New Rescue. Normie or no?

[Craiga 01453]

Good points made above. Wasn't trying to ruffle any feathers, sorry if I did.

[Craiga 01453]

You know I luv ya.....and Petsmart is worse. But that hits me in the feels. You know where I work and I take care of my animals. There are a few of us in box stores that know what we are doing. Still luv ya

There's exceptions to every rule, and you, my friend, are obviously one

[Sunnieskys]

You do know where we get out snakes from right? And usually when we get them in they are 6mo old and still hatchling weight which pisses me off! So I now have to get them up to weight before they hit the sales floor and take care of the issues they have. I'm so pissed off every time I get snakes in and then i see them posting on morph market with the same age snake all plump and healthy. So they mass produce normals, under feed them, don't care about their issues, and still ship them off to us! My snake Odyn had a retained eye cap when we got him in store. Who doesn't see that before shipping it off to a store! Grrrrrrrr.

And this isn't directed at anyone. Just a vent post.

[GiddyGoat]

I'm probably going to get bashed for this but it's whatever. Sorry if the bold seems aggressive but it's just to highlight important points, don't take offense. Please read the whole comment before replying. I AM NOT BASHING THOSE WITH PETCO/PETSMART RESCUES, NOR THOSE WHO HAVE BOUGHT FROM THESE STORES (god that seems aggressive lol).

It's awesome that the OP felt the need to intervene before anything worse happened to the snake (*cough* dumpster), but there's a reason why craigafrechette said what they did. I have seen plenty of big box employees who genuinely care about the animals, and have the knowledge to care for them the correct way. But the problem doesn't just lie in supporting the store, the problem lies in supporting the "breeders" that the animals come from. Now I'm not sure if this is entirely true, but the suppliers for Petco's small animals aren't good news based on some investigations ( I'm not somebody who supports PETA btw). I won't get into any details, there's some articles around about it, along with a couple of videos. They're basically animal mills. So when you purchase one of these animals to rescue, you're really just giving Petco more of a reason to buy more of that animal from these suppliers, resulting in them staying in business and more animals being put through these torturous conditions. This explains why Sunnieskys has to do what they do (props to you btw for caring about the animals before they're sold. Idk too much about policy for selling them, but I've seen animals in the display tanks for sale in the state of health you've just described). Yes, a single snake dying at the care of a big box store is extremely unfortunate and shouldn't happen, but now due to the purchase of one animal several more may have to go through the same thing.

To sum all that up: Buying animals from Petco= more demand for animals from bad suppliers= more neglected animals

But there have been some really good points made here as well. Yes, they did rescue an animal, and now it is safe from further harm. I'm not saying they were a bad person for saving this ball python, as it clearly needed help and there are many of people who wouldn't've stepped in and did what the OP did. And again, we're not sure if any money was exchanged either. I myself am happy that the snake is with a responsible and caring owner, just felt that I should share my view on the subject, and why I personally don't see myself ever buying an animal from Petco.

[Sunnieskys]

I agree with all that. I'm not sure who Petsmart gets their snakes from. Their policy seems to be feed all snakes pinkies....um hells to the no!

Petco policy is to never toss any animal, deceased, or live into a dumpster. We need to have a vet put an animal down and then it goes into a holding facility in store for pick up. Never into a dumpster. That includes fish.

We also must contact a vet within 24hours on seeing an injury or sickness.

I also go into other stores in my district and check on snakes. If I see something wring i talk to the store mgr and the dept leader and educate them on proper feeding and how to stay within protocol. It's the loopholes yo!

and I agree with the animal mills. The gourmet rodent is a mill. I'm sick of them sending me underweight snakes. I wish Petco would rotate breeders for better animals. If smaller breeders supplied Petco it would make a world of difference.

[AbsoluteApril]

I'm seeing a reduced pattern normal however, wait until all that old shed is off and then post new photos. Good luck with your new baby!

I think the most viral of those videos was the baby iguana, but I've seen many more.

Interesting, I didn't know there were more. The one with the guy finding the iguana in the trash was faked.

[GiddyGoat]

I agree with all that. I'm not sure who Petsmart gets their snakes from. Their policy seems to be feed all snakes pinkies....um hells to the no!

Petco policy is to never toss any animal, deceased, or live into a dumpster. We need to have a vet put an animal down and then it goes into a holding facility in store for pick up. Never into a dumpster. That includes fish.

We also must contact a vet within 24hours on seeing an injury or sickness.

I also go into other stores in my district and check on snakes. If I see something wring i talk to the store mgr and the dept leader and educate them on proper feeding and how to stay within protocol. It's the loopholes yo!

and I agree with the animal mills. The gourmet rodent is a mill. I'm sick of them sending me underweight snakes. I wish Petco would rotate breeders for better animals. If smaller breeders supplied Petco it would make a world of difference.

Hmm, I guess some stores don't have employees who care enough not to throw-out animals or to take them to a vet when needed. But seriously kudos to you for doing what you do, it's good to know there are some great big box employees out there. I was talking to a couple of people at my local Petco who actually keep reptiles, one of them an employee (who was happy to agree with me on some of the sucky equipment they sell) who had multiple BPs and another who worked at a different Petco and had LOADSS of herps of all types. It's just really unfortunate where the animals come from- all of them (small mammal, reptile, birds, everything). I TOTALLY agree with you on rotating breeders.

[GiddyGoat]

I'm seeing a reduced pattern normal however, wait until all that old shed is off and then post new photos. Good luck with your new baby!



Interesting, I didn't know there were more. The one with the guy finding the iguana in the trash was faked.

Woah that was faked? This is news! I've seen it but I never knew it was fake. Thanks for the info, how'd you find out?

[AbsoluteApril]

Woah that was faked? This is news! I've seen it but I never knew it was fake. Thanks for the info, how'd you find out?

I should clarify 'most likely' faked, based on Mike's lack of proof, propensity for lying (he was exposed on fauna back in 2012) and direct emails with a user over there being highly fishy. Comments in his BOI were made in 2013 that the claim was investigated and proven false but I didn't see more details. Most of us all suspected it was all faked and he did it for publicity.



Sorry to go off topic

[GiddyGoat]

Huh! Thanks for all the info, I never knew and that was the only thing of his I'd ever really seen.