Saw this little one at petsmart while getting a few supplies. What do y’all think, Calico?
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I would honestly say normal with some nice color.
Here’s one of my own with the same kinda high fade in the sides
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At first I thought so too but he/she was being sold in the “fancy” (lol) tank for $100. The alien heads look a bit distorted/shifted I thought too. I’m still a bit new so I couldn’t pinpoint anything exactly but something seemed neat about it!
Just saw the photo! Interesting, yeah I would have guessed yours to be a calico just based on that photo! Guess they tend to have a more obvious white?
It goes a bit higher up from what I’ve seen. At least for a good calico.
Honestly sometimes I do debate on seeing if he has something hiding since he was sold to me as captive hatched years and years ago.
Regarding the PetSmart one… That’s interesting because when I worked one, a basic normal was 129$ or so…I would be surprised if they dropped to 100 out of a sale date.
It could have been a mistake in caging. They don’t always have the most observant people for reptiles in that department sadly.
The snake is pretty dark on top but I wouldn’t be able to ID from this photo.
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Yeah it’s crazy! My partner has one she got for only about $40 as a normal from there and is definitely a normal, but this one is $99. I have definitely had the experience there of helping customers because I have know more than the staff lol, it’s an odd experience. I probably won’t go buy that little one, but they struck me as having a really cool look!
It is a normal. Please don’t buy from chain pet stores.
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Would say very nice normal,i have a calico and it has much more white ,which is much higher up regards Tony
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I generally don’t, only have a few in the house that came from them, but always have better experiences buying from breeders
should be a brighter white too, right?
yeah for sure
I saw one a couple weeks back at local Pet Smart that was listed as a fancy. For $160. It was defi ately a Butter and possibly a Pastel Butter. Should have snapped a pic but didnt. Might have considered it if it were female but never inquluired about the sex of the animal.
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Honestly, they most likely wouldn’t know unless they have an experienced ball python keeper who could pop or probe on staff. And even then, management might not let them. They’re not even allowed to feed them live food unless the vet does it for them.
My experience was the wholesaler just sending over the ‘fancy’ and if you’re lucky, the deli cup has the morph listed. they never list sexes.
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Thats kind of the way we used to receive them as well. I worked in retail pet stores for about 20 years. But we had several experiences herpers. The owner, myself and about 3 others. I could have popped the snake on the spot. But i was already battling a mite issue and didnt want to bring home any more animals. Mites are gone now. Ya know I hadnt added any animals.to my collection since 2009 and havent had any mites for years. I’m finally getting back into breeding mode after some health issues. Brought 1 animal home from Tinley in march - No problems. Bought animals from 3 different people in Shaumburg at NARBC and brought home mites. Have ut narrowed down between 2 of the vendors and im.prety sure i know which one it was. I never saw.mites in any of the animals from the 3rd vendor the whole time.i was battling them. I thought as an industry that maybe we were past this crap. So I’m back to my old regimine of running anything new theough my mite solution. I know it works and works fast.
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Saw a butter at Petsmart just yesterday. It was actually a pretty nice one but I only buy from breeders.
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Lol, if you want to be technical, they are working through breeders.
2 fairly well known names service Petco and PetSmart for different things. They were at least big names 15 years ago… Now maybe a bit more on the quiet side.
And I don’t think it’s any secret that PetSmart’s frozen rats come through the Bells
I know what you mean though. But it’s not like 30 years ago when a lot of critters showing up were wild caught and such. Thankfully. I’d rather a breeder do wholesale than a distributor do wild caught at the end of the day
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That’s a good point. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with wholesaling to big box stores so long as they take good care of their animals. You have to be able to sale your snakes! The main reason I won’t buy from big box is because I don’t know exactly what genetics the snake has. The lesser was a beautiful snake. I was tempted. Of course, I’m always tempted to buy snakes. lol!
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You could always ask the store to see their intake log. I seen a snake that I liked at a Petco. I could tell with my limited knowledge that it had Spider in it. It too was labeled as a “Fancy”. I asked to see the log book and confirmed that it was Spider Pastel (Bumblebee) . She is pushing 1000 grams now after 2 years of raising her.
FYI, Quarantine the snake if you have others. Chain pet store snakes are notorious for mites. It took forever to eradicate them from my collection.
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Lol PetSmart never kept intake logs. And leopard geckos would be mislabeled so often if labeled at all… Albinos showing up as normals and such…
Big agree on the mites. It was always the cornsnakes that seemed to get the infestations started.
I personally think people go way to hard on chain stores. I buy from breeders but ive known people that worked at these stores that cared for the reptiles as if they were their own. Same goes with other forums for different hobbies, people stand up on a soap box and talk about how bad these stores are. Ive had beautiful animals come from craigslist, petsmart and so on. Who anyone decides to do buisness with is their own and no one should be judged for it.