Morphs at a Pet Store (Petsmart)

Has anyone ever come across a morph at a large chain pet store like Petco or Petsmart? If so, how often does something like that happen? I know that'd be like hitting the jackpot since they don't sell morphs and probably wouldn't change their $35 to $50 price range for just one snake.

35-50? All the pet stores I have been in have them between 70-125 for normals..

I have found moprhs in one local pet store that's not a chain.. They had a small 150-200g axanthic.. That was already very brownish more then grey.. Also a good size bumble bee.. The bee was def 4+ ft but looked very skinny to me..

Needless to say the employees new nothing of husbandry for them.. Telling me that an adult mouse was too big for my 200g pastel saying that their axanthic is still on pinki mice and the adult bee only gets 2 adult mice each month..

They couldn't tell me how much they wanted for the axanthic and they said 500$ for the bee which they didn't know male or female.. Also

Neither of the snakes had hides an were in display tanks with basking bulbs although there was a log for the bee to hide behind.. Partially

The messed up part is even with everything they were doing "wrong" the snakes actually looked better then any other pet store snake I have seen yet

I saw a Spider at a chain pet store a couple of months ago... they were selling him for a bit more than their Normals. $199 if I recall correctly

I usually end up checking out the local Petco's snakes at least once a week while I'm already there, and I've never seen a morph being sold there, there have been a few interesting looking normals, but that's it. I do know that Petco has their snakes on sale from time to time. I think it was $43.79 last time, but the sales are few and far between (the last sale being about 9 months ago) otherwise it's $79.99. Dunno if your Petsmart is similar to that, (our Petsmart is rather dark,dingy, and they really don't sell anything alive outside of leopard geckos, goldfish, and parakeets.)

I should add that while picking up some rat food at petco last night I seen they had a tiny little red tail boa.. Like by far the smallest boa I've ever seen.. Coiled up it would fit in the bottom of med mc donalds cup in only one layer

The Petsmart I go to is relatively new and very clean. We got all 3 of our normals there. They keep them well taken care of with plenty of hiding places and guages to keep track of humidity and temperature. As far as prices there, they normally go for $49.99 and that's what we paid for our first one. The second was on sale and my girlfriend thought the first needed a friend so she bought her for $34.99. The third one was given to us by the store due to it being "overly aggressive". Lol. She has never bitten anyone in the 8 months that we've had her. (Although she did strike at me once when I moved too quickly). I was just wondering if anyone had gotten lucky in that aspect or not. I keep hoping to come across a relatively cheap Piebald but can't seem to find any. Even in the stores that breed their own..

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Originally Posted by BoostedMX3

Needless to say the employees new nothing of husbandry for them.. Telling me that an adult mouse was too big for my 200g pastel saying that their axanthic is still on pinki mice and the adult bee only gets 2 adult mice each month..

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pretty much the same thing happened to me when i went to petco a while back to get a rat for my bp i had at the time. i asked if a certain medium rat they had would be too big for my bp, i told her how big my snake was and whatnot, and she replied with "you dont want to feed it anything bigger than its head or else it will choke" LMAO so i bought it anyway and was just the right size! i cant stand how dumb the employees are there (at my store at least) i feel so bad for their reptiles, they are probably barely feeding the snakes anything if they are following that kind of advise, plus its the only petstore in my town, any other one is like an hour away...been trying to get a job there tho

Petsmart advertises Morphs on there website... things like pieds, pastels, and cinnys

I've seen some morphs at Petco but not at Petsmart. I've also noticed Petco seems to have more morphs of corn snakes too. I bought a snow motley corn snake there (my first corn before I knew better) and she turned out to be a she!

However, there's a local shop near me that has a clown, ivory, and a butterbee. However, they are on consignment and way overpriced. Oh well.

Petco will have morphs at some stores. The most common is Pastel, Spider, and Pinstripe, but they do still tend to be above normal market value for their respective morphs.

I saw a horrible looking pastel at a pet store once, going for I think 200ish. Stuck shed All over and pretty brown as a hatchling.

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Originally Posted by crepers86

Petsmart advertises Morphs on there website... things like pieds, pastels, and cinnys

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LOL, they are called 'Fancy Ball Pythons'... :P Well, I think they're all fancy! $249 for a young Pastel?? Crazy.

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Originally Posted by Brad91

Has anyone ever come across a morph at a large chain pet store like Petco or Petsmart? If so, how often does something like that happen? I know that'd be like hitting the jackpot since they don't sell morphs and probably wouldn't change their $35 to $50 price range for just one snake.

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I've seen spiders and pastels at Petsmart and Petco. Don't remember the price off hand, but they charge at least $75 or $80 for their normals. I want to say the spiders and pastels were over $150 (and TINY, never seen a ball python so small!) but I could be wrong. That may have been their sale price.

I have seen spiders and some low quality pastels being sold as "fancy" ball pythons. But not much else.

And I just want to add that not all PetCo/Petsmarts are made equal, but I think a lot of users on here would be a lot happier if all of them had employees like at the store where I work. We may not be able to sell snakes where I work because of the city laws, but there are a LOT of people I have helped educate in the last 6 months since I've been there to better keep there snakes (and many other reptiles) happy.

I've seen pastels and spiders going for $150 at Petco. Normals are typically $65-75, but go on sale for $35.

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At my PetSmart we only carry Normal ball pythons. I've yet to see a "fancy" come in but we do get amelanistic/hypomelanistic and normal corn snakes. All of PetSmart's reptiles come from Reptile Industries, the largest distributor of reptiles in the country.

I have a somewhat local petstore that has couple of ball python morphs, a pinstripe and a pastel in the same cage unfortunately and they weren't hatchlings.
They had the pin going for $499 and the pastel for $199, and I'm not sure if they knew the sexes of either one but they looked like they were locked, I spent a good 10 minutes trying to get a closer look before I tried to tell one of the employees that the snakes look like they were breeding.
Neither looked like they were appropriate weight to be attempting breeding, not underfed or skinny or anything, just you wouldn't think to breed them at the size they were .
The response I got was "I dunno they may be" and shrug off before he went back to some other business.
Now this pet store seemed to be rated one of the better ones out of the scarce selection of pet stores we have around usually they are much better housing their reptiles but that was just one time they really dropped the ball.
I've been back in there since then and the two were still in the same cage so I've decided to email them asking them about it since the main guy who deals with the snakes is never there .

I've never seen a morph at a chain like petsmart or petco. Though I did see some normal blood pythons at petco a few months ago. They were selling them for $300 which is $100 more than I bought my albino blood (sold him) a few years back. Our petco also keeps normal columbian boas all year round. In my area there are 2 close pet stores that are locally owned that keeps morphs, but over priced and low quality

The Petco by me is pretty good about caring for their reptiles. They get in low end morphs pretty frequently, but as Luke said they are always over market value. Another local chain by me has one of the best looking male pastels I've ever seen for $89. Their animals are well taken care of and healthy. This chain has two other stores in the area and they are HORRIBLE! Dirty cages, half dead animals. I guess it all depends on the manager of these stores. If they don't know what they are doing and/or don't care the animals suffer.

At the pet stores I've seen a few lower end morphs. They had a male albino ball python once and they wanted over $1000 for a hatchling.

We do have a specialty reptile store that carries morphs but they're husbandry was just as bad. I bought a female bee at 1200g for $700 and when I got her they told me to feed her one adult mouse every two weeks. She is the pickiest eater and I have her on a 5 day schedule due to the fact she usually won't eat more than one mouse per sitting.

Ive seen spiders, pastels, and bees at my local petco. Not petsmart though since the petsmarts near me " were not allowed" to carry any snakes up until a few years back.


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My local petco has morphs. A bee male for 649.95, they had a pinstripe for 249. A albino for 449.95 the albino may have been more can't member real well it was crazy prices for any morph an they all look like rescues bought at a pet store

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Originally Posted by TheSnakeGuy

At my PetSmart we only carry Normal ball pythons. I've yet to see a "fancy" come in but we do get amelanistic/hypomelanistic and normal corn snakes. All of PetSmart's reptiles come from Reptile Industries, the largest distributor of reptiles in the country.

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That's actually interesting to hear where Petsmart gets their reptiles, the last time I checked in on it everyone was telling me they got them through the guy who owns Gourmet Rodents who in turn, got them from farms in Africa.

I'm also going to go and assume that Rep Industries sells off most of their low quality morphs if that's the case so that's probably why you wouldn't see any decent animals in store.

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Originally Posted by MisterKyte

That's actually interesting to hear where Petsmart gets their reptiles, the last time I checked in on it everyone was telling me they got them through the guy who owns Gourmet Rodents who in turn, got them from farms in Africa.

I'm also going to go and assume that Rep Industries sells off most of their low quality morphs if that's the case so that's probably why you wouldn't see any decent animals in store.

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I know that Gourmet Rodents has a deal w/Petco, but I didn't realize that they had one with PetsMart...but I hardly ever go to either so they could very well have a deal w/both chains...idk why i'm even saying this 0_o

I saw a Borneo Blood Python at a Petsmart last month. $189.

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Originally Posted by SteveySingle

I know that Gourmet Rodents has a deal w/Petco, but I didn't realize that they had one with PetsMart...but I hardly ever go to either so they could very well have a deal w/both chains...idk why i'm even saying this 0_o

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I really wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people lump them in as one in the same. At the very least, Gourmet Rodents seems to have deals with both companies when it comes to supplying frozen feeders.

I got my spider from Petco...I should say I rescued her from Petco. They couldn't get her to eat f/t and they "have no supply to get live mice"...several rows down is the rodent aisle where there are small mice galore..........

Anyway, she was advertised as a Pinstripe for $200 but they gave her to me for $100 cause no one wanted her :(

Just went to that Petco today and they haven't restocked any morphs since...

Don't have any petco up north where i live but we have a few petcetera and petsmarts. I see the same morph ball python listed for sale for months. I also wonder where they get their morphs because they don't seem to make enough purchase to get wholesale price and their stock doesn't move fast enough to generate profit. It seems like they make more money on hamster and fancy rats than ball python morph :confusd:

Local mom and pop pet stores on the other hand always have a few basic morph for sale and everytime i go they either have new ball or its on hold for someone (unlike the chain store these small pet store guarantee feeding on all their snakes so if the snake isn't eating they will hold it for the customer till it does)

threezero, is that a Chipmunk in the clip in your sig? I like that, it's really cute!

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Originally Posted by Zuma22

I got my spider from Petco...I should say I rescued her from Petco. They couldn't get her to eat f/t and they "have no supply to get live mice"...several rows down is the rodent aisle where there are small mice galore..........

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It's because those are 'fancy' *cough* mice that are intended for pet purposes. But we all know they all come from feeder lines and the same distributor.

If you tell them that you want a live feeder rodent, they will deny your purchase.

Thank you all for reminding me how incredibly spoiled I am. ;)

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Originally Posted by satomi325

If you tell them that you want a live feeder rodent, they will deny your purchase.

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You know I could kind of understand it when I was asked by a six year old why they couldn't live off little flakes from a can like a fish, but this is just stupid. Apparently it's ok to starve a snake (sustained cruelty) instead of feeding a mouse (freaking cycle of life!).

I've seen threads where some people have picked up morphs at local chains. I've never came across them myself but I would think they would cost more the $50 considering the retail markup if I found one that cheap I'd have to pick it up.

Petco's typically have one store per district/area that is a "reptile store." That store is usually the only one that is able to special order specific morphs, although they cannot dictate whether it will be male or female, or the quality. At my local Petco, this is the approximate regular pricing when no sales are occurring:

Normal: $89.99 -- these occasionally go on sale from 40% to 50% off
Pastel: $149.99
Spider: $199.99
Pinstripe: $299.99 -- these often go on sale after six months, because they don't seem to sell very well at the store near me

I believe after a morph has been there for over 6 months and is not selling, they will reduce he price by 25%, although I've heard of stores bringing them down 50% or more. I think that depends on the specific manager.

I have found their morphs to be fairly poor, either in health or in pattern/color quality, compared to many online: browned out pastels, spiders with significant wobble (though most of the employees don't even know what wobble looks like) and tons of spots, and really dark pinstripes with significantly broken back stripes. Once again, that's just what I've noticed at my Petco. The one clean Pastel I've stumbled upon at Petco apparently had underlying health issues, so yeah.

I've seen pastels spider and pinstripe ball pythons at petco

The local Petland here frequently has Pastels and Spiders. Occasionally they will have Pinstripes and Albinos and other 1 gene morphs.

NYC chain pet stores don't sell any large constrictors ..

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Originally Posted by satomi325

It's because those are 'fancy' *cough* mice that are intended for pet purposes. But we all know they all come from feeder lines and the same distributor.

If you tell them that you want a live feeder rodent, they will deny your purchase.

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Actually the manager at my local big box pet store will call if they get in a rodent that doesn't "play well with others"; occasionally one will run around killing the other rodents. While they don't make good pets, the snakes seem to like them just fine. ;)

The Petco near us has spiders and pastels. I seem to remember that the prices for them were steep, considering what you would pay for a quality animal online. Nothing remarkable about their patterns.

Markheim and Pets Plus are both pet shops near us that are locally owned, and both of them are into breeding BPs. They have quality morphs.. Fred Kick's website has a humungous amount of beautiful morphs for sale.

I have seen albinos, spiders and bumblebees at petco, usually for twice what you can get from a breeder and almost always skinny little things. An albino male was 800.