Reptile & Amphibian Forums

After all the discussion about chain stores and their lack of reptile husbandry, I thought I would post a good one tonight. I went to petsmart today to get aspen, and stopped to look at their reptiles for sale. All cages were very clean, and all animals appeared very healthy. Every cage had a hygrometer and thermometer in it, and the readings were pretty close to what they should have been. Each animal had an information card with average adult length, temp. requirements, and even reccommended frozen food. I was very impressed that all the cards contained factual information. Kudos to PetsMart in Lubbock, TX for their attention to their animals.

That sounds great but the only way to really know they are taking care of them stop back in about two or three weeks later and see if its still clean. A lot of times they bust their @$$ cleaning right before important corporate visits. Then the "suits" just say, "oh good job because animals always come first here" (which is a load of crap). Although who knows maybe they do have someone that finally cares in Petsmart & Petco.

I buy aspen there once a month, and they seem to keep their animals in good shape all of the time. There is one employee there thats asks me reptile questions everytime I go in. I started talking to him (giving him an edumication) when I heard him tell a potential ball owner that the snake would get big enough to eat rabbits and chickens. I invited him to my place to show him some cool(in my opinion)stuff, and today he said he wants to come over this weekend and learn about snakes in general. Since I have worked with everything from garters to king cobras I told him I would help.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

Ophiophagus hannah, funny Im in India right now readying my trip to document the breeding and nesting habits of the King here in the Western Ghats. Do you breed Kings as well?!

No. Afriend of mine owns a pet shop here in town, and has a miniature zoo in the back that people pay to go and see. When I worked for him, we worked with kings, capes, monacles, black and white spitters, and corals. He also has the original strain of albino crotalus viridis. He has grown that project to include hypomelanistics and t albinos. I have worked with squams, albilabris, schlegeli, both species of gaboons, wagleri, several dirissus species, and beaded and banded gilas. My favorites are crotalus viridus, crotalus lepidus lepidus, and crotalus lepidus klauberi. I also like the mitchelli mitchelli, mitchelli stephensi, and mitchelli pyrus, and copperheads (I don't know all of their latin names, but do know they are agkistrodon species. More than anything, I don't know how to spell bileneatus, pictigaster, cotortrix and ???) I hope I spelled all of that right. Sometimes I feel like I know more latin than some people who have taken it in college. Shoot me an email, I would like to know about what you are studying.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

I buy feeders off him every now and then.
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Jason Gonzalez

Yeah. I worked for him full time for a while, and then I used to go clean lemur and gennet cages. I would take care of the reptiles, but I hated the small animals. I toughed that out, as they deserved the same level of care the herps did. Do you have another place that you buy feeders from in Lubbock? I would buy somewhere else if I could get wholesale. What do you keep? I would love to know someone else around here that keeps balls.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

Seems like were all pretty close, Im in the Houston Area. I would like to find a "good quality" breeder in my area but haven't come across any that I like. I order all my rodents from RodentPro or AikenFeeders.

The only other place in town that I know of is Pets Plus on University. But they don't sell wholesale.

"What do you keep? I would love to know someone else around here that keeps balls."

I keep Boa Constrictors only, but it's nice to know there's another herper in this town!
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Jason Gonzalez

I thought since you said you sometimes buy feeders from him that you might be breeding your own or buying somewhere else. Pets Plus only sells mice, and not rats.
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

I get all my feeders from Big Cheese in Dallas, but every once in a while I'll run out of something and buy from Ryno or Pets Plus.

Pets Plus buys there feeders from a lady who breeds here locally. I've been buying Rats from them for the past 15 years, so unless they just recently stopped they should have them. You have to special order the smaller ones and they get them in on Mondays.

Take care,
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Jason Gonzalez

I know what you mean when Im talking to a lot of my friends I always say the Latin Names because Im so used to it, they always say Im a smartass.

or look at me like I fell off of a cantaloupe truck!!! LOL
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Happy Herping,
Jody Barnes
Royal Kreationz

1.0 albino
1.2 het albino
1.0 het caramel
1.0 het pied
0.1 poss het. pied
0.4 normals (beautiful pastel sibs)

I think most reptile people have negative opinions of chain stores when it comes to reptiles. I think the problem is that they are a chain, which means every store has to offer the same things. Every Petco has a reptile/spider section set up the say way, just like walmart tries to match all their stores. The problem is they have to have the reptiles, whether they have people with appropriate knowledge of them or not! The petco in my area (which I just bought two baby corns from Wed. because my wife HAD to have them lol) has had some of the best kept reptiles, and the worst all in a 2 year span. When I moved here, the person in charge of reptiles was very knowledgable; he quit to go to college out of state, and for about a year, they couldn't keep anyone who knew a damn thing about reptiles...their cages were dirty because all employees where scared of them, and they never had the setups right (temp. or humidity) and they told crazy stuff like the story you mentioned. Another problem with chain stores is that most employees are young, and don't care about the job, just the paycheck. Now they have someone again who knows what they are doing, and everything is great! Privately owned stores usually seem to do much better, but I've seen some where the owner didn't care about the reptiles, just saw them as potential profit.
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-David

Check out my pet pics at:
http://www.myspace.com/obx_fisherman

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 normal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 snow corn snake (Valkyrie)
1.0 amazon tree boa (Pegasus)
0.0.1 colombian boa (Athena)
0.0.1 albino san diego gopher snake (TBD)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
0.0.1 fire skink (Phoenix)
1.0 dog (Luke)

the wife's pets:
1.0 bearded dragon (Leonidas)
1.1 ferrets (Ares, Enyo)
0.0.1 betta fish (Captain Morgan)
1.2 cats (Galahad, Ripley and Sassy)

I think it is like someone posted the other day. In these franchise places, it all depends on the owner and the staff he/she employs. If they stress hiring knowlegable(sp?) staff and lean towards stocking and caring for herps. and not just dogs and fish, then it will show in the quality of the store. Kudos to them..

Even McD's vary somewhat from place to place. Of course they have to serve a Big Mac wherever you go, but they dont have to cook it correctly, and it doesnt have to be freask or clean...

~Alan