I have a spied at my petco and it was $700 and they don’t take good care of it
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A bit overpriced but otherwise it’s a good deal ngl
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what deal?? u pay a snake 700-1000 that doesnt get good care and from a good reeder the same snake costs 200-300
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Not a good deal by any means. Petco will double the normal market price for a morph or even triple it when it is nowhere near worth what they are asking.
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I used to work at petco and unfortunately its because they do buy the snakes at market price, they can chose from a list of available morph combos from the company they have a contract with that they get their animals from. they dont get any animals in bulk besides normals, so of course they have to make a profit from buying a 400+ animals and only stores with a high traffic that make lots of money have access to buy these animals.
I do think its good because people are seeing these animals and I myself have pushed customers into the direction of reputable breeders on mm that have better prices. So its opening up the market to new people and theyre not only finding better deals obviously from better breeders but also getting better info on care
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Didnt think about it from that point of view but it does make sense since the vast majority of new keepers probably got their new animals from a big chain pet store. I worked at a pet store as a teenager and saw the same thing in terms of price hikes and people getting their first pet from a local pet store.
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They want your money! 
Also, the pic isn’t even albino… They should at least be accurate. 
They should also include the gender.
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Honestly that kind of stuff completely depends on the companion animal manager. They’re in charge of printing labels and ordering animals. In my experience they get their animals shipped and labeled but dont always keep track of that info. So the animal manager at those locations is just plain lazy or irresponsible at that point. They’re supposed to keep track of that. Some of the labels dont have photos of the various morphs either so usually I wouldnt have a photo on the label, but I also housed the snakes individually st my store because i could.
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What a world. I look at an enclosure to see what inhabits it. Some folks here are more focused on the picture on the price tag. Nitpick it all. You’re entirely focused on the wrong thing. I’m rolling my eyes.
The same concept goes for reptile shows. The tag on the animal is good for three real values.
#1. Obvious genes. This lets you know what you ARE looking at.
#2. Underlying genes. This lets you know heterozygous offerings and possible genetics.
3#. Price. Are you interested in paying our asking price?
If you’re seriously after a specific genetic combination, corporate stores are not your go-to.
I wish folks would stop twisting tiny details into major issues. If you are serious about what you want, then you know what you are looking for.
To the price tag developer: Sure. You could spend 5 seconds on accuracy.
A price tag is nothing more than a sign to declare value. I see lots of mis-marked stuff at shows. It’s eventually just my opinion versus theirs.
The retail stores employ folks who do not have expert reptile experience. We all know that. Should Jack Hannah or JKR oversee the pet store operations?
The focus here should be more about animals advertised for things they are NOT.
The big stores are not seeing feedback for that issue, that I am aware of.
I don’t wish to advocate the big stores, but I don’t think they should should be held to the scrutiny of high dollar rollers buying top notch genetics.
Accuracy is one thing, but this topic is based upon relatively simple and very observant genetics.
I’ve yet to see an oversold ball python in this category. Have you?
I was just shocked by what I had seen. I was not trying to harm anyone. I just had never seen that kind of price tag ever. Sorry that made the topic.
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Yes, I’m in favour that they should.
A jack of all trades is a master of none.
These stores should either have someone that knows what they are doing or not sell that animal.
There is a store over here in the UK that sells everything from dogs/cats to snakes/lizards to fish/marmoset-monkeys. They have a handful of employees that are absolutely clueless about anything other than fish… Yet they have a ton of customers. I don’t believe I’ve been in there and it is not rammed…
But they also have possibly the worst Google reviews pages I’ve ever seen (though I haven’t checked recently. Something to do when the coffee kicks in), with a constant flow of “they sold me a ill animal”, “they gave me bad advice, now my animal is dead”, “they sold me a [insert animal] with [insert external parasite]”.
These guys should make a choice. Either move over to solely working with fish(their area of expertise) or hire someone that 100% knows what they’re doing with each species.
It would be odd to see your local bicycle repair shop selling fighter jets.
When laws are being made, who do you think gets the inspection?
They aren’t coming around to mine or your home, they are going to these big stores and taking pictures.
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You ever spent $20-30 on a pizza? $300 on shoes? Markups are essential in retail otherwise there wouldn’t be a retail sector.
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exactly because those prices can harm the reptile community. Image u are a kid and like a lot of us your dream is to get a snake as pet for example and convince ur parents to bring u at ur local reptile shop and u see a 200-300 snake and a normal family with a normal entry it would be a bit difficult paying that much just for a snake without any enclosure etc. that happened to me when I was a kid always thought that snakes were 500-600 but when I found a normal corn 80 I bought it without knowing that the same snake I could have got it for 10-15, this is my personal opinion and experience and the truly thing is that the reptile hobby isn’t that much expensive ( without counting morphs,vet etc. for a small budget u can get a cool and cheap snake, and u dont rlly need a terrarium like most of pet shops say u just need a tube so isn’t expensive like pet stores make u think
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Dont worry about it Riley, everyone here is just adding their opinions. You didn’t do anything wrong. Feel free to make a new topic whenever you want. Everyone here has been very respectful for the most part so no harm done.
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So, I’ve seen this before on here about some of the Petco/Petsmart prices, and markup. This is a bit funny though since I was able to sex him. I was able to take him out with an employee there. Held him for a bit. I sexed him when the employee walked away for a second. He was a male by the way…lol. A real beauty too though, but the price wasn’t so hot! (I was told to price match him, from a friend and they could maybe honor it.)
image|375x500
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Is it just me or does he seem fairly underweight too? Ball pythons as most of us know are not slender snakes, they are instead stocky and muscular. At least a healthy specimen should be anyways.
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It looks like a hatchling, maybe they don’t understand that a hatchling needs fed nutrients because it is growing. It could also be a parasite or disease like crypto. Aside from the head, size wise it almost looks more like a corn snake. Either way I agree with you and don’t think that a ball python should look like that.
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Every hatchling I see in a Petsmart/Petco looks very skinny. That’s about on par. I have no idea how they feed them or what they do if one is stressed by being in such a lit enclosure and won’t eat
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I worked for PetCo and was responsible for feeding snakes. I will tell you that PetCo does not have a proper system for tracking whether or not an individual animal is feeding, especially with animals that are housed communally. So it’s easy for an individual to slip through the cracks. I will also say that there is little that employees are allowed to do to remedy the situation if an animal won’t eat. Modification of the enclosure is not allowed, for the most part separation is not allowed, live prey is not allowed, changes in time of day in which in animal is fed are not allowed ect. Many PetCo Ball Pythons do not feed due to the extreme stress they are placed in, and their questionable origins. I have personally toured the facility of the wholesaler that PetCo uses in my state, and it is a hell hole. I would not be surprised if many animals came to PetCo already having issues with health and feeding.
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It is disappointing to know where large retail pet stores get their animals.
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