pet stores: friend or foe?

What do you think about pet stores and their impact on the reptile world? Should snakes and other reptiles be so easily available for people to buy?

How do you think most people get started in this hobby??

I understand that most of us started off with a petstore snake but i have always loved snakes and would have got a snake one way or another. Im talking about an impulse buy from a nagging 12 year old that bugs his parents at the store until they get him one. Then 2 weeks later he is bored of it. Also ALOT of pet stores have no clue how to care for a snake.

Breeders sell snakes because that is something they love working with and if a new owner has questions they can give CORRECT answers. I have heard so much garbage come out of pet store employees when they are telling a new owner how to care for their snake.

Easily available? Yes.

Living in terrible conditions? No.

I have never left a pet store without feeling disgusted about something.

Also, plenty of breeders are garbage and don't care about their animals one bit. It seems like some just have a hobby where they peddle disease to the masses for $15 a hit.

Thats true. Not all breeders are good either. But i think there are more quality breeders than quality pet stores

Not the biggest fan of the big box stores. There are still a few mom and pop pet stores that I'd rather give my business to.

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Especially for the big-box stores where husbandry practices range from less-than-ideal to criminally negligent, I would be more inclined to shop at them if they were a pet supply store, and not a pet store. Southern States and Tractor Supply don't seem to be hurting for business, and they don't sell cows, horses, pigs, sheep...

If they needed something to sell instead, consumables like F10, mite spray, bulk aspen or cypress mulch, decent spray bottles, tub liners, etc. would probably generate more revenue for the store anyway.

I hate that the big box stores get away with husbandry that is completely wrong , and send away new buyers with completely wrong instructions.

I just rescued mine from a coworker. His son bought it at a big store , without permission. He had her with hardly no heat her tank was 70 degrees on the warm side, a HEAT ROCK . She was was being fed a pinkie mouse per week and there were -wait for it - crickets in her cage. Which was one of those huge furniture piece salt water tanks that are like 6 feet long . It had a crack in it. Not cool. Now I am worried she is pregnant too young , because he gt her from a box store where she was jammed with a "bunch" of other snakes in a half log.

It is the same way I feel about dogs. Zero problem with real reputable breeders though I lean towards rescue. No problem with the good breeders , bug problem with back yard breeders whose husbandry and sale practices are questionable , who sell blind to pet stores and what not.

When I was researching my new rescued BP , I saw "add to cart" sites where I coud have one shipped to me for 30 bucks plus shipping without any verification that I knew the first thing about what to do when I opened the box.

Just because a snake is not a pet that responds to its name or outwardly gives affection it does not mean that owners should be at least somewhat checked out , even over the phone and quizzed to make sure the don't think you feed it crickets and stick it in a fish tank with a hot rock and some sand. Just saying!

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Southern States and Tractor Supply don't seem to be hurting for business, and they don't sell cows, horses, pigs, sheep...

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They sell chicks, ducks, doves and some rodent pets here.

I will play the devils advocate here. I do not believe it is the stores job to give people advise on how to care for what they buy. If I own a store and you are giving me $$ that you worked to earn I assume that you are not a complete idiot and have some idea what you are doing.

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Originally Posted by KING JAMES

I will play the devils advocate here. I do not believe it is the stores job to give people advise on how to care for what they buy. If I own a store and you are giving me $$ that you worked to earn I assume that you are not a complete idiot and have some idea what you are doing.

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We sell and repair firearms and we've had people here who are so stupid that they should have been washed out of the gene pool several generations ago, but at least they only hurt themselves or the gun. They also learn that stupidity is expensive.

A friend of mine sells motorcycles and he's seen buyers drop brand new bikes seconds after they leave his parking lot, though to talk to the buyers they sound experienced. At least they are only hurting themselves or the bike.

With a live animal I would have a real problem making a sale to someone who I know wouldn't keep it properly.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

We sell and repair firearms and we've had people here who are so stupid that they should have been washed out of the gene pool several generations ago, but at least they only hurt themselves or the gun. They also learn that stupidity is expensive.

A friend of mine sells motorcycles and he's seen buyers drop brand new bikes seconds after they leave his parking lot, though to talk to the buyers they sound experienced. At least they are only hurting themselves or the bike.

With a live animal I would have a real problem making a sale to someone who I know wouldn't keep it properly.

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Yeah, but if that brand new bike owner drops his bike on a highway, he's got even odds of hurting himself AND some innocent party. Somebody too stupid to own a gun might just hurt themselves - or they might hurt somebody else.

Not saying that it's the same as purchasing something which feels the harm ITSELF of the ignorance of the purchaser, but 'only hurts themselves' ..motor vehicles and fire arms might not've been your best bet for examples.

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Originally Posted by CptJack

Yeah, but if that brand new bike owner drops his bike on a highway, he's got even odds of hurting himself AND some innocent party. Somebody too stupid to own a gun might just hurt themselves - or they might hurt somebody else.

Not saying that it's the same as purchasing something which feels the harm ITSELF of the ignorance of the purchaser, but 'only hurts themselves' ..motor vehicles and fire arms might not've been your best bet for examples.

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No kidding, I was going to say. Definitely some pretty bad examples, there.


I do absolutely think that it is the stores/breeders responsibility to inform someone of how to care for an animal, but not only theirs. They should be prepared to learn how to tell if the prospective buyer has done their research or not, and ask questions to make sure the buyer has the proper equipment to give the animal a good home.

We screen prospective owners at rescues and breeders for mammals, why should it have to stop there?

The selling of reptiles isnt what i have a problem with. Its the lack of knowledge that gets me mad. They have their husbandry all wrong and then thats the misinformation they spread. They sell these animals and know nothing about them. Wrong information is worst than no information

Big business pet stores are almost always bad. But I've been going to this small pet store and they take very good care of their animals. I got a leopard gecko from them a while ago and he is very healthy

I think pet stores are okay for getting people into the reptile hobby. Have a few beginner snakes/reptiles that are pretty easy to care for and get people successful on keeping those. If they are interested in long term, most people will find the means to get more advanced snakes/reptiles.

My fiancé works for a big chain pet store. He got the job because they needed someone with experience with herps. I do agree that there are a lot of pet store employees that don't have a clue what they are doing. I get mad when I see more advanced snakes being sold, like BRB and they are being kept in a tank with a mesh top with humidity gage that reads at most 40%. I have told quite a few pet stores my opinion on it (including the managers at my fiancé's store).

There are plenty of good pet stores that I shop at. If I don't think they're very good at keeping their animals, I don't give them my money. It's as simple as that. I think there are far too many CUSTOMERS who will go buy their supplies at the nearest store despite them having poor husbandry simply because it's convenient. This is how poor pet stores stay in business AND this is how good pet stores go out of business. If people were more discerning about where their money went, the poor stores would be out of business and the good stores would be doing well.

I don't have a problem with "pet stores" per say either. For many there is no other source of supplies or animals near them and when you first get into the hobby, i.e. when you get your first gecko, snake, etc. you may not even know that shipping is possible. I know that I started out with a couple crested geckos from petco. Were they from a big box store? Yes, but they were also well-cared for due to the store having an experienced herp person working there.

I think that saying stores should not sell reptiles would greatly decrease access to the hobby and would probably lead to less people becoming keepers.

I'm not defending bad husbandry, however, and yes it is best to buy from a local shop that has good conditions. But there too, I've seen many mom and pop stores with worse conditions than the big box stores.

I don't use big box stores just because they really don't care one bit for the well being of their animals. But there are 2 mom and pop stores near me that take great care of their animals and give correct information. One their reptile guy is the head of the local herp society and the other is a reptile specialty store that just opened and the owner has been keeping and breeding reptiles for several years now. So for me it all depends on the store whether or not I'll shop there or recommend ppl to go there. I do believe that pet stores are vital to the hobby growing cause most ppl that get interested in reptiles don't know any breeders and they either don't know about or don't want to wait til an expo is near by.


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A reptile department is only as good as its staff. I had a petsmart close to my place growing up, and I could almost always tell when they had a staff changeover. For a few years the department would be really well kept, with great husbandry and a cool selection of reptiles. Then there would be a year or two where the animals didn't look so great.

Where I live now there are two petlands that are quite close to me. At one store the reptile department is kept really well, and I occasionally by rats from them. I went to the other one last week, and their ball python enclosure had three snakes in it with absolutely no hide. Alot of the other animals were in poor condition, so I just left without buying my rats.

Personally I prefer to get my supplies from smaller local business owners, and avoid supporting the chain stores. But again, any reptile department is only as good as its staff.

I bought my bp at PetSmart. He was at one time housed with another bp there, and was a little skittish when I got him. I think one of the other problems with big box stores is how frequently the herps are test-handled by people who don't wash their hands, or by kids who lack respect for them. As it happens, he's still a bit shy (often goes into ball-reflex almost a month later), but is a terrific eater. I consider him a rescue, and I've put a lot of time and attention (including a thorough health-check at a reputable exotics vet and long reads on this forum) making sure he's properly cared for. From some of the other stories I've read here, he could have been in a lot worse shape.

You have to keep in mind that most pet store jobs are not careers. I doubt most of those people work there for more than a couple of years. How much knowledge should we expect them to have?
When you buy a shirt at the Gap does the cashier rattle off the care instructions as you're checking out? No. But when you buy a pair of raw denim jeans from a manufacturer who specializes in raw denim, they do give you more information about denim than you want to hear.

I know its not the same because I'm comparing clothing to animals but in the business world (which is what pet stores are, whether you like it or not) it's the exact same. You buy from a big box store with under educated employees just trying to make their half of the rent and you're going to get their brand of service. You buy from someone who's made a career of something they're passionate about and you're going to get the best service.

I see people mocking stores all the time for selling a normal for $90. How much do you think a normal would cost if everyone on staff had a degree in zoology?

Ultimately you are responsible for what you buy. If a whiny 9 year old walks out of petco with a snake or a parrot he knows nothing about, is that the salesperson's fault or is it the parents' fault?

Further, all of the employees at my local petco seem to love what they do. I doubt most of the low quality of care we hear about here is intentional. Maybe they believe they're doing it right. Maybe they did research on their own and ended up on a site that wasn't BP.net. You aren't going to change someone's way of doing things by walking in as a customer and saying, "I know you've been doing it this way for two years, but you're wrong. THIS is how you do it. I know because I have two ball pythons."

If you read these forums, you know how hard it is to convince someone to change if they believe they're doing it right.



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I dont have experience getting snakes from pet stores, but I bought my old leopard gecko from a certain chain that rhymes with Mets-Part and she had MAJOR problems. The poor thing was crammed in with 40 other geckos in a minuscule container, and ended up having costly and painful health problems likely caused by bad care in her early years :( I know If/when I get a BP I will be going to a breeder, and staying away from chain pet stores.