Pet Store Pythons - need to vent

[wolfy-hound]

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 The need for imported animals is obsolete.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.
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THIS is a outright lie. Morphs came from wild caught animals. Name one single morph that was developed from "generations of captive breeding". Morphs were almost ALL wild caught animals that were bred to see if they were genetic or a abnormality. As far as the need for fresh blood being obselete? Check out bearded dragons and the complete inability to acquire new blood and how the hobbiests are always trying to get new bloodlines from overseas.

Almost every year we see another new morph pop up from imports. The first albinos, spiders, luetistics... all imports. Yellowbellies? Imports.

Perhaps you have some skewed idea of how the morphs have been developed, but they rarely ever simply pop into being randomly in some 'generations captive bred' normal snake. The more normal way is to find a dinker in the imports and work with it to see if it's genetic or has a super form.

Some chain stores still import, as stated by others who are knowledgable in this thread, many acquire animals from wholesalers who buy from breeders local to them.

If you dislike poor husbandry of animals, fine. Just don't lump all 'imports get bad husbandry' or 'breeders are all bad and only care about money' or 'selling animals is wrong and no one should make money'. Any store can neglect it's stock. Any individual owner can neglect their pet. Any breeder can engage in dubious practices. And by the same token, they can ALL do a marvelous job with the animals in their care.

Don't dump on everyone for the actions of a few. That's no more fair than places banning all exotics just because one or two people were careless with their own pet.