Being fair about PetSmart (and buying your ball python from them)

[theartofsolitude]

okay, please dont flame me... but just wanna share my experience.

snake enthusiast in this forum will strongly discourage a newbie from buying their very first ball python from petsmart. im not saying their wrng, infact that is actually true. the petsmart where i got my ball, only got 2 supplies of bp with them.. and the other one is horrible, striking me and all the bystanders for like 20 times in 1 minute.

however, this bp that i got from them was really really really really really docile. he is about to shed now coz his eyes are both 'blueish/gray' and his skin is pale. but never had ever shown aggressiveness on me, not even ones, NEVER EVER STROKE ME!

but hey, when he smell rodents, specifically F/T ones, as how they are fed in petsmart, they change from a very silent lamb to a wild lion. though he doesnt strike everywhere, but his tongue just starts commin out like every 2 secs and moving slowly like, wth where is that scent coming from.

and then i try to hit him with the prey on his body and he will be like, "wth, i felt that! you're dead mr rodent"

then eventually put the snake in front of his head, after waking him up and pissing him for like 10 secs.. then SNAP, TAG, eats the rodent.

so after swallowing the whole thing, i'm just crazy to put my hand in there, i wanna get bit, intentially, i just wanna know how it feels, but NADA. the snake smells my hand and i'm he's like... "i know you, i wont bite ya, i'm just gonna chill here and go back in my hide, thanks for the rodent though, its tasty."

i'm just saying not all snakes from petsmart is good... maybe i just got lucky, like what i said on my previous post, there are only 2 snakes in petsmart when i bought my bp, a super aggressive one and and a super docile one, obviously i got the docile one and i'm very happy about him and is now tempting me to go hop in the petsmart on the city next to mine to probably get my second bp. goodluck!!

[AkHerps]

I live in Alaska, and in general, it is hard to get reptiles up here from breeders down in the states. They just don't want to risk their animals traveling so far, so I know where you're coming from. Most of my other reptiles, Cresteds, beardies, I've had to get from the only pet store, Petco, which killed all of our other awesome small mom and pop pet stores...The family I live with recently got a baby ball python from Petco, and it died a couple weeks later from IBD. People are against places like Petco and Petsmart because a lot of the times the animals are kept in less than clean and proper housing, barely fed, and can be filled with parasites and have diseases.

Last month I got a ball shipped here from LLLreptile and he still looks very healthy, even though he has refused all the frozen/thawed and I can't find any live mice in town, he is decently tame, never struck at me, but is still shy when it comes to fast movements, I just hope he eats soon...

But sometimes I really don't think it's bad to get animals from pet stores, or less than perfect breeders. I would much rather adopt though(our other ball is adopted).

[Jay_Bunny]

Every Petsmart is different but I would not hesitate to purchase a ball python from the store I work in. Our Petsmart is very clean and we have knowledgeable people (for the most part. I'm educating them). The snakes are fed f/t and handled on a semi-regular basis (not after meals of course) and our snakes are always healthy. They are just really expensive in comparison to a normal from a breeder.

[SnakeKB]

I was at Petco yesterday checking out there ball python. The lady i was talking to was able to answer any normal question i was asking. The snakes tank looked fairly clean and the snake was active hanging around the front of the tank for everyone to see him. The normal price is $80 though, which i guess isnt too bad once thinking how much shipping costs from out of state breeders. But every so often they have a sale of them putting the price down to $40. I wouldnt hesitate getting one from the petco near me. I got a hamster there and had her for a month now with no problems at all. Shes very friendly. I think if the animal does die within 15 days you are able to take it back and exchange it. Hate to look it like that but it does cover there negligance if the animal happened to have an existing problem when you bought it.

[rabernet]

To the OP - there is no need to hit your snake with the frozen/thawed rodent in order to "piss them off" enough to get them to eat. Just do a little zombie dance in front of them - if they're already taking f/t prey, that's all that's really needed.

The petsmart that I go to pages me when they know I'm in the store when they have a customer looking at the snakes, in order to answer their questions. They also quiz me when they're not sure about something so that they can share better information.

I was in there Thursday, and they keep female rodents, but accidentally got a male mouse that they segregated into the back. The manager saw me and said "do you want a male mouse? I don't care if you use it to feed your snake, I just can't keep it, since we sell females - and I'm afraid he got my female mice pregnant". I said "sure, if I don't have to buy it". She then told me that happens to them every so often, and she's just going to call me when she gets male mice in and let me just take them - she didn't even write the animal up. She also said if any of the females end up having litters, she's just going to call me to take her and the babies.

She also called me when they'd had a kingsnake there for about 10 months and he just wasn't selling (but getting bigger and bigger) and wanted to know if I'd buy him at a reduced price. At the time, the reduced price wasn't enough for me to buy him. Like I told her - you're basically asking me to take it on as a "rescue", and that's just too high. She said if he didn't sell in the next week at the reduced price, she'd lower it again and call me. An employee was nearby and said - "heck, I'll take him at the next price cut!" I told her "there you go! He's sold!" LOL

It's just a really good crew at my local Petsmart.

[Wh00h0069]

The problem is not the snake's attitudes. It's the fact that many are imported, and may have mites or other diseases.

I also would rather support my local breeders, and buy from them instead of a chain pet store.

[ameh78]

from my personal xp - petsmart is not near as bad as jacks. I have 3 local jacks pets and every single store has something that makes me extremely mad. The first store has several different types of reptiles together. Green Tree frogs in with crested geckos - chameleons in with green anoles and whites tree frog (hello! the whites WILL eat the anoles!). The next store has half dead anoles..ive told them numerous times about the dead anoles and how there is no way, and they only mist once a day and just a very tiny bit.. the final one made me call their corp office. they had a crested in with anoles and the crested geckos care info said "temp should be 80-90 degrees"..... I went to the girl working and said this was VERY wrong. Anything over 80 is very very bad for a crested. She shrugged and told me it came from the office and she couldnt change it. I called...and was told what they had was correct and it wouldnt be changed..

[tonyaltn]

I have a Petsmart and a Petco within 12 miles, the Petsmart is more like Petstupid in my opinion, I called them looking for a ceramic heat element to replace by night bulb to help with humidity, and I was looking for a Repti Glow 2.0 just for some cool lighting and the guy told me I need a Repti Glow 10.0 for a Ball Python becuase the entire tank needs to be 95* !!!!!!. The Petco in Des Moines (South Side) though is very nice, the girl I do buisness with (I call her my bug girl because she is always there when I pickup crickets) is a Vet Tech. and is very smart, she also loves the animals...and the people I deal with all own reptiles. The animals are healthy, the tanks are always clean and they always have food. Sometimes when I go in there I can see some of the animals being given meds and stuff wich I believe stems from where they came from, they will take an animal to a seperate area if they see something is wrong with it and wont bring it back out until it is better. I have never seen any animals for sale that are in poor condition.
Now as far as anything else goes, as in supplies...unless I need something that cant wait, I will order from herpsupplies.com because their stuff is half the price of a chain store. The UTH I got from there started to malfunction and burned out, I have a new one on the way, but that $40+ UTH from Petco is coming from herpsupplies for $25, and I am changing my nightglow bulb to a ceramic heat element...$40 at Petsmart because Petco dont have it, only $25 from Herpsupplies. I will buy animals from Petco, thats where I got my Crestie but unless its an emergency, I wont buy anything else from them.

[dsirkle]

A Pet Smart will charge 3 times more for a baby bp than a local breeder at a show. Because Petsmart would most likely be selling imported bp's they may have mites, and a bigger problem might be getting them to eat. These are the reasons that Petsmart isn't the vendor of choice.
That being said, if you already have a bp from Petsmart the world will not end. If you have no local reptile shows or local breeders a chain Pet store may be your only option.

[Jay_Bunny]

A Pet Smart will charge 3 times more for a baby bp than a local breeder at a show. Because Petsmart would most likely be selling imported bp's they may have mites, and a bigger problem might be getting them to eat. These are the reasons that Petsmart isn't the vendor of choice.
That being said, if you already have a bp from Petsmart the world will not end. If you have no local reptile shows or local breeders a chain Pet store may be your only option.

See, again, it is all on the individual Petsmart. The snakes that come into our store, while sometimes small, are not infested with mites. (haven't seen a single mite yet), are free from respiratory infections, and we usually get a few f/t meals into them before they leave. We have a bp in the back (he can't go on the floor yet because we only put 2 in the tank at a time so we don't overcrowd). He is only 53g but he's eating, so I am confidant he will make a good pet. Not aggressive either.

You will have good stores, like mine. And you will have bad stores. You WILL find Petsmarts that do not hire the right people and do not take care of their animals. I actually just saw a video online of a person who went undercover at a Petsmart near her and the care was horrible. Dead and dying animals all over the place, overcrowding, illness, rodents eating each other.

Now, my store knows that if I had the room, I'd adopt any animal that came into the store that needed to be adopted. I've already told them I'll take in any reptile that gets dropped off and find it a good home.