As everyone said here, this could be a heated debate by some people. It is really up to you to make sure that the animals are well kept and cared for and for you to feel comfortable with the purchase. I know that some people have written about the Petco & Petsmarts near then and say they are horrid. I have never been in a Petsmart nor do I have one anywhere close to me, but the Petco that is near me happens to be a good one. The workers are concerned about the welfare of the animals, the cages are always clean with clean food and water no matter when I go in and I have not had any problems with any animal (breeder mice, a ferret, my first three corns, three geckos, a parakeet) that I have purchased over the years. I did check my snakes out, but none of them had any mites and the workers gave me a copy of a care sheet for corn snakes when I purchased my first one over a year ago. And they made sure I had everything I needed for proper housing for it. But as I say, that is the one near me. I happened to go into a Petco when I was visiting a friend in another state and I must say, I wouldn't have bought a live mouse from them to use as a feeder for my snakes. So, you really must make sure that they at least take good care of their stock.

Here are a couple pictures of the first ones I got, pictures taken last month. They are a year and a half now. The first picture, here, is of my anery 'a' male-the darker one (he is pictured with my charcoal male from a breeder). I will post a picture of my beautiful snow male from Petco in a reply post.

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