Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just curious, what do you think of the people that rescue/buy the snakes from pet stores without doing any research first?

A pet store that does not properly care for their animals must not be catered to AT ALL. Refuse to purchase anything from them and make sure that they understand your position and why. Once you purchase their animals, they will simply get more.

Agreed. Just fueling the fire. If you want a store to change, you don't support them, you boycott them.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

Someone "rescuing" a snake from a pet store may have noble intentions, but all they are really doing is giving the store a profit and giving them the ability to buy more snakes.

I dont buy from pet stores.
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1.0 Corn snake
1.0 Black rat snake
1.0 Albino Black rat snake
1.0 Everglades rat snake
0.1 Yellow rat snake
1.1 California king snake
1.0 Prairie king snake
0.1 Black king snake

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

I really have to agree with you guys....But I am a softy for buying animals I know will die. Two the plus side I probably have saved the lives of a few hundred through the years.

Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Well, I am sure if someone said they never had, they would be liars. I have done it before, though I try not to. No one can fault ya
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

Yep I think everyone has bought atleast one from a petstore. I bought a honduran at a pet store. Im not saying they are all bad, we have one here that if the prices werent so high I might buy from. They take good care of their animals, but, just like any pet store, they have to mark up their animals to make a profit. And they dont carry locality stuff anyways, like 90% of petstores, they carry the "eye candy". LOL

If your going to buy from a petstore, do some homework on the store and make sure they take care of the animals and find out what kind of quarantee they have on them as well.

A quick indicator of how well a pet store takes care of them is the amount of feces in the cages, clean water bowls with water in them, and the appearance of the animals. If the snakes are all thin and have old sheds on them, they probably arent healthy.

Ask them how often they feed them, which ones are problem feeders, and if you can watch when they feed them.

Personally, I would only buy from a breeder. Just because most of the time, the breeder takes better care of his animals.

I had a pet store owner tell me last year, that he "could care less about his snakes, because he made all his profit from selling Eukanuba dog food!!".

This is after I found one of the cages had a dead green snake in it. I volunteered my time free of charge to come in and make sure the snakes were taken care of. That was the reply I got!!

So I am pretty turned off towards pet stores.

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1.0 Corn snake
1.0 Black rat snake
1.0 Albino Black rat snake
1.0 Everglades rat snake
0.1 Yellow rat snake
1.1 California king snake
1.0 Prairie king snake
0.1 Black king snake

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

I used to go to a pet store and saw how pitiful their reptiles were. Being 17 and in need of a job I put an application in and now I take care of the reptiles. My boss gets mad at me sometimes because I get side-tracked when I'm in the reptile section, but she knows I know what I'm doing when it comes to the reptiles. I used to come in as a customer and help out as well with the reptiles. Our prices aren't that outrageously high considering, like you said we make alot of profit from most other things. I also get her quite a few animals that I think would sell good. A lot of times if I think someone won't take good care of the reptiles...I'll sometimes talk to where they don't want it so much anymore...thats my little trick (shh...don't tell nobody)lol. I am very proud of my reptile section at my store and I don't think anyone has any trouble buying from out store...I guess we're one in a million...lol.

Luke

np
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Who actually care for and understand the needs and requirements of the reptiles. Thats the main problem of most pet stores. They dont make a big overhead, so they cant really afford to hire someone that needs to make a substantial amount of money. They mostly hire teenagers or kids in college. Im not knocking anyone here either, so dont take that the wrong way. But most people that get hired on are young, and dont know the proper care of reptiles, and most time the owners/managers dont either!

So I commend you for being one of the few that actually have some herp knowledge and for trying to gain even more so you can have a healthy reptile section!!
Keep up the good work!

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1.0 Corn snake
1.0 Black rat snake
1.0 Albino Black rat snake
1.0 Everglades rat snake
0.1 Yellow rat snake
1.1 California king snake
1.0 Prairie king snake
0.1 Black king snake

Good luck and Happy Herping
Brian

I think this went a direction not intended. I beleive the original question was
"Just curious, what do you think of the people that rescue/buy the snakes from pet stores without doing any research first?"

I personally think the term "RESCUE" would mean taking something/someone from a bad situation and moving it to a better one. I have seen to many times were someone has "RESCUED" an animal from a pet store or another person(friend, family member etc.)then started a thread or ask someone these questions.

1) WHAT IS THIS?
2) HOW DO I TAKE CARE OF IT?
3) WHAT DOES IT EAT?
4) HOW BIG WIL IT GET?

So I guess I have to answer a question with another question, Do you consider this to be a better situation? There for the people are not in fact "RESCUEING" the animal because they are taking it from a bad situation to another maybe even a worse one.
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Well, it would not be rescuing, IMO, in the first place as it will just fuel the store with more money.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

IMO Don't. I work for Petco and know from experiance that at many of our stores animals are that are sold should not be. The only way to solve the problem is to refuse the sale. THen something can be done. YOu need to hold pet stores acountable. There is something they can do. If people refuse to buy animals that are not healthy then the stores will be forced to stop carrying unhealthy animals. ONce you force them to do tthat you are getting to the source of the problem because then they are forced to hire people who will actually care for the animals or they will start holding the vendors responsable by refusing to accept unhealthy animals. That is what my store does. If you buy sick animals though you will only give them more of a reason to buy and sell another sick animal. If you go into a pet store and see sick animals, even one call the local humane society and make them put pressure on the store.