PETCO does what to ball pythons?!

: (does petco really starve their bp's so you'll buy them?if they do isn't that animal abuse and isn't that illegal?!: (

how would starving them cause somebody to buy one?

Where does this information come from?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by giaach

how would starving them cause somebody to buy one?

---

makes people wanna 'rescue' them!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nathanledet

Where does this information come from?

---

i was wondering the same!

Doooo What!?

Hi,

I really can't see them intentionally starving any of their stock in the hopes it would look so bad someone would buy it.

It is much more likely any mistreatment that takes place is due entirely to ignorance of the animals needs rather than any malice towards it.


dr del

Again, I think it depends on the store.... While my PetCo isnt the greatest by far their snakes always look healthy and not starved, thought leopard geckos and beardies don't.

Matter of fact I bought my ball and one of my corns there

all my reptiles are as healthy as i can get them with out having a vet there to actually check them out i feed all bps on thursday all corns on friday. and everyone else eats every other day to everyday depending on the age and what they are all bowls are changed out daily unless im not there then i dont know what goes on.


and im sure most of you know i work at a petco also

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Monty

and im sure most of you know i work at a petco also

---

Its always fun to see who else works at petshops. I work a PetSmart and help out at the local herp shop

Not as far as i know, i just befriended a huge snake enthusiast who has been my snake mentor. The problem with places like PETCO is they tend to have baby snakes, which are notorious for not wanting to eat. They do everything they can to get them to eat, i assure you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pythonlover 17

: (does petco really starve their bp's so you'll buy them?if they do isn't that animal abuse and isn't that illegal?!: (

---

Was this a hit and run post? I'm also curious where you got this information.

The snakes in my local Petco all seem to be in very good condition. I bought my BP there and he has been awesome. I feed every Sunday which was the feeding schedule that they had him on. He has never missed a meal and is very healthy. My corn that I got from there was also fed every week. When I got her they said that she had not eaten in 2 weeks, but food was offered weekly.(baby corn) She has been eating fine for me after I found the trick to getting her to eat. Those of you who have had baby corns know how much fun it is to get them to eat sometimes. I think it depends on the store location, but I highly doubt that they are going out of their way to starve them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pythonlover 17

: (does petco really starve their bp's so you'll buy them?if they do isn't that animal abuse and isn't that illegal?!: (

---

I think that the person that posted the information about employees instructed not to feed ball pythons did not mean that the store was trying to get sympathy or rescue sales. I think that the point was that the store owner knew that ball pythons could live many months without eating and he reasoned that he could sell them before they starved to death and could save a few dollars that way.

As much as I hate Petco I can say I have a friend who works there and everytime I've been in there to say hi to her, I always check out the animals in the store. I can say that the Petco by me does take care of their reptiles pretty good along with most of the other animals... except fish. I also see a bunch of sick and or dead fish.

A snake breeder buddy of mine works for Petsmart and he's in charge of the small animals. I kid you not he's fired others over for not feeding the reptiles and other animals correctly. He doesn't play around and he now has it a rule that he is the only one who can feed the reptiles now. This makes him not really have a day off, but I can tell you those snakes, frogs, lizards ALL live the best life in a petstore.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pythonlover 17

: (does petco really starve their bp's so you'll buy them?if they do isn't that animal abuse and isn't that illegal?!: (

---

This post makes sense no absolutely:weirdface

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mricyfire

This post makes sense no absolutely:weirdface

---

lmao

As a result of this thread I went to the Petco nearest me, which is a place that I never go to at all. I looked at the Leopard geckos. Their tank was clean and the temperatures and humidity were good. They had half log hides ( not the best, but at least they have hides). They have a clean bowl of water and a dish of giant meal worms. Their are too many geckos in the tank but the overcrowding wasn't criminal. The real problem is that they were skinny as death camp survivors,every one of them. No fat at all in the tails or body. I looked at the ball pythons. The tank was clean and the temperature and the humidity were correct. There were no hides at all in the tank. They were so crowded together that they were forced to be in a single pile.They were all thin and flat looking. I suspect that each Petco is only as good as the team consisting of ownership,management and employees is. But this is how I found this particular Petco. Also other than the cashier I saw no employees.

who starts these posts!

i wouldn't say they starve them their husbandry bites but i don't think they would intentionally starve any of their snakes
i did buy one as sort of a rescue snake i was gonna get a beardie for my brother but i saw the bp had a horrible shed and was still eating pinkies when it was ready for fuzzies so i bought him out of pity for him he's the best little bp i could ask for

P.S. this was at a petsmart

The petco in Midland, Mi was the worst. BP's were hardly moving and skinny, mite infested, over crowded with no hides, feces everywhere. The other animals were barely making it either. Good thing it shut down a few months ago. :/

sorry im just asking their bps here are really skinny

I'm guessing that it solely depends on who's in charge of taking care of the animals. Some folks don't know how to do it and their "corporate" policies are not the best - this is a guess, of course, but I've seen some :( bps in a Petco near my job. It's hard to just leave them there.

I stopped into a local pet store a few weeks ago because I saw that is was a sponsor of a local herp show, and I wanted to check it out. Very simple operation, one person was basically working every single day with no other employee's, and had several mammals, birds, and herps to care for. They had a couple of baby normals in one aquarium, and an adolescent (hopefully considering its size) in another. Sand for bedding in one, bark in another. The larger one was a very pretty normal, but her water was dirty with sand bedding and shed skin, and there weren't any hides. A closer look showed a pretty bad case of mites. I bought a frozen mouse since I'd not seen them for sale elsewhere, and then told the lady running the place that the conditions for the ball pythons was bad to the point of neglectful, and offered to take the larger one home and house it properly. She had kind of a hangdog look, and agreed with me, but said she hadn't had time to clean the cages right. I told her that if she couldn't keep the animals in minimally acceptable housing that she shouldn't have them period, and repeated my offer to simply take the snake, which she said she couldn't do, the owner would get mad. I felt kinda sorry for her, but more so for the animals at the store. I'd never keep more snakes than I could keep in optimal conditions. Its not really that hard to buy some sterlite tubs and heat tape. My two normal girls came from a pretty good herp shop, and my two morphs are both coming from Super Serpents, who is local to me. I hate to see the poor things suffer.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pythonlover 17

sorry im just asking their bps here are really skinny

---

So you basically hypothocized that they purposefully starve their BP's? Your original post made it seem like you knew this for a fact.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rabernet

So you basically hypothocized that they purposefully starve their BP's? Your original post made it seem like you knew this for a fact.

---

I had seen the original post also (somewhere on this site )that the person that started this thread had seen.The original poster made the statement that he or she had a friend that was employed at a Petco store. The employee of the store stated that the management of the one individual store told the employees not to feed the ball pythons at all. There was no more than this said.The person that started this thread made the assumption that the store was starving them to cause people to buy them out of sympathy which of course would be nonsensical. I assumed that the poster meant that the store was trying to save money because bp's can go so long without eating. I too could have made a wrong assumption. Maybe the store was instructing a new employee whose responsibilities included feeding animals not to just toss mice into the pile of ball pythons kept in a tank together.All that I really know for sure is after reading all this bad stuff in different threads (all on this site) about Petco I went to my local Petco see for myself and the ball pythons and leopard geckos were very much underweight. The leopard geckos did have food. It looked to me that the conditions that both the bp's and the leos were kept would be too stressful to the animals.I described the conditions earlier in this thread.

the one near me keeps leos in dripping conditions and starves their pets

pet stores are here to make money. they couldnt care less about the health of the animals in the store and especially when they become your problem. there are employees who know their stuff and care about the animals' health but most likely they are hired to sell not care for the animals. as long as the animal lives long enough to sell it then the company is happy. a dead ball python or leopard gecko is just a write off and really nothing more. i work in a pet store as well and this is how it is no matter how good you think the company or actual store is.

I work at a petsmart and our "corporate" feeding policies suck! We are feeding BP's fuzzies, when they should be eating at least hoppers. I have complained to my boss about this, but she is a dumb ass when it comes to reptiles, but 5 of the 7 people we have working over there have reptiles so we take good care of them, the best we can, given the corporate rules and space. We change their water twice a day and feed the geckos and beardies etc, every other day, but we feed the skinnier ones more and alone. And we feed the babies everyday. We feed our snakes every 4 or 5 days, and if they don't eat one day, we try the next, then give them a couple days off. If we're not busy or if their is a couple of us working when we change water we handle the animals for a few minutes each. But i know at least at the store i work at, we take care of our animals the best we can with what we have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pythonlover 17

sorry im just asking their bps here are really skinny

---

hahaha! LMAO!

I am british and have never heard of PETCO, but feeding snakes less often especially young snake will make them grow slower a be more appealing to a consumer who only wants a small snake, this makes sense if you want to off load a boa to someone without experience, but it wouldn't really make a difference to balls. Also anyone who buys an animal without doing the proper reading or talking to people with experience first deserves what they get. (Although the snake doesn't)

That sounds like absolute nonsense.
Actually I bought my BP from Petco before and all their snakes looked great . I go to several different stores around here and they are pretty good. I know for a fact they feed their snakes every monday.

stores like petco and petsmart are in the buisness of supplies, fish and a few small animals and birds. they get buisness from these and don't want to lose customers in these areas. their herps are just another way to make a little money. they could care less if they lose buisness with herp customers. Reptile specialty store need to please their herp customes so because they don't get many other customers so specialty stores are usually better place to buy from.:snake::sabduel::snake2:

I have to say that although the folks in our local Petco didn't seem to care about their bps, when I filed a complaint to their corporate office, they emailed me back indicating they would check it out. I didn't really buy their response, but a couple of days later, someone from the region in Mass. called me at home and stated that he was driving down to the store the next day to check on the condition of the snakes. At least they were responsive. I haven't been back into the store, but hopefully they're taking better care of the snakes!

Big disapointment yesterday when I went to Petco looking for frozen small mice and rat fuzzies.It turned out that their rodent selection is kind of small.They carry frozen mice Pinkies, fuzzies, large adult mice, small medium and large rats that's it!!! Than I spoked with their snake specialist who did not seem to know more about bps than I already know .
Anyway, I asked him what they feed their BPs which are about 15" or so and he said 1 fuzzies a week . Then I told him about what you guys said here that fuzzies are too small and not enough and ofcourse he said that the large adult mice they have are too big. Which infact they are !!! The large adult mouse that I bought for my 1yr old snake was huge like a small rat and it took the snake good 10 min to swallow. I suggested him giving them 2 fuzzies at a time and he said that it made sense and he would do that since don't have anything with an appropriate size for them.
Still nevertheless, their snakes looked great and everything seemed fine tempreture humidity everything.