balls at pet stores please read!!!!

[schulte5000]

I am livid right now...i just had to go to a different pet store to get a mouse because my regular pet store was out of mice (which in it self is ridiculous). But any who, i go to this pet store which also doubles as a gardening store and it carries 3 snakes a king a corn and a ball, first all and most importantly in my opinion is the ball, it was kept in terrible conditions i think there was something that was supposed to be a hide. it was a blue square that might of been made to look like a rock that was lifted off the ground, on accident perhaps. That was perhaps their sorry excuse for a hide. moving on...the snake was sitting in the middle of the aquarium in the open just sitting there...it broke my heart. The water dish was a huge blue container it had too much water, it would be better off as a pool then a drinking dish. there was fecal matter and old shed skin littering the aquarium its so rediculous. I would of bought the snake and tried to save it from its certain death in that crap hole but the worst part was it was 90 dollars and that is 90 dollars i do not have at the moment...i am genuinely upset about the husbandry of the snake oh i forgot...to top it off it was kept on sorry excuse for reptile carpet...spring for the aspen DAMNIT!!! I am so upset...anyways i talked to my mom about the whole thing and being a teacher she was telling me that is how she feels when she has kids in her class room that are from bad homes...i guess its true what they say...the snakes are our kids...a part of the family im in a state of depression now...

[cshouston]

It sounds like one I saw at a pet store in Tampa recently, except that one had a ton of stuck shed all over it and no hide at all. The worst part is, if you DID buy it to "rescue" it from that store, they'd just put another in there and make it suffer the same poor treatment. The only thing to do is vote with your wallet and NOT support the store by buying the snake. If the environment is more than just stressing the snake, but killing it... then you may be able to get your local animal services department to pay them a visit and remind them that they CAN and WILL be fined for animal abuse if conditions aren't improved.

[Enser54]

Maybe it had just shed and gone to the bathroom and they had not gotten around to it yet during the day. I don't understand your description of the hide but the water bowl, was it at least clean water? If it did JUST shed they may have added the larger bowl for humidity purposes. And I can't see any true harm in "reptile carpet", the only reason people don't use it is that it is harder to clean.

Sorry I obviously didn't see the snake but you just seem to be a little bit over the edge with anger. Did it look well fed and have heat? I'd go back tomorrow and see if they cleaned it up or whats the deal. Like I said might have been just a day thing not worth getting so upset over.

[sum182]

Way to not cave like i did!! lol, but i really really couldnt be happier with Alura, she is so great and worth the 80 i spent on her (and almost to breeding weight, but tis a while for that). Yeah, if you go back in a day or two and they still havent cleaned....idk, say something?

[demonicchild]

I know how you feel. I have to walk by two tiny hatchlings on sand with no hides and a tiny water bowl (maybe 1 in in diameter) and at least two sheds stuck all over them. I don't even look anymore. I'd like to save them, but I'm not paying 120 for a normal. Plus, I'm still in the learning phase of keeping bps. Maybe in a year or two, I'll get another, but not now.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

The only way to solve such problems is to provide a sustainable solution. Offer to educate the people at the store as to proper husbandry. If they say it's too much work, offer to adopt the snake to save its life.

As another poster said, buying the snake creates a vacuum for another snake to occupy...or worse, more snakes which will all be treated the same way.

JonV

[Neal]

only thing you can really do is just get an animal shelter involved or perhaps, the animal cops(which are in some areas). They can and will fine a store for having poor conditions for the animals. I was in a pet store around Slidell a few weeks ago to get some supplies that I couldn't find elsewhere and this store seemed to be half decent, until I turned around to the reptile corner, the ball pythons were kept in horrible conditions, these people had 3 ball pythons in a 20 gal tank. what was even worse was they had like 10-11 ribbon snakes in a 20 gallon tank and one of the snakes was dead, they had 2 differnet shedded skins in the tank with the dead ribbon snake and the 11 living ribbon snakes. So I brought this to their attention and they cleaned everything up, but they didn't take the shed skin out of the other 2 reptile tanks? When I left I called animal services and reported them. They have a semi-local petstore which I plan on reporting and making sure something gets done, but i'm really not sure what they will do. They have a 13 ft Burmese Python in a tank, or its like those metal things you'd keep rabbits in, with the slide out bottom(not sure what its called), then to top it off, the snake has no heating what-so-ever and the tank must only be maybe 2 1/2ft long by 2 ft wide. Old shed skin stuck to the metal things, the snakes fecies were in different spots. I'm going to see what I can get done about this though, even though its a 13 ft, like I said above, not sure what will happen, so thats my only downfall in reporting it. I would buy it and try to re-sell to a good home, but the price on it is $800.

[OG2]

Don't be to hard on them.:cens0r: Offer to clean it out see what they say.:cens0r: But the main thing is clean water.:cens0r: Three snakes should not be to hard to manage, like the above post go back and see if it was cleaned, if not, then find the owner and complain.

[wolfy-hound]

The water dish being big shouldn't be an issue. Reptile carpet can be used, it's not the ideal. If the cage is dirty, I'd ask them about it, but it may be between 'cleaning days'.
The way to show you don't support poor husbandry is to NOT buy the snakes, and to NOT buy any supplies. You can try to offer information to better the snake's situation, and if they refuse, then you can say you won't buy supplies or animals from them. The humane societys and cops will basically look at whether the animal is being fed and has water. They MIGHT look at whether it has heat.

[schulte5000]

yeah i see what you are all saying and to the poster who said that the snake might of just shed, and it might have just went to the bathroom. i respect that opinion but as far as i know baby snakes do not go to the bathroom in 5 6 different spots over the entire cage, and they do not have that much skin to shed. Granted i did not see if there was some heat or not. from what i saw was just a light that illuminated the cage. I thought about saying something but the people in the pet store did not look like the brightest either. I think that pet stores should not keep exotic pets unless they have a specialist...or at least someone who knows what their doing ( maybe has an exotic pet of their own). And i know what YOU are playing devils advocate but to just see that snake in the conditions it was in was upsetting. I understand that pet stores do not have the time to clean or care for ball pythons as much as we all do, but if that is the case do not keep them. My local pet store has a reptile book i guess i could say. The purchaser can order a reptile from the book, who knows where the reptiles are coming from but its still a better idea because i like to think that before they are purchased the snakes are kept in better living conditions then a pet store has to offer.