Reptile & Amphibian Forums

kings& corns,,, now keep in mind potential customers this store/company/corparation WILL NOT SELL YOU RODENTS FOR FEEDERS either frozen or live, i find it completely amazing the HSUS,PETA,ETC.ETC, can attck everyone yet they can allow a very valid travisty in animal keeping take place like allowing a pet chain to sell an animal but NOT the food required to feed/care for that animal, here is an email to their corp.office inquiring about this:::

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for your inquiry!

We do sell different species of snakes and unfortunately we don't sell feeder rodents. This is a very controversial issue in our stores because some customers find these animals as pets and some use them as food.

We are very sorry, we can not resolve this issue for you. I will forward this email to our merchandising specialist for there consideration.

Sincerely,

Angie
PetSmart.com Customer Experience
1989 Transit Way
Brockport, NY 14420
1-888-839-9638

Key:ContactUs
Subjectroduct Question or Suggestion
Email:thomasdavis@houston.rr.com
Comments:i see petsmart is offering cornsnakes and kingsnakes for sale, how can you offer these animals for sale when your stores dont/wont sell feeder rodents either frozen or live? how can you sell an animal but not the food the animal needs to survive?

Thomas davis
houston,tx.

as you can see its pointless,
its crap like this that just keeps chapping my rawhide , just keep this in mind when considering a purchase good luck and have fun,,,,,,,thomas davis

I've bought frozen mice at Petsmart. They sell a nice hopper size mouse in a little plastic container. Each mouse is individually packed in a little ziploc bag. They aren't big enough to be the only food source for my CalKing, but they are a good appetizer for him. When I hand-fed him, I gave him one of these.

Bill

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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

well thats cool, every petsmart ive been to in texas has told me they dont/wont carry feeder rodents frozen or live.quite silly imho and a pain when in a bind! let me just dust off my soapbox and say this, what about the newbie that gets a first king from their local petsmart only to find out they cant get a food source or worse is told by the moron behind the counter that they eat crickets! its sad but it happens i feel its just common sense in the pet business if you deal in an animal you also deal in that animals food no matter what it is.plus ive delt w/the poor lil mouse mentality my whole life and quite frankly am sick of it and now to see this giant nationwide corparation selling snakes but not the food again just chaps me ,but hey im glad you can get them maybe the winds of change are blowin(just not in houston,texas),,,, ok im done now
,,,,,,thomas

I agree with you on all points. Selling snakes without selling their food is irresponsible. One thing I find ironic is that the store where I can get the mice is not in line to start selling snakes. I'm fortunate to have a Petco nearby where they sell a pretty good variety of frozen feeders. They don't sell anything in the 30 to 50 gram range, but they have mice up to about 30 grams and small rats sometimes over 50 grams. Petco is a big business, so they deal more with the general public and are more likely to be selling to people who haven't done any research before buying a snake. However, my store has several employees who know snakes very well. I'm less confident about whether Petsmart will hire the same kind of employees.

I guess the good news is that Petsmart sees the snake business as one that is growing too much to ignore. Many states are considering further restrictions or outright bans on snake ownership. If the demographics are changing enough that Petsmart feels a need to join this business to stay competitive, then we likely have more voters who would oppose those bans. If we can get them somewhat educated and aware, we can fight stupid laws more effectively.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

I've been going to the same local pet shop for the last quarter century. I realize that not everyone has this option. I've stopped into Pet Smarts in different parts of the country and with few exceptions, the reptiles and amphibians they were offering were wild caught.

I don't like to see any animal needlessly die, but isn't it better that captive bred snakes are taking the place of wild caught rough green snakes and ribbon snakes, which are bound to die in a short time? I think so.

Many small pet store owners tell me that they make most of their money from selling reptile food and equipment every week - not reptiles. Maybe Pet Smart will take on that view as well. I suppose you could get on their case for not selling food at some of their locations - but there's plenty of other options.

With all the increased regulations, we really need "big chain pet stores" on our side - no matter how hideous that sounds. I think in the long run it will be essential to the survival of the snake breeding hobby.

Those are just my thoughts - not meant to offend anyone or stick up for "big business."

Tim

hey, glad to see another "bottoms first" eater!

i think the bigger moron is the person that buys the snake not having done his homework and not already have a rodent for it to eat, or worse, think that kings eat crickets. i agree that they should sell feeders; heck, they sell feeder goldfish, right? so what's their point?

Yeah, when I first bought this guy a few months ago, I was feeding him mouse fuzzies because the pet store that sold him to me fed him mouse fuzzies. He would take them by the shoulder and eat them sideways. He was underweight, probably because all they fed him was mouse fuzzies, so I fed the fuzzies for a few weeks to get him a little bigger. When he went up to adults, he had to choose either head first or tail first. He's about 50/50 on that choice. I gave him a rat weanling once, and he had to take that one head first.

I agree that one should find the food source before getting the snake. I had a couple of sources for this guy before I bought him, and I've found more since then. In addition to liking the Arctic mice that Petsnart is selling, I like supporting them in selling these mice. While Petsmart hasn't been as much of a friend to herpers, I hope that if their frozen mice sell, they'll change their ways. I still feed this guy mainly with the frozen Gourmet Mice that Petco sells.

I wish one of the stores would hold snake-owning seminars where people who are new to the hobby could come for an hour or two class on all aspects of snake care. Maybe I'm the only guy who would be nerd enough to take a class of that kind, but having an intro class would probably help some people make the decision. I met one guy whose kid wanted a corn snake. He was skeptical at first, but after two years, he said that it was the most trouble-free pet that the family had ever owned. Getting that kind of information to the general public would make things better for everyone.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

Posted by: hypersquid at Sat Apr 22 01:50:31 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

hey, glad to see another "bottoms first" eater!

i think the bigger moron is the person that buys the snake not having done his homework and not already have a rodent for it to eat, or worse, think that kings eat crickets. i agree that they should sell feeders; heck, they sell feeder goldfish, right? so what's their point?

You have to keep in mind that lots of people trust the pet stores advice they have no reason not to.
Most reptile keepers have to start somewhere and kids dont know . If a chain pet store tells them the snake will eat crickets or chicken pieces than they believe it to be true.
I myself find the not selling of feeder mice when you sell snakes to border on animal cruelty not to mention hypocritical .
So I would never buy from them plus in long run its cheaper to be frozen mice online from a good co.

They recently began selling frozen rodents. I went to my local PetSmart and checked out the prices, kinda expensive. It's still cheaper to go to my local herp shop for feeders, but they run out once in awhile and I suppose I can use PetSmart as a backup.

Your lucky you still have a local herp shop to go to. Most of the ones in my area have closed up shop. To many big chain pet shops in the area I guess.
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Adam
Hybrid Breeders Association

I have 5 herp shops in my area. Not bad for a small town of 50,000 people.
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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"
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake "Shadow"

Its always good to hear that some places are still doing well against the ever growing tides of chain petshops.
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Adam
Hybrid Breeders Association

They sell frozen feeders.... $10 for 5 frozen pinks!
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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"
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake "Shadow"

Posted by: phiber_optikx at Sat Apr 22 14:06:44 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

They sell frozen feeders.... $10 for 5 frozen pinks!
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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"
0.0.1 Black Ratsnake "Shadow"

Wow thats insane but I guess if you have one snake that eats pinkies once a week its not worth buying 50 pinkies mail order though in long run way way cheaper.