Stressed out ball python at PetCo

Just stopped by my local Petco, they still had a lemon blast ball python they had about a month ago. The poor thing looked really stressed out and was climbing the walls trying to get out. They had a half log in there for a hide, I know for a fact that they don't like a hide with two openings, they need a 'cave' hide. They were also trying to feed it crickets LOL. Maybe feeding it a mouse was too stressful for the employees LOL. I felt so bad for the snake I almost bought it and brought it home just so I could feed it a live mouse, poor little snapper.

Petco and Petsmart don't treat the animals good and most of their employees don't know [enough]

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Crickets?! Did you tell them about themselves? Maybe it never has ate a rodent from them bc they don't know what they eat. Hate to think someone is that dumb but who knows..... The crickets will bite the poor guy/girl and that will cause stress as well.

You would think they would educate their employees enough to know what their animals are supposed to eat. The snake is big enough to handle an adult mouse too.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

You would think they would educate their employees enough to know what their animals are supposed to eat. The snake is big enough to handle an adult mouse too.

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I was at a pet supply plus recently and they had a Normal ball python hatchling for $99 on sale. I ask her if they had actually sold any at that price and she said yes. I ask her if it was male or female and she said a female because she has little spurs!!!!!! I said really? Little spurs? It's a hatchling!!!!! I ask her when it last ate and she said they were having a hard time getting it to eat. I ask her what she meant and she said it hasn't ate since they've had it which has been alittle over a month. The poor snake was skinny and scared to death. It's water bowl was nearly dry. The pet store probably paid next to nothing for it but wanted $99 not knowing it's gender, it not eating, and appearing to be very scared and thin!!! It's rather sad to say the least!

I'm always interested in how many times a month/week this topic comes up but its always just the one side......
There are many reasons box stores do what they do and "we" all turn into experts as soon as we see one thing we don't like. :rofl::rofl:
I don't agree with their husbandry and it is to keep the snakes feeling safe and secure while theirs is to keep the animal visual so someone can see and buy it.
They have overhead that we do not and I like it that way. I wouldn't want to have the bills they have.
I do with that if someone doesn't know the answer to a question they would keep their mouth shut OR try to find the answer.
Cant keep people off their phones unless it could be for something useful, then they forget how to google. SMH

I could continue on but this horse will be beaten again shortly without taking the time to think about both sides and why.

Most pet stores will mark up everything 100% to cover their overhead. I totally understand that, I actually don't mind paying more for stuff at a good local pet store or even a different type of store if it is convenient, I feel like I'm supporting the business and paying the salaries and rents for those businesses that I enjoy, so the money isn't an issue. I can see your point about wanting the snake to be visual, perhaps they should use a semi-transparent hide like they do with the rats and mice so they can hide and you can still kind of see them. But feeding crickets? I doubt any size ball python would ever eat a cricket, and it could even be dangerous to the snake. I guess the thing that really bothers me is that some new snake owner is going to come along and not know anything about snakes and set up their tank just like Petco and throw in crickets to feed it.

I also recently saw another pet shop that had a bunch of snake tanks. They were watering down the bedding of not only their ball pythons but all of the king snakes as well! None of the king and corn snakes were in shed, I think they just didn't know enough not to water them down. The only time I wet the bedding in my king snakes is when they are about to shed.

Are you SURE they were feeding crickets or where there just crickets in the cage? One of the petcos that I go to has one long cage that is divided. Bearded dragons on one side and ball pythons on the other. While the divider does it's job of keeping the animals apart, it doesn't do so good at keeping the crickets where they're supposed to be. Also, crickets at a pet store are pretty much ubiquitous, all an employee has to do is accidentally drop one box of crickets and they're all over the store. If you saw one floating in a fish tank would you be complaining that the pet store was feeding crickets to their guppies?

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Are you SURE they were feeding crickets or where there just crickets in the cage? One of the petcos that I go to has one long cage that is divided. Bearded dragons on one side and ball pythons on the other. While the divider does it's job of keeping the animals apart, it doesn't do so good at keeping the crickets where they're supposed to be. Also, crickets at a pet store are pretty much ubiquitous, all an employee has to do is accidentally drop one box of crickets and they're all over the store. If you saw one floating in a fish tank would you be complaining that the pet store was feeding crickets to their guppies?

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Not to mention all the cages for reptiles have screen at least one place and unless people are religious with replacing screen there will be tears and holes at some point or another.

Just got back from my local petco .. They had 3 normal hatchlings and a spider all housed together ... The spider actually looked really good but not 200$ good . I did also see crickets in the tank but the woman said they feed them f/t


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I think secretly they do it on purpose so you'll feel bad for the animal and buy it.

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Originally Posted by BeelzeBall.

I think secretly they do it on purpose so you'll feel bad for the animal and buy it.

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^This.^

I bought a crestie in really rough shape from PetCo once just to get her out of there. She has a very obvious case of MBD, and was housed with two males. She was nearly grown and had been there since she was tiny. I also got her two eggs. One of them hatched, so I have her daughter, too. She ate supplemental calcium like it was gecko food for the first few weeks and sat under a UVB bulb (cresties normally do not take supplemental UVB), so she must have really needed it. Now that she's as well as she can be, she'll be re-homed in the near future.

Yes, I know the arguments against buying from a place like that. It was a weak moment, and I couldn't handle seeing her deteriorate.

I have been to really good Petcos and really bad Petcos. I think it all depends on the people working there. However in my experience people are not trained as well as they should be so unless the individual working there is passionate about educating themselves, they have no idea what they are doing, and have to go off the bad information from other uneducated people working there. I won't shop at Petco anymore for my own reasons, that I won't get into here. But I do feel like they should remain a supply store and stop selling animals. They make it too easy for impulse buyers to pick up these animals before doing any prior research and are often fed bad/wrong info. But I don't see them stopping in-store sales on small pets any time soon. I too have felt the urge to buy from them, reptiles that didn't look too well, but I can't justify supporting the neglect with my money only to have them continue doing it. Purchasing these animals we feel sorry for only gives them the incentive to bring more in, and the vicious cycle continues.

Too many pet store, pets, poorly housed and sickly looking for new homes on Craigslist.



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While I'm sure there are some really bad pet stores out there, the vast majority of them do a pretty good job, it's just that the bad ones get all the press. Also, just because someone says that it's a bad pet store, that doesn't mean they actually are. There are plenty of internet experts out there who believe that just because someone keeps their animals differently then what their face book groups says that they should, that they are horrible people who shouldn't be allowed to have animals. This couldn't be further from the truth. These are actually fairly forgiving animals that can adapt to many different keeping styles and still thrive.

Frankly, most of us would probably not even be in the hobby if we hadn't seen a reptile in a pet store in the first place. I still remember buying my first corn snake in a pet store back in 1978 and discovering that WOW, these things were WAY easier to keep then the wild caught garter snakes that I had attempted to keep before. If it hadn't been for that, I probably would have given up on reptiles entirely.

I bought my little pretzel(my normal ball python) from a pet shop here in England. I was really comfortable buying my snake from them as the pet shop was a family run business and they actually started out as snake breeders. They still keep in contact with me to see how the snake is going!

I find it so sad when I see mistread babies!