Pet Store Pythons - need to vent

[evan385]

There were 2 others alone in this thread. Maybe you should stop generalizing everything together, there are always exceptions to the majority, which I never disagreed with by the way.

Fine, and I never said ALL of them are bad just most of them. Could be people don't post their good experiences with them. Media tends to have take a liking to bad news and talk about it more frequently maybe people and society do this too. As far as buying a snake from them, personally I would buy from a breeder and if I had to get local I would go with Critter Barn because I know without a doubt that all of their snakes are at least very healthy and quality animals even if they are slightly uneducated. As far as bedding, bulbs, heat pads Critter Barn is cheaper and especially their rats. Petsmart is WAY overpriced for rats at $13 with tax for six small mice and I can get six jumbos for half of that price at CB. Not that I feed mice anymore.

[Maixx]

MINE isn't the exception. There are MANY exceptions. You can't group them all together

Yes you can, on a corporate level. As a corporation they work numbers for the best profit, its not about the care of the animals, its about making money.
To make it worse, they (Petco) actively donate and fund raise for HSUS in order to get a free pass from the AR activists out there that would be fighting them.
I have a good petco near, but also a bad one and a bad Petsmart, I've argued with the manager of one over the care of one of their reptiles only to be told that they're not spending $100 on a $50 animal at a vet.

[evan385]

Yes you can, on a corporate level. As a corporation they work numbers for the best profit, its not about the care of the animals, its about making money.
To make it worse, they (Petco) actively donate and fund raise for HSUS in order to get a free pass from the AR activists out there that would be fighting them.
I have a good petco near, but also a bad one and a bad Petsmart, I've argued with the manager of one over the care of one of their reptiles only to be told that they're not spending $100 on a $50 animal at a vet.

Hit the nail on the head. Chain pet stores don't care nearly as much about healthy, quality animals as making money.

[Charlie And Lucy]

A corporate level deals with statistics, not each individual store on a one-on-one level. Franchise or private, each store will be different, no matter what the chain is. My local PetCo is wonderful with their animals - all of them. There are several exceptions as each hiring manager is different. They follow certain guidelines when picking employees, but there are managers who truly care about the animals well-being.

That being said, my first BP came from PetCo. Every penny I paid for him was well worth it as he is a wonderful little guy. Yes, captive hatched or even wild hatched animals aren't the best way to go, but they do deserve a chance too. They can't help that they were taken out of Africa, away from their natural habitat. They are for intermediate or expert keepers as a lot of them are harder to maintain as a CB snake. There are people out there willing to take on a CH/WH, Craigslist, pet store or shady breeder snake, and more power to them. We need to remember that we are their voices, every single one of them, no matter where they come from.

[Jessica Loesch]

Yes you can, on a corporate level. As a corporation they work numbers for the best profit, its not about the care of the animals, its about making money.
To make it worse, they (Petco) actively donate and fund raise for HSUS in order to get a free pass from the AR activists out there that would be fighting them.
I have a good petco near, but also a bad one and a bad Petsmart, I've argued with the manager of one over the care of one of their reptiles only to be told that they're not spending $100 on a $50 animal at a vet.

Yep ... there will always be an exception, for the reasons mentioned.

Evan, I agree with everything you said about Petco and their prices on things, and I rather buy from breeders as well for many reasons, but most is always a better word than 90%. There are Petcos out there that DO care about their animals. The people above them may not, on different levels (ie general managers, corporate offices, etc), but there is always going to be an exception to the rule. So no, you can't.


By the way, you have a lot of members HERE that will even tell you.... "I will not spend $100 at the vet on a $50 snake" ..... Just saying.

[Anatopism]

There were three for sale, all in the same tank. They were under bright fluorescent lighting and all three were huddled together, obviously competing for the one warm spot. There were no hides in the tank, so the animals are always visible to prospective buyers. Just some astroturf, a water dish, and a single plant, all with the price tags on them, for reference.

Based off of your other descriptions of the animals, I doubt a small husbandry change would help these pythons, and the staff at that particular store are a huge problem.. BUT

your description of the tank is against petco policy. Ask them to review their planograms. Ball pythons at petco are required to be on either aspen or eco earth, have at least 1 hide (I know, it would be better if there weren't 3 together, but this is not against petco policy), and a large water dish.

If you'd like, I can find the contact information for their disctrict manager so that you can express your concerns. I cannot stress enough however, to always remain calm when 'telling people their business'. If you come across as trying to help and not telling them how to do their job (even if you are fully in the right), nothing you say will matter.

[heathers*bps]

Our PetCo is crap here, and we just had a PetSmart open that seems to be doing things nicely. I have sold some of my normals to pet stores ( locally owned ) and I always go over the proper care with them, plus check out their current setups and how the animals look before even offering my snakes to them.

Not all PetCo and PetSmart stores are crappy, but I definitely prefer to buy from breeders.

[wolfy-hound]

I've been to about 4 PetsMarts, and perhaps 2-3 Petcos. The PetsMarts aren't bad about the reptiles, the Petcos, one good, one or two bad.

Mom and Pop pet stores? I think out of about 10 I've been to, 6-7 bad, 3-4 decent.

Multiple snakes per enclosure and few or no hides is part of displaying for sale. If you look at a show you won't see snakes displayed for sale with hides either. Yes yes, shows are only a couple days, but after the animals are stressed by transporting them before and after, and few have proper heat during display too. So why not wail about that too?

As far as "Never import!" what about all the new blood, the new morphs? Those come from Africa, in the main. Tons of animals that come in every year ARE cared for properly. Many ball pythons are farm hatched and thus importing them has little to no impact on the 'wild'.

It's like saying that all reptile owners just like to see things die in a horrible fashion so they buy snakes to see mice crushed to death. Is that true? Gee, I see plenty o feeding videos, so it must be true! Look at YouTube at how many people are loving how the prey dies.

You can't generalize about "all" of anything. All pet stores aren't bad. All pet owners aren't bad. All imports aren't ill-cared for. For that matter, not all breeders care.

And if you run a business it HAS to be about the profit. Sorry if people want a Pollyanna world but if you aren't concerned about whether you make a profit, you don't stay in business. That's just the reality of it. The good stores balance making a profit with decent care of the animals(i.e. they feed them well enough to maintain them, they clean the cages and buy quality animals). But when it comes to spending $100 to treat a $10 animal, most businesses will not do it. Heck, a lot of breeders won't do it either! Breeders are often a business too.

If you don't like how anyone runs their business, then don't shop there. Just because you need dry goods or whatever is not a valid excuse in these days of internet shopping. You can order just about anything off online stores and avoid ANY stores locally.

Petco's HSUS ties are one reason I don't use them, even when I need items, I'll choose a different store, or order online and pay shipping. If a store is actively neglecting animals(filthy cages, no water, etc) then I'll point the neglect out to the people in the store in a calm manner. If they act unconcerned, I take my money elsewhere.

[evan385]

The difference with breeders is that they care about the health and quality of their snakes because they want repeat customers. Chain pet stores just want to make as much money as possible and I assume since most only sell normal ball pythons they don't think about repeat customers or breeding as much as breeders that produce morphs. Not saying all of them are bad but most of them only care about making money.

[wolfy-hound]

That's kind of BS. If a breeder sells a snake to a person, he's looking for a repeat customer just as much as a store. In fact, stores often count on the customer coming back for food and other items so they want happier customers while a breeder who only sells the live animals may never see that person again, since they already have the pet and not every person wants multiple snakes.

You're counting on each customer being a breeder and wanting multiple animals. That's not always the case. And there's plenty of breeders who figure there's plenty of fish out there for them to sell to, so a unhappy customer means nothing. Same as stores that don't care if the animal dies, a breeder could think exactly the same way.