ok today me and my friend went down to our local reptile shop, well we were looking at a corn snake and my friend who is an owner though "thats a bit wierd" as it had a flap of skin underneath its body, a man from the shop came in and we asked him what was wrong with it, he said "well we just had it bought in as someone abandoned it in a house near us and the bailiffs broke in to claim the prperty and they found it on the floor" it turns out it had NO LIGHT NO FOOD NO WATER AND NO HEAT for 6 months!!!!!, we asked if it had eaten, he said no, and so he went to get a very small mouse (i think its a pinkie, not sure but i know its the smallest size you can get) and it ate it up right away, but it looked as though it had real trouble taking it down, even though it should be on small/mediums at its age!!!
please if you are looking to buy any type of reptile, make sure you will take care of it as i dont want more innocent reptiles dying because someone cant be bothered to take care of it.
Dan


thread title edited by shrap

Such things will always happen and there is no way to stop it completely. But hearing the stories only makes me want to take care of my animals better and inform people how to properly care for them. Thats why I joined my herp society and bring my snakes to demos we have It kinda makes me feel better after having to see some snakes and lizards suffer.

I would imagine it happens mostly when poeple buy "big" snakes as babies and don't realize exactly how big they will get. I blame the petshops for this somewhat. And if you think thats bad, you should check out the statistics for abandoned dogs and cats. Not a dog person myself but its still pretty messed up how many are abandoned or abused and need to be put down.


post edited by shrap for profanity

it turns out the snake is going to live...it will take a few months to get it back to full health but hey...at least its going to live.
they have bought in another TWO snakes from the same residence the second snake is fine, but the third snake doesnt look like it is going to live unfortunatly, im going to look to see if i can get a part time job at the shop even though i am only 13, because i just want to help all of the herps there.

I hate seeing animals end up like that. If you're going to keep an animal as a pet take care of it, whether it be cat, dog, pig, chicken, whatever. I can't count how many times I've seen people neglecting their animals (food or care or otherwise) because they either don't have the money, time, or patience. Then why get the animal if you aren't going to do it right?

It's also sad to see animals being sold at pet stores that just shouldn't be sold to the average person. I bought a Burmese Python knowing full well what I was getting myself into, but most unforunately have no idea. You can buy Anacondas, Retics, and Burmese at almost any store. Iguanas are the same way. It's so sad to see them being sold for $10 a piece at reptile shows even and being sold to kids that think they're cute. Oftentimes the parent is completely ignorant and the animal is doomed. There are many fish that suffer the same fate.

I think that is a great idea. If you can't get a paying job, see if you can volunteer. At the store that I work for we allow younger teenagers volunteer on wednesdays and sundays to help clean and feed the animals. It is a great learning experience for them.

I think is is also wonderful that the owner of the store is going to care for the abandoned snakes and nurse them back to health. We take in owner surrenders and abandoned animals all the time at my store. We have vet that comes bi-weekly to make sure everyone is still doing ok and if an animal gets sick while at our store we take it for care at the vet.

As an owner of 3 dogs, 2 herps and 2 avians I understand how difficult it is to make sure everyone gets the bare essentials let alone all the other cool junk that critters can have. Sometimes I truly believe that all of my animals have better habitats and diets than me. But, I love them and they bring me such joy! So it is well worth it to go above and beyond bare necessities.

its nice to hear that you care about your herps so much, i dont know what i would do without reggie my beardie, its just horrible what some people will do.