Pet Store Horror Story

After months of research and a year of wanting, I finally got my first corn snake two weeks or so before Christmas. I visited a pet store (PetCo) to pick one out and bring it home. I ended up conversing with the very young guy who was the head of the reptile department, and it was going pretty well until I asked him when the hatchlings have been fed and what size mouse. He replied with a "Oh, no. Hatchlings are much, MUCH to small for mice. They're on crickets." I sort of just looked at him for a few seconds, but decided that maybe, just maybe, I had somehow missed the fact that very small hatchlings eat crickets. I went on.

"Oh. Ok. Well... when was the last time they were fed?"
"Sometime last week. Maybe a week and a half ago."
"Mm. What do you think would be a good size container to feed them in."
"Just feed them in the cage."
"I thought that you should feed them in a seperate container?"
"Oh, no. That's not necessary. We just put twenty or so crickets in the cage and let them go at it."


At that point, I looked over at the cage. I had been told that there were 16 snakes in there. Who's to say that there were some that weren't even getting any crickets.

I learned that this guy thought that there was no heat lamp required at all, and heating pads were only a "suggestion."

I actually ended up buying one of the smallest little guys in the tank (I know you aren't suppose to buy a snake, or any animal, out of pity... but how is anyone suppose to follow that rule?) And called up a neighboring PetCo, and they promised to teach the guy a lesson or two in Herpetology.

I ended up actually naming my snake after the not-so-enlightened sales man.

I'm not saying PetCo is bad or anything, because they've actually had a pretty good reputation in my book before this incident.

:angry01: I get so tired of hearing about these chain pet stores lack of respect for the animals they sell if they can't keep them and feed them the way it is supposed to be done they shouldn't be allowed to make the profit on them. From what I understand petco doesn't feed mice because they don't think its right well if thats the case why is it right to use crickets they are a creature too. Well breeding season is coming up so I'm going to start watching the petcos around me and start reporting them for mistreatment of reptiles. It's getting ridiculous. No telling how many cornsnakes die in their care or soon after purchase due to the conditions.

:fullauto: PETCO

Sorry for the rant
something has to be done
HOSS

Ick, that sucks. I only go to the Petco near me at school.

I bought my corn from Petco, but this one didn't seem that bad. The girl who sold it to me loved snakes and was very helpful, the only thing questionable she told me was about the "terrible two's". My snake seems very healthy as far as I can tell, and he's been fed f/t all along, so that makes me happy that it isn't a pain to feed him.

The snakes at the one near me seem pretty healthy. They have his one transpecos rat snake for $180, that they have had since the summer. He is soooo beautiful and I really want him to have a good home, but I don't have room for another snake. They did feed him in the tank thing that they keep him in, he was fixing his jaw and had some of the substrate in his mouth. Poor guy.


My only complaint with the one near me is that they aren't very good at keeping frozen rodents in stock. Originally I was buying the 6-pack of pinkies, which are smaller and of uniform size, but then I started buying the ones out of the bulk bag, where you can get some big pinkies. A bunch of times they were out of one or both.


Their bettas on the other hand, those poor guys are always dead.....I bought one several months ago. This fishy has some serious testosterone issues, but at least mine is alive.




At home though, I cannot find frozen rodents! Petsmart doesn't have them, the local stores don't. One local store said they can order live ones overnight & CO2 them, this store had some beautiful snakes but they looked dirty and misreble. I would think that it would be easier to get f/t food near Philly than middle of nowhere PA.

I'm not saying PetCo is bad or anything

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Well, you may not say it, but I will. Any store that employs people and puts them on a job without sufficient training, so they lead to:


1) deaths of innocent animals
2) teaching joe public incorrect ways to take care of his new purchase, leading to more deaths of innocent animals.

is just plain BAD.

This is why I don't frequent petstores. I would strongly suggest you make your future purchases from respected breeders. (Go to a local show if you don't want to pay shipping charges.) Support those in the industry who care, and not the stores that have only profit and not the animals' best interests in mind.

Skye

I got my first corn at petco 3 years ago- a little baby snow, and she has since grown to about 55".

I plan on breeding her this spring.
Petco was not that bad, the gave me a nice caresheet that summed up the basics of corn keeping. But the snakes tank was not the nicest, it had a poor substrate and was small for the number of hatchlings.

I have my problems with petco, its easier though for me because I have 2 open minded friends who are always taking advice from me and risking their jobs to care for the animals properly. But they arent always working. Recently they have been getting a lizard called an Emerald Swift, which gives live birth and can be somewhat difficult to care for( I had some). Well, one day I was in there and I noticed a bunch of dead babies and one live one in the tank. I told them that they needed to remove the baby because they get eaten by all the adults running around, just like the little carcasses in the tank. Well, the chick just looked at me lkike I was the idiot and said " no lizards give live birth, thats just a tiny one". Right. OK.
Needless to say, I am not a fave with the other petco employees. Guess it isnt good business when the customers know more than the employees.

I recently had a vicarious bad experience with Petco.

I was driving home and noticed a house a few doors down that had a garage sale, and a nice reptile aquarium. I pulled over and bought the cage, and then got to talking to the young teenage kids running the sale, and when they found I raised snakes they were very excited. They wanted to show me their corn snake purchased from petco. It was their second attempt to have a snake for a pet. The previous one died. The snake they showed me was a beautiful '03 hatchling reverse okeetee, obviously it would grow up to be a beautiful snake. BUT, I doubt that the snake will live very long.

He was told that heat wasn't necessary because corn snakes are "Desert snakes" and he was told to feed it a pinky once a month. When I examined it it was very light, had a dark green splotch inside, and seemed quite weak. They were going to put a heating pad under the tank and once they found that I raise my own mice, so they don't have to drive 80 miles round trip to go buy a pinky from town, they are going to feed it once a week, IF they can get it to eat. Hopefully it lives, but I'm afraid it won't make it.

They've already decided that if it doesn't make it they'll wait until I have hatchlings this summer/fall and buy some from me instead of from a petstore. But it's so sad when a kid gets his special pet, from a Petstore (so it should be healthy, they think) and it's just a death sentence when it's given out with advice that will just end up in the animal's death.

If I had the space/time I would have offered to try to rehabilitate it, but I'm afraid it looked too far gone to actually save, and I just plain don't have the time or space, nor do I want to bring a strange snake into my own collection.

Sometimes the amount of ignorance in others completely blows my mind.

I'll be the first to admit that I can probably be pretty ignorant in a lot of things - we all can.

But... And I'm not blaming the teenagers who were running the yard sale, but even if that's what a major pet store told them to do... Don't you think that they should've checked up some information somewhere else? Whether it be through the internet, or a book, or even just another snake owner?

Obviously if PetCo had exerienced employee's, this wouldn't have happened. But the kids didn't play a very healthy role in this situation, either.

The Petco out by us had a nice looking everglades ratsnake for i think $100. But the poor thing had just shed and obviously it hadn't had enough humidity to get the skin off all the way because there were still parts and pieces of it hanging on the snake.......Well a couple weeks went by and we had to go back for some dog toys, i went back by where the reptiles were and the same snake was still there and had the same shed hanging off him. Poor lil guy. I did end up getting a cute little hatchling snow from them for new years this year and when i got him he had a green spot in his belly (i assumed it was because he wasn't taken care of at the store) since then he has gotten a lot bigger and the green spot is all gone so i was happy with that .........but i don't know what ever happened to that poor everglades...........i hope he didn't die

green spot?

Just wondering, what is this green spot I am hearing about and what causes it.

I also dislike Petco

There's an entire site about all of Petco's flaws at this site - www.petcosucks.com - They've even made a petition to stop live animal sales at Petco. If you read some of the articles, you'll understand why. Some of the stories are really heartbreaking.

Just wondering, what is this green spot I am hearing about and what causes it?

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If I am correct it is the gall bladder and is an imminent sign of death. As for what causes it I really don’t know.

The local PetCo near me at one time was awful. They have since changed management twice and two of the high ranking employees have learned to listen to my advice. One of them recently bought a hatchling corn from me. I did learn that they are required to carry baby green iguanas as part of their reptile selection but I did convince the store manager to require that each one sold gets a flier to a local animal refuge.

Spitfire, look who runs that site before you go getting up in arms. PETA would love to tell everyone that you keep your Motley in abysmal conditions too. I am not saying that a lot of Petcos don’t need to be shut down but PETA would have us to be without a single animal for a pet.

Spitfire, look who runs that site before you go getting up in arms. PETA would love to tell everyone that you keep your Motley in abysmal condition too. I am not saying that a lot of Petcos don’t need to be shut down but PETA would have us to be without a single animal for a pet.

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You beat me to it. I'm glad someone else posted that.

I have to agree!

I read the information just on the Birds and It got me a little upset. I worked for a local bird breeder. And not all breeders mass breed to make money, in fact they are lucky if they even make a profit. The birds where taken very good care of. We cleaned cages DAILY and gave them fresh vegies and fruits with their seed. Not to mention the fact that they were not just KEPT IN BREEDING BOXES! They where kept in a Huge green house with lots of plants and even waterfalls.

I agree PETA would make having a pet against the law if they could.

I agree about the neighbor kid, but he is 13, and definately on the slow side. Apparantly he wasn't sure if what the petstore people told him was true, so he asked his mom, who agreed with the petstore people... the snake doesn't need an (EXPENSIVE) heating pad. (I add the expensive part, because I'm sure that the expensive was part of the reason they didn't get it.)

I spoke with the kid today, he woke up this morning with his corn dead. I wasn't surprised. He wanted to know when I would have corns and kings that he could think about buying. I told him that I hadn't BRED the snakes yet, and that after they bred it would be four months or so. He is all hyped because now he's planning on saving up his $10/week allowance to buy a snake from me. But you can be sure I'll make certain he has what it takes to keep the snake alive before I sell him one.

I think the whole problem with Petco and a lot of pets they sell is that they are treated like little goldfish... completely disposable. And many people in this farming community in which I live have a "disposable" pets mentality.