Grrr...

Did you ever meet one of those self-proclaimed "snake people" who supposedly know everything about snakes? They are usually found at your local "crappy" pet store, you know, the one with the freshly imported BPs and starving iguanas crammed into a ten gallon tank.
You say, "Oh, I have a few BPs, maybe a boa" and they go into this long spiel about how "real" snake keepers have rattlers and cobras, and then proceed to tell you that they own a monster anaconda. They'll talk about how you have to "tame" a snake, and how they can feed live kittens to their huge burm (ok, I may be exaggerating, but you get the point right?) And they always say "Oh, I own a 20-foot ball python!" or some other such nonsense. People who are uneducated about snakes, will go "Ooh" and "Aah" while this dummy rattles on and on about his snakes (which he probably owns none and lives in his friend's garage, lol.)Then the guy asks you about some weird, invented snake like a "blue python" or a "garden snake" and look at you like you're a moron if you don't get what they're saying.
Doncha just LOVE people like that?
sorry guys, had to vent. Remind me why I bother going to local pet stores around here...

LOL....I haven't met anyone quite like that. Makes me want to go visit that pet store and find the guy myself...just for a good laugh! :twisted:

I know just what you're talking about! They're the same ones who don't provide hides but are happy to recommend heat rocks, and can't tell the difference between a python and a boa, or between a ball and a burm. They'll handle the frogs and keep the mice breeding until they die of exhaustion, and see nothing wrong with keeping rodents, snakes, and lizards all on the same shelves together, where they can see and smell one another. Arrgh!

Yep I heard one cheerfully explaining this weekend that ball pythons do not shed in one piece - and it is natural for them to shed in patches, and that this process may take a week or so. It is a minor improvement from the girl that was there before shaking a log hide like a recalcitrant bottle of ketchup to try and get the BPs to come out of it . . . but not by much.

I followed the 2 kids and their dad back to the supplies when they had gottten away from her, explaiined her mistakes as gently as I could and wrote the site's URL down for them . . . and made them put back the heat rock too.

Yea I know the type of pet store worker that says that you have to feed your ball python huge prey items to make its head grow lol.

EDIT: I also had to add the people who say that if you put a snake in a small tank it wont get that big.

Excellent, Smulkin. It's great when we get a chance to undo the damage while there's still time.

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Originally Posted by gozetec02

I also had to add the people who say that if you put a snake in a small tank it wont get that big.

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Ah yes, my favorite all time snake myth! I get aggravated with those kind of people all around. They are just those people who swear that they know everything about everything & even when you know for a fact that they are wrong, they aint hearin any of it. They are right & that is all because they are ALWAYS right.

I like going into some of my local petstores and screwing with the idiot employees......maybe I'm just jaded from having worked in almost every store in the city, lol.

Also the ones that say that goldfish do not live long or they grow to fit the tank. Got one here that will tell you if you keep an alligator in a small tank and feed it little, it will stay small and you can keep it in a 30 gallon tank. These are the same people that sell you undertank heaters for tree frogs and UVB lightbulbs for nocturnal animals. Don't forget the ones that tell you feeding live rats is best because it is what they will do in nature and feeding them live food makes them feel like they are still in the wild. Along with the ones that tell you that pacman frogs can be kept in a critter keeper.

As genivive knows from my posts at the frog forum, I have a place that will tell you DO NOT TAKE YOUR ANIMAL TO THE VET, if it is sick then you have your tank setup wrong. If the animal has worms, it is because your setup is wrong, if you animal has cancer, it is because of your setup, if your animal breaks a bone or gets hurt it is your setup and on and on they will go.

Some of the people at the local Petco are like that. It's just like that in IT too though If I had a nickel for every time I heard that "Mac's are only good for graphics" :roll:

I would be a very rich man.

I hear ya, Mac......I'm a Mac user also. ;)

Right on David I was not aware :D

Macs rule! :D

Yes and so does tabbed browsing in safari :D lets me 2 places pretty quickly

I have Safari, but I use Explorer more often.

lol, great post ginevive. very funny. i know exactly the people youre talking about. like this woman at a store in richmond, who had just returned from the "breeder" with some bp's... that somehow became covered in ticks and were dehydrated on the way over to the store. needless to say they didn't get a penny from me.

I went to PETCO and they were trying to sell a baby Burmese Python to a 10 year old. The mother then asked how big it got and the guy said and i quote "it wont get that big just put him in a small tank" so i stood there watched him get a 10 GALLON TANK!!!!! AND THEN PUT IT IN THEIR BASKET then he picked out a lamp and a bulb that was a 150 WATTS!! that point I lost it. He took out the burmese and almost handed it to the little boy WHO JUST GOT FINISHED HANDLING SOME RATS till i interupted (more like erupted). I stood there and gave this DUDE an informal education on burmese pythons and other snakes in general and told him that snakes are not fish then i told him that everyone should wash their hands before and after handling any reptile. I told the mom to go to the place where i got my ball python and told her thats what she wanted to buy her son that they grow to 4' at the most and the they know what their talking about. She then asked me how big do burmese pythons get. When i told her that in the first year it will get to maybe 6' and in the first year and in about 3 years she would have a 13' burmese and i told her it would get much bigger then that and live for like 25 years, she freaked and walked out of the store. Oh then the employee called the manager after giving him a piece of my mind then i let the manager have it for hiring a moron. I was pissed off that an employee who knows nothing about snakes is selling them to the public. Eventually they had me escorted out of the store by security. I already emailed the corporate office about this and how malnourished anddirty all the tanks were. I know I saved this kid and the snake from a hard life what happens in 8 years when he goes off to college i am sure mom isnt going to take care for a 15'+ snake.

Its stuff like this that makes me upset. I look in the local news papers for Herps and see the same guy trying to give away with enclosure and all a 16' albino burm. Its sad how these snakes many times end up either set loose in the woods to die or are euthenized.


Sorry for the wordy post but i had to let everyone know about this.

Kudos for you, Damien!! It's good to see someone step in and intervene to stop something so wrong!

MMMMmmmmmmmm i love Kudos. Just email it to me.

The woman working in Petco today was telling me about how way back in the day she owned two burms... a 27 foot female and a 30 foot male. Apparently she brought them to schools and the little kids rode on the male's back. Riiiight... I was polite and didn't say anything... she seemed fairly in-the-know about what herps were there though, and everything seemed to be well taken care of, which was kind of suprising. I think it was just a case of her getting out of snakes and forgetting/exaggerating a bit...

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Originally Posted by gozetec02

MMMMmmmmmmmm i love Kudos. Just email it to me.

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uhhh... :lol:

The petco in my area is actually pretty good. They give good advice and are honest. If they do not know something they will tell you. If they have a sick animal they take it to the vet and put a sign that says they are being observed etc. I was actually told not to buy their bp's because they are not very tame and have hissed quiet a bit. They knew I had never owned a snake and even though I have many animals, and take very good care of them, I would not have time for a problem python. I have taken and will continue to take sick animals in, however I am not willing to do it till I have more experience, so they let me know that.

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I was actually told not to buy their bp's because they are not very tame and have hissed quiet a bit.

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That's actually what contributed to me getting into BPs, actually. I was in a petco where this cool girl works, and she was showing my boyfriend and I her tattoos, cuz my BF is a tattoo artist. She found out that we were into keeping herps, and she said "you guys want a really nasty snake?" Turned out to be a BP, our first one. We researched for about a week and then returned for the freebie BP.
Turns out that this BP in question had been returned to the store twice because it bit the kids who bought her. She had been written off as a loss by the store and was being kept in the back room.
I would still have her today if one of my idiot friends hadn't left her cage opened and let her escape to freeze in my basement. But I had NEVER thought of getting a bp until this one was given to me, and now I have four of them. I probably would have none if that never happened! Thanks petco, lol.
The petco's around here are not that bad; a few things could be changed, but their BPs have hide spots, water dishes and upkept humidity levels. And they are priced $85 for wild caught (farm hatched) hatchlings! I bought my new CBB for $65!

oh I paid quite a bit for my little baby. There are stores around here that have lower prices but I didn't like the way they were looking or they were wild caught. I paid $110 for my BP

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Originally Posted by Wizill

lol, great post ginevive. very funny. i know exactly the people youre talking about. like this woman at a store in richmond, who had just returned from the "breeder" with some bp's... that somehow became covered in ticks and were dehydrated on the way over to the store. needless to say they didn't get a penny from me.

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Will, what pet store was this in richmond?

I live downtown and the only reputable shop in the whole area that specializes in reptiles is about 20 mins south of the city.

Theres a store around here that sells farmed baby BPs for $90+tax.....I bought my CBB male at the Ky show for $25 LOL.

yeah i paid 70 for mine from a pet shop (they specialize in reptiles and always ask me 20 questions on how i'm taking care of it when i go in to buy food). I know that you can get babies for cheaper than that at shows, but its nice to have a place of business to go that supports you because you bought the animal from them. Makes it worth it to me IMO...

I agree Amber. The good stores deserve our business. :)

I got Jojo a little over a year ago as a farm baby for $20.
And I got Coco Just this past sunday for $20 and has already ate.

Not all franchise pet stores are bad. It all depends on the experience of the employees. If you have a fish expert working in the reptile area maybe they should fess up that reptiles are not their specialty. And besides most of our knowlege of herps has either come from other people or from books or various care sheets. I think that these big franchise stores should try to educate their employees on the herps that they sell. If that employee at that Petco would have read the burmese care sheet that they have on display in the herp area he would have realized that a burmese is not a good snake for a beginner.

I dont go to pet stores to give hell to the inexperience sales people. If i see something that would potentialy kill or injure a snake i would readily bring it to someones attention.