My store is trying....

As some of you know I work at Petsmart and had recently adopted a snake from there in horrible condition. I have been on the manager since then about better the habitats and feeding habits. I was asked the other day to feed the snakes... a corn and a ball both get one pinkie. Thats like a snack for the poor ball. The manager informed me that they can not feed them anything else. I told her then I will not be the one feeding them as I do not condone mistreatment of the animals and that includes not feeding them properly.

She asked me to find a website or maybe even a person who can be reached through phone or email so the manager can pass it on and see if we cant get better housing and atleast meet the feed requirements for the snakes. I gave her this site already and printed out a care guide for her. But are there any other really good informative sites out there that have information on the correct housing and feeding requirements for captive ball pythons? I think this is a step forward that she is willing to pass on information.

In the mean time I do what I can to better the snake's lives there and I will continue on working on getting them feeding the appropriate sized food items.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Wow just a Pinky for a ball? It should be eating a hopper rat or adult mouse. Hopefully she is willing to change the feeding practice of the animals in her care. Where do these pet stores get thier info on how to take care of pets?
NONE of them have it right.

I couldn't work at a petstore, because if the animal was being mistreated I would get very involved and it wouldn't be a good outcome.

You should remember to tell her that feeding too small of a prey item is dangerous to the animal. It will not gain enough energy back from digestion of such a small creature (as digestion takes up a large amount of energy) and will in result, lose energy by eating the pinky.

:gj:

not only that it will turn it into a problem feeder quick as they tent to shut down there small intestine when they are under fed.

makes it hard to get them back on a solid feeding.

Why don't you call up one of the bigger breeders of ball pythons and have her talk to them?

I also work at a Petsmart and I take care of the snakes. You can have ur petcare manager order store use fuzzies. We have bags of them. I also feed the milk snake the fuzzies too. But our pythons got too big to just have fuzzies so I buy them mice out of my own pocket. I don't mind doin it cuz it's what's best for the snake

Yea I hear ya I have worked at 2 PetSmarts for a long time and 1 Petco briefly... stupid policies and procedures. If they will not order larger sized food for you I would say write off some of the frozen fuzzies for store use and see what they do... Pinkies are way too small for the sized babies they get.

I'll have to ask the manager at the petsmart I goto, since I have to go there tom because the guy didnt ship my snake Fedex priority, so i'm going to go pick it up myself. I wonder if it's just petsmarts in that area, or all of them.

i would definately give bhb, nerd, or vpi a call and see if they would be willing to discuss this with your manager. im sure all 3 would be more than willing to.

I will contact some of the bigger ball python breeders and see if they would be willing to talk to her or if she can pass on the info to someone higher up. Because our store is fairly new we do not get a big spending amount to spend on the care of the animals so our store use items are limited. I was told that she could not bulk order anything but pinkies.. I am not sure if this is true or she is feeding me a line. I thought about purchasing bigger prey items for the snake but they feed it every four days and thats a lot of money for me to be spending on my $8 an hour salary (when I drive 45 minutes to work one way in an SUV). Believe me I have been looking for another job for a while... but I wish there was more that could be done to get the bigger chains to take better care of the snakes.

Thank you all for your advice... I will keep you updated on how thing go.

shes feeding you a line. u can order fuzzies. we have a bunch in our store. our petcare manager is an animal lover so all of our animals are pretty well takin care of although there is some stuff that is jus policy and it sucks real bad.

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Originally Posted by brett1489

shes feeding you a line. u can order fuzzies. we have a bunch in our store. our petcare manager is an animal lover so all of our animals are pretty well takin care of although there is some stuff that is jus policy and it sucks real bad.

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All the animals except the reptiles are really well taken care of. Our manager does not like the reptiles and it shows. The parrot we just got in has a stand that was hand made by her to go in the enclosure. The small animals get taken to the vet as soon as they sniff wrong. Its crazy an unfair. Its not only the ball pythons that arent cared for properly its the geckos, the the snakes, the bearded dragons... and so on.

I will catch her today and tell her to order fuzzies. Could the corn snake eat a fuzzie? Or is that too big? I will try to get weights on both of the snakes today.

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Originally Posted by pitbulls4me

All the animals except the reptiles are really well taken care of. Our manager does not like the reptiles and it shows. The parrot we just got in has a stand that was hand made by her to go in the enclosure. The small animals get taken to the vet as soon as they sniff wrong. Its crazy an unfair. Its not only the ball pythons that arent cared for properly its the geckos, the the snakes, the bearded dragons... and so on.

I will catch her today and tell her to order fuzzies. Could the corn snake eat a fuzzie? Or is that too big? I will try to get weights on both of the snakes today.

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ask her how she expects to profit in that department by selling sickly looking animals?

and if she says she don't care tell her that the person above her may care.