Reptile & Amphibian Forums

is when I see that people cannot properly take care of a corn snake. I was in PETCO today getting crix for my leopard gecko and I always check out the snakes to see how they are. Usually I don't see anything bad. But there were 2 corn snakes in the same enclosure. One was dead. Its head was like looped around its body, as if you were going to tie a knot. This loop in the body was sticking straight up, which I thought was odd, and the head was resting on the floor. The other snake was alive, but it looked like it had mouth rot maybe? It's "lip" for lack of a better word, looked busted. It was kind of sagging. There wasn't anything in its mouth. Both snakes had tons of unshed skin on them. HOW CAN YOU NOT TAKE PROPER CARE OF A CORN SNAKE?! Honestly, it is not that hard. In fact, its quite minimal. It just really makes me sad to see animals like that. I wrote an angry letter to PETCO but neglected to mention it to anyone at the store, stupid me, but I'm going back tomorrow to see what happened...

damn... ive heard bad things about petco too. my gf always says "petco, where the pets die!" instead of "petco, where the pets go!" she used to work at a vet clinic here in houston and she said petco was always bringing sick animals from in-store there. everything from snakes to fish to adoptable cats and dogs. there is one right near my apartment (like i could run and get there in 1 minute) but i refuse to shop there. instead i drive 10 minutes down the road to petsmart. they are usually cleaner and i haven't heard near as many bad things about them. no "chain" pet store is going to be GREAT but i notice petsmart is decent. sad to hear about the corns... they are NOT hard to care for at all... ESPECIALLY if that is your JOB.

"no ""chain"" pet store is going to be GREAT"
Drive down to the Joplin Petland where I work
I keep them on their toes!
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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You saved my life! I'm gonna get you so many lizards!"

as in missouri? lol i was stranded there twice three days a piece lol. First time my oil pump went out on my car as i was driving to texas, the second time my transmission went out and i had to rent a hotel, wait on mechanic to tell me what was wrong with my car, which wasnt open until monday, then i sold him the car and rented a truck continued my move to phoenix, joplin either hates me or loves me so much it didnt wanna let me go lol.

the second time i broke down with my rottie and my three cats in the car with me lol. needless to say, everyone knew my story, i was in and out of the hotel alot in those three days, big dog, big walks lol.

Well I hope you enjoyed your stay A lot of people get stuck living here.... It's like America's black hole!
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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You saved my life! I'm gonna get you so many lizards!"

well, all the chains here in texas... none of them are fabulous. petsmart is the best one and it's not all that good. the one near me is brand new so im sure in due time, it will fall apart.

I'd love to shop at a different pet store but there just aren't that many near me. There's a couple ones that are not chain stores that are just as bad if not worse than Petco...I've seen escaped anoles, dead turtles, just bad care with the reptiles. Small animals in most of the pet stores look like they're fairly well off but I guess most people just don't take the time to learn about the care that reptiles need. But still, a CORN SNAKE!

You keep 15 anoles in a 20h and try to keep them all in there
The sad truth is that even if you hire people with the knowledge and experience to care for all of these animals some will still not do well. They may hire people who can care for the animals but then who would work with the customers? Customers come first and animal care is done in down time. I agree that a shop should not order something they can't care for but if they want to have a selection they have to experiment with different types. Another thing to concider is that when ordering from a wholesaler/dealer there is a minimum order. You can't order 2 anoles and a corn. You have to order more like 15 anoles, 5 corns, 3 leopard geckos and 4 ball pythons. Ideally that would be 7 20h tanks, 1 20L tank, and 9 10 gallon tanks that would need to be store used and displayed. It is not economical for space or finances. I am not by any means condoning the way some shops run things but you also have to understand that there are other circumstances to consider.

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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You saved my life! I'm gonna get you so many lizards!"

I never go to petco because of the treatment of their animals. I've learned that they will hire anyone regardless of their knowledge. I have dealt more with people who know so little about animals there than anywhere else. I used to frequent a petco in Phoenix that took extremely good care of their animals but that was the one and only petco that I had ever been in that cared for their animals properly. The ones I have visited in Indy have been extremely ignorant to the husbandy of snakes and reptiles. The last visit I had there was where I had seen a corn snake that was every bit as thin as a pencil lead, not eating, and housed with an extremely mean much older cornsnake. The much older one was also not eating, but still had bulk to its body. I imagine the older one either ate the younger one or the younger died from malnurishment. I asked when it had been fed last, they said they didnt know, I asked when it was hatched, they didn't know, when it was brought to the store, they didn't know, how long they had had it in their care, they didn't know. They know absolutely nothing about their animals because once they obtain them, they get zero care.

You can't really hold it against a store for not knowing a snakes birth date.... Wholesalers rarely if ever ship that kind of information to chains....
Everything else seemed like things they should know though.
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.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
.1 MO Locale Black Ratsnake "Molly" (Flogging Molly)

"You saved my life! I'm gonna get you so many lizards!"

What do you think about Uncle Bill's in Indy? I have seen some bad things in some of their stores, but also have found some really knowledgable people at other times? I bought my first corn at the Greenwood location 3 years ago.
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2.1 Corn (Anery Stripe-Ripple '06/Amber-Jack Straw '06/Amel Motley-Cosmo '03)
0.1 Baird's Ratsnake (Sugaree '04)
1.0 White Oaks Grey Rat (Tennesse Jed '04)
0.1 IJ Carpet Python (Cassidy '04)
1.0 Western Hognose (Samson '05)
1.1 Shepherd mix (Dylan 7yrs, Porter 2yrs)

the greenwood location is great, I can usually go in there and chit chat with a guy there for a bit and that's where I picked Frosty up, he was there for a long time though. Plus the guy at the Greenwood store that I bought him from had his feeding chart right on the back of his enclosure. I had all my questions answered when I was at that store. As for the East Washington store, I havent been to their new location yet, but the old one, I didn't care for and I will never buy puppies from either of them. Their pups are AKC yes, but I believe they are mill puppies and they always charge SO much for their pups. Anyway, just my two cents.

I do most of my business now through the pet shop in beech grove. Right at 465 and emerson by the mcdonalds. They're really nice people, their mice are 1.89, which I suppose is a bit expensive, but when I last checked petco and petsmarts prices, they were $15 for 6 adult mice. So not as much at the Pet Shop.

how a corn could get that bad, as you said they have minimal care requirements. even with a hatchling, you keep fresh water in the cage and forget about it for days at a time and they will be fine petco must just throw them in a cage and completely forget about them.

every time i go in there i see animals with cages lined with feces.

things like that should be outlawed
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jake

my addiction:
0.2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
0.1 amelenistic corn snake (maizy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)
1.0 albino cal king (zeus)
0.0.1 wc garter (zim)
hybrid breeders association
hybrid haven

Be careful what you wish for! If they outlawed the sales of live animals at these chain stores, it's not too far for them to outlaw private ownership at all!
As far as Petco goes, it just depends. I have a good friend who is a former zookeeper, working at Petco due to a back injury that limits what type of work she does. The reptile dept in her store is tops in the Western region. The problem is that the upper corporate management sends "planagrams" dictating how animals are to be set up, and these people know nothing about the animals! My friend just does what she knows the animals need. But they do hire teenagers with no experience that misuse the animals for fun. What we need to figure out is how to educate the upper corporate management, so they send correct planagrams, with daily checklists for the care of the animals, so that even if the employee knows nothing about reptiles, they can follow the checklist and the animals can get the best care, considering. How do we do that????
Beth

people that still give those kinds of places money, even when they hate them so much.....the only way to change something like that is to stop supporting them, even if it is a few bucks a week, you shouldnt support something you are against, and people @ petco dont know anything, they just have to know how to talk and they get hired, support local business, support good fair practices, that actually care about the animal and not the buck$

Adam

Local pet shop employee
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4.5 THAYERI
1.2 SPLENDIDA
1.3 ALTERNA
0.0.1 HOLD BACK RUNT ALBINO CORN
0.1.1 PYXIE FROG
0.0.1 MEXICAN RED KNEE
1.0 CHILEAN ROSE HAIR

Up here in the cold north (canada) we have a chain called SuperPet where the animals are always in good conditions (as far as i've seen) i have actually learned some good things from the caresheets while i was working there. I only have experience with the superpets in southern ontario but they seemed good. I too have seen some bad things in a local Ruffins where a chameleon was in a 5gal tank with feces all over the ground and nothing to climb on. there were other cages in the store with not water as well. I fully agree that we can't support the pet stores that treat the animals this way because if we keep supporting them they will keep doing what has been successfull to them before.
Demon
P.S. while we're showing pictures

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The Dark side: Live In Fear Cause' We'll Always Be Here

Sad to say, but most "chain" petshop employees seem to be deathly afraid of the reptiles and do not want to fool with them to clean, feed, etc.