I recently rescued my bp from a private owned pet shop. He was in a moldy tank with no lights, or heat supply and labeled a lost cause and soon to be disposed of. He turned out to be a very out going, adventurous, good tempered ball. I not to mention his enthusiastic attitude towards eating. He's about 4 months old.... That aside... Today I went into another local pet store to buy a feeder mouse and stopped to look at their snakes. Only to be disappointed and a little angered by the sight of about 10 ball pythons crammed into a 20 gallon tank. 4 of them were in shed and the skin was cracked and flaking off. Not to mention the store rep who gave me a sales pitch about how healthy and what a great pick they were. I managed to bite my tongue for the most part, with a few well put statements about humidity, temp gages and space. I didn't mention the sand substrate or the almost non existent water bowl... But he proceeded to tell me that I must not know anything about snakes. I wanted to choke him. I understand that pet stores jam pack for profit and care little about comfort or proper housing... Just the bare essentials to keep them sellable until their bought... But really are they all that ignorant and oblivious to the torture their inflicting on an animal that never asked to be snatched up and stuck on display with a price tag. I mean what happened to animal cruelty laws... Geez. ((rant over))