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Older Snakes in petstores?

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Tara
Where do older snakes in pet stores come from? I went into a nice shop in Richmond today and there was a loverly adult childrens python...the sign said it was SEVEN years old! My goodness...where did that come from?
And already sold and waiting for a ride home *I guess* was about a two year old sunglow cornsnake. THEN they also had a breeding pair of bps...breeding right there in the store *so the sign said, I didn't see them at it*. So really...where do the adults come from?
And HOW hard was it NOT to buy that Childrens.....she was sooo pretty *or he*.
 
A pet store near me takes my hatchlings on consignment and has also taken a few adults. Another local store has traded for my adults. People get out of the hobby, or move, or just shift their focus and pet stores aren't a bad way to find new homes if you can't ship. Sometimes stores actually do breed their own snakes and you can find an adult that way, too. I wish Boa Regards was still open near me. You could get anything, any age and all in good health. Sigh...
 
I worked at a pet shop for a while last year, and the only adult snake they ever had was a three-year-old amelanistic female corn. Apparently a woman who'd had her since she was a hatchling had to move and couldn't find space for a snake, so she ended up just giving it to the store. It had been there for at least a year or so, and just recently I popped back into the store to pick up some pinkies and newt food and noticed she'd been sold.
 
Some older animals come from customers and other people that just can't keep it any more

Some older animals come in on trades

Some older animals are rescues

Some older animals have been at the store for a long time

and still, some older animals are old breeders, etc, of employees or customers


That pretty much sums up all the older animals at my store...
 
This is the website for my local petstore, as you can see there are a few 02's and 03's there. They used to have two 2001 common boas there a couple of weeks ago, male/female. Im guessing they were old breeders.
 
Some shops will just take animals that their owners no longer want.

When I worked in a reptile shop we would occasionally have people come in and ask us to rehome their adult pet - unsurprisingly, it was often a large animal, but we got BPs and corns, even a Guyanan rainbow boa. We ended up with iguanas, fully grown common boas and all sorts.
 
I got Spencer, my '94, from the petstore. His former owner is a petstore employee who couldn't keep him because he's an escape artist.
 
My local reptile shop will take back any snake it sells, at any point in its life, no questions asked. That's usually where any adult Corns come from.

The shop won't pay the owner for them and they do sell them on (once confirmed healthy), but the service alone is worth its weight in gold when there are no official, competent, reptile-friendly rescue services in my area.
 
I rescued a 7 year old corn, they had grown up and left home, and left the snake at home, so my guess is maybe thats what happened..
 
I have a 3 year old female BCC in my shop now. She is an absolutely beautiful animal in fantastic shape...she was just getting "too big" for her current owner. Aparrently, the girl that bought her as a neonate had no real idea of what she was getting into with a female Surinam X Guyana BCC cross, and when the snake started eating retired breeder rats...she felt she couldn't handle it anymore...it made her "nervous". So we took her in, I made sure she was eating and healthy, and she is for sale. I have already told the shop owner that if no one buys her by the first of the year...she's coming home with me...:spinner:

I also have a 4 year old male Pueblan milk that is a retired breeder. He was used for a few line-breeding projects by a friend of mine, and when he was no longer needed...my buddy sold him to us for $15. As a pet store...you really can't pass up an incredibly good profit margin like that on such a pretty, healthy, and gentle animal. He is already sold, just waiting to be picked up...

Most of the other adult rescues get a "health checkup" and either get sold in the shop, or come home with me. If I cannot reasonably assess their health, I will quarantine them for a few months at home until we decide what to do with them. I am actually waiting on a gentlemen to make a final decision on a 10 year jungle carpet python. His new wife has a chihuahua, and she doesn't want a 6' python in the house. I told him I would take it, but...he hasn't made a final decision, yet. We'll see what happens...

Petstores can often be a good outlet for people who change their focus, move, lose interest, or simply get in over their heads. It's easy to do if someone doesn't fully research their snake of choice before making a purchase.

I just read on a different forum...a young lady was told that an African Rock Python makes an excellent beginner snake. This thing is now 2 years old, and she is desperately trying to find a good home for it. She is in WAY over her head with this thing. Certainly, had she done a bit of research she would have never purchased this animal, but...She took what she "assumed" to be good advice, and bought it on a whim...It happens.
 
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