Pet Store Pythons - need to vent

[Raptor]

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.

You obviously haven't dealt with breeders very much. While I haven't dealt with a lot of snake breeders, I have dealt with dog breeders and goat breeders. To say that all breeders care about their animals is a load of snake poo. Here's a few examples:

Parents bought a Scottish terrier. Terrier ended up dieing a few years later due to genetic illnesses that we weren't told about.

Parents pre-paid for a goat prior to her being weanable from her dam. When they picked up the goat, we found out that the owners had sold us the wrong animal and that the animal purchased was probably dead. I could go on, and on. Since I help my mom in the goat association registry office, I see a lot of shady things.

And I have to say ... I have seen far more mom and pop shops with horrible setups than chain pet stores, as chain pet stores have more money and rules to follow, where mom and pop shops do it however they want and are often on a tight budget.

This. So much. The worst store I've been to was a mom and pop store. Dead reptiles on display, no water, no hides, it always stunk, it was filthy, etc.