worst pet store ever

[hornsrule]

went to a pet store tonight to get feeders and saw the most horrible looking ball python ever and had to leave. the thing was no more than a couple of months old. it appeared to have mouth rot, its eyes looked horrible and it had retained shed from not having enough humidity, it was beyond skinny (the skin was hanging off its sides), and to top it off, began to have spazms while we were watching it. the kicker to the story though was it had a on hold sticker on the cage. they honestly sold this snake to some one for 85 dollars. i asked them if they were going to take it to the vet to no response and left. it is amazing to me that people give them any money. how can local shops like this do business, especially when they call themselves exotic pet stores?

[mr shocker0]

wow i feel bad for that snake man that really does make me mad when pet stores dont know what there doing

[hornsrule]

i feel almost as bad for the person buying, because they are obviously a newb and have no idea what they are in for. although dont ask me why anyone would want this snake. even when i was a newb i cant imagine looking at that and saying i want that one.

[Rusty]

I saw the same thing the other day at a local pet store aswell. They were using heat rocks as the heat source for all the BPs and the skins were hanging off everyone one of them. They were in really bad shape and it was obvious so I mentioned it to one of the pet shop associated and I was totally ignored. And even worse was that it wasn't just the BPs all the reptiles in there had problems/bad habitats. It's really unfair.

[cyclops81]

i dont really trust that many pet stores with anything. the store that i go to is "Zoo Creatures"...they have the store downstairs and breed the snakes and otehr various reptiles upstairs. they are awesome and all of the animals there are well fed and well taken care of. i went to petco last week and saw that they had a ball python and it was just so sad looking at it. it looked like it never got fed and just looked sick. i hate how all of the pet stores around here, minus Zoo Creatures, wont even take the snake out of the tank because they dont want to touch it unless youre going to pay the money to buy it. i think its really sad and i wish i could do something about it. i went to a petsmart and asked about a snake that they had and they knew nothing about it. if youre going to sell snakes, or any animals for that matter shouldnt you have some knowledge of what youre selling?? am i wrong here?? you cant just leave a snake, or any animal alone and never go near it or never feed it and expect it to be healthy and happy.

makes me really sad and angry

[Rusty]

Your absolutely right. Petstores selling reptiles or "exotic" pets should provide at a minimum a caresheet for the animal. I mean really that's the LEAST they could do. Another problem with these places are that they give horrible advice quite often just to get you to buy stuff from them.

[hornsrule]

i totally agree with you guys. it is just insane that people believe what the people who work there tell them. they just lost somebody that bought feeders from them sometimes though. it just sucks that there isnt much more than that that can be done

[krackerJack]

Your absolutely right. Petstores selling reptiles or "exotic" pets should provide at a minimum a caresheet for the animal. I mean really that's the LEAST they could do. Another problem with these places are that they give horrible advice quite often just to get you to buy stuff from them.

the guy at my local pet store i bought my bp from said it would be fine to have more then one snake in a tank so i went ahead and bought another one.2 weeks later a find this forum and find out thats a bunch of BS.

[MedusasOwl]

More and more I'm of the opinion that pet stores should be supply and information centers, and put people in contact with breeders and shelters when they want an actual animal (feeders would count as supply tho, I think). I think that'd be doing a lot of herps and other critters a huge favor, and lead to more educated owners.

[JLC]

More and more I'm of the opinion that pet stores should be supply and information centers, and put people in contact with breeders and shelters when they want an actual animal (feeders would count as supply tho, I think). I think that'd be doing a lot of herps and other critters a huge favor, and lead to more educated owners.

Isn't that how Petco and PetSmart started out? Back in the day, it was abuse against dogs and cats in petstores that was the outrage...so those giants made a line of petstores that would't sell dogs and cats and just be there for supplies and information...as you say. But it didn't take long at all for them to start getting into selling "small animals"....which they sell a LOT of nowadays. And of course where there are humans taking care of lots of animals, there are bound to be areas of neglect and abuse.

Anyhow...sounds nice on paper, but there are all sorts of pitfalls, such as: They don't have to sell dogs in order to sell dog-collars. But 99% of the reptile and other small-critter stuff they sell is because people come in and see the the cuteness of the animals and impulse-buy...and of course have to then buy the supplies to keep the animals and then return to the store periodically to buy more. If the animals themselves weren't in the store, MOST people would never even conisder buying any of that stuff.