wots the worst piece of reptile advice you've ever been given??

New reptile store in town. Maybe not the worst advice, but let me know not to go back and ask questions. New owner, youngish guy "Yes I've heard of Kathie Love, but I have been doing this for twenty years, and know lots more about corns than she does." He asked if I was buying snakes from the so-called experts on this "forum" I said I may be getting one through a friend from Rich Z at Serpenco, "I don't think you can trust him, he hasn't been at this very long." This really happened about a month ago. susan

New reptile store in town. Maybe not the worst advice, but let me know not to go back and ask questions. New owner, youngish guy "Yes I've heard of Kathie Love, but I have been doing this for twenty years, and know lots more about corns than she does." He asked if I was buying snakes from the so-called experts on this "forum" I said I may be getting one through a friend from Rich Z at Serpenco, "I don't think you can trust him, he hasn't been at this very long." This really happened about a month ago.

susan


That is almost hysterical.. Obviously he doesn't know who you were talking about...

Regards.. Tim of T and J

The UV and Heat lamp thing seems to ring true a lot of time too.. In fact I argued with with boob ( Sales twerp ) at a PetCo that Abiant heat is not a good soruce of heat for corns. The best thing in UTH for them becuase of it aids in the digesting of the food.. I argued with this guy till he was red in the face and wanted to sock me... It was actually kind of funny, except Jen snuck off because I was creating a specticle.. Even funnier, this same sales twerp a few monthes later was letting me check out the Nelson's milk they had.. As I was standing trying to get part of the last shed off, and kid asked him if it bites.. The twerp said no at the same time the nelsons sunk its six teeth into my arm and starting grinding.. *lol* I showed the kid the nelson's biting my arm.. *lol*

Regards.. Tim of T and J

I did go back the next day and talk to the owner about his corn "set-up". He was reluctant to believe me at first, but things did change. So that was good.

This wasnt said to me, but to someone I know:

He goes into a small pet shop to buy a baby ball python. He picks one out, they tell him that all baby snakes are too small to eat rodents, and that they need to be fed fish. They procede to take a baby boa out, grab a minnow, and push it down its throat with a pen. They offer to have him bring his new ball in once a week for them to feed it. The snake took to rodents right away, but unfortunatly it didnt survive for long.

After reading all this, I'm glad I started on the right path. I did my research. And I never once believed that a snake would eat vegetables. That's just sad. I mean, you just have to look at their teeth to know they're not herbivores.

I've had a couple of opportunities to educate people, though. I told my shrink I was getting a snake, and he asked me a bunch of questions about it because his kids want one.

After reading all this I want to go yell at my pet store up here. They have a baby ball python in a tank thats the equilvalant to a 5 gallon tank. no heat. I think i might to. Then again I also wanna go straight to my vetrenarian and take his snakes to.

WOW, some of the bad advice given to you guys deserve an Award!

I am happy to say that I was not given bad advice by the shop I got Freya (and her food) from.
The only thing I would say is that some of the snake still have some skin of their last shed on and that they are not very strong on spot-cleaning but the animals look healthy and do not show signs of stress.
In that pet store, there is only one person I ask question to and take his advice into consideration as well as checking them out on this Forum (search function is great ) as the other 2 seem more interested in eating their lunch rather than helping you or checking the snakes... boooo boooo

Here's a question: Should pet stores sell snakes at all?

They got under a lot of pressure over puppies and kittens because of the mills, and they stopped selling them because of that. It seems to me like in most cases, the employees don't know enough about snakes to care for them properly and/or the customers buy them on impulse while they're there to pick up a bone for their dog. If the only people who sold them were breeders and reptile specialty stores, the snakes would be well cared for, and no one would buy them on impulse.

But this is really an ethical question and nothing more, as I realize that pet stores won't stop selling snakes unless people stop buying them. There's no way to convince them otherwise. So perhaps all we could do along those lines is to encourage people we know to buy from breeders and to tell their friends the same thing until eventually, the sales drop.

I know a lot of places don't have specialty stores, too--the pet store's the only local source for snakes. But it seems like in this day and age, we don't have to rely on what's down the street. We can order things online from all over the world now. Shipping snakes is expensive, but then what costs more--the $40-odd to FedEx a snake or the vet bills for a snake that's been burned on bare bulbs or starved by being fed crickets?

Originally Posted by Colleen360

Today I had a couple come into work looking to buy an iguana. As I was asking them a bunch of questions to determine whether or not they should really buy one they asked "what are you guys feeding them right now?" So I told them that they are eating different types of fruits and vegetables along with vitamin and calcium powder. They looked at each other funny and said "Iguanas are supposed to eat lots of crickets and meal worms." I told them about the iguana diet in the wild and they looked at each other and gave me this look like "what a stupid girl!" Then they tried to tell how they read it in a book and blahblahblah... They also thought that iguanas get six feet NOT including their tail. Can you imagine an iguana that huge?!?

Now that is the other way around, funny!