Pet Shops

[AaronRiot]

: popcorn :

As for the OP, any small shop purchase reptile or otherwise I make depends on the service. Good service and HONESTY and not pushing the sale for the $ and you'll have my business for life. Any shadyness and I will make sure others know. Neutral, I'll probably leave as well.

EXPOS ARE GARBAGE. They spread disease. They encourage impulse buys. They encourage breeders to get in it for the $. They treat the animals horribly.

If you want to see some cool herps go to a zoo.

It a load of crap that EVERY table has AND USES hand sanitizer. Last one I was at near Toronto I saw VERY LITTLE USED. And baby amazon tree boas flailed around like spaghetti. And balls sitting in their own feces. Oh and a lot of breeders b*tching about prices and not being able to get by and blah blah blah. I walked out LIVID.

Oh my point. I wouldn't allow 50 pairs of sanitizer coated hands touch my animal. That cant be healthy.

Oh speaking of health, Ive yet to see a show bin WITH a water dish.

+1 Originally Posted by KORBIN5895 View Post
I really find it annoying the way people throw the word rescue around

[jaleely]

OKay, i lol'd

but, good points. I have never bought online, and i have to say we got our first snake at a show. I was perfectly happy wandering around seeing all the animals thinking "oh they get to go back to enclosures at the end of the day, they're fine"...
I went to another show, and pretty much didn't get it until then...when i brought home a healthy looking python who had been extremely dehydrated. It was the first day of the show, so i hadn't thought about all the travel time, and that most of the people there don't take care of the animals. To be honest, it just didn't occur to me that people would want to, or let them BE mistreated. Once again, just because i wouldn't do it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
That snake got to my house and drank and drank and drank...and had a huge urate stone i had to help it remove.
Never again!!!
I've been lucky and haven't had mites. I DO use sanitizer, and actually i never had held anything except what i was buying. I just lucked out, really.

Now we go to rescue...Ten dollars at the pound gets you a snake of any kind, if it's there. I haven't bought a snake since knowing this. I just can't justify going out and getting something when there are cast offs right down the road that aren't being taken care of.

Sure, there are some snakes i want that i can't get at the pound...a female hognose...another flame kenyan sand boa...some garter snakes.....

I may get some, some day. Right now i'm not getting anything because i don't have the room and if something was wrong with it, i couldn't afford vet care...and i don't want to risk the ones i have. A while ago i posted on "my lesson in restraint" because i *really* wanted to go get some snakes i knew were at the pound and take care of them.

Anyway...rescue is taking the animal out of bad conditions and placing it where it can thrive. I've done that with six various animals so far, and i love it. It makes it very hard to justify to myself getting anything new.

I flat out refuse to get into ball pythons and support that whole thing. Good lord.
I'll plug someone else's website here...CDN blood because this is HILARIOUS and so true.

Todd Rants About...

Hope you don't mind, bud. But that cracked me up...and made me sad/mad *lol* i was already on this bandwagon though.

Anyway, for a ball python...just adopt. There are so many out there that need homes. There's no reason to go to a breeder or a store. I hope you find one, OP!

[USMCgunner11]

I love those videos!!!! Hilarious!!!!!

[shaunyboy]

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

Lol. You old bawbag.

^^^^^
" ya auld bawbag "

if your going to slag folk off in scottish,get ALL the words correct

yer a bit of a " TADGER " yerself mate

cheers shaun

P.S.....RESCUE.....!!!

[Lankyrob]

I wish our rescue places had snakes and lizards (tho not for the reptiles point of view ) any "rescued" reptiles get given to reptile shops to look after as the "rescues" dont have the knowledge or experience to look after them.

[CK SandBoas]

I bought my BRB from a shop down in Rhode Island, and if they were still open, i would go back to them if they had any animals i was interested in. I had also gotten a beautiful Tangerine Honduran Milk Snake from them as well. My Royal Python i picked up from the adoption coordinator of my local Herp Society, and my Grey Banded King and Paradox Albino Sand Boa were given to me.

I have not had the opportunity to buy from breeders online, but there are some Kenyan Sand Boa breeders that are friends of mine who have animals that i'm definitely interested in, when the time comes

[StudentoReptile]

I worked at a LPS for many years, and at a big chain for a few years in college. IN short, I have a very dim view of pet stores in general. Not saying there aren't any good ones out there, but they are VERY few and far between. Granted, over the years, the vast majority of my animals came from pet stores (employee discounts, what can I say?), but now I am older and a little wiser. I'm more focused on adopting from legit rescues and if I wanted to get something unique, I'm going straight to the dealer or breeder.

While AaronRiot may be a little overdramatic, I kinda agree with him on expos and shows. With few exceptions, the quality is sub-par, and it encourages impulse purchases and risk of pathogen transmission is increased. Again, in years past, a lot of my own animals have come from impulse buys at shows, but on the flip side, I've had a lot of "premature deaths" result from those impulse buys.

Nowadays, I'm not really in a position to add to my collection, but when I am, I know where I'm NOT getting my animals.