The difference between a breeder and a pet store is specializing your inventory. Generally speaking, a breeder will only sell one type of animal. Even if they sell multiple reptile species, it is way easier to provide quality care when your entire inventory has the same or similar care needs. When a store has reptiles, fish, rodents, birds, cats, dogs... it is impossible to have enough staff 24/7 that has intimate knowledge of every species' needs, and all animals need daily care by someone with knowledge about there needs. Sure, our snakes can do just fine on there own for a week or so, but only once we have perfected their environmental needs.

I think pet stores are great in that they provide the supplies pet owners need that cannot be found elsewhere. Online shopping is fantastic, I agree, but sometimes you can't wait for something to arrive by mail. Unexpected heat pad malfunction, bulb burnouts... even the most basic of medical supplies, can't wait with reptiles. Even food. I had a chameleon years ago and my cat got into my cricket cage, which I kept outside, and all of the crickets escaped. There was no where locally besides a pet store where I could get more crickets. Where pet stores go wrong is with the live animals, especially it seems the reptiles.

Ball python morphs are the result of generations of captive breeding. The need for imported animals is obsolete. The gene pool is plenty wide and captive hatchlings are thriving. I started this thread to vent about my experience with a local PetCo, and to my knowledge MOST (not all) chain pet stores acquire their animals as African imports and do not have knowledgeable staff.

I actually looked at a ball in a non-chain pet shop about a year ago and asked their on staff reptile "expert," "Is this python captive born or captive hatched?" to which he replied, "Yes." I said, "No, which one?" and he said "I don't know, but its always one of the two." He said all of this while feeding a Taco Bell burrito to an iguana. I could not possibly make that up. I never set foot in that store again.