Pet Shops

[TONYDM41684]

I went into a local pet shop where I never go, but no one had a small enough mouse. Anyways they had a tank with four to five 2 foot BP, and it was a 20 HIGH with no hides. I think they were high. And to make matters worst they was a live white large adult mouse running around the tank. Then I could not find a small enough mouse, so I had to drive to a city 45 minutes away. There it wasn't much better. The first shop I went to had a small "reptile room", that when you opened the door it was the worst smell ever, like something was dead. I almost passed out. They had a great looking rock python, It was about 4 feet long a think, but when I asked to get her out and look at her, the pet guy asked me if I was going to buy her, I said no, and he said no, only if I was going to buy her would he get her out. They also had a DEAD rtb laying in a tank. She had been dead for a long long time. The second pet shop I went to, was in a mall. There were 50 people in this little store and they were all banging on the tanks. I was really suprised at the selection of the snakes there. A albino burm, burm, two retics, a handfull of RTB, and a tree boa. Heaven right? WRONG!! They all had heat rocks in their tanks, tiny water bowls, no way to monitor heat or humidity, no hides, and every snake had a little to a lot of their last shed stuck to them. It just pisses me off. If they only spent 1 hour at the computer and did a little research, or hired someone who know anything about snake. They could provide healthy animals to people and not have so many snakes die. They could actually sell more. Just thought that I would share my pet shop experience.

[Schlyne]

Sounds like you should report the store with the dead rtb lying in the tank at the least.

Write the paper or something...no pet store should have dead animals laying there (or floating there, in the case of fish), unless they're feeders. I mean if it died like 5 minutes ago, and nobody has notified the person..well that's different, but if it's been dead for a long time? that's just horribly wrong and extremely unhealthy.

[Marla]

That's awful, Tony. I agree it would be good to report the store with the dead rtb at least, and a letter to the editor of the newspaper couldn't hurt.

[First_time_herp]

I would send a report about it to somebody. There just dosn't seem like there are enough knowlegeable(SP?) snake people in htis world. But not all pet shops are bad, I've got a really nice petco like ten minutes away from me that keeps their reptiles very well.

[Ginevive]

I really hate to hear about pet stores like that; most of the ones in Buffalo are just as bad. But my friend down the road from me has her own shop, and, get this: she actually goes online, and reads up on caresheets, to find out how to keep her snakes/herps in the right conditions! And all of her herps (beardies, a huge RTB, leo geckos, and a bunch of smaller snakes like garters) are in great cages. I wish that all pet stores were like that, instead of the shoddy, sometimes disgusting norm.