Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I would like to get a corn snake for my kids and me for x-mas. I have been reading up on this snake for some time. I know getting one from a good breeder is best but there is no breeder near me. And it is to cold to ship right now. The only place that has any snake is petco. Thay just got more in today and I like the look of the snakes. My question is are Petco snakes heathy? What are the nagatives of gettin a pet from petco. Thanks

This is yet another topic that really gets people going on this forum. Most if not all who post here will say no. I've never purchased a snake from Petco, but I do do business with one in my area (Fort Worth TX). There are a couple of guys that work there that own snakes and are very well educated on reptiles. They have even told me the breeders they buy from. I have to admit I've never found another Petco I would ever even think about buying a snake from. Any way before I bought a snake from anyone I would ask many many Questions first. I would recomend buying from a reptile show or on line. If you order online it will probably be shipped over night with a heat bag in the box. Just my opinion
Jim

If you buy from Petco or anyplace like that, you just have to realize that it is up to you to recognize a healthy snake. It is up to you to learn how to care for it. It is up to you to know what kind of set up will be required.

There isn't necessarily anything wrong with their animals. The problem is that most of their employees are "clerks" and not reptile people. They won't be able to answer your questions accurately and if the snake has been in their care for a long time it may not be as healthy as it could be.
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Wade's Weptiles & Wodents

I know the people at Petco dont know about the snakes they for the most part. And that i will pay more. But the big question is are the snakes ok at Petco? Am I getting a bigger chance of getting a sick snake? And if so how much of a chance I am taking?

>>I know the people at Petco dont know about the snakes they for the most part. And that i will pay more. But the big question is are the snakes ok at Petco? Am I getting a bigger chance of getting a sick snake? And if so how much of a chance I am taking?

Here is my take on the subject.
If PetCo is the only place near you that has cornsnakes available, and you want a corn snake, buy a corn snake from PetCo.
By the way....Unless you were to pick up a corn snake at a show, PetCo's corn snake will be cheaper then buying one on line.
The prices are basically the same but shipping is pretty expensive.
Now, there are a few things to look for when purchasing a snake.
It should have good clear eyes. No cloudiness or watering.
The nostrils should be clean and clear. No drainage or blockage.
make sure there are no mites. Mites look like little black dots (sometimes red). Kind of like black pepper. Although they can be anywhere on a snakes body you can just about bet that if there are mites present you will find some around the eyes or mouth.
The snake should have a full body. No loose skin on the sides. Loose skin means it isn't eating or worse.
Speaking of loose skin you don't want one that has pieces of un shed skin still attached. This can sometimes be a sign of more serious problems.
The snake should be active. Most of the corns at PetCo are hatchlings and a healthy hatchling should be active in your hands.
And the last thing I can think of at the moment...Make sure it is feeding, and even better, talk them into feeding it in front of you. Even offer to pay for the pinkie. It's worth a buck to be sure the snake is eating.
Although a lot of people do not like to buy animals from the big "chain" stores. Sometimes you just gotta' do what you gotta' do.
And that's all I have to say about that
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Remember, my posts are MY opinion only.
Jimmy (draybar)

the risk is definately there..one thing i was thinking is at the petco by me they have all the reptiles in a rack, with nothing separating them but a peice of plastic with little holes in it..if one reptile gets mites, they cans pread thru the holes in the plastic and bam..every reptile in the entire rack could be affected..look around on the events section on kingsnake and see if there are any reptile shows near you..you would definately be better off that way and there you can talk to the breeder himself..
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 amel corn snake ; Andy
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Shmee

or herself** no offense to the females
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 amel corn snake ; Andy
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Shmee

This is something that does tend to get heated since there are a lot of bad Petco stores out there. The one near my home isn't too bad from what I seen. Cages are very clean and the animals appear to be fed the correct diet. They don't always have the correct information about colors and good prices for their stock but they don't abuse the animals.

However, you need to use your judgement. Petco often imports animals that are wild caught (maybe not specifically corns but Balls and turtles)...are you okay with supporting that behavior? Many of us are not. Also, what are your intentions for the animal you are purchasing? If you want a pet quality snake Petco may be an alright option. If you ever want to breed the snake then I would suggest getting a snake from a breeder where you can see pics of the parents and know the lineage and history of health. Remember, petstores are where most breeders dump their animals that they can't sell to anyone else. I checked out some ghost corns (that were labeled as creamsicles way overpriced for either morph) at my local Petco and they all had spinal kinks. I hope that I helped a little, and good luck!
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
0.1 Amel - Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Standard Black - Pluto
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

you have to determine wether the snake is healthy you can do so by checking if its alert. it should tong flick lots. it should be nice and fat and have no skin hanging loose you;ll see folds in the skin
ask the sales rep when feed day is and ask if you can come in and watch it eat
once you've seen the snake eat and its fat and alert with lots of tong flicks buy it!!
thats just my advice and its worked for me in the past
i have one corn that I bought from superpet and its doin very well

the down side to petco snakes is that the staff often has no idea what they are talking about and can live in poor husbandry conditions
fortunatly you have this forum and you've read up on what they need so you'll be just fine

my suggestion is to GO FOR IT and enjoy your new snake
WARNING SNAKES ARE ADDICTIVE you will end up with more than one
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Girlfriend: Your room smells like reptiles!
Me: Are you saying that my Balls smell?

Wow, thanks to all of you for all the help with my question.

That was a good post. From what I've been reading here the last couple of days, it sounds like everyone has finally decided to speak their minds. I was beginning to think this forum was full of robots just repeating what their master had told them to say. I'm loving it.

As everyone said here, this could be a heated debate by some people. It is really up to you to make sure that the animals are well kept and cared for and for you to feel comfortable with the purchase. I know that some people have written about the Petco & Petsmarts near then and say they are horrid. I have never been in a Petsmart nor do I have one anywhere close to me, but the Petco that is near me happens to be a good one. The workers are concerned about the welfare of the animals, the cages are always clean with clean food and water no matter when I go in and I have not had any problems with any animal (breeder mice, a ferret, my first three corns, three geckos, a parakeet) that I have purchased over the years. I did check my snakes out, but none of them had any mites and the workers gave me a copy of a care sheet for corn snakes when I purchased my first one over a year ago. And they made sure I had everything I needed for proper housing for it. But as I say, that is the one near me. I happened to go into a Petco when I was visiting a friend in another state and I must say, I wouldn't have bought a live mouse from them to use as a feeder for my snakes. So, you really must make sure that they at least take good care of their stock.
Here are a couple pictures of the first ones I got, pictures taken last month. They are a year and a half now. The first picture, here, is of my anery 'a' male-the darker one (he is pictured with my charcoal male from a breeder). I will post a picture of my beautiful snow male from Petco in a reply post.

He is really nice and I wouldn't sell him but like I said and everyone else is saying, make sure you check them out and they are healthy. Obviously getting one from a reputable breeder would give you the satisfaction of knowing it is guarenteed healthy and eating and also you would know its background (I have a lot of wonderful, top notch specimens from good breeders) but I do like my first three corns and won't sell them.
It sounds like you have done your homework and I wish you the best in whatever decision you make!

I wouldn't sell him either! (but I would probably "borrow" him out to someone with a pretty girl for breeding like maybe to IcedGoddess)
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.0.4 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)
0.1 Amel (Christine)
1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

Actually, I am looking forward to seeing what he produces next spring. I am hoping he is also hypo.

Wow 52 corns. It sounds like you've got the corn snake bug big time. I always new I liked you. Keep the pics coming.
Jim

My first corn was from Petco. She is a amelanistic and is doing great. When I first looked at snakes I asked ALOT of ???'s and read ALOT before buying a corn. I ckecked out other stores that sold snakes and asked different opinions. When I saw my corn at Petco she was real small and in with another baby. I asked the person taking care of reptiles if it was eating well, and if I could hold it. Be sure to ask if you can hold it. Snakes should move a bit while you hold them and flick their tongue checking things out. Of course babies will be more wiggly so be sure to hold on good. They should also feel firm and not limp.
My next snake, another corn, I purchased at a reptile show. Both my corns are doing great even though one came from Petco and the other one came from a breeder. Buying from a breeder is better. Most breeders can tell you the back ground of the snake and how it has been eating, sheding, hatch date, etc.
We don't have to many reptile shows when I live, maybe once or twice a year. And I don't like to order one through the mail as you get a snake unseen and don't know how it looks until it shows up at your door. Hopefully alive.
I chose my first corn from Petco because I really wanted a snake and wanted it then and there. Fortunatly for me it's a nice health animal. That was almost a year ago :0)
Oh, beware.......snakes are adicting!!!
Currantly have 1 amel corn, 1 ghost corn, a honduran tangerine milk and a Jungle carpet python..

One of my good bud's from my herp club works at our Petco.He says to beware of the older snakes they sometimes get in.They are probably used up breeders fed on a maintenance diet.The hatchling corns that come in are fine if there feeding.There prices are fair.

My three corns are from Petco, and they are beautiful, healthy, happy, friendly snakes. The main problem that I've seen with Petco animals (snakes in particular) is they tend to sell them too young, so I would make sure they've eaten at least once in the presence of an employee. Also, Petco tends to be a little misleading in they're pet discriptions. I've seen them time and time again imply that an animal they are selling as a baby is full grown, or will not get very big (I was most surprised with the Iguanas they sell, which are about eight inches long, and there is no where that says they are babies and could get up to six feet!!!). I agree that as long as you get your information from a relyable source before hand on pet care, and the snake is healthy, Petco is fine to purchase from. Also beware, I've seen animals that were mislabled...make sure it is what they're telling you it is!!!! Corns are a great starter snake for a first time snake owner!!

-Spangles

and he has excellent stock. He sells them all kinds of corns from normals to bloodreds all at the same low price. So you might get almost anything there. It is what happens AFTER they arrive at the shop that I worry about. Judging from customer emails, there are some Petcos that properly label the morphs, give good care, as well as good advice. I also get customers who want to know if they should follow Petco advice about feeding crickets.

I would suggest that you try to find a shop that employs at least one reptile person in addition to all of the puppy and fish people. If you are a beginner, be skeptical of their advice until you are sure they know what they are talking about. Another post gave some good info about judging the health of the baby yourself. As mentioned, you will never know the pedigree of your petshop baby, but you will save shipping and also get to see the baby before buying. So there are both pros and cons to going that route.

Good luck!
Kathy Love

Yea, the Petco told me who they get them from and I had noticed it was people who you have taken pictures with. I tell you, I am very pleased with the ones I got. Obviously most of mine came from people like Don, R.I.C.H.(so it doesn't get bleeped), Walter, etc. but I do like my first three...AND...I was in there (Petco) getting some cat supplies last month and saw they had a new batch in, WEll, you know how it is, when your addicted you just HAVE to look at them. Well, they had a nice reverse female and, well, yea, it came home with me.
This is the little girl.

She is pretty, the stores by me usually only have normals.
Which is probably a very good thing for my pockets! lol
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.0.4 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)
0.1 Amel (Christine)
1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

n/p

I thought my Petco bought locally, so I called to find out. It turns out they get most their corns from California Zoological Supply. The clerk thought Cal Zoo is just a distributor and I can't tell if they breed their own or not from the website. You learn something new everyday. One thing is for sure...I'd rather live by the store that sold the beautiful snow above than the gray kinked creamsicles at my Petco. I should be nice and mention that our Petco is stocked up for Christmas and the corns they currently have look healthy and well cared for.
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
0.1 Amel - Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Standard Black - Pluto
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

Gourmet Rodent in Florida. But some of the shops must be getting them from various other places now. If a shop gets them from Gourmet Rodent, and the shop either has taken good care of them, or hasn't had time to mistreat them yet, then they are likely to be good corns.

.

You know, that's really great information to have. Our Petco gets frozen rodents from them so hopefully some of the snakes are theirs as well. Now, knowing that and knowing that they take pretty good care of their herps at our Petco I am going to have to keep a closer eye on their stock. If they ever get any really cool morphs I will be more inclined to buy one. I can't believe some of you guys get bloodreds and other neat snakes at your Petco. The only things ours ever get are ghosts, creamsicles, amels and snows. I don't even remember seeing any normals. I am going to have to go talk to the new reptile clerk and see if she knows anything! Thanks Kathy...
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
0.1 Amel - Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Standard Black - Pluto
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

I also wanted to say our Petco might get some corns from this other distributor because of the distance. I am all the way over in CA. She did mention she thought they got some corns but not all from their rodent supplier but couldn't remember the name. I figured it out because I know who supplies their frozen rodents.
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
0.1 Amel - Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Standard Black - Pluto
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

If you have to have it before Christmas, go for it. Just remember everybody's advice about healthy snakes. Even if you only plan on owning 1 snake, check out a reptile show when you get a chance. Prices are much cheaper and you get to see the animals too. You might find some other pets you would like as well.

Petco still gets pretty much all of their corn snakes from Gourmet Rodent. The cool thing is you can get a normal, amel, anery or snow for the same price(29.99 on sale). Purchasing a healthy cornsnake in front of you makes more sense than ordering one online and then having to pay for shipping. By the way Petco has a 15 day guarantee in case there's a problem.
Before you attempt to assess how knowledgeable any pet store employee is you really should make it a point to educate yourself. In this case, don't fool around. Buy Kathy's book "The Cornsnake Manual". Once you educate youself, it doesn't matter what the pet store tells you. You can buy and provide for your snake with confidence.

.

Definately a must have! I have made sure that everyone who got one of my hatchlings this year went out and bought that book. It's only 9-12$ and they should have it at the PetCo (puke) near you, I got my book at PetSmart, and I'm sure they're sold in a billion other places, including Amazon and direct from the author at her website: www.corn-utopia.com

It helps to get your info from long time breeders like Kathy, Don, Rich and Walter......etc. etc. (too many to think of this early in the morning) rather than the pet store employees, and the Cornsnake Manual will answer all those "newbie" questions, as well as some great morph, breeding and feeding info.
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.0.4 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)
0.1 Amel (Christine)
1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents