Lol. This is really funny. So I go to Petco to pick up some snake chow. Before I ask the guy for some mice, I cruise down to the Herp section. But one aisle smells horrible. Then I find the RTB cage(which they keep two snakes in), with a dead rat. It's all decomposing and bugs crawling all over it. I go to ask the guy to get some mice for me, and while he gets them I tell him about the rat. He seems to get nervous. He gives me the mice, and goes to check out the cage. Lol, this is where it gets funny. He pauses for a second and stutters, "Oh, well...uhh... that's what snake poop looks like. It comes out... like that. I'll take it out in, uh, in a while." By then I'm just holding in, my laughter. It's horrible to see snakes suffering in a cage with a dead, rotting rat. But can anyone believe that snake poop comes out a whole rat? I feel bad for those snakes...
lol, you didn't know that, corny? snakes only use part of the rat, so the rest of it is pooped out covered with flies and maggots, which are key parts of the snakes digestive system. seriously though, you shoulda made him get a manager and threw a fit. that's beyond even a pet store's normal poor care.
Pet stores are the worst. I only buy animals from the pet stores as "rescue" I bought one of my breeder females from the pet store because we always cruse through and check out the stock. Because we are herpers. I saw her in there with such a horrible shed problem like 2 or three shed hanging off her, eye caps, just bad. I asked if they could do something about the humdity in the cage for her, and they went into some line of garbage about it was supposed to be like that. Blah, Blah. I when to the manager and complained the said they just did as was taught to them or something stupid. I just came back the next day and bought her and gave her to my wife. My wife nursed her back to health and now she is our biggest female.
Snakes are like little vultures, they peck the flesh clean then leave the rest of the carcass. How naive you are Corny
All i can say is that you are all 100% correct. It's rediculous how little people in charge at Petco know about reptiles. The ones at my store looked terrible for the longest time. I only get to work three nights a week, but that is hours and hours each day I work that is spent with the reptiles. We don't have nearly as many problems and as several of us were talking about this in another post, I have actually managed to win a few cases. It is now to the point in our store that any reptile that requires "special care", which almost every reptile falls into that, has to go through me (i'm in a lot on my days off). I'm not at all defending Petco, but just so you guys know, the cages at my store are really hard to control the humidity in. There are a bunch of different store layouts with different cages and the cages we have are terrible. There is nothing really pumping air into the system of the cages, but there are vents behind the cages sucking the air out (and the humidity goes with it). Just so you have something else to complain about with the manager next time... Hey corny, could that rat have been thrown up...? They don't always heat the snakes well and the thrown up ones can be REALLY nasty, especially if it's digested a little bit... just a thought...
That is what I thought. A regurge. But the guy should at least take it out... I'm sure some Petcos are good. It just depends on the employees. I'm sure your store, Blake, is good. They just need someone who is experienced with animals.
the pet store in my town (i dont buy anything off of them! lol except bulbs) had a tank with a few leos in,, they looked dead so i advised the owner, he told me they were in brumation, i asked if i could pick one up, he said sure,,,,guess what.....dead!
the one nice thing about pet stores not knowing about reptiles is they tend to miss label them, so if you lucky you can get a really good deal on a nice animal. like i had a friend who was at a petco and they had a baby 50/50 kingsnake labeled as a garter snake. he bought it for a garter snake price, so he got a beautiful 50/50 king for 15 bucks. now thats taking advantage of a petco's ignorance. and the guy the got out the snake and sold him was none the wiser.
That is horrible. Remember though, buying a pet from a petstore to "rescue it" is not really doing any good at all. You might be helping that one particular animal, but putting many more in harm's way in turn. The petstore will just replace that pet with another one and continue to sell more. They don't care why you buy it (out of sympathy or disgust), just that you buy it. Most petstores just want to make money.
yeah im applying for a job as a reptile specialist at the petcos by my house for the summer when im home from school, cause the one they had quit, which is good cause ive talked to the guy and hes a moron, his real specialty is fish and they just had him take care of teh reptiles too. so if i get hired is be the one that sets up all the tank for the animals and tell people how to take care of them so ill try and shape things up.
themo you have to take a test to be the specialist. Right now i am not the specialist, but i take care of all the reptile when they come in. The test shouldnt be hard, just common sense, but ask the manager to take it once u get the job. Are you going to keep the job once you start school again?
just to warn you mowingmonk, they'll only let you do so much or you'll get fired. I am doing the same thing and I get threatened all the time... Just be ready for a rough ride (but I do encourage it, because Petco's reptiles need all the help they can get!) If you know that what they are doing is wrong, stand up for it... You'll feel much better in the end, even if you get fired... I didn't know you worked there babybub, that's cool... Are they giving you a hard time too?
i dont mind a test, i mean that is if they give me the job, i applied to all three of the petcos. i dont think i can keep the job at that petco when im back at school cause i go to school in Santa Clara, Ca and my house is a little south of Los Angeles, so that would be a good 6 hour commute. but there are three ptecos just down the street from my school. so im hopeing if i get a job at the one by my house and can transfer or something to one of the ones by my school when summer is over. but i know the manager at one of the petcos by my house and shes into reptiles and stuff so i dont think she would be against giving the animals the right care. lol she was the one that talked me into getting my scorpion, which is an awesome little critter. so well see how it goes if anyone wants to hire me. i applied at petsmart too, but petsmarts dont keep as many animals in their stores as petcos do, so i think petco would be more interesting.
petsmart is VERY strict and petco is much more laid back... if that makes any difference to you... plus if you are wanting to work with snakes, petsmart doesn't really carry them. I think they're starting to try out cornsnakes but it will be a long time before they allow ball pythons or anything... and they'll never have scorpions or tarantulas...
yeah thats why im hoping ill get a job at petco, one of the petcos i applied too has a huge reptile section with some really pretty snakes, so im hoping to get a job there when i head home.
