Petsmart and crickets...

So I had an incident at my local Petsmart that reaaalllly upset me...I went in to find a small snake dead in his home with a cricket jumping around...I also saw several corns who were very sad looking and sickly...probably getting 'fed' crickets as well
I was so shook up by this that I avoided Petsmart for a while, but the scene disturbed me so much that I made a special trip to talk to the reptile lady on duty at the time.
I asked her what she fed the snakes and she replied immediately with crickets. I informed her that snakes will not eat crickets and u know what she told me?
and I quote
"They will if they are hungry enough"
I seriously almost flipped
So after discussing with her how I've been dealing with snakes for over 7 years and I would know better, and after threatening never to return to another Petsmart, she said she didn't know who was throwing crickets in the tanks and that it would stop...
What opinions do you guys have about such a situation? I was so appalled by the poor snake that lay starved to death by these oblivious and uncaring people, I honestly don't think I can set foot in another Petsmart again..
Has anyone else seen this before and confronted them about it? Has anyone contacted the company with any luck about resolving these issues? And is it even worth the time to do so? Please tell me your stories and what your course of action was for these defenseless babies.
I'd like to do something more for them.

PetSmart, as a company, does not feed their snakes crickets. This is a specific store problem, and should be addressed at that level. If they aren't willing to listen, and you've not acted like a crazy person in your attempt to educate them, then you would go higher than that.

The thing is, the lady was pretty nice and I was pretty calm about my explanations and concerns for the animals, but I'm just not sure that the word would get around to the employees...should I ask to speak to the store manager at this point?? Or have I done all I can do?

You can try speaking to the store manager. It might not change anything, but it won't hurt so long as you're okay with the employees at that store maybe disliking you. If it's not store policy to feed crickets they will probably change it if they think you might be upset enough to call corporate. (Not sure how that works at a Petsmart, but it's what I'm familiar with from other retail chains)

Yeah they sell frozen mice at our petsmart. They don't provide the best care to their reptiles but I'd say most places do a decent job of holding the most popular reptile species for a few weeks while they get homed. Most aren't entirely ignorant. In fact I'd say the majority (not all) of pet stores have that one "reptile dude" who's been working there for like 10 years and actually knows how to care for the animals.

The moron teenagers everyone runs into are literally there to open the cage and box up the animal. That's it. Those people aren't responsible for the actual care of the animal. They give terrible care advice but to be honest even if someone gives a total noob amazing world class advice their animal will probably still die because they didn't research the dang thing in the first place. If the customer doesn't care enough to read up on their new pet they probably won't care about their new pet after its not "new" anymore.

Hell yes talk to the manager!!!!! That employee should be fired based on her answer of "they will if they're hungry enough" This sickens me. You should have said "Obviously they won't!" You should have talked to her supervisor immediately!!! Maybe her getting fired would be a bit extreme but she should at least be demoted. This is absolutely horrible. You should ask her how long she would wait in a cage before she'd eat crickets.

Can you really demote someone who makes minimum wage?

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Originally Posted by Jhill001

Can you really demote someone who makes minimum wage?

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Yes right to the unemployment line!

The problem I have with PetSmart selling snakes, is their policy against feeding live. This coming from an employee of PS. I got my snake from there, and doubt it had eaten before because it definitely didn't eat at the store. I tried and tried f/t then gave up and tried live and he took is voracious and eats every 5 days like clockwork. I mean, when I got this snake, I'm not sure how old he was but he weighed 49g! And he had been at the store 3 weeks. I've had him approximately a couple of months now, and he weighed 150g at last check.

I just think having a hard & fast rule is detrimental to the health of animals like my guy who will only eat live.

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Originally Posted by pythongal

The problem I have with PetSmart selling snakes, is their policy against feeding live. This coming from an employee of PS. I got my snake from there, and doubt it had eaten before because it definitely didn't eat at the store. I tried and tried f/t then gave up and tried live and he took is voracious and eats every 5 days like clockwork. I mean, when I got this snake, I'm not sure how old he was but he weighed 49g! And he had been at the store 3 weeks. I've had him approximately a couple of months now, and he weighed 150g at last check.

I just think having a hard & fast rule is detrimental to the health of animals like my guy who will only eat live.

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Did you attempt to feed him f/t when you brought him home or did you go straight to live?

Waited a week to feed him, then tried f/t multiple times. He was super skinny. I was desperate, so I tried live. Bam. Slams them every time as soon as the mouse hits the cage.

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Originally Posted by pythongal

Waited a week to feed him, then tried f/t multiple times. He was super skinny. I was desperate, so I tried live. Bam. Slams them every time as soon as the mouse hits the cage.

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Kudos to you. I have one of mine that won't take f/t too, so they're definitely out there.

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Originally Posted by Eric Alan

Kudos to you. I have one of mine that won't take f/t too, so they're definitely out there.

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Eventually, I want to try f/t again since he is eating steadily now. Although I am prepared for the fact that he may already be a mouser, I want to try rats once I find a steady supplier (folks don't want me storing f/t). He always attacks the head and dispatches the prey in short order but I've noticed a couple of feeders aggressively fighting for their life, and it scares me. So here's to trying f/t rat pups soon.

There is nothing inherently wrong with feeding live as long as you are confident it's not going to hurt your snake. The majority of the issues cause by live feeding come from leaving the mouse in with the snake for a long time,

Not trying to justify the poor conditions and dead snake but there are some genus that feed almost exclusively on invertebrates - Opheodrys, Chionactis and Tantilla come to mind. Unless you can identify the dead snake maybe the cricket in the enclosure shouldn't be argued against just yet.

Our PetSmart just sells Kenyan sand boas, milk snakes, corn snakes, and ball pythons. I can't imagine others being much different.

Here's how I would have handled it. As soon as I got the "hungry enough" line from this person, my next words would have been "I need to see a manager now please." I can excuse ignorance, we're all guilty of it at some time or another, but indifference is a whole other matter, and that response screamed indifference. Maybe she was joking, maybe it wasn't her department, I wasn't there, but at this point it's time to speak to the manager, and be prepared to call corporate as the next step.

thanks guys for the responses, i decided that if i see it again, i will make a more serious move. its been a while since i have set foot in there, but maybe it is time i tried again to see if the conditions the lady told me will change have actually changed...

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Originally Posted by John1982

Not trying to justify the poor conditions and dead snake but there are some genus that feed almost exclusively on invertebrates - Opheodrys, Chionactis and Tantilla come to mind. Unless you can identify the dead snake maybe the cricket in the enclosure shouldn't be argued against just yet.

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i can guarantee you it was a baby king, and i know they do not eat bugs...
i have not personally seen any of those snakes you mentioned in a petsmart or petco anywhere

Fair enough. If you know it was a "king" and all. Just trying to help you make a valid and thorough argument should you decide to do something further. I haven't stepped into a chain pet store in years but I do recollect finding a hodgepodge of pitiful, wild caught, critters mixed into the exotics sections. Then again, it was mentioned above, they only carry specific animals so I guess you don't have to worry about it much anyway.

Would it hurt to nail down the species of king you saw for the sake of being thorough? Chionactis might look similar to several king and milk snakes species to some folk. I certainly wouldn't trust the word or labeling of a store that fed crickets to animals marked as "king" snakes.

Honestly, I'm more worried with the response you received as a concerned customer. Despite what these big chain stores would have poor, unsuspecting buyers believe - most of these critters will not simply eat because they are hungry enough.