Here's why you shouldn't EVER buy snakes from PetCo

I went to my local PetCo (The one in Waterford, CT for any of you CT folks) to get a collar for my cat and while I was there I decided to check out their BP's. When I went up to the tank, I noticed a multitude of things that were not okay;

1. One snake had a wound on it's head so bad that you could see it's skull
2. I counted at least 7 snakes in a tank the size of a 20L tank
3. They were infested with mites
4. There was no water in the water dish
5. The PetCo workers were obviously not following their promise of checking on animals once every hour.
6. One snake was really emaciated and obviously underfed

I called and spoke to the manager afterwards and listed my complaints, and he told me that not one, but TWO snakes were injured in the same way. He claimed that they were seen by a vet and that time is what they need to heal. I told the guy that if snakes were injured like that, they needed to be quarantined and not put into a tank for sale.

Here are the pictures:
http://40.media.tumblr.com/1a68bc311...0dbo1_1280.jpg
http://40.media.tumblr.com/0f2c5b320...0dbo2_1280.jpg

Thats horrible and that is why I hate pet stores

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Originally Posted by BallPythonGuy007

Thats horrible and that is why I hate pet stores

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I almost bought the little guy because I can obviously provide better care for him than PetCo could, but I don't have the money to properly outfit him with a tank, hides, heat mat, thermostat, heat lamp, and space heater. Plus, I'd have to quarantine him for a while and treat him for mites and I'd be afraid that the mite treatment I use would have irritated his wound and made him aggressive.

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Originally Posted by Reed12321

I almost bought the little guy because I can obviously provide better care for him than PetCo could, but I don't have the money to properly outfit him with a tank, hides, heat mat, thermostat, heat lamp, and space heater. Plus, I'd have to quarantine him for a while and treat him for mites and I'd be afraid that the mite treatment I use would have irritated his wound and made him aggressive.

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Yes it would be a lot of work and I understand your position

Looks like he rubbed it pretty badly - probably on something in the enclosure.

It is a very hard thing to resist taking the snakes out of less than perfect keeping conditions but my doing so you are just rewarding the shops poor care and allowing them to do it to the next set of snakes they buy in. :(

There is no realy good answer to the problem I'm afraid.

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Originally Posted by dr del

Looks like he rubbed it pretty badly - probably on something in the enclosure.

It is a very hard thing to resist taking the snakes out of less than perfect keeping conditions but my doing so you are just rewarding the shops poor care and allowing them to do it to the next set of snakes they buy in. :(

There is no realy good answer to the problem I'm afraid.

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This is why I support breeders (and hope to do some breeding of my own in the future). I think PetCo feeds live mice/rats and that hole on his head looks like it might be a bite/scratch from a live mouse/rat. That or like you said, he scratched himself on something in the enclosure...although, there isn't much in the way of hides in that enclosure.

I doubt that is a rodent bite, there should be a matching hole from the other set of teeth that I am not seeing in your picture.
Don't forget what chain pet stores are for and that they are what got most people into the hobby.
Do I agree with their care, no BUT they are there for a profit and everything revolves around the dollar.

You really put the brutal in brutal truth.
I still ain't seen nothin have I?

thats awful, but it definitely depends on the pet store, because the petco by me is fine

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Originally Posted by Sir Hognose

You really put the brutal in brutal truth.
I still ain't seen nothin have I?

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LoL, I don't see a point in sugar coating anything.
There is always going to be something that someone doesn't like but its not always about what one of us likes or doesn't like.
I have people that ask me what s wrong with my snakes because I sell them so cheap and the pet stores want $80 for them.
My response is always, these are normal and don't fit into my breeding plans. I also don't have the same overhead that pet stores do.
Think about when you were a young child, other than the zoo where did you get to go to see all the freaky creepy animals/pets?

Mostly my friends had their own leopard geckos, and I would always read the care book they had next to the terrarium. I never liked the look of the wrinkled leo's skin, but it was a reptile and that was enough to fascinate me. Mostly when I went to pet stores I would get all excited to see their selection, and be incredibly disappointed to see $80 a pastel with cohabitation in EVERY single cage. And I cringed every time someone bought a can of crickets instead of dubias, or when a little kid asked the staff on how to care for his reptile. I see why pet stores are important, but I don't think it's worth the cruelty. Theres 2 cents from a (just now!) teenager. Does it count if I turned 13 a week ago?

I got lucky and found a little mom and pop reptile place at the last second when I was looking to buy my first ball. Dude and his wife take really good care of their animals, really lucked out.

I feel terrible about the animals in your post though, it really sucks that they are cared for like that. Don't even know how somebody could neglect them like that. When I decided to get one I researched for months just because I wanted to make sure he would be taken care of properly.

Awe, poor things!! 7 in one tank together!!? I've heard of housing 2 or 3, but 7!


2 whites tree frogs

http://www.petco.com/petco_Page_PC_contactus.aspx - Call the store feedback line and complain. 877-738-6742

Another vote not to buy an animal there. Personally I wish they'd stop selling reptiles completely and stock a better selection of reptile supplies, I'd spend more money there.

Sadly they still make fine business from uneducated people.
We do our best to educate I guess.
alrighty i gotta turn in for bed i almost fell asleep on keyboard

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Originally Posted by bcr229

http://www.petco.com/petco_Page_PC_contactus.aspx - Call the store feedback line and complain. 877-738-6742

Another vote not to buy an animal there. Personally I wish they'd stop selling reptiles completely and stock a better selection of reptile supplies, I'd spend more money there.

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I was planning on doing this. I also was thinking of calling animal control, but after i sent my breeder the pic of that snake (he actually was the one who helped open up that store and had things set up properly. the current workers have screwed everything up since) and he told me to call the dept of agriculture. Does animal control take care of these things or does dept of agriculture take care of these things? i didnt really ask why it was that dept., but he seems to be really educated about that type of thing. I also trust that since he used to work for that exact petco

The authority that handles neglect/abuse complaints in each jurisdiction is different. The breeder likely knows who to call in your area.

Like posted earlier, each store is different although most of them are fairly uneducated in the care of reptiles. The Petsmart by my house where I got my high white pied girl actually takes decent care of their pets and gets them checked by an actual reptile vet, one of the best here in Washington state. I quizzed the manager before I bought her asked her which vet they use and she told me which one who is the one I know so I know their animals get checked up by a good vet. Now the next town over from mine, they have a Petco that is HORRIBLE. It seems to me that most of the Petcos or at least the 3 in my area take pretty piss poor care of their reptiles while the 2 Petsmarts in my area take fairly decent care of them. They still don't really keep them warm enough imo but at least they aren't mite infested with sores and have snakes as thick as toothpicks. And I agree, the best bet is buy from a reputable breeder but I couldn't pass up the $200 black Friday deal for that 6 week old high white pied girl who now after 1 week with me has gained 18 grams(up to 120 grams) and eats like a horse and now I am starting to work with getting her used to me.

And definitely call that number. I mean they probably wont do much as the chain stores are all about the bottom line but it cant hurt.

The pet stores don't care that you're buying an animal to "save" them. All they see is that this animal was sold, so they'll bring in another one. It's sad, but if the animals didn't sell and kept dying, they'd probably stop bringing the animals in as it would be costing them too much money.

We don't have Petco in Canada (as far as I know), but we do have a Petsmart. They will not feed live rodents, and I've heard some bad stories about the snakes that refuse to go on f/t.

As sad as it is, I don't think animal control would do much. I've seen threads where animal control has investigated and seen nothing wrong (when we all see the issues). They tend to not know a lot about reptiles. They seem to only care if they have food and water.

I hope you can find some solution though. To have an animal like that out for sale is ridiculous, especially when the manager acknowledges it. That animal should be in the back until it's healed.


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At my Petco, we refuse any more ball pythons if we have more than 3. Also we separate them by morph and by normal. There are far too many people in my particular store that love reptiles so they never go without water and they never go without being fed at least once a week. I'm so sorry that you had this experience at another Petco and I hope they do the right thing and fix it.

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My daughter works for Petco, and they are very good with their reptiles. They have a wellness room where any ill or injured animal is kept in isolation. They keep their reptiles clean and fed well, they have a reptile manager who is in charge of only reptiles and a vet who comes weekly, since she is not a reptile vet they will use the reptile vet that we have locally. They never have more then 2 bps at a time . They do have a houdini of a corn snake though. It keeps escaping and they keep finding it ,. The reptile manager says she might just as well buy it herself, cause it spends more time roaming the store then in its cage, but its such a pig, its always comes out on feeding day. Its becomming the store pet. For the life of them, they can't figure out how its escaping.

My daughter and i just call it houdini, so thats slowly becomming its name. Petco is a corperete run co. but it's run by individual managers, and if a manager cares the store is good, if the manager is bad the store is bad. Their training is extensive in all types of animal care so its not the training its the people. Some people should never be allowed to work with animals. The only way the store will change is if you contact the corperate office and tell them you will turn this store into your state agency if there is no improvments.

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Originally Posted by blue roses

My daughter works for Petco, and they are very good with their reptiles. They have a wellness room where any ill or injured animal is kept in isolation. They keep their reptiles clean and fed well, they have a reptile manager who is in charge of only reptiles and a vet who comes weekly, since she is not a reptile vet they will use the reptile vet that we have locally. They never have more then 2 bps at a time . They do have a houdini of a corn snake though. It keeps escaping and they keep finding it ,. The reptile manager says she might just as well buy it herself, cause it spends more time roaming the store then in its cage, but its such a pig, its always comes out on feeding day. Its becomming the store pet. For the life of them, they can't figure out how its escaping.

My daughter and i just call it houdini, so thats slowly becomming its name. Petco is a corperete run co. but it's run by individual managers, and if a manager cares the store is good, if the manager is bad the store is bad. Their training is extensive in all types of animal care so its not the training its the people. Some people should never be allowed to work with animals. The only way the store will change is if you contact the corperate office and tell them you will turn this store into your state agency if there is no improvments.

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Exactly!!


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Poor things. It would cost a lot of money to take in another snake, unless you have a rack system of some sort. I hope they actually do get them proper vet care. I'm glad you took the time to speak to the manager, some people wouldn't bother :(

We aren't saying all pet store chains are bad, just most that I've seen aren't great. Mine has I believe around 4-6 iguanas housed together, and I think around 6-8 bp's housed together with all ridiculous prices.

My local petsmart has two ball pythons in separate cages, but 100$ for a normal!


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Oh man... Another post about how Petco is evil... You went there to buy something so you're obviously supporting the same horrible store you're writing about. If you're really that concerned, then volunteer at the store once a month and help them improve their condition. I'm sure the workers getting minimum wage there arent educated in depth about every single animal in the store. If it upsets you enough to write a whole post about it, then you should help them out.

For people who complain about multiple snakes in one enclosure, please calm down. If you expect any retail store keep each snake in an individual enclosure, you probably still believe in Santa. Even in mom and pop stores keep multiple snakes because it's cost effective.

Now the other thing that really grinds my gears (lol) is the price complaints. Just because you can get a Normal for $10 bucks off a breeder at a show or Fauna, that does not mean that's what people should pay for them retail. Next time you're at any pet store (big or small) ask them what their monthly rent is. I don't know if people know the difference between retail and wholesale or they just choose to ignore it. Ask any breeder how much it costs and how long it takes to produce one clutch. Now add another $5k-10k/month to that.

Anyways, im done with my rant. Say what you will but at the end of the day, stores are a business and they're there to make money. If you don't like them, them don't support them. That means not buying ANYTHING from them.

PS:If you're so concerned about the care of snakes at a retail store, then you should google what third world country makes your clothes. Most of them use child labor under horrible conditions. Just saying...




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I would volunteer but that Petco is near my parent's house in CT, but I live in NH most of the year. I agree that some pet stores can maintain good conditions for reptiles, but I was simply pointing out that this particular petco is clearly disregarding the education they received about reptiles and what conditions they should live in. The store manager there is more concerned about money than making sure the animals are healthy.


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Originally Posted by Reed12321

I would volunteer but that Petco is near my parent's house in CT, but I live in NH most of the year. I agree that some pet stores can maintain good conditions for reptiles, but I was simply pointing out that this particular petco is clearly disregarding the education they received about reptiles and what conditions they should live in. The store manager there is more concerned about money than making sure the animals are healthy.

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Then your title should have specified that location.
A store manager has duties and there is a reason the company is in business. ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.
There are things in all business models that I don't like or agree with but its their company, not yours or mine.
The manager does as instructed because he probably has a family to feed and needs his job.

While I don't ever support the mistreatment of animals, a responsibly ran store can have some of the issues mentioned here and still be good. The best example I can think of it the issue of having multiple animals per cage. Yes it can be a bad idea, and yes that's not how they should live their whole lives, but to think a store should separate every bp they have in stock just isn't reasonable. First, people coming in to buy want to be able to see what they're after, so sticking them in racks wouldn't work well. Then there's the simple issue of space. Most stores lease their space, and do you have any idea how much retail space goes for? I knew a guy with anshop in a mall, and he was paying 3k a month for something like 400 square feet. So a tiny store, and the overhead eventually killed the business. So please don't talk like making money is a sin. Now if they don't even make an effort to do the best they can with what they have, then that's an issue. And that seems to be the case with the store that started this thread.

Did you ever call the corporate number to complain about the store?

I hope this was taken care of!

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Originally Posted by Reed12321

This is why I support breeders (and hope to do some breeding of my own in the future). I think PetCo feeds live mice/rats and that hole on his head looks like it might be a bite/scratch from a live mouse/rat. That or like you said, he scratched himself on something in the enclosure...although, there isn't much in the way of hides in that enclosure.

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I worked for a Dog Food company and I found this varies store to store on the animals In the town I just moved from the Petco was very clean and prompt care to the Reptiles. The Feeding Rules are horrible They Feed F/T only thats the Company rule, I have seen snakes suffer from starvation and would not eat and become very slim that is not right if the only thing they will eat is live then do Instead of The Policies they have Corporate At Petco I hope you see this............:)