Does anyone like snakes? I've suddenly felt so sorry for these pythons in a pet store.

[Moochie]

There's a pet store in the next town from us, about 15 minutes away (by car), while exploring the store I couldn't help but stare at the pythons and the lizards. The owner of the shop has one big ole burmese python.. The fella has no room

He's just curled up in his glass tank. The other pythons (or boas I'm not sure which one) are way smaller but I feel they also have no room. He only has two lizards, a bearded dragon and something with a blue tongue. He also has a tarantula, little finches, some exotic looking fish, and a turtle in his shop.
I don't really like snakes that much but I feel like the huge python should have the habitat he deserves.. I don't think anyone will buy a big boy (I'm just assuming it's a boy) like him especially considering the town and the townspeople. I think younger people would buy the smaller ones but that giant python might end up staying in that glass tank for awhile. He literally has no room, he's just curled up in there. My mom ordered poultry feed from the pet store and we're supposed to get 50 bags delivered to our house by Friday. We're having the store owner kill our meat birds and with payment we're giving him two chickens and the chicken heads so he can feed the heads to his snakes.. I really want someone to give the python an appropriate home! I really feel that animals shouldn't be taken from their natural country and put into another country to be sold as pets, especially when no one is going to give that marvelous animal an appropriate forever home. Would I take it in? Nope, but I sure as heck would find a wildlife sanctuary in CA to take him in, if I had him in my possession.
Now the store owner is nice guy who is rather knowledgeable about his snakes and I don't think he would just give up his burmese python to a sanctuary without payment. Does anyone know of any organization in CA that would take in the python and pay the store owner too? I really wanna help the snake.

 

[Oregon Blues]

If you put a python into a thousand acre pen, He would curl up into a little ball and not move. They only move when it is time to eat, and then only long enough to catch a meal. They don't stroll around just to stretch their legs. Oh wait. They don't have legs.

What snakes need is the correct temperature and the correct food. If that python has grown to be huge, then the owner is doing the care correctly. Snakes don't get big in captivity without excellent care.

My personal opinion is that pythons should not be sold as pets to people who don't know how to care for them. But that is my belief about every type of animal there is, up to and including dogs and cats. That is my criticism of pet stores that sell live animals. it doesn't sound like the snakes and reptiles in that store are getting incorrect care.

 

[Fly 2006]

Yeh, I agree with last post totally

 

[Fawkes]

If you put a python into a thousand acre pen, He would curl up into a little ball and not move. They only move when it is time to eat, and then only long enough to catch a meal. They don't stroll around just to stretch their legs. Oh wait. They don't have legs.

What snakes need is the correct temperature and the correct food. If that python has grown to be huge, then the owner is doing the care correctly. Snakes don't get big in captivity without excellent care.

My personal opinion is that pythons should not be sold as pets to people who don't know how to care for them. But that is my belief about every type of animal there is, up to and including dogs and cats. That is my criticism of pet stores that sell live animals. it doesn't sound like the snakes and reptiles in that store are getting incorrect care.

I agree completely.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

My personal opinion is that pythons should not be sold as pets to people who don't know how to care for them. But that is my belief about every type of animal there is, up to and including dogs and cats. That is my criticism of pet stores that sell live animals. it doesn't sound like the snakes and reptiles in that store are getting incorrect care.

Yes! Thank you.

 

[Moochie]

Oh no he takes very good care of his animals. I never said he didn't. "They don't stroll around just to stretch their legs. Oh wait. They don't have legs." Look, I don't know if you have a problem with me, but it seems like that was a smart-alek remark.. Just saying.

Anyways, the owner is a great guy but I'd love to see the snakes be bought and not live the rest of their lives in a glass tank. I personally believe exotics shouldn't be taken out of their natural enviroments to be sold as pets

Just like the problem with lorises in the pet trade. I would love to see someone with an appropriate set-up take home the big guy. As for pythons not moving at all in bigger cage or tank, while they are lazy they do in fact move around, but because of their easy going nature most people don't give them much room. When they're younger and smaller they'll be more off ground (trees) but as they gain weight and grow larger they are almost always ground dwellers. One of my friends owns a 5 foot burmese python and his isn't always curled up in a ball, last time I saw it it was stretched out and moving very slowing around, like slower than a snail. His python lives in a large terrarium looking tank, it has dirt and stuff on the bottom, fake jungle looking plants, rocks, and he feeds it small, live rabbits.

They're not getting incorrect care at all

My opinion is no different from those who want to see shelter animals go to a nice home.

 

[Moochie]

Yes! Thank you.

Yep I agree too.

 

[Fawkes]

Oh no he takes very good care of his animals. I never said he didn't. "They don't stroll around just to stretch their legs. Oh wait. They don't have legs." Look, I don't know if you have a problem with me, but it seems like that was a smart-alek remark.. Just saying.

Anyways, the owner is a great guy but I'd love to see the snakes be bought and not live the rest of their lives in a glass tank. I personally believe exotics shouldn't be taken out of their natural enviroments to be sold as pets

Just like the problem with lorises in the pet trade. I would love to see someone with an appropriate set-up take home the big guy. As for pythons not moving at all in bigger cage or tank, while they are lazy they do in fact move around, but because of their easy going nature most people don't give them much room. When they're younger and smaller they'll be more off ground (trees) but as they gain weight and grow larger they are almost always ground dwellers. One of my friends owns a 5 foot burmese python and his isn't always curled up in a ball, last time I saw it it was stretched out and moving very slowing around, like slower than a snail. His python lives in a large terrarium looking tank, it has dirt and stuff on the bottom, fake jungle looking plants, rocks, and he feeds it small, live rabbits.

They're not getting incorrect care at all

My opinion is no different from those who want to see shelter animals go to a nice home.

Feeding it live rabbits is cruel unless he's tried everything to make it eat F/T or prekilled food. If prekilled is accepted then there's no reason to feed live - it's far from natural because the rabbit can't escape like it could in the wild. Snakes often get injured from live prey too.

I am strongly pro exotics. There's nothing wrong with having exotics. I wouldn't call snakes exotics ('exotics' is a broad term with many different meanings though) but they are far better suited as pets than mammals and birds. They tend to be much easier and cheaper to care for than mammals or birds, they don't need attention and love and they have a very primitive brain, much less developed than a mammal's or bird's brain, so they are easy to keep captive because as long as their basic needs are met they're happy.

 

[Moochie]

Feeding it live rabbits is cruel unless he's tried everything to make it eat F/T or prekilled food. If prekilled is accepted then there's no reason to feed live - it's far from natural because the rabbit can't escape like it could in the wild. Snakes often get injured from live prey too.

I am strongly pro exotics. There's nothing wrong with having exotics. I wouldn't call snakes exotics ('exotics' is a broad term with many different meanings though) but they are far better suited as pets than mammals and birds. They tend to be much easier and cheaper to care for than mammals or birds, they don't need attention and love and they have a very primitive brain, much less developed than a mammal's or bird's brain, so they are easy to keep captive because as long as their basic needs are met they're happy.

Well it's his choice. I know it's not natural since rabbits aren't a staple food source in Southeast Asia but it's his choice as to what he does with his pets. I've seen videos of people feeding their pythons live geese which I think is totally unnecessary but it's up to them. It sucks but I can't do anything about it. He gets the rabbits from someone at a ranch who will give him the culls for cheap, the rancher breeds netherland dwarf bunnies or something like that.

There's nothing wrong with keeping exotics as long as the buyer knows what he/she is getting into.. Which in most cases they don't. It's why I'm not comfortable with exotics as pets, most people buy pythons to show off and when it gets too big for them to handle they release them like in the everglades in Florida. Some people like animals that require attention like dogs.. I like chickens because they don't attention 24/7 like a baby and if I keep them in my lap they don't bug me. Anyways, to me any animal forced from their home and put into the illegal pet trade isn't okay with me. Anyone can have a "pet" anything but for those that can't take care of them properly then they shouldn't have them at all.
I can totally understand someone keeping a raccoon, deer, or a fox that was rescued as a baby or from a fur farm but taking monkeys and lorises from their natural habitats for money isn't right to me. Alot of exotic pets are cute though, fennec foxes are legal in some states and I will be honest they are very cute. A girl in Kentucky keeps a raccoon named Ruby and Ruby was rescued as a baby, because Ruby was raised in captivity she wouldn't do well if she was released back into the wild so Tabby (the girl) has her stay at her mom's farm. I'm not sure if Mrs. Ridiman considers her a pet though. Everyone has their own definition of exotic, Petsmart called my chickens exotic

 

[Fly 2006]

Unless you are prepared to have the snake yourself and give it the life you think it deserves then I am afraid you will have to accept its present enviroment, I personally was very upset to read the guy feeds live bunnies, thats not on! I understand your feelings on keeping animals in an unnatural enviroment totally but it happens all over the world and a lot worse than this snake you talk about, what you also have to think about is someone could buy the snake and actually keep it in worse conditions, it is a nice thought that a lovely person would come along and give this snake the perfect home but not a very real one