Thoughts on CH babies at pet stores..

I thought of something. Many stores sell "captive hatched" or "captive farmed" BP hatchlings. Whatever happened to quarantine? These snakes are not even 60 days old. There is no way that these stores could have practiced the proper 90-day quarantining that most all of us recommend and use. If the snake is not even 90 days old?
I urge newcomers and really, anyone, in the market for a BP hatchling. Please buy from a respected breeder. You don't know what you're getting by buying neonates at pet stores. Chances are, if they don't quaranting baby snakes arriving there, they probably don't QT adult reptiles either. Ticks, mites, and internal parasites, here we come! (not to even mention worse diseases that could take 60-90 days to manifest..)

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

I thought of something. Many stores sell "captive hatched" or "captive farmed" BP hatchlings. Whatever happened to quarantine? These snakes are not even 60 days old. There is no way that these stores could have practiced the proper 90-day quarantining that most all of us recommend and use. If the snake is not even 90 days old?
I urge newcomers and really, anyone, in the market for a BP hatchling. Please buy from a respected breeder. You don't know what you're getting by buying neonates at pet stores. Chances are, if they don't quaranting baby snakes arriving there, they probably don't QT adult reptiles either. Ticks, mites, and internal parasites, here we come! (not to even mention worse diseases that could take 60-90 days to manifest..)

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Jen i try to stop every person i see interested in buying ball pythons from pet stores for these very reasons.It works sometimes and sometimes it doesnt:(.I avoid pet stores as much as possible anymore because they make me sick :mad:.

I agree with everything said here...but aren't we preaching to the choir, so to speak? I think most people have found their way to this forum for exactly the reasons Geniveve stated.

Even IF pet stores got in a healthy XYZ, I have never seen one pet shop that took the the time to properly clean a previous enclosure. Rather, they just slam the new snakes in where the old ones were.

JonV

I actually work at a pet store, and i would NEVER buy a BP from there. All the things listed above about the care of the snakes there is true. I feel so bad because they take weeks to finish shedding because the humidity is all off, no temperature gradients, nowhere NEAR enough sanitation between snakes.. its awful.

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Originally Posted by azak323

I actually work at a pet store, and i would NEVER buy a BP from there. All the things listed above about the care of the snakes there is true. I feel so bad because they take weeks to finish shedding because the humidity is all off, no temperature gradients, nowhere NEAR enough sanitation between snakes.. its awful.

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Let me guess you work at a petco or petsmart right :rolleyes:

nope, it's actually a small privately owned store. The conditions aren't as bad as petsmart/petco, but definitely not up to my own personal standards, or any other members on here from what i've read so far. We have people come in from petco/smart within a week of buying a BP saying that it died already, usually from UR stuff. Ours definitely don't die and usually can handle the way they are cared for at my store, but i would do so many things differently.

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Originally Posted by nevohraalnavnoj

I agree with everything said here...but aren't we preaching to the choir, so to speak?

JonV

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I hope so :) It just upsets me to see newbies buying from pet stores. Heck, I got my first BP from Petco years back. I had walked in for fish, and this girl said that they had a "mean" snake that was attacking people and had been returned 2x, so they were adopting it out. I went home researched it, and adopted her.. leading to my now-obsession with BPs. :)
But I still see people that choose to buy from pet stores. They're buying snakes that have not been quarantined, or maybe aren't even feeding regularly yet; it is sad. It upsets me that people have to enter this hobby with snakes that are either ill before they're bought, or become ill, because pet stores do not know how to give people proper info when they buy :(

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Originally Posted by azak323

nope, it's actually a small privately owned store. The conditions aren't as bad as petsmart/petco, but definitely not up to my own personal standards, or any other members on here from what i've read so far. We have people come in from petco/smart within a week of buying a BP saying that it died already, usually from UR stuff. Ours definitely don't die and usually can handle the way they are cared for at my store, but i would do so many things differently.

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Probably a dumb question, but since I can't help myself, how come the owners won't make an effort to take better care of their animals? I'm guessing that you already have mentioned to them how poorly the animals care currently is.

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Originally Posted by twometal

Probably a dumb question, but since I can't help myself, how come the owners won't make an effort to take better care of their animals? I'm guessing that you already have mentioned to them how poorly the animals care currently is.

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I dont think its a dumb question at all.To be honest i was going to ask also :gj:

i like buying those snakes, to give them a better life. everysnake i have got from a petco or wherever have all been gr8 pets with no problems.

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Originally Posted by DSGB

i like buying those snakes, to give them a better life. everysnake i have got from a petco or wherever have all been gr8 pets with no problems.

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You are one of the lucky ones then ;).I would never buy anything because it just gives them more money to buy more snakes.In the long run for every 1 good snake sold 10 crap ones are also sold :mad:.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

You are one of the lucky ones then ;).I would never buy anything because it just gives them more money to buy more snakes.In the long run for every 1 good snake sold 10 crap ones are also sold :mad:.

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good point. never thought of it like that. but i still feel good about it. i have yet to buy a CB ball so i gotta get one and see if i can tell a difference in their attitudes/habits.

I completely agree, but when we're fighting ignorance and convenience there isn't much we can do.

Most people don't even realize that people breed ball pythons - I don't know maybe they think they fall from the sky right into petcos tank or something - but for the most part they just don't know. Don't know that going to a breeder is an option - or how to go about looking for a breeder

As well most petco buys are impulse buys to begin with. It's there it's cute it's convenient - stick it in a bag and let me take it home and kill it.

Top that with how many times I've seen people looking for breeders in their area on the forums to get no replys - you can pretty much shoot that out the window as well.

And do you really want a bunch of strangers in your house poking thru your collection? Do you really want your animals going to some kid that is going to feed it once a month and get bored with it in a few weeks ... you know where this is going.

Its not an easy fix. The best we can hope for is that they find their way onto the forums for help when they need it.

I bought mine from Petco, and haven't had a problem with him yet. They told me they were feeding it frozen pinkies, and he wouldn't look at anything other than a live adult mouse so I doubt they had him feeding well.

Anyway, even though I had a semi-positive experience from buying it there I don't plan on doing it again. I recently went to a reptile show and had some great conversation with several breeders, and plan on going through one of them to expand my collection. It just seems like the best way to me now.

Amen brother, BHB is probably a sure thing this weekend if Brian can make the time and I'm 100% positive I'll be buying one from him within' the next year.

Furio is a petco product and I don't mean to brag.. but he's pretty much the coolest little dude out there :) IMO :) (Although getting rid of the mites took me through hell and high water)

I feel so bad for all the animals at those stores - I try not to go into those stores if I can help it. We go to the reptile shows whenever we can and try to stock up, but you always run out of something and end up in a Petco/Petsmart eventually. I used to work for Petco when I was in high school (many moons ago) THANK GOD our location didn't have animals I would taken them all home.

:snake:

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Originally Posted by V1L3 DiaL3cT

Amen brother, BHB is probably a sure thing this weekend if Brian can make the time and I'm 100% positive I'll be buying one from him within' the next year.

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ask brian if you can bring along a couple friends with you

my wife bought me my 1st bp from petco for christmas (she didnt know better) i lucked out and she is healthy shes real small but healthy. but when i go there now to buy cat food i always look and the ones they have now look like the kids in those save the children comercials.

Jen, the fact is no pet store quarantines and never will. It is in the end the responsibility of the new owner to have done their research so that where ever they get their snake they do proper and appropriate quarantine of any incoming snake - petco or private breeder.

We can all bash pet stores but they are the first place most of us ever saw a BP. We should encourage them to do better, we should withhold our buying dollar if they won't but they aren't going out of the snake business so we may as well accept that. In the end, it's not about bad pet stores. For me, it's always going to be about people buying snakes (or any pet for that matter) without doing a minute of research or pre-planning.

We can't blame the pet stores for that. For that we need to be spreading the message of responsible pet ownership and taking personal responsibility for everything that happens to that snake the second it comes through your front door.

There's a place here in Lansing called Preuss that actually does quarantine all BP's. It's kinda nice to see.