sell snakes to mothers of young boys who are ignorant of snake care. The one near me suggests that on a cricket diet their 'body adjusts to stay small and healthy so they can live on a cricket diet for life'

riiiight..

Employees at Petsmart/Petco always give me a good laugh, they dont know jack squat. I like to ask them care questions just to be entertained by their bs answers.

John, there were no green snakes... so unfortunately it wasnt a mix up. I was almost tempted to go up to the guy and tell him the tank is way too big and to go grab some mice because it needs that to be healthy. I am curious though..... when they are babies will they strike at crickets and eat them?...

That's honestly disgusting. No other word would suffice.

Poor baby corn. :( Crickets?! Crickets?!!! Besides that horror, a 40 gallon breeder? For a babe?

I got my Frank at Petco. He was my first snake and I knew very little about corns at the time but the employee's there knew even less then I did and were actually afraid to put their hands in the tank to pick him up. They had multiple corns, of various sizes, in the cage and their way of getting him out was to poke things at him. Needless to say I was very angry and had to threaten them with calling the corporation to get a reasonable responce. They finally let me pick him up myself but the trama stressed us both out. He is fine now, eats like a horse, and has shed twice for me but that experience gave me a healthy view of just how bad those places are.

We got a baby copperhead from a moron on Craigslist that was apparently feeding it crickets :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by heathers*bps

We got a baby copperhead from a moron on Craigslist that was apparently feeding it crickets :rolleyes:

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WHAT!!!!!! :O That's just cruel!

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Originally Posted by drama x

Employees at Petsmart/Petco always give me a good laugh, they dont know jack squat. I like to ask them care questions just to be entertained by their bs answers.

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I get really tired of saying this, but please do not lump all Petsmart/Petco employees together. I worked for Petsmart for a year and a half and I am quite knowledgable about all the animals that were under my care. Perhaps the employees in your area are bad and that needs to be addressed, but in the store I worked in, my co-workers (with the exception of the managers) were knowledgeable about the animals in the department and knew what they were doing. It was only when we got a new pet care manager that knew jack diddly that things began going downhill.

If I hear pet store employees giving bad info, I step in and say something. Before I ever worked for a Petsmart I went into a local Petsmart near me (not the one I ended up working in) and a lady was asking questions about a leopard gecko. The employee was failing miserably so I stepped over and politely put myself in the conversation and the employee let me take over. If you overheard an employee giving bad husbandry advice, I would take it to the mananger and let them know the employee needs a bit more training. Of course, it is not the employees fault. Training materials are not very informative.

In the petco near me they had crickets in the BP tank. Even aside from that they all looked half dead/dehydrated. I didn't want to get into any arguments, so I just left disgusted.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I get really tired of saying this, but please do not lump all Petsmart/Petco employees together. I worked for Petsmart for a year and a half and I am quite knowledgable about all the animals that were under my care. Perhaps the employees in your area are bad and that needs to be addressed, but in the store I worked in, my co-workers (with the exception of the managers) were knowledgeable about the animals in the department and knew what they were doing. It was only when we got a new pet care manager that knew jack diddly that things began going downhill.

If I hear pet store employees giving bad info, I step in and say something. Before I ever worked for a Petsmart I went into a local Petsmart near me (not the one I ended up working in) and a lady was asking questions about a leopard gecko. The employee was failing miserably so I stepped over and politely put myself in the conversation and the employee let me take over. If you overheard an employee giving bad husbandry advice, I would take it to the mananger and let them know the employee needs a bit more training. Of course, it is not the employees fault. Training materials are not very informative.

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Yes, the Petco/PetSmart bashing has become as chronic as the Craigslist bashing. It's neither fair nor accurate.

The true spreader of the corn snakes and crickets BS is none other than Melissa Kraplan and her Anapsid care sheet for these animals.

The fist hit you get on Google when searching for Corn Snake Care is her care sheet:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&cp=5&gs...w=1679&bih=929

When you click on that link, you are treated to a discussion in which crickets are named as part of the neonate diet.

1. It's nothing new to have pet store employees have no clue about reptile care. It's not exclusive to PetsMart and SOME PetsMarts do have good employees.

2. Talking to the employes and attempting some calm dialogue explaining that people NOW think that crickets are a unsuitable diet and that small rodents are better is a much better way of helping make change happen.

3. Buying anything from a store that doesn't care properly for the pets, doesn't relate good care advice or gives false info only supports that they should continue what they are doing. There's no incentive for a store to alter their advice if people are giving them money, no matter if they're telling new owners to feed their BPs apples.

4. Large tanks are not as bad for corns as for BPs. Corns naturally roam about searching for food items, while BPs are ambushers. I've started corns in fairly large tanks with no ill effects. As long as they have areas to hide in, and corn babies will "hide" underneath even just shavings, they've never seemed to have any issues with larger tanks.

5. Kaplan has done more to hurt reptiles kept as pets than PETA and HSUS. She pretends to be an authority that loves reptiles when she's setting people up to kill the pets and thus become disenchanted with keeping them at all.

This is why, one day, I'm going to open my own pet store. Part of the application/interview process for all employees will be a basic animal care test.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I get really tired of saying this, but please do not lump all Petsmart/Petco employees together. I worked for Petsmart for a year and a half and I am quite knowledgable about all the animals that were under my care. Perhaps the employees in your area are bad and that needs to be addressed, but in the store I worked in, my co-workers (with the exception of the managers) were knowledgeable about the animals in the department and knew what they were doing. It was only when we got a new pet care manager that knew jack diddly that things began going downhill.

If I hear pet store employees giving bad info, I step in and say something. Before I ever worked for a Petsmart I went into a local Petsmart near me (not the one I ended up working in) and a lady was asking questions about a leopard gecko. The employee was failing miserably so I stepped over and politely put myself in the conversation and the employee let me take over. If you overheard an employee giving bad husbandry advice, I would take it to the mananger and let them know the employee needs a bit more training. Of course, it is not the employees fault. Training materials are not very informative.

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Well it must just be in my area then cause they dont know anything down here, and iv been to ALOT of Petsmarts/Petcos and they all seems to have insufficiant knowledge towards their reptiles, but then again they are the Walmart of the reptile trade, cant blame them lol my opinion stands

Many neonate colubrids that we all believe to feed exclusively on rodents do and will consume insects, fish and amphibians in the wild. An 8 inch long baby corn is rarely in a position to come across an abandoned mouse nest full of pinkies. However, to subject a captive snake to a tank full of live crickets because you have distorted views about feeding rodents is just dumb.

So you would lump me in with those bad Petsmart/Petco Employees, as well as all of my co-workers? Not to mention the friends I have who work in Petsmarts around town? What needs to happen, is instead of us reptile hobbyists just sitting around bashing a company like Petsmart or Petco because their employees lack knowledge, we should be putting ourselves into those companies to change it.

This is why I want to own my own pet store. So I can provide the right information. If you were to look at the actual policies of companies like Petsmart and Petco, then you'd see they are relatively knowledgable and truely care about the animals. It is when you have people working there that look at the policy and say "screw it" and do things half ***.

Now, I don't agree with feeding crickets to baby corns (that person was obviously misinformed as it is NOT Petsmart policy to recommend insects for a corn snake.), however a 40g tank (as mentioned above) is not necessarily bad for a baby corn. I started mine off in a 20g and she never missed a meal. She probably would have been just as happy in a 40g. Corns are not as finicky as balls are. As long as they are warm and have a mouse stuck in their face once a week, they are pretty much happy. :D At least that is how my Zim (snow corn) is.

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Originally Posted by bwt501

Many neonate colubrids that we all believe to feed exclusively on rodents do and will consume insects, fish and amphibians in the wild. An 8 inch long baby corn is rarely in a position to come across an abandoned mouse nest full of pinkies. However, to subject a captive snake to a tank full of live crickets because you have distorted views about feeding rodents is just dumb.

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Lon:

It is indisputable that there are species of colubrids that eat insects, among other things.

However, the study that gave rise to the notion that corn snakes eat crickets has been too often misquoted and misconstrued. The digestive content study indicated nothing other than the crickets were the prey of the prey that the corn snakes were feeding on.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

I get really tired of saying this, but please do not lump all Petsmart/Petco employees together. I worked for Petsmart for a year and a half and I am quite knowledgable about all the animals that were under my care. Perhaps the employees in your area are bad and that needs to be addressed, but in the store I worked in, my co-workers (with the exception of the managers) were knowledgeable about the animals in the department and knew what they were doing. It was only when we got a new pet care manager that knew jack diddly that things began going downhill.

If I hear pet store employees giving bad info, I step in and say something. Before I ever worked for a Petsmart I went into a local Petsmart near me (not the one I ended up working in) and a lady was asking questions about a leopard gecko. The employee was failing miserably so I stepped over and politely put myself in the conversation and the employee let me take over. If you overheard an employee giving bad husbandry advice, I would take it to the mananger and let them know the employee needs a bit more training. Of course, it is not the employees fault. Training materials are not very informative.

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I agree, we used ti have a reptile keeper at petsmart that BREED burmese and BP's. Not all employees for petsmarts and petco have no experience. Regardless most stores just hire for the "can you sell it aspect"

I myself.. Give info to anyone who is being told wrong, I try to do it politely BUT I do have a explosive blowout at Sailfin, (local store, wrote a review recently in the Feedback) were the employ call me a few bad words I'm not going to repeat. :rolleyes: needless to say, all we can do it educate people who others have failed.

I work at petsmart right now :) most of my coworkers have no clue about taking care of any animal there. There are actually very few who even own pets. A lady bought a corn snake just today and one of the first things i asked her was if she knew it had to eat mice, not crickets or anything, because i hear that from customers a lot! One lady offended the crap out of me and totally ticked me off because she insisted her corn snake liked crickets, could eat them just fine, and really didn't need to eat too many of them.
Let's just say THAT whole story was on another forum a few months ago when it happened.

ANyway, i have never had good experience at petco or petsmart, as a customer. Now that i work at PS i spend a lot of time telling people to check the ingredients on their dog and cat food, and i talk to a lot of people and try to educate them about snakes. I am also constantly fussing ...or at least asking nicely...the pet care associates to take care of the reptiles. The "pet care" manager gets really annoyed when i mention something, and tells me "there is a care sheet that the employees sign, to prove they've taken care of the animals and their needs" and i'm like....Oh yes, because the 19 year old who is afraid of snakes, I'm sure, is not just doing the bare minimum and then "signing" her name.

It's a really retarded system. I feel like i'm the only one pointing out...or caring...when the ball python has a shed stuck to his EYE that is hanging off...or when the animals are out of water...for at least 8 hours and it's bone dry so it was dry before i got there.

Most of them think i'm the Crazy SNake Lady...and I am :)
Proud of it, too, since no one else is taking care of the animals. I'm a cashier...and they hate it when i go pay attention to the reptiles. WHY that would piss them off, i have no idea. it's not like ti's a lot of work to freakin mist a snake. But whatever. 99% of the employees there are teenagers who like i said, don't have pets, and don't care. It's really a shame. I have to say though that these are some of the better taken care of animals that i've seen in the pet stores.

BTW i know a lady who owns a small petshop, and she takes HORRIBLE care of all of the animals she has there. THe rabbits are all sitting in poop and pee, the store stinks, the reptiles are always dry, and have shed stuck to them. When she had tarantulas they were dry, and skinny. I don't know why those kind of people own pet stores or try to even have pets in their stores, if all they want to sell is dog food.

Anyway...rant...lol

Again, this is why I really want to own my own pet store. I will say though, the store I worked in wasn't near that bad. The employees in the Pet Care area had a good basic knowledge of the animals (even the reptiles) and when I came in, I gave them a knowledge boost and our reptile section was awesome. No one left there with the wrong information. It was management that sucked. They hired some idiot who thought she knew about animals because she was going to school to become an equine vet, yet she knew diddly squat about anything other than horses.

She tried to convince me that feeding raw to my ferrets was dangerous and unnecessary. She also would not seek veterinary care for emaciated and mite-covered snakes, and even transferred one snake over to another store while it was covered in mites. That is when I left, and apparently, ever since I left, nothing has improved and they've even hired a girl in the department who sold a koi for a bowl.

I've made the decision I'm going to get my schooling on and take some business courses and in a few years open my own pet store. I have some good ideas, but I'm going to be studying a lot for the next few years.

The Petco that I got my second snake, a blue garter, there was one employee that actually very knowledgeable and told me the correct substrate and food for the little guy. Also the guy there said that he owned 1 ball python, 3 corn snakes, and 1 garter snake, so maybe that was the reason why he knew about them. Needless to say, that employee was awesome:cool: