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Is that a retic in with a ball python?!

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Originally Posted by PhoenixGate

Is that a retic in with a ball python?!

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Indeed it is. Local reptile shop...I was mortified. Sign said ball pythons. They also had several Burms crammed into one vision cage. I think at least 5.

😯😲😱😨

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This is horrifying! :mad: I don't understand why pet stores have such ignorant employees...I mean I know, it's all about the money, but It wouldn't be that hard to have smaller, individual cages for these guys! :rage:

I don't have enough emoticons for this.

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Originally Posted by PhoenixGate

This is horrifying! :mad: I don't understand why pet stores have such ignorant employees...I mean I know, it's all about the money, but It wouldn't be that hard to have smaller, individual cages for these guys! :rage:

I don't have enough emoticons for this.

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I couldn't even get a word in because he went on a rant about green iguanas and I'm just sitting there like..."um..."

Could possibly be the cleanest bedding/water I've ever seen in a pet shop.

So this is the shop that has snake owners putting their pets on Craigslist calling them the wrong thing. It all makes sense now!!! So how much for the Bald Retic Boa?

Just wait until someone hears about how ball pythons get 3-5 feet and are docile and slow, then buys that lean ball python with the jaggedy markings.

And then feeds it mouse fuzzies.

This is why i don't like and trust pet stores, employees cleary forgot one of the basic rules of snake care: one snake, one cage..... There are not only a royal python with a retic but three snakes in one cage.......:rage:

Someone is about to buy the worlds biggest bp.


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I bet you could pick up that "Normal BP"/Retic :rolleye2: real cheap!

Lol no kidding. I wouldn't say anything and just buy the ball retic for cheap. As far as "surprised", pretty much nothing in a chain brick and mortar pet shop would surprise me anymore. I've seen the stupidest employees working there it makes me wonder how they even filled out an application much less how they find their way to work everyday. I went to buy my big girl a rabbit today at the reptile shop and they had a new guy there I had never seen before. I told him "I need a small rabbit" and he says "what are you feeding it to?". I say "a BCI". He says "is it big enough?". I wanted to say "why the hell would I ask for a small rabbit if my snake wasn't big enough to eat it?" Like I said, I swear, some people must have sat around as kids eating lead paint chips lol. /rant off

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Originally Posted by Kaali

This is why i don't like and trust pet stores, employees cleary forgot one of the basic rules of snake care: one snake, one cage..... There are not only a royal python with a retic but three snakes in one cage.......:rage:

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And one fully soaking in the water-- not a good sign.

Can't imagine the surprise someone uneducated might get when they buy that "ball python" and it grows to 15-20 feet....

Wow. If I was in anything less than a good mood when I saw this I'd ask for the manager and chew their ear off.

OP you are in Florida right? Where state permits are required to 1) own a retic or burm, and 2) to sell a retic or burm, yes?

I wonder if that pet store owner has the permits for that snake. Scary that it's not labeled correctly, someone buying it expecting a BP is in for a major shock...

In a year we are going to see a post asking why his BP grew to 8' in the first year and if that is normal or if he overfed it. Lol :P

Wow! And all we fight for in these trying times as a nation. I hope that retic and ball python weren't breeding. Did anyone get that impression or am i on cloud 9? :mad:

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Originally Posted by Kaali

This is why i don't like and trust pet stores, employees cleary forgot one of the basic rules of snake care: one snake, one cage..... There are not only a royal python with a retic but three snakes in one cage.......:rage:

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There was like 6 I couldn't subtly get a pic of the whole cage

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Originally Posted by bcr229

OP you are in Florida right? Where state permits are required to 1) own a retic or burm, and 2) to sell a retic or burm, yes?

I wonder if that pet store owner has the permits for that snake. Scary that it's not labeled correctly, someone buying it expecting a BP is in for a major shock...

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I am. Thankfully that cage has a sign saying "THESE BALL PYTHONS ARE NOT FOR SALE, BUT MANY ARE" funny because these were the only ball pythons in the store and there's a retic in there. What pisses me off is that this is a well known and family owned shop who provide excellent advice and have great reviews but then they so this!

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Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Wow! And all we fight for in these trying times as a nation. I hope that retic and ball python weren't breeding. Did anyone get that impression or am i on cloud 9? :mad:

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Fortunately based on the retic's size I doubt it's anywhere near breeding age.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Fortunately based on the retic's size I doubt it's anywhere near breeding age.

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Do you think I should have said something? I feel bad for not doing so but they were rushing me out

Multiple animals in one cage for display... yeah, I understand this at times with certain species.

Retic with ball python? Nope. I wonder if they even know they are different species?

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Originally Posted by Coluber42

Just wait until someone hears about how ball pythons get 3-5 feet and are docile and slow, then buys that lean ball python with the jaggedy markings.

And then feeds it mouse fuzzies.

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This is how I got my rescue ball python (that was later disappeared by an evil roommate). They brought me a ball that they had bought from petsmart, said he was five years old. I weighed him in at about 300 grams when I first got him. He was skinny and had at least three layers of stuck shed on him. I listened in horror as they told me they fed him one MOUSE FUZZY every OTHER week. I had the tank in hand and was thinking "just give me the poor snake and go." Fortunately they had no plans to ever get another snake.

First time he ate for me, he shook like a leaf and took an hour to eat. Somehow I got him on rats, although now I realize I was heating a hopper mouse for my corn snake in the same container as his rat, so he was really eating mouse scented rats while I had him. In a couple weeks he put on 40 grams for me. I still feel really bad that he disappeared during my move in 2013. I still don't know if he really escaped or if my roommate did something to him. All I know is I came to move my snakes and his cage was empty with a note on top, which I couldn't read. Then the roommate in question wouldn't answer my calls.

Sorry about the rant. It really upsets me when people get reptiles and either get the wrong information or end up abusing them without knowing what they're doing, after no research on their part. Sir Giles really broke my heart. I had him looking so good by the time I had to move, and I'll never know what happened to him. I had recently bought probes and had a suspicion that he was really a she as well.

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Originally Posted by Hypancistrus

And one fully soaking in the water-- not a good sign.

Can't imagine the surprise someone uneducated might get when they buy that "ball python" and it grows to 15-20 feet....

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This is honestly why I would love to open a small pet store someday. I could have one staffed by people who knew what they were talking about and could provide real information to people walking in off the street. A lack of knowledge in my opinion is the number one reason so many snakes suffer from inadequate conditions.

My first job was at a pet store. There were often multiple snakes housed together, whether of the same species or not (although at least they were generally around the same size). There were a handful of us teenage flunkies who worked there, some more sensible than others. One day, there was a tank with three snakes in it, and a kid who'd been instructed to feed them tossed three mice in there. Predictably, two of them got wrapped around the same mouse (or rat, I don't really remember), and I got the job of separating them. It was no easy task, and I just remember thinking how glad I was that one was a large-ish rat snake and one was a young boa, because if they'd been the same color it would have been much more difficult. In the end, one got the rodent and the other got the skin off the rodent's tail.

Don't worry though, that pet store has been out of business for at least 16 years.

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Originally Posted by SCWood

There was like 6 I couldn't subtly get a pic of the whole cage

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:eyepoppin

Crazy. .. They have to know . How can't you .

Umm...talk to highest up at store. They blow it off, report over-crowding to whatever local authorities you have that are supposed to look after animal welfare in your area. Take whatever pictures you can, too, toward that end BEFORE you do all this because everybody will be able to put two and two together...

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GUYS I went back in and they're still together! I tried talking to the people on staff and they dismissed my concerns. They said that "they're doing no harm, they are basically the same snake when it comes to care, and that they like to cuddle" I feel so bad for these snakes...http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...b1f8244419.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...120d1bcf82.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...b83f991487.jpg

You expressed your concerns two weeks ago. Nothing has changed.

So... do you ever plan to shop there again? If not, feel free to blast them on social media. Do they have a facebook page? Have you left reviews on manta, google, and yelp so that people doing research on them will see your review and shop elsewhere?

Retailers understand one thing: money. They won't change their husbandry practices until they start losing customers and sales.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

You expressed your concerns two weeks ago. Nothing has changed.

So... do you ever plan to shop there again? If not, feel free to blast them on social media. Do they have a facebook page? Have you left reviews on manta, google, and yelp so that people doing research on them will see your review and shop elsewhere?

Retailers understand one thing: money. They won't change their husbandry practices until they start losing customers and sales.

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That's actually a really good idea. If I post on Facebook reviews, a lot of their customers will see!