Quote Originally Posted by purplemuffin View Post
I'm curious, how do you decide that you want to wholesale normals to a pet store? We all know the horror stories of what happens to ball pythons in bad pet stores, chains and local, so how do you go about choosing one you think will treat them well? Anyone ever have issues with this? (go back to the store to find dying/sick baby snakes of yours, etc.)

The last decent pet store near me moved locations so it's now 6 hours away, so I know that wouldn't be an option for me--The pet stores left are all terrible, I've never seen a healthy reptile in any of them(Even saw a chinese water dragon who had rubbed his front of his face off--to the bone!) Because of this I've had to think around the whole idea of wholesaling snakes. It just wouldn't feel right to send any of them to a place like that. I know when I start breeding I'm hoping to minimize normals by including visual recessive genes so I'll at least have hets/have the only normals be VERY nice quality by buying only high quality animals so they can find good homes too.
As most everyone else has said, I have only one pet store that I am willing to sell mine to. Their animals are kept clean and healthy, and while the store does "maintenance feed" (which I don't agree with--if I'm paying good money for your animal, it should be well-fed on a proper, timely diet), I can overlook that. There's never any stuck sheds, poo piled up, horrible incidents with thermometers stuck to snakes (yes, that happened near me at a local chain pet store). The one I sell to is privately owned and run, and the owner really does know what he's doing. He knows reptiles, and he knows how to care for them properly. In addition, I've actually heard him telling his customers the correct information for caring for a specific reptile they are buying. Granted, that's not to say that everyone listens, but at least he is making the effort. He's probably the only reptile store I'd recommend locally to others.