My friends and I went to Petsmart....

So after we went to some small reptile shops around New Hampshire we decided to stop in and look at the Petsmart. Now I know you are all thinking why... but we usually go in to see the reptiles and if they are being treated well. Honestly, not once have we seen them being treated well. But there was this poor corn snake this time that broke my heart. She was being kept in a tiny enclosure within the tank itself. It was clear no one cared for her as she did not even have water in her bowl. They had not cleaned out the substrate in I don't know how long... The snake couldn't even fully extend in the tiny tank she was in. I just couldn't believe the way that they kept them like that, they were stacked upon each other and it was clear the person there was afraid of the snakes when we asked to see them just to take them out of their piss infested enclosures. This type of treatment disgusts me.
http://i.imgur.com/u4W8emi.jpg

Any chance a local newspaper might be interested? Dirty cages, snakes being sold by people afraid of snakes? I guess it depends on the newspaper, but this seems extreme, hopefully someone will care.

This is a good point. I will contact a local newspaper and keep you updated on how it goes!

That's not a corn snake.

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Originally Posted by Jhill001

That's not a corn snake.

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Looks like one of them fancy californiae types to me. :D

Also colubrid hatchlings are routinely kept in very small enclosures. Not everyone working at a petstore will be an expert on reptiles, maybe that person was hired because of their fish, dog, cat or small animal knowledge.

It was kept in that small cage within the tank because this Kingsnake will eat other snakes. And given that the rack/cage systems at petsmarts don't look too secure I'd say it was a good idea.

I can't speak to how long it was since the cages were cleaned. If the snake had spilled its water bowl it probably did look pretty gross in the cage. Many stores wait until just before closing time to clean the reptile cages because it is when there is the least amount of customer traffic and as such fewer interruptions.

Just offering up a bit of a different perspective on what may have been going on. The snake doesn't look underweight or dehydrated.

Congratulations on your new albino california king snake!

Please, IF you chose to post a complaint make sure you know what you are posting about.
Nice King BTW............ All credibility lost SMH

Definitely a California king snake ! Possibly a albino aberrantly marked specimen. The other reason it was being housed alone is bc they are notoriously aggressive and want to chew on everything. So Petsmart has special precautions on the animal for several reasons.

I will point out that despite it being a king known for eating other snakes, there doesn't seem to be anything else in the setup. It's the snake in the critter keeper, but there isn't any bedding or anything in the glass enclosure besides for the keeper, so I'm assuming there aren't any other snakes in there it's being kept from. I suppose it's possibly this shop is like the petco near me with a loose divider that the king could possibly get through to other snakes?

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Originally Posted by Daigga

I will point out that despite it being a king known for eating other snakes, there doesn't seem to be anything else in the setup. It's the snake in the critter keeper, but there isn't any bedding or anything in the glass enclosure besides for the keeper, so I'm assuming there aren't any other snakes in there it's being kept from. I suppose it's possibly this shop is like the petco near me with a loose divider that the king could possibly get through to other snakes?

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If the setup is like the ones at most pet stores in my area (IE some variation of this picture ((usually minus the awesome turtle part): http://rbrowning.homestead.com/hulen27.jpg )).

Then they are notoriously insecure for small snakes especially if the unit is older (in this economy it probably is). I worked at a pet supplies plus when I was in high school and it wasn't uncommon to find a green anole hanging out in another section of the of the unit. If a lizard can find a way into other units you can bet a snake could.

Also its possible that there are other critter cages in the same unit that just aren't visible in this picture. And even though I would keep substrate in the whole unit, mostly for looks I would go back up to where I mentioned this terrible economy we are going through and no manager is going to be OK with just putting substrate in there if all the animals are in little units.

90% of reptiles sold at these stores are very easy to keep alive, most of my time as a pet store employee was spent cleaning algae off the inside of fish tanks and getting feeders for people. The second you open a reptile cage to do anything in it someone will indefinitely bother you asking to hold it or to watch something eat which wouldn't be a problem if they were trying to buy it but if someone is interested in buying an animal they will come to you. But being in the middle of cleaning any cage in a unit where the animal could escape, fall out, or something like that distractions are not in the best interest of the store or the respective critter.

I had a policy of not trying to sell any animal to someone who didn't come in looking for one even though the manager probably didn't care for that almost no one returned animals I sold.

That's weird because I know it Petco we keep them in what looks to be a 5 or 10 gallon tank and once they get too large to stretch they are put up for adoption for length of stay

1.2 Normal
1.1 Red-tail
0.1 Albino corn

I think what bothers me most is Petsmart in my area will keep a 5 gallon tank with a larger king snake or BP in it and then put one of these critter keepers in there with them WITH a corn in there and just leave it

1.2 Normal
1.1 Red-tail
0.1 Albino corn