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Pet stores are clueless..my small rant

Z

ZCore

New member
I am new to corn snakes and have gotten all my useful information right off these forums here (which I would once again like to say thank you for). I just wanted to comment on how clueless most pet stores in my area are. I stopped by 3 different ones today and every one of them gave me a different answer for everything I asked. TWO places tried to tell me that corn snakes were not nocturnal and needed a light to "simulate" sunlight. Another place told me that corn snakes needed some sort of "waterfall" in the viv with them for humidity purposes. And another place told me you can keep as many corns in a viv as you want because they will never eat each other. Oh and thats the place too that told me UTHs are for lizards and such not snakes. Just thought I would share with you how uniformed I would be if it wasn't for you all. Thanks again. Oh one more thing the one place told me that if I did buy a light for a 10gal that I needed a 60 watt. I asked if he was sure because that seemed a little strong but he said that may not be sufficient I probably need a 75 watt. Does that sound right?? Even though I'm just going to use a UTH.
 
yes petstores are usually completely clueless. Most people in there are knowlegeable in one species and apply that to all. The wattage on the light shouldnt really matter as long as temps stay mid 70's on one side low to mid80's on the other. So far as the UTH, you're prolly going to need a rheostat (for sale at petstores or petsmart etc.) to control the heat being put off. How much heat needed will depend on the temp surrounding the viv. I myself turn off all the heaters during the summer at my home b/c it's low 80s in the house.

Sorry that was a long answer to just say, find which ever wattage/uth combination gives you that ideal range in temp. you should be fine.
 
Yeah with summer coming on here I think I should be just fine with a UTH and maybe get a light when it starts getting colder toward winter when its cold in the house. Thanks for your input.
 
What is it with petstores? I have recently moved to a new town and of course went to check out the herps in the local pet stores. The first one had dead anoles in their lizard tank where they were keeping anoles and geckos together. These anoles lookes mummified so I guess they'd been there a while... The second place at had corns kept on sand, one amel labeled as a 'Tangerine' corn, and one without any water. I felt so bad for those poor animals, I would never buy anything at either place. Arghh
 
So true I wouldn't buy there either. If they can't tell me the proper way to care for the snake how in the world can they?? It scares me though that some people who don't have the internet or don't know to look on the internet just take these people's word as good and do what they say. Lots of mislead people out there.
 
I went to a petstore the other day and they had four baby Burmese Pythons in one small viv, all hunched together on the cool side because the heat rock was taking up a quarter of the viv. They also had a rack of about 12 cornsnakes. The one that one of the employees held out to show to (a probably impulse) buyer looked like it was going to shed at any moment. Poor babies must be so stressed!

Pet stores are really depressing sometimes...
 
I visited one a few weeks ago that had a snow that was trying to shed but was so dry, couldn't even flake off. In the tank was one snow and about 8 crickets. :blowup:
 
PLEASE don't start me up ranting about this again...

What's worse than 'general' pet stores giving bad info is the specialty reptile places with bad practices and sick animals...OOOOOOH, if I type any more I'll just get angry.... :angry01:
 
I know what you mean Princess. I went to see the place that sold me my corn at the reptile show. I was so dissapointed. The employees are all standing around doing nothing while you have dirty cages, limp greens in cages and dirty water. And this is a "reptile specialty" shop! I wish I could buy it and clean it up!
 
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