Aehill
New member
My wife and I bought a female amel from PetSmart for our 6 year-old son a few weeks ago. I was actually out of town when she picked it up, but I'd shown her some pics of what I wanted and they had one. So they gave her a feeding chart at the time of purchase that showed that they had had the snake for 5 weeks without a successful feeding. I was concerned about this, but figured I'd see if we could get her to eat. We tried several of the tricks to get her to eat a pinkie, but none worked. When I showed her a live pinkie, she immediately hit, constricted, and consumed it, but then regurged a couple days later. Waited until her next feeding (day before yesterday) and tried again. And again, she immediately hit, constricted, and consumed the pinkie, but again... regurged this morning.
My assumption at this point is that she has a health problem that she had well before she got to our home. We were already past PetSmart's 14 day return policy, but I decided to see if they'd take her back anyway, as well as see if they had any interesting, proven eaters there at the store. They had a nice looking butter motley there (who had been successfully fed) and were willing to trade out for the amel we'd previously purchased.
While I'm happy with the motley and that they were willing to work with us, I'm still pretty bummed about the amel. She was a very pretty girl and I was looking forward to watching her grow. More than the disappointment, though, I'm really frustrated that they'd even put a snake out on the floor for sale that they haven't been able to feed. In my opinion, they should make sure these animals are healthy and feeding regularly before putting them on the floor with a price-tag.
My assumption at this point is that she has a health problem that she had well before she got to our home. We were already past PetSmart's 14 day return policy, but I decided to see if they'd take her back anyway, as well as see if they had any interesting, proven eaters there at the store. They had a nice looking butter motley there (who had been successfully fed) and were willing to trade out for the amel we'd previously purchased.
While I'm happy with the motley and that they were willing to work with us, I'm still pretty bummed about the amel. She was a very pretty girl and I was looking forward to watching her grow. More than the disappointment, though, I'm really frustrated that they'd even put a snake out on the floor for sale that they haven't been able to feed. In my opinion, they should make sure these animals are healthy and feeding regularly before putting them on the floor with a price-tag.