Petco worker heeded my advice!

[seclark]

I am so excited! I was in a Petco today, because unfortunately the only places that sell reptiles in Lincoln, NE are Petco and Petsmart. I was looking in a tank where they had a pastel (wierd a pastel at petco I know right?) and it was curled up underneath the water dish. The "reptile guy" was standing next to me so I told hey if you put a couple smaller hides in there he won't do that and preceded to tell him how ball pythons prefer hides that are smaller so they can feel snug and secure in and they don't really like wide open spaces. Had a vine a huge half log hide and a water dish in there. He said oh I will change that out then, he also said you used to have more fake foliage in the tank but they complained because they "couldn't see" the animal as well. Anyway I was proud of myself for having the courage to say something.

PS They had a nice reduce pattern in there normal tank I'm not gonna lie I was tempted lol!

[BuckeyeBalls]

They had a hide?!?!?! WOW im surprised. The best stores here have a NO hide rule. It dont matter if the snake wants a hide or not it dont get one. Reason being. How can u sell a snake when its in a hide

Amazing the needs of the snake come second

[steveboos]

AT Petsmart the Snakes come first and they all get hides of appropriate size. We also don't sell that many snakes because of this...

[seclark]

Well at Petco they seem like they kinda care but it's a little sub par. It's funny because half the time you can't see any of the gecko's because there hiding in moss or there hides but they are worried about people not seeing the snakes. Petsmart on the otherhand doesn't seem to usually have hides.

PS If someone is buying a snake because they just walked by and saw it, they shouldn't be buying it. If they are really interested enough to ask to see it then they would be more likely to do the research and care about the animal.

[Lolo76]

PS If someone is buying a snake because they just walked by and saw it, they shouldn't be buying it. If they are really interested enough to ask to see it then they would be more likely to do the research and care about the animal.

That is true! Any time I've gone looking for reptiles in stores, I will specifically seek out the tank first, and then ask to see what's in there... anyone who walks past unknowingly and says "Ooh, that's pretty! Maybe I'll get one of those, whatever it is" probably shouldn't be getting anything quite yet. Btw, East Bay Vivarium (a great shop in Berkeley CA) keeps about half of their snakes in tubs on a wall/rack, so you can't even see what's in there - only the label telling you what it is. So when I went to buy a JCP, I had to ask them to pull it out from the rack.

[CeeJay]

I I was looking in a tank where they had a pastel (wierd a pastel at petco I know right?) and it was curled up underneath the water dish.

Yeah sometimes they'll get Pastels. I was lucky to go to my local Petco when they had a baby mixed in with the normals. I couldn't believe it either. I came back a day or two to look at him again and had to have him. I paid $80.00. I got a great deal because I went to other Petcos around the same time and they had Pastels for $150.00. Someone didn't price him properly.

He's now around 800 now grams and locking up with my Spider female.

[vjb]

After reading this thread I was curious so stopped by my local PetSMart. All of the snakes had hides. One BP was out of his hide, the other snakes were nowhere to be seen, I assumed in their happy little hides.
I was pleasantly surprised.

[Moofins07]

The only problems I ever seem to have with my local pet stores is the amount that they feed them (once again, someone was under the impression that corn snakes, or ANY snakes, eat crickets. Sigh). The one I go to most often has had the same ball hatchling for at least two, maybe three months now. He's maybe grown a couple inches and gained a minimal amount of weight (basically, he doesn't look like a rigid triangle with a head anymore, he looks like a filled-out triangle with a head). Better, but not by much.

The worker who was handling the reptiles with me said he was still being fed fuzzies. Upon my amazement, he suddenly couldn't seem to remember whether it was fuzzies or hoppers they were feeding him. I tried to wrap the concept around his head that hatchlings can eat hoppers right out of the egg, and quickly move onto adults.

It's fun when we "act" smarter.