Crickets for corn snakes?? (at Petco)

[mainbutter]

And I'm 100% sure they do NOT... I've been breeding corns for 20 years and I have NEVER seen a baby corn take any kind of insect whatsoever.

Ok you have me convinced. I had never considered the stomach contents issue, but that makes perfect sense!!

I've always assumed many North American colubrids are pretty flexible in their dietary capabilities, and aren't tied down to a handful of prey species. Snakes are opportunistic feeders, and have to be even more opportunistic as hatchlings to stand a chance at survival. Just as well, north american colubrids, and corn snakes especially, have an extraordinary flexibility in habitat tolerance. This SHOULD translate into at least more-flexible-than-usual dietary tolerance.

[SquamishSerpents]

in my pet store (mom n pop store), there *SOMETIMES* are crickets in the snake enclosure, but ONLY until we notice and remove them. we order in about 8,000 crickets per week, and let me tell you, not all 8,000 of them make it into reptile bellies!

so it is possible that the crickets got in there by mistake/cricket mischief, so i would go ahead and tell somebody who is working there, because yes, the crickets can decide to feed on the snake if they wanted to.

that's why we check on all the animals a couple times a day, to make sure nothing is going wrong.

[Twisted Reptiles]

Its no accident they are in there. I've seen it in numerous different PetCos and even overheard one of the sales people telling someone who was buying a baby, "Feed it two small crickets a week." Each time I've brought it up to the manager of the store, each time I go back its still the same situation. This has got to be a bigger problem than individual stores, someone is telling them to do the wrong thing.

[Lolo76]

Thanks for all the replies! It looks like the consensus is that corns should NOT have crickets in their enclosure, so I will tell somebody next time I'm there... probably that cashier I mentioned, as she knows more than their stupid (and fairly rude) manager.

Btw, I'm thinking of getting a corn snake soon - but not from Petco, LOL. If I can't find one at the GOOD local shops (EB Vivarium, Coastside Critters, etc), I'll just go through an online breeder. Looking at the available corns on VMSHerps site now, since I was happy with the leos I got from them.

[Denial]

I actually know a few people around here who feed some of the small corns and ratsnakes crickets. I always thought it was kind of strange.

[Calift]

My suggestion is to definitely go through an online breeder....I can point you in the direction of some good ones if you're interested!

[Lolo76]

My suggestion is to definitely go through an online breeder....I can point you in the direction of some good ones if you're interested!

For sure! I've been contacting a few through Fauna & Kingsnake, but so far nothing (either no responses or they're sold out). After looking at the different morphs available, I'm most interested in the reverse Okeetee - actually saw an Aztec-pattern reverse Okeetee on Fauna, but still waiting to hear back from the email I sent. So yeah, I wouldn't mind a referral or two...

[Lolo76]

Btw, I did see a few corns at the mall's pet shop yesterday, but they were as sad and overpriced ($69.99) as expected... that store actually ticks me off MUCH more than Petco/Petsmart, since they sell puppies that are obviously from puppy mills.

Their reptiles didn't look much better, especially the two ball pythons - housed together without a single hide, stuck shed on one, the other was soaking in its water dish, and there was a dried poop in the corner. And this store has been in business for 30 years, with supposedly a "Best of the Bay" award??? I won't name them, in case that could get me in trouble, but I've been wanting them to be gone for years.