A friend came over today

[JNballs]

there are stupid people like this all over the world. i often try to inform people about mistakes they make keeping their animals, and all that i get back is: "i know what to do, my animals are just fine, dont you have better things to do than critizize me?"
the always get angry, although i'm very friendly when pointing at the mistakes,...
but these people do think that it doesn't matter how they keep their animal, as long as it eats and sheds,... :-(

[mommanessy247]

jnballs- no one likes being told they're doing something wrong. its just human nature.

[Timspear]

all i can say is WOW i hope she gets bittin

[theartofsolitude]

since this forum helped me alot.. i tried testing one of these kinda cocky petshop (i just wont say what) guy telling me everything about i should buy uvb lights blah blah and i'm like, no they are nocturnal. then that pisses him and he is like, oh you need this small water container so your humidity will be high in your aquarium, im like, dont you think its really small? he's like dont worry snake only needs 5% humidity. zomg. and i ask him stuffs that i ask here, i was like, hmmm.. aside from rodents what can i feed it? he's like, rodents are disgusting, even with snakes, sure its nutritious, but if you really want them healthy, you can feed them with sirloin steak from groceries and will save you money too in the long run. -.-

and the killer part.. i said.. oh my, pythons, they grow really big right??
he's like, no dont worry bout the size, if you keep em in a 1 gal tank, they will not grow. they grow depending on the size of the tank.

i ended up feeling the exact same thing as you did.. i wanna educate him, however he is just sooo confident about what he is saying and i would hate to prove him wrong in front of his colleagues and couple more customers. :/

[Kaorte]

since this forum helped me alot.. i tried testing one of these kinda cocky petshop (i just wont say what) guy telling me everything about i should buy uvb lights blah blah and i'm like, no they are nocturnal. then that pisses him and he is like, oh you need this small water container so your humidity will be high in your aquarium, im like, dont you think its really small? he's like dont worry snake only needs 5% humidity. zomg. and i ask him stuffs that i ask here, i was like, hmmm.. aside from rodents what can i feed it? he's like, rodents are disgusting, even with snakes, sure its nutritious, but if you really want them healthy, you can feed them with sirloin steak from groceries and will save you money too in the long run. -.-

and the killer part.. i said.. oh my, pythons, they grow really big right??
he's like, no dont worry bout the size, if you keep em in a 1 gal tank, they will not grow. they grow depending on the size of the tank.

i ended up feeling the exact same thing as you did.. i wanna educate him, however he is just sooo confident about what he is saying and i would hate to prove him wrong in front of his colleagues and couple more customers. :/

Dear lord I hope he isn't telling other customers this nonsense....jeez...

[Punkymom]

I don't care who's around to hear it, if there's an employee of a store feeding customers bull, I WILL speak up and in fact have in the past. Although most of my defensiveness has been toward fish. Most PetSmart people know SQUAT about fish and will just sit there feeding these people rediculous information! For the sake of the animals suck up your pride and say something! They may make you feel 2 inches tall. I've been there! The poor suffering animals can't speak for themselves! "Oh sure, you can keep your goldfish in a little bowl and only change 20% of the water once a month." AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! What about those people who DO listen? There's no way you can know which ones will reject you for the store people or vice versa until you speak up! Just say something like, "well, actually, I read such and such and such." You'd be surprised at how many people will listen to you!

[herekitkitty]

would a ball python even consider a fish like, in the wild? wouldnt there be much easier prey to catch? I'd think a fish would be hard to see/sense, and to catch

[Serpent_Nirvana]

Oh and she was saying by keeping it in a large tank that it would grow faster... All I could think about was that thread about the bonsai kitten

It astonishes me how persistent the "grow to the size of the enclosure" idea really is -- despite the fact that it was clearly a myth made up long ago by shady pet store employees trying to sell snakes to unwitting buyers ...

Two years ago I was riding with a veterinarian who asked my if it was true. Now, in his defense, he is a large animal veterinarian who knows NOTHING about exotics ... But still.

Then last year at a party one of my classmates (veterinary student) asked me the same thing. To her, I demanded how on earth she thought that would work (we've just done two years of physiology, for goodness' sake) and she said she didn't know ... It was just something she'd always heard.

Amazingly, I do exotic animal presentations for the "veterinary summer camp" type of thing at my school, and I haven't yet had a middle-schooler ask me about that myth ... But I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

So, take home message: A. commonly-held beliefs will persist no matter HOW stupid and illogical, and B. don't assume that your average (non-exotic specialist) veterinarian knows diddly about snakes.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I would rather get kicked out of a pet store for correcting the employees than let them go on with bull like that.

[Coils]

Wow, that is just awful! I HAD to comment because I am so shocked! Who in their right mind would be buying betta fish to feed to a frikin snake? Guess they WOULDN'T be in their right mind....sometimes I just really -hate- people and the way they think they know all their is to know in the world. It's things like this that depress me so.