Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
That's a huge difference in size- no way he should have a hopper! But many store employees don't have actual experience to really "know" beyond what they're trained to say...sigh. And many times they have more knowledge than the new snake owners they're dealing with, but that's not saying much- it's just that it makes some of them overconfident in what they advise. I suppose we should be glad that they don't think (most) BPs should be eating pinkie mice? That little guy has quite a stripe, btw. Pretty clutch-mate too.
I'd go so far as to say that a number of chain pet stores purposefully hire "moderately" knowledgeable people, or even any random person regardless of their animal knowledge. In this day and age I know that pretty much over half of products in big box stores for exotics is either subpar, useless or outright harmful, and that a number of the animals sold have no business being considered "beginner choices." But the companies need employees who will unquestioningly push for said products and animals to sell anyway. I've been suspicious of this for a while now given all the years I've tried to get a job at any given pet store but failed, and I can't help but believe it's due to "knowing too much."

Not every pet store is like this, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't picked up on some patterns...