What some people do for a few bucks...

I took some petstore pictures today, and this is what I got, and Ive seen worse in those same stores... believe me.
Besides all of the prices are wayyyyy too high for someone to be intrested in purchasing them.

A ball python, hope he`s not claustrophobic, it also had some like little bald spots on its head, as if there were no scales. (170 Dlls)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/99507c58.jpg

Last time they had an albino burmese in that same enclosure, but it was much bigger, litteraly no space to move, and the pricetag was bout 1000 dlls, Im pretty sure it died cause they have lowered the price on these new one to 700 dlls (Still very expensive.)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/73854415.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/11a110b1.jpg

Five balls, in the same enclosure, and there were more last time I saw them.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/54b327e4.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/fcb07ded.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/0f8dbb88.jpg

This iguana has also a very tiny enclosure, its trying to get some sunlight, unfortunately no uv light or sunrays.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b361/avd88/iguana.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/5ef9273c.jpg

It really makes me sad to see all of this and not being able to do something about it, you can actually look at the animal straight into its face and somehow you see how much its suffering.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by avd88

A ball python, hope he`s not claustrophobic, it also had some like little bald spots on its head, as if there were no scales. (170 Dlls)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...8/99507c58.jpg

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You sure that one's a "he"? :D :please: :twisted:

-adam

nope, I should have posted it sryy :P it actually looks more like a female very wide. but I dont really know

The general pet stores around here and pathetic aswell I wish I had the money and space to buy all the ones at this one pet store about 5mins away...

On several different occasions ive seen dead baby corns in the tanks, dead rats/mice floating in water dishes, pices of shed skin and poop everywhere in the tank, retained eyecaps

That looks alot like a pet shop we have here. They have around 12-15 baby balls in a 10 gallon tank with a very small waterdish, they had a big burm in a 20 gallon it had no room to go anywhere, just makes me mad when I see the shop treat the animals like that (I wont get into the other stuff they do)

Yeah I dont see how someone who obviously doesnt care about animals even gets in a business like pet stores...

I tried to get a job last year at the pet shop by here but ya gotta be 16 hopefully this summer ill be able to get a job there and take care of the reptiles

Plus the information the workers there give you about snakes and lizards is just amazing..

Everytime I go in I check out the snakes while they get my rats and mice and this one time a kid (10-12 years old or so) and his mom were talkin to a guy that works there about the ball pythons and the common boas (or as they called them Exotic columbian red-tail boas) well...apparently the kid wanted both and the mom asked where they should live and the guy says they could share a 55gallon their whole life..luckily they dident buy anything then and I gave them the real info outside but it still amazed me

Wow, i'v noticed sum petstores around here are real s***y but the one I normaly go to is owned by a friend of mine and is real nice. I noticed petco's reptiles are in much better shape than alot of them.

Heck, if the petstore by MY house looked like that, it would be a VAST improvement! They put 3 adult balls in a tank together, one is always submerged in the water bowl (perhaps because there are no hides?????), no heat that I can see.

The babies (I once counted 20 in the same 20 gallon tank, again - no hides, just some aspen and a water bowl, are almost dead with triangular shaped bodies, skin hanging off of them (I've never seen anything so tiny) and feces smeared on them.

And after the adult balls were gone, it was clear that they didn't clean the tank, just put an adult boa in there. VERY poor practices, and they try to tell ME how to care for Kashmire.

I've quit trying to talk to them, after all the owner has owned snakes for over 30 years, so he KNOWS what he's talking about and all the employees take his word as gospel. :rolleyes:

When I finally get into breeding and have some extra males to sell, they will NOT be going to this pet store. I'll drive an hour away to another that's MUCH better.

um, yeeah unfortunately that looks imensely better than the herp shop here. what i would give to have a shop with tanks and animals that looked that good. it's sad, i know.

Why don't you report them? To sell reptiles most states actually do have minimum size requirements on enclosures. Call the local animal welfare league or humane society, get the local reptile club to help maybe. Try to help.

I have called the humane society. I have not been able to find a reptile society in my area, or even a herp society.

Yeah, looks better than our corner store too. Our Petco had 4 bps in the same small enclosure, all with shed problems and lights on them all the time and only one hide that they all kept trying to get into... which was still an improvement on the ball pythons at the corner store here. That one had a larger cage and 2 bps instead of 4, but they were in much worse shape. Not to mention no hides and a bone dry waterbowl full of poop. They looked like they weren't much longer for this world, poor things. Ugh. I saw the skinniest blue tongued skink I've ever seen in my life in there too... And the mammals & fish aren't a whole lot better off. But Phoenix is kind of crap in animal abuse enforcement. :upset:

The lady said most of their reptiles were "rescues" too. Animals people just dropped off with them for one reason or another, but they don't accept Burmese anymore because nobody buys them and they just grow and grow. Lucky Burmese, huh? I believe they were charging around $150 for the sick young bps.

More and more I'm thinking the whole petstore industry needs to be completely revamped. They should be supply and information centers, who can get you in touch with breeders/rescue shelters instead of selling animals themselves. Much as I love browsing and getting to see all the cute critters... I think it would be better for the animals and make for more educated owners.

Sorry did someone say Petco? Don't get me wrong it's one of the nicest large chain pet stores but they had all their Bp's in the same enclosure. OOhh it was about 5.

what i love about the pet store near me... (and i used to work there) is they set up the viv exactly how the critter will need it. that way, when a customer comes in they say... see all of this equiment, this is what you need for your snake/dragons/gecko/firebelly toad etc. this is the minimum... you cannot get less than this for them to thrive!

right beside the reptile stock is all the stock to buy (lamps etc) so people can look, right then and there and see what they need for set up. although they DO promote using tanks for viv's (as they don't sell rubbermaids) that's the only misinformation that i am aware of that they give. the two 'reptile guys' both have a nice sized stock at home... and most of the 'addicts' come to this store to buy their feed and often supply the store as well! (as they breed)

they won't buy critters from just anyone though... it has to be someone they've gotten to know, trust and they go to their house and check out their set up as well.

i don't know why pet stores don't all do it this way... that way, they get the complete sale! cause when i worked there last year... we sold a lot of critters and sent each one home with a complete set up... and in turn, the boss gave us our paycheques LOL

a win win situation if you ask me. ;)

The pet store I go to at least keeps everything seperate in an appropriately sized tank. But sometimes they get sloppy with their shedding snakes. I know the owners and they give me good discounts, so I just tell them their BP has some shed left and they take care of it.

But the pet store I got Hades from was the biggest scumbag craphole I've ever seen. There are always 5+ BPs in one small 10 gallon. They kept an albino burm in a 20 gallon. It's horrible. I don't even want to think about it. Lucky they are far away from here.

As for the Petco around me, they are pretty good with their reptiles. They have nice enclosures for them, but I did see one BP with a bad shed and once again told someone about it. Not sure if they did anything, but it was worth a shot.

Wow, those guys look smushed in those tiny enclousures.

However the animals themselves dont look all that bad.

The pet shop we have is a total disgrace, its just horrible the way some of the animals look.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Call the local animal welfare league or humane society, get the local reptile club to help maybe. Try to help.

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the herp store i'm referring to IS the local herp club. they run it, host it, etc. :hmm: i reported another store that used to be here that was WAY worse than this one but it didn't do any good. they finally went out of business after several years, only because of money issues and not because of anything the humane society did. the humane society knew they were horrid and guessed who i was reporting before i even told them. i don't know what the laws here are, but evidentally they aren't good enough that they could do anything.

Sometimes it seems as if the humane society is only ever really concerned with creatures with fur. Scales, and they just look the other way...:worry: