Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since my wife works at a pet store I get to spend much of my time trying to drag her out of other pet stores that she visits off hours to "compare" to the one she is at... yeah right, compare... Over the weekend we went to one at a mall near us that had just openned. After looking at the 5 gallon tanks (max 5 gal) that they had their reptiles in my wife decided to see if she could get some questions answered as to what they where, diet info, etc. She was directed to a kid that was their "reptile expert" who gave my wife and I much more information than we could have ever gotten on our own and was shocked to hear how completely wrong we were in our own reptile knowledge. I wanted to make sure to pass it along so that others with misconceptions could make corrections in their own minds!

- Did you know that it is a myth that burmese pythons get really big (really big being anything above 8 ft). In fact, the ones that they were selling will only grow to 1 1/2 to 2 feet! Wonderful, I wondered what I was going to put in that extra 10 gallon tank we have just lying around! And here I had been thinking that they got up to 15 feet, boy was I wrong!

- When asked about their leucistic kingsnake that they had (for an outragous price) we were told that no, the kingsnake was not an albino but was a special type of leucistic that, instead of having black eyes, has red ones. Boy did I feel stupid, I thought that the red eyes were an albino trait! Glad I got corrected on that!

- And one final note... Out of the pythons that they had (all in 5 gal tanks) he recommended either the burmese or another type... thinking of the name... oh yes, reticulated python, for being the best ones for children. He said to stay away from ball pythons due to the fact that they get up to 10 - 12 feet and are notoriously bad eaters (hey one fact that he actually got right!).

Wow, it just proves that you can learn something new every day... though what you learn may not always be true! LOL
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Bryan, that kid's scary. Good thing ya don't have to pass a test to be knowledable about reptiles eh. LOL better thee than me, I'da set him down and taught him different

Quig

>>Since my wife works at a pet store I get to spend much of my time trying to drag her out of other pet stores that she visits off hours to "compare" to the one she is at... yeah right, compare... Over the weekend we went to one at a mall near us that had just openned. After looking at the 5 gallon tanks (max 5 gal) that they had their reptiles in my wife decided to see if she could get some questions answered as to what they where, diet info, etc. She was directed to a kid that was their "reptile expert" who gave my wife and I much more information than we could have ever gotten on our own and was shocked to hear how completely wrong we were in our own reptile knowledge. I wanted to make sure to pass it along so that others with misconceptions could make corrections in their own minds!
>>
>>- Did you know that it is a myth that burmese pythons get really big (really big being anything above 8 ft). In fact, the ones that they were selling will only grow to 1 1/2 to 2 feet! Wonderful, I wondered what I was going to put in that extra 10 gallon tank we have just lying around! And here I had been thinking that they got up to 15 feet, boy was I wrong!
>>
>>- When asked about their leucistic kingsnake that they had (for an outragous price) we were told that no, the kingsnake was not an albino but was a special type of leucistic that, instead of having black eyes, has red ones. Boy did I feel stupid, I thought that the red eyes were an albino trait! Glad I got corrected on that!
>>
>>- And one final note... Out of the pythons that they had (all in 5 gal tanks) he recommended either the burmese or another type... thinking of the name... oh yes, reticulated python, for being the best ones for children. He said to stay away from ball pythons due to the fact that they get up to 10 - 12 feet and are notoriously bad eaters (hey one fact that he actually got right!).
>>
>>Wow, it just proves that you can learn something new every day... though what you learn may not always be true! LOL
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>>Bryan, Atlanta GA
>>
>>1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
>>0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
>>0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
>>0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
>>1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
>>0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
>>0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
>>1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
>>0-1-0 Wife
>>2-0-0 Kids
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U.A.P.P.E.A.L.
Uniting A Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League

np
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

LOL, I think I would.

Quig

n/p
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2.1 RTB (Zander, Ridick, Liliana)
1.1 Burms (Vladamir, Natalia)
0.1 Lavender Albino Retic (Katerina)
1.1 100% Het Tigers (Nicholi & Charlamaine)
2.3 Silver fox rabbits
many, many, many, many rats
"New strategy R-2, Let the Wookie Win!!!"

Now that is really funny, but yet scarey at the same time. To think the store would hire such a fool is a frightening thing. To think all this time I thought I was working with Burms... Must have been balls, I guess... LOL!!! That kid really needs to be fired.

Circusfan

That is pretty funny.. but on serious side it's sad. Where I live we have only 4 pet shops and only one of them actually has snakes in stock. I work at the local Pet Supplies Plus but we don't stock reptiles for different reasons. The shop that does have the snakes though has many people working there that have NO clue about the balls, burms, and boas they sell. I was there one day and one of the kids were changing/cleaning an anacondas(baby green) enclosure and he just put mulch for bedding and a tiny water bowl.. Well I almost lost it and I told him just what I thought about that and helped him fix up the enclosure like it was(correct) I asked who set it up previous and he told me the manager.. (which i sorta know) I called the manager next day to let him know and he thanked me and all.. But that's pathetic! Any of you people out there please correct these people or at least talk to management. It's in the animals best interest and the next poor soul he tells a burm will only reach 3 feet to. Sorry.. had to vent for a sec. hehe Thanks for reading

That is pretty scary that is someone out there telling unsuspecting buyers to get a retic or burm because they stay small and are good with kids!?! I hope he is busted out and fired...you should say something to the manager just to prevent more people from getting large snakes and not beging able to care for them.

I am not sure about other leucistics, but the red eye thing is true for leucistic balls. They have black eyes with bright red pupils. So he may have actually gotten another fact correct.

Matt

Maybe something better can be done than firing the "expert"-it would be a stretch to pull it off, but maybe he could be charged with reckless endangerment for recommending something that large to an inexperienced keeper with kids(sure, a properly experienced keeper who has kids will be
fine, but if you have to ask for a recommended snake for kids that doesn't apply)

I agree that it is better, if possible, to educate instead of ridding one problem for a possible other problem. If he can learn the error of his ways great, if not, then can 'em. I spoke to the manager who was concerned about the incorrect information, I am going to swing by there in a couple of days with my son and see what he is told when asking about them. I did stop in another store where their reptile "expert" was shocked to find out that burms got bigger than 12 feet and that a 6 foot bp was on the big side. He ended up asking my wife questions about most of the reptiles they had and ended up pulling the manager and another employee over to let them know the actual facts on them. It was very refreshing.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Rescued Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Rescued Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Rescued Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
0-0-1 Rescued Non-Alpha Green Iguana - Bud
1-1-0 Rescued Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-0-1 Rescued Dieting Panda Hamster - Mr. Fluffy
0-1-0 Rescued Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids