2 Rescues from local Petsmart (pictures)

My girlfriend and I were just browsing through petsmart and saw some hatchling ball pythons that broke my heart. Of course, I went off on the "pet care manager" and took the worst looking 2 of the 4 home. Turns out, one was male and one was female. The male has a nice black back and an overall darker look to him with some cool granite looking speckles. The female is a little brighter with some flames along her side and what look to me to be possible het pied markers? She has some of the "train tracks" on her belly, but it most likely doesn't mean anything. Still deciding whether or not I'm going to end up keeping either of them, but knowing me, I'll get attached and won't be able to let go!

The male:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3531.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3532.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3536.jpg

You can see the speckling in his sides
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3549.jpg

I think he has a funky belly too.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3538.jpg

The female:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3539.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3540.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3541.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3542.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...2/IMG_3556.jpg

They both look like they could be hets, nice "railroad" markers on those bellys.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mues155

They both look like they could be hets, nice "railroad" markers on those bellys.

---

Just out of curiosity what is it your seeing that makes you think they could be hets?

On their bellys they have the railroad track markers that are not proven in anyway but are trendy with het pieds.
The black markers on their bellys connect to make lines on either side, resembling railroad tracks. Those are the "markers"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mues155

On their bellys they have the railroad track markers that are not proven in anyway but are trendy with het pieds.
The black markers on their bellys connect to make lines on either side, resembling railroad tracks. Those are the "markers"

---

I hear people say some have markers, I tend to think people get lucky and hit on a animal that had "markers". But will dismiss it when the animal doesn't prove out. Guess its all in the fun of playing the game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rob

I hear people say some have markers, I tend to think people get lucky and hit on a animal that had "markers". But will dismiss it when the animal doesn't prove out. Guess its all in the fun of playing the game.

---

I agree, I suppose the markers are just comforting to the breeder but they are not always accurate.
I know for a fact that someone would chose a het pied with markers over a het pied without them.
Oh well...

Its just crazy how many wholesalers sell their hets into big box petstores as normals.

I am a fan however of finding the occasional morph labled as a normal, like yellow bellys! :P

Well, if either of them proves to be het pied, that would be awesome! At the moment, I just want to get them to a healthy size before I consider keeping them. I am looking for a normal female at the moment though.... ;)

Did you pay for these animals, or did the PetSmart give them to you?

Maybe it's just me but they don't look that unhealthy. Maybe it's the pictures. I have hatchlings currently around the same size but they are perfectly healthy. Why do you say these ones aren't healthy?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slim

Did you pay for these animals, or did the PetSmart give them to you?

---

^ This is what I was thinking too. As much as it totally seems horrible, I am an advocate of NOT giving money to a pet chain, no matter how bad the animal looks. They'll just replace it with another anyway :(

I was able to purchase them at a reduced price, about a third of what they were asking for them. The pictures don't really show it, but they are extremely skinny and dehydrated. They are about as skinny as a yearling corn snake.

These pictures were during/after a nice soak and they both drank quite a bit of water. I know they probably aren't as bad off as I think they are, but knowing that my petsmart only feed them a pinky mouse every month breaks my heart. Now that I look back on it I probably overreacted but I'm glad these two are getting a good home with me, at least for now.

Here's a belly shot of my male enchi 100% het pied. You can see the crazy train tracks everyone talks about:

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/...s/8ed0d047.jpg

Oh, and OP, you've got a pretty smile :P.. Carry on :wuv:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by missriss2012

I was able to purchase them at a reduced price

---

Then you didn't rescue them, you bought them, and fed the machine the keeps sticking snakes in pet shop tanks with no humidity, no hides, and too many other ball pythons.

I know it sounds harsh, and I have no doubt your intentions were pure, but the bottom line is:
1) You can't save them all.
2) You just paid to put the next two snakes in that same tank.
3) All PetSmart sees is that they just sold two more ball pythons...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by h00blah

Here's a belly shot of my male enchi 100% het pied. You can see the crazy train tracks everyone talks about:

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/...s/8ed0d047.jpg

Oh, and OP, you've got a pretty smile :P.. Carry on :wuv:

---

Gorgeous!

posts like this make me wanna got to my local petsmart and petco to check out there BP's.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kuppler

posts like this make me wanna got to my local petsmart and petco to check out there BP's.

---

It's normally not a good feeling... You'll see dehydrated baby ball pythons with stuck shed, eye caps, and hardly any meat on 'em. Not ALL the big chain pet stores are like this though. I hope you luck out and find one of the good ones :gj:!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slim

Then you didn't rescue them, you bought them, and fed the machine the keeps sticking snakes in pet shop tanks with no humidity, no hides, and too many other ball pythons.

I know it sounds harsh, and I have no doubt your intentions were pure, but the bottom line is:
1) You can't save them all.
2) You just paid to put the next two snakes in that same tank.
3) All PetSmart sees is that they just sold two more ball pythons...

---

Sadly... ^^ this is true. I usually don't even go to the reptile section when I go in for dog/cat food.

I was at PetCo the other day and saw 8 baby bps in the same tank all squished together in a corner- and one of them had its head stuck between the glass and the water bowl. Pressed flat and bug-eyed. He wasn't breathing and he had that "dead glaze" in his eyes.

When I asked the employee if the little guy was alive all he did was look and say, "Probably, but I'm not sticking my hand in there to check."

Really. Dislike. PetCo.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kiyayiya

When I asked the employee if the little guy was alive all he did was look and say, "Probably, but I'm not sticking my hand in there to check."

---

..nice...:slamhead:

Heres what I saw the last time I was in Petsmart...

Did I want to buy him and give him a good home? Yes
But like others have said, it would only free up the space to add another BP to suffer.
I used to work at petsmart, if they sell a certain number of animals by a certain time then on the next order they get to up the quantity...its a horrible cycle.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7...b560b3a0e9.jpg
Sad Petsmart BP by zombiecupcake155, on Flickr

The bp's go fast at our petsmart here sadly :(
The bp's at our petland have sat for a long time, there is a spider ($590) and 3 normals($130) all look like the one above, stuck shed etc.
It's sad and I hope someone who buys them will know what to do to fix them. It seems like every single snake that sheds there has a bad one.

I noticed the other day that the local pmarts here advertise their bps as captive hatched. I used to work at one....I hate their policy. All they're allowed to do is throw f/t mice in a cup of hot water, put the snake in a critter keeper with nothing in it and an unreg uth under it (sometimes), and throw them food. If they don't eat f/t, too bad. I dunno if the CH part plays into it, but very few eat.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by moonlightgdess

I noticed the other day that the local pmarts here advertise their bps as captive hatched. I used to work at one....I hate their policy. All they're allowed to do is throw f/t mice in a cup of hot water, put the snake in a critter keeper with nothing in it and an unreg uth under it (sometimes), and throw them food. If they don't eat f/t, too bad. I dunno if the CH part plays into it, but very few eat.

---

yup.
When I worked there, I couldnt even count how many hatchlings have DIED because they refuse to feed them live prey. Petsmart would rather have a snake die than to FEED it what nature intended...its sickening.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mues155

Heres what I saw the last time I was in Petsmart...

Did I want to buy him and give him a good home? Yes
But like others have said, it would only free up the space to add another BP to suffer.
I used to work at petsmart, if they sell a certain number of animals by a certain time then on the next order they get to up the quantity...its a horrible cycle.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7...b560b3a0e9.jpg
Sad Petsmart BP by zombiecupcake155, on Flickr

---

this snake is lucky compared to the poor babies at my local petco. They are always skin and bones with RI's and humidity is never above 30% no matter how much I chastise them. The babies might not even be skin and bones, the could be less seeing as they always have so much stuck shed the look like they're covered in a thick layer of white wax. There's almost always one dead and I've even seen some cannabalism. Oh, and don't even get me started on their columbian rainbow boas. I've even filed reports of animal abuse... It only changed for five :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r:ing days!

Sadly in New Mexico, reptiles aren't considered animals…. So it's very hard to get anything done about reptiles in poor conditions. Believe me I have tried. I try to talk (kindly!) to the employees and managers if I see an issue, but a few of the stores wouldn't do anything. I write to the main offices in these cases, but I usually get replies from them assuring me that their stores hold their animals first and that they do the best to provide adequate conditions for them. I won't give these stores my money. In general, I try to take my busniess to anywhere other than big pet stores, but sometimes I have to. In these cases, I try to stick to stores that keep their animals in good conditions (and we do have a few that do).

Found these guys a year ago… Haven't set foot in that store since. Manager just didn't care. One of the animals truly looked dead, but I didn't get a picture of that. Pics don't show just how awful the cage was. Waste caked on all the walls…. Smelled awful. Humidity gauge pic didn't come out, but it was at 0.
http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/z...psofobzgp5.jpg

And this guy was at a big store in Florida. It was barely able to hold on to me. He was wheezing pretty bad too. The boa wasn't in awful shape yet, but it had quite a bit of stuck shed. Guy tried to tell me that's just how snakes shed their skin, it isn't all at once.
http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/z...psdba92202.jpg

http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/z...psfd6a4002.jpg

I am glad that these two snakes specifically have a good home now, but I don't support buying snakes in that condition. As other people said, all it does is fund the next one.

i agree.

when you buy, even at a reduced price, its a purchase, not a rescue, you are taking their problems off their hands, make space free to order new hatchlings (which they will do), and pay for these new hatchlings, which will go into exactly the same bad situation.

and as a purchase, its not a smart purchase.

real rescues are when you take something from an individual no longer able to properly care for it. or when you go to a legitimate reptile sanctuary and take something off their hands.

It seems that from the OPs point if view, this was a rescue, as that is where his intentions were. Sometimes you just can't walk away from an animal that is suffering, and he is trying to do the right thing for them.


Sent from my TARDIS using Tapatalk

I had a similar situation at a local Feed Store, I would go in there to purchase horse grain and week after week I would see this poor little emaciated normal and over and over again I would preach to the people working there about humidity and feeding. I finally could not take it anymore and broke down and paid the 60 dollar asking price and took the little girl home. After having RI and mites a well as a stuck shed she made it, even though I paid more than what I should have, I consider her a rescue. Reptiles are not unlike other animals you pay to rescue I myself have bought horses from negligent owners just to free them from the situation and also when most go to a kennel or shelter they pay an adoption fee but still call the animal a rescue.That store had no business selling reptiles what so ever and was sequentially cited for cruelty for other reptiles they had. As for the big chain stores it is not only reptiles that are treated to sub par care but also the small animals they sell. It will not change until animal advocates push the authorities to do something. I applaud the OP for taking the babies in.