6 snakes in 1 small tank at Petco!!!

[NickP]

I was visiting Petco to get some more F/T fuzzies for my BP when I decided to take a look at their snakes. They had 6 Ball pythons in 1 small tank. Probably smaller than a 10 gallon. All they had in it was a bowl of water and nothing else. The temp was at 75F and humidity was at 40%. I asked the employee and he said that their bps run out very fast. They also had 3 boas in similar conditions except they had a climbing tree in there as well. How horrible is that? How long will these snakes last like this?

[Entropy]

This isn't necessarily suprising. And though it's far from ideal they'll most likely survive plenty long enough to be purchased. Ball pythons are more hardy then some people give them credit for. Though it's no excuse to keep them in sub par conditions.

[MeMe]

shocker.

[NickP]

This isn't necessarily suprising. And though it's far from ideal they'll most likely survive plenty long enough to be purchased. Ball pythons are more hardy then some people give them credit for. Though it's no excuse to keep them in sub par conditions.

But 6 of them in smaller than 10gallon tank? I have 1 BP in a 20g tank all by himself.

[python.princess]

nothin new.....

[Ringo]

Its Petco. What did you expect, thriving conditions with knowledgable people to help customers and give great advice? LOL. Im just very thankful that I found this site to help me out in times of need.

[serpents-prey]

i know petco has some different policies but i am in the process of getting a job at petsmart. i take offense from the sarcasm of "knowledgeable people" there is a vet tech working as a pet care specialist (which means paid pooper scooper) and while you may think it is cruel we really don't have a say as far as how to take care of of any of the animals they sell. it is standard corporate procedure that we must follow so please don't knock some one who is just doing what they are told.

[Argentra]

It's one thing to make all petstore employees seem dumb and cruel...but it's another alltogether to point out the sad fact that a majority of people hired by those stores really don't know the first thing about the animals. I was even starting to think that they prefer hiring the clueless people just to avoid problems and shake-downs from those who know the policies and procedures are incredibly outdated and wrong.

Serpents-prey: Please don't take all the digs at petstores personally. It is just a sad fact that there aren't enough of us truly knowledgeable people working for those stores...not to mention the fact that it can be hard to tell at times who is just doing what they are told and who really doesn't know any better.

[Reptilian]

One thing to keep in mind is that they're in business to sell animals, supplies, etc. Though by having them cramped causing stress, can cause illness, etc. they are just seen as products. They're not ment to stay on the shelf long. I don't condone what they do when they are placed in a situtation like that. But most stores don't have the space to keep 1 per cage. They'd be defeating their purpose of "selling more" if they kept everything in ideal conditions. Which is sad...

If I ran things, I'd keep my live stock low, maybe two BPs, but in proper cages, setups, etc. I can always order more and it keeps them healthy and happy in a correct environment. Have other animals in their proper setups but keep the amount of them in smaller manageable numbers. Order more when needed.

At my petco they all the times I've been there they've had clean water, hides, branches, and from what I can tell from their cheap stick on readers, good temps.

Just my two cents...

[Argentra]

Very well said... and it's sad but true. If an animal at petsmart or petco dies, they just write it off and order another one (or three) regardless of available room. I remember once, we had about three spare 10gal equivalent cages open and my B**** manager ordered a TON of frogs, geckos, and skinks! I had to do some fancy footwork rearranging everyone and hated cramming so many animals together...but had no choice. The one thing I did insist on, and got, was that the Schneider's Skink we got had his own 20L tank.

No, even the associates who know what to do have no choice or say in how the animals are housed overall, but at least we could try to make their lives tolerable while they were in those conditions. And sometimes, some of us succeed.