Pet Store Pythons - need to vent

[Kittycatpenut]

Too bad its the only place I can find frozen mice/rats of assorted sizes.

[Riv]

I can agree that the employees are incredibly uneducated when it comes to reptiles. You really have to go above and beyond, and learn about them yourself because you will never be taught about them. I already knew a lot about reptiles when I started and have spread that knowledge to the other employees. Now I can proudly say that my store now has 3 beautiful and healthy ball pythons all of which are eating, 3 healthy and eating corn snakes, a milk snake with an average appetitie but takes meals almost every week, and an adult kingsnake who has been a regular eater even before I got there. you'll never catch a single one with a bad shed either. Previous to my hiring, they had failed to get a ball python to take a single meal in nearly three years. Since I came on board its been rare that theyve missed a meal. THESE are the things they need to be trained on more than anything. Logistics. Their husbandry is as perfect as we can make it with the level of control that we have, and the best way to get them into a good environment is to sell them to customers that you deem have the appropriate level of knowledge and commitment. If I dont think they will take care of it then I talk them out of the sale. It really isnt hard.

Then again my specific petsmart has a well rounded pet care crew. We have a lizard and frog go to guy, im the snake and fish go to guy, and the manager is knowledgable in all of the small animals, but specializes in rodents.

It took a lot of personal dedication and independant research for us to get the pet care area in good shape, but the hiring managers hired us specifically to do exactly that. their way or skirting around a flawed training system they couldnt change. Not all stores are managed correctly or have employees that care. I find that is truly where it veries. Some petsmarts and Petco's are fantastic. but these days it does feel like youre searching for diamonds in the rough..

[mattchibi]

I can agree that the employees are incredibly uneducated when it comes to reptiles. You really have to go above and beyond, and learn about them yourself because you will never be taught about them. I already knew a lot about reptiles when I started and have spread that knowledge to the other employees. Now I can proudly say that my store now has 3 beautiful and healthy ball pythons all of which are eating, 3 healthy and eating corn snakes, a milk snake with an average appetitie but takes meals almost every week, and an adult kingsnake who has been a regular eater even before I got there. you'll never catch a single one with a bad shed either. Previous to my hiring, they had failed to get a ball python to take a single meal in nearly three years. Since I came on board its been rare that theyve missed a meal. THESE are the things they need to be trained on more than anything. Logistics. Their husbandry is as perfect as we can make it with the level of control that we have, and the best way to get them into a good environment is to sell them to customers that you deem have the appropriate level of knowledge and commitment. If I dont think they will take care of it then I talk them out of the sale. It really isnt hard.

Then again my specific petsmart has a well rounded pet care crew. We have a lizard and frog go to guy, im the snake and fish go to guy, and the manager is knowledgable in all of the small animals, but specializes in rodents.

It took a lot of personal dedication and independant research for us to get the pet care area in good shape, but the hiring managers hired us specifically to do exactly that. their way or skirting around a flawed training system they couldnt change. Not all stores are managed correctly or have employees that care. I find that is truly where it veries. Some petsmarts and Petco's are fantastic. but these days it does feel like youre searching for diamonds in the rough..

kudos to you for doing that, glad to see theres at least some pet store employees who know there stuff

[Bruce Whitehead]

We romanticize 'mom and pop' stores all the time and overuse the term 'local' to qualify where we shop (most places we can actually get to in order to shop tend to be local by default).

I have bought CH and likely will again. I have sold normal males to pet stores if I approve of their policies.

Drawing hard and fast lines is always tricky, same as over generalizations regarding motivation etc.

Bruce