Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was at the mall yesterday and i went into the pet store. i saw they had reptiles. in the top cages the had a honduran wich looked fine but had no hides just a waterbowl. the next few levels down i couldnt see any of the snakes but on the very bottom there was a cage with baby balls.

the cage had a water bowl with gross water in it, no hides, small cage, suprisingly unlike most pet stores there was no feces on the cage floor, by the look of the snakes its probably because they dont feed them. the cage had about four in it.
they were so small (under one foot, and about as big around as my pinky finger they looked like they would barely hold down a peach fuzzy, you could see their ribs, thier skin was loose, they looked flat. they werent moving at all and i wouldnt be suprised if there were a few dead ones in there. ive seen pictures of newborn balls curled up in someones palm, these looked like you could put them on your hand and not feel the wieght.

the only other snake i saw in one of those cages was a bos which was still smaller than i would expect to see a baby ball.
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jake

my addiction:
1.1? normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1? amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

I had to go to the pet store yesterday to get some mice. I hate going to this one becuase i dont like pet stores that keep farm raised puppies but it was 850pm they were closing at 9 so i was like WTH let me run in quick. On the way past the reptiles i saw 2 dead BPs. I was SOOOOOOO sad. they were just babies. This pet store has some horrible employees too. SAD SAD SAD.
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Thank you,
Dave
Home

most pet shops have bad employees
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jake

my addiction:
1.1? normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1? amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

agreed. I was at one yesterday that advertised late 05 baby but it was the same size as my two 06 Ghana's who are eating fuzzy rats now.
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1.0 het albino ball
1.0 norm ball
0.4 norm ball
0.1 snow corn
1.0 butter corn
0.1 norm corn
1.0 southern plains rat
1.0 striped Cali king
1.0 western hog

all / most pet stores have bad employees. Like some years ago all reptile people were weird or druggies. Or all reptile people have tats or body peircings..........I've seen both or heard of both........
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Dang,
Now I gotta go get tats and piercings!

Steve

hmm... how 'bout a rat on one arm, and a bp on the other? Then, when I cross my arms, the bp would be ready to strike!

thats a really cool idea! only problem would be when someone only sees the rat
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jake

my addiction:
1.1? normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1? amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

OK, let me ask this:

Since my wife works at a pet store chain and has a tatoo what exactly are you saying here?
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-0-1 Rescued Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-2-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet, Isis
0-0-1 Rescued Fit and Trim Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I used to work in a small chain petstore. When I applied for the job it seemed cool, but then I got to realize that they just put the animals in the enclosures and never if possible handle them again until they are purchased. Most of the employees are scared to death of the reptiles and if someone wants to buy one say here you get it. I didn't think this was right. So even though I was a cashier at the front of the store every time we weren't busy up front, I was in the live animals section educating customers or handling animals. It got to the point that when customers came to the store they would come see me to get their help. I don't work there anymore and dread going there to even buy a feeder mouse (mine eats live). They have so many white mice in their enclosures that I have seen them eat each other's back open. Disgusting! I now go to the best little pet shop that there is. They sell pet quality mice. I can go to the nasty pet store and pay $1.49 for something that stinks and may be diseased or go to the mom and pop store and pay $1.86 for a clean well kept mouse. I prefer to pay the extra $.40 a mouse. I do have to agree on the majority of pet stores, especially chain stores, but once in a while you will find there is a little store out there that only has a few reptiles (no snakes) and they take care of them as if they were their own pets.

Sorry that's so long.

~April

the problem seems to be more with the govt than with the pet stores. it seems that there are no regulations on reptiles in pet stores. ive sorta made it a duty of mine to inspect my local pet stores-im a licensed vet tech. most often i see dreadful circumstances. i then call the spca. all the times ive called nothinbg has been done. most often the spca just "advises and educates" which basically meens nothing. one sore was so bad i called my friend that works for dept ag and markets. she checked it out and was appaled. but, nothing was ever done. the only thing the store got cited for was having an alligator-the dec gave them a fine. so if the pets stores have no regulations how can we expect them to change. too bad it seems no mater how hard you try to make a difference the powers that be dont care
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GOOSEBALLS

lamina1982@hotmail.com

Posted by: goose82 at Sun Jul 2 14:28:00 2006 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

the problem seems to be more with the govt than with the pet stores. it seems that there are no regulations on reptiles in pet stores. ive sorta made it a duty of mine to inspect my local pet stores-im a licensed vet tech. most often i see dreadful circumstances. i then call the spca. all the times ive called nothinbg has been done. most often the spca just "advises and educates" which basically meens nothing. one sore was so bad i called my friend that works for dept ag and markets. she checked it out and was appaled. but, nothing was ever done. the only thing the store got cited for was having an alligator-the dec gave them a fine. so if the pets stores have no regulations how can we expect them to change. too bad it seems no mater how hard you try to make a difference the powers that be dont care
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GOOSEBALLS

lamina1982@hotmail.com

Oh that was a great point. The gvmt however will step in if someone gets solmenella due to dirty enclosure by banning reptiles as thats how the gvmt works .
They wont try to prevent it as that requires people to do their job but after the fact they than ban.

You're right Bianca ... the government is great at banning.

I personally prefer the government to mind it's business, when the government gets involved, it's bound to be a bad thing.

I'd like to see people educate themselves when it comes to animals they want to own and/or sell and do the right thing without having to be told what to do by some bureaucrat.
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gail
_____
Snakebytes

Not all pet shops are bad. My local shop is well-educated on keeping their animals, and keeps all their animals (fish, feeders, birds, herps, kittens, whatever they have) in well-kept, LONG TERM enclosures. They keep them as most would keep pets. I've been in there a few times and spotted something that wasn't quite right (my specialty is newts and salamanders), and they usually correct the problem right away.

And I've been in some pet shops that keep horrible setups. The best way to discourage these shops is to not go there, and not spend your money there. The urge to 'rescue' animals may be great, but if you buy one, the shop is just going to get more to replace the one you bought. If you do the hard thing and leave the animal there (probably to die), the shop will see that there is little demand for them, and won't purchase replacements.
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1.1.2 Python regius
0.0.1 Eunectes notaeus
0.0.1 Lampropeltis spp.
5.0.0 Ambystoma mexicanum
1.3.0 Triturus karelinii
1.3.0 Taricha granulosa
0.3.0 Ambystoma jeffersonianum
0.0.3 Salamandra salamandra
0.0.1 Tylototriton verrucosus
1.0.0 Grammastola cala
1.0.0 Homo sapiens 'Hottie'

i agree and disagree.
when i was young, keeping toads and box turtles in a pen in my garage i loved going to petstores just to learn about what i was interested in. sometimes i was told stuff correctly, sometimes not, but im now old enouph to realized that often (especially at the mom and pops) they did there best. if i found out they were keeping somethings wrong i would tell them casually and often they would fix the problem. not always though, and some places (also often mom and pops) when it comes to reptiles there is a lot of apathy and nasty dead stuff in enclosures.
i am now a tattooed, peirced employee of a petstore chain, working mostly in the reptile and fish department (unfortunately also hampsters) i read constantly about new animals that come in, special order products we, or customers, need or books about animals we need more info about. i make cages that suit there needs, and explain to potential customers the pros and cons of species and how to keep them alive both the expensive way and the cheap way.
i have refused many a sale to people i dont think need the animals if its obvious they wouldnt be cared for. iv sent customers to other stores for things they need for the animals if we dont cary them. by expensive and cheap way i mean the difference between a 10 dollar bag of reptibark, a 1 dollar bag of potting soil or a 50 cent supply of newspaper thats easily stolen from the gas station across the street. im not saying were a perfect petstore, but its obvious by myself and coworkers (other peirced, tattooed up reptile people) that the store (a national chain) at least cares enouph to hire people that care.
but alas, your right, most pet stores suck horribly and im not a big fan of the pet market in general. i know il get either ignored or a lot of crap for this but i dont necessarily agree with the way a lot of breeders keep there animals either. opinions are opinions but i wouldnt be happy in a closet, and i doubt if a snake would be happy in a shoebox. sorry for the rambling