I am sorry you lost your first snake. That is a rotten feeling, I know.
You say you had your snake for a month. Did it ever regurge any of its meals? Was it loosing weight? How many meals did it eat for you? Just trying to see if there was anything that was possible signs. The temps, by the way, should be about 82 on the warm side and mid 70's on the cool side. It sounds like your temps fluctuated from 70 - 85 in the whole container. If the temps are fluctuating too much, it could cause the food to not digest properly and stress for the snake. Just a thought. About the pink being too large, if it ate it ok AND kept it down (which I assume it did since you said it died when you were bringing it's next meal home), then that should have been ok. But if you ever find yourself in the situation where you think the pink is too large for the snake to comfortably eat at one time, then what you can do is snap the head off of it and feed just the head and then the remainder for the next meal. This is easily done when the pink is frozen.
Sorry you lost one but glad you got the replacement. I wish you the best with your new one.
And, I can't say I have any love lost for PETA. I agree they are a radical group and their best interest is not preservation of animals. It is one thing to have love and respect for animals and nature....it is another to be a fanatical "bunny hugger." If it weren't for people keeping pets including exotics, the general "public" would be unaware of and uncaring for the preservation of the land in which those animals they love come from. Thus, we learn not to toss trash out of cars and try hard to recycle, etc. I believe in preserving land for habitat and such, but they just go way too far and are irrational in their reasons. There will ALWAYS be people out there that "say" they love animals and get them and don't feed/care for them and let them loose uncaringly and such. I agree, these people should be tried to be stopped. In the same token, there will always be people who abuse, starve and kill their own children and teach them to be thieves and murderers. Should all people be banned from having children because of this? Where the logic is skewed with PETA is that banning is not always the right answer to the problem. Educating the public is by far the most productive means of correcting the problems. People need to have awareness of the need to protect habitats for the wild species and the best way is for people to see these species "up close and personal", to be able to "see the personality" of the species so they can have empathy and desire to protect their domain. This comes with proper ownership of these animals. That's my opinion. It is not the snake that is bad, it is not the dog that is bad, it is not the gun that is the problem, it is the person behind them that is the problem. Not everyone should suffer because a few just "don't get it."
OK....now that I spewed off on that, I will say that I have/had five Petco corns and I have 2 Petco Columbian Boas. All of them, except one, was in excellent shape. The one that wasn't in excellent shape was the only one I got from a Petco not near me and not the one I go to normally. The people at that Petco were not very good about keeping the place nice and clean and that particular corn had mites. I got rid of the mites within a week of getting it and the snake thereafter was fine. The others were all mite free and ate fine. I agree that it all depends on what your Petco store is like in the care of their animals. I personally would not hesitate should I see one I simply "couldn't do without" lol...at that Petco.
I also got some snakes last year from a breeder who is no longer is in the snake business and they were sickly with URI and thin and I had to take them to the vet for medications. So, the bottom line to me is, if I can look at the snakes in person, make sure they look and act healthy. If I am buying via the internet, buy only from reputable breeders with good standing in the reptile world and also stand behind their sales.
