Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is this a good thing? Time will tell......
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

Not good. I have come acrost one or two in my time that did have snakes and you might as well get rid of the smart and replace it with co because they treat them just like petco.
My Research and Collection

the petsmarts here dont yet, but golly jeepers if they do, imma be up their hineys if they do anything wrong!!!!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SNAKIES~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Corns:
.1 Normal (Gertrude)
1. unknown hypo? normal? (Romeo)
.1 Miami Phase (Emily)
1. Amel het Blizzard (Dunesbury)
1. Classic het Hypo, Anery, poss het Amel (Cobra)
1.1 Classics (Henry VIII, Cassy [Emilys babies])
.1 Amel (Pepperoni)
1.1 Hypo zig zags poss het Caramel (Bernard, Abegail)
.1 Classic het Hypo, Stripe (Gracie Lou)

Rats:
1.1 Black rats (Cecily, Willard)

Cal Kings:
1.1 Striped Cal Kings (Skunky, Dweezil)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~LEOPARD GECKOS~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Normal het Midnight Blizzard (Mr. Spot)
.1 Blizzard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~TURTLE~~~~~~~~~~~~
.1 white cheeked mud (Opel)

Ditto
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

I actually had an incident with a petsmart about the snakes they had, there was a dead corn in one, already rotting, a garter that had a huge gash in its body, and all the rest except the ball pythons were emaciated, wish i could have done something for them....so easy answer its a horrible thing
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A.J.
1.0.0- Amel Motley Corn- Valentine (R.I.P 5/20/05)
0.1.0- Snow Corn- Artica
1.0.0- Normal Corn- Ember
1.0.0- Ball Python- G.T.

I don't think I have ever looked into an Anolis cage at a pet store without seeing atleast 2 or 3 that were emaciated, dehydrated and nearly dead lying on the cage floor.
And nearly the same can be said with a cage full of corns, ribbons, rough greens or ball pythons.
This is, in part, what makes our hobby appear bad to the animal rights groups.
And yet it is such a small cross section of the hobby.
And the so-called "reptile expert" on staff is so uninformed, that it is sad.
This may be construed as "mean", but when I sometimes stop by to get a lone feeder for my one suboc that doesn't take frozen/thawed, the person at the counter will usually ask what I am feeding and I will say, "Bogertophis subocularis", with a straight face. Of coarse they will pretend to understand what I am referring to.
Like I said, my wife thinks that it is kinda mean, but I am just trying to light a fire in their rear-ends to learn SOMETHING about the poor animals that are often dyeing in their care.

DR
Suboc.com

As to being in the retail pet store business for 21 years and being a pet store " groupie " before that, when I see the numerous " anti " pet store banter ( or not ) , I wonder just how people come up with this. Also I often wonder how many pet stores you all visit to come up with this theory. Also does one really think that when a customer walks into a " bad " pet store they associate animals for sale as part of a hobby or an industry ? On the average person ( John Q Public ), they have no idea that there is the/a herpetological industry out there. So therefore as a rule, no harm done back to us. It's when there is negative news or negative newsworthy and the sensational/sensationalism negative news of ANY animal including domestic ( Pit Bulls/Rotties ) that hinders or put out as restrictions, laws or as in bans that effects us as hobbyist < ( herps ). Examples ? : venomous snake bites, reptile escapes, species relocated or let goes, the television shows like the " Big Squeeze ", etc. Agree ?
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Our local Petsmart told us that they would never carry snakes. They said it is because their are people who are so scared of snakes they wont even come into the store.

I am not sure how they would take care of snakes but if it is anything like their firebelly newts, yikes! We did educate them on the proper care and they fixed it, then just stopped carrying them all together.

Our local Petco has a decent reptile staff. I haven't seen any problems so far. Although they where charging $80 for a hypo corn, kind of spendy. Then there is the Petco 20 miles south that had rotting pinkies with the corns. I think it all comes down to the staff and how knowledgeable they are.
Jennifer

In all of my 20 years of keeping and breeding herps, I have met maybe one single, solitary person at a pet store that had even a remotely respectable knowledge of herp husbandry.
And I have been at A LOT of pet stores of every kind.
There might have been a couple of decently knowledgeable others, but in my experience they have been the exception to the rule.
Suboc.com

To answer one of your questions, my herpetology and animal diversity professors (and many other people) don't know anything about the REAL herp industry other than that "there are people who go into a pet store to buy an animal, that it sometimes depletes certain wild populations if they aren't captive bred, and that sometimes certain species are introduced where they don't belong" (i.e. Burmese in the 'Glades).
Neither one of them knew about the much bigger online business of the industry...they were blown away when I told them about the ball python market, for example. These are people with PHd's and decades of experience directly in the herp field, and yet they still think of the herp pet trade in terms of "pet stores".
And so...Yes, I do believe that to average, ordinary people who walk into a pet store and see reptiles there, that is THE herp industry to them.
I have worked in pet stores myself, when I was a teenager, and people do often call authorities when they perceive neglect, abuse, etc. That's a given.

And to answer your other question, I have been in enough pet stores to have given notice to a few red flags that were plenty of cause for concern.
And many of the other people on this thread are and have been saying the same thing, so I believe it is a common concern among people here.
I have seen enough dead and dyeing lizards lying at the bottom of pet store tanks to be concerned, and yes...sometimes outraged.
Suboc.com