One thing you have to realize is that Petland is an independently owned franchise and is not completely dictated by the corporate office, if someone is not taking care of animals, its usually the individual owners and employees fault rather the Petland as a corporation. When it comes to getting the pets Petland sells, they interview all of their breeders and ask a lot of questions about the animals and how their kept, so that they feel comfortable about what they buy. Also each animal is checked extremely well before accepting the animal into the store, ie mites, bites, missing or ripped scales, Respiratory infections etc. If they are not healthy and eating Petland will NOT accept them. The particular Petland that i think you are referring too does get its reptiles from a breeder located in the city its located in. They are great breeders and have a passion and love for the animals they breed. (www.leopardgecko.com) go to his contact, orders page, then to all other reptile orders and look at his address towards the bottom. If a ball python is too small to eat average sized live mice, and if small enough live mice are not available, they attempt to feed frozen if the snake will take it. If not we try to get mice that are the right size. Some times people unfortunately mis communicate about what gets fed what. Make sure what you read online is valid. Mites will usually appear around the eyes of you python or around his face, if he has them you'll be able to see them. You'll also see them in his water bowl because he will soak a lot to try to drown them. If a store has done something wrong, again i state it is the owner as an individual and their employes , who have neglected to care for their animals or reptiles. That statement does not directly reflect on the store your talking about, though unfortunately we share the name with the store who has failed to upkeep the hight standards in pet care that the corporation has set. Unfortunately there are alot of pet stores that do mistreat their animals and do not care. And i can proudly say that the store you refer to is setting a new standard to not join the ranks of bad pet stores. They love, care for, and treat every animal as if it were their own.