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WOW, Petco needs some help!

K

kttownsend22

New member
*WARNING!!! LOTS OF TEXT! LOL*

First note that I DID NOT buy my corn from them lol. Okay, I went to PetCo the other day to get some supplies for my new corn. (I had the tank but needed everything else) I found a good priced *off brand heat mat for $7 and was very pleased. However, when I walked up to the person who works in the REPTILE dept. of the store I asked if they also had any thermostats or rheostats in stock.

He replies, "Oh, of course we do!" and walks me over to the thermoMETERS... being somewhat polite I said, "Oh, no. Not thermometers, I need a thermoSTAT to control the heat of this heating pad."

And just GUESS what he says???:bang: "You don't need any of that for heat mats! These ones Have a limiter inside them so that they don't get too hot for your corn snake." I about flipped.

And not only that, but they had two corns and a Cal. Kingsnake TOGETHER in a rather small enclosure AND were feeding them crickets... now, am I just dumb or is literally EVERYTHING that he said/did completely wrong?!:angry01:
 
kttownsend22 said:
*."
And not only that, but they had two corns and a Cal. Kingsnake TOGETHER in a rather small enclosure AND were feeding them crickets... now, am I just dumb or is literally EVERYTHING that he said/did completely wrong?!:angry01:
Click to expand...

Well the king will probably be the only one left in the viv.:sidestep:
 
Yeah, I felt really bad. And had they not cost $60 each I would have been half-tempted to buy them JUST to get them outta there.
 
Wow, the petco i go to seem like Geniuses compared to the ones always being belittled in any pet related forum I go to.

They have everything well taken care of. :)
 
Yeah, well, this one is rather dumb in the reptile department. The local PetSmart, however, seems to do a very good job of looking after their snakes.
 
As a former employee of petco, I'd just like to say that stupid pet stories happen anywhere not just there, and no one on our staff was like that.

That being said, aside from not knowing how to heat things and the cross species cohabbing.
Are you sure they were actually FEEDING them the crickets? The way our system was set up crickets got in there whether we wanted them too our not, noobs always asked us if we fed them crickets and we adimately told them that they crawled in there and it was impossible to keep them out.
 
Well Corny Noob, though i totally agree with you that it's not ALL Petco's that act this way, I would find it hard to believe that they couldn't keep crickets out of the enclosure. No, I didn't ask if they were actually feeding them crickets, but the snakes were in a small plastic tank with the snap-on lids, the ones that look like their "Kricket Keepers". This, in turn, was inside the glass display enclosure, which had no crickets in it. I hope I that was understandable lol. I didn't mean to belittle EVERY PetCo out there either, I was just VERY disappointed with my local one.
 
Speaking of Petco, I dropped by our local one yesterday to pick up a fake plant. They had two little corns, on aspen, and they were in a little branch together. I had a close look--and saw a black speck on the head, behind the eye, of one. This is the second time I've gone in that store and seen this; I can only imagine it was a mite. I don't know where they're getting their snakes from, but I would never buy one from them after seeing this twice now.
 
It just angers me that someone would insist to a new pet owner that you don't need something that in THIS case was absolutely needed. Maybe this mat does have a heat limiter, but that's probably not till about 110 degrees F (i recorded 108.8 in my tank when I plugged it in). By then my corn would have been a french fry!
 
Well then I would probally draw that conclusion too. But in the main set ups the freaking crickets get EVERYWHERE it is impossible to keep them out unless you covered the animals air vents and then they'd never be able to breath >_>
 
Lynnea said:
Speaking of Petco, I dropped by our local one yesterday to pick up a fake plant. They had two little corns, on aspen, and they were in a little branch together. I had a close look--and saw a black speck on the head, behind the eye, of one. This is the second time I've gone in that store and seen this; I can only imagine it was a mite. I don't know where they're getting their snakes from, but I would never buy one from them after seeing this twice now.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure the snakes come from:
http://www.calzoo.com/
At least at our petco.
 
I hate to tell you that you don't need a thermostat on an UT heater. For heat tape in racks you do. Good luck with your new boy.
 
zorro said:
I hate to tell you that you don't need a thermostat on an UT heater. For heat tape in racks you do. Good luck with your new boy.
Click to expand...

You need SOMETHING to regulate the heat.
Earlier I was setting up my new snakes soon to be home, I thought the rheostat we made was broken so I tried plugging the UTH directly in.
After 15 minutes it had gone from 80 to 91, I promptly plugged it back to the rheostat.
 
zorro said:
I hate to tell you that you don't need a thermostat on an UT heater. For heat tape in racks you do. Good luck with your new boy.
Click to expand...

what do you mean? if the glass over the UTH was 108, wouldn't that lead you to believe that you need SOME kind of heat limiter? I mean, thats kinda hot lol
 
I just visited a petco near my dad's house that was halfway desent. the first I would have even concidered buying a snake from. It actually truly surprised me. The cages were clean, the snakes were healthy, and besides a little co-habing (ball pythons co habbed, and then a few rosy boas) they seemed to be doing a great job. Oh, and then there was the rosy boa that had gone missing while I was there... In general I was really impressed, compared to the other places I've gone.

But in general, when it comes to the big chain stores, I don't even bother asking them about anything except the more furry pets (sorry cornynoob).
 
zorro said:
I hate to tell you that you don't need a thermostat on an UT heater. For heat tape in racks you do. Good luck with your new boy.
Click to expand...

Definitely need one... I have a Herpstat on mine and it's acting up. It's keeping the bottom tank just right, but the top one was up to 103 yesterday and that's with the tank on top of a couple of thick paperbacks. Had to yank the thing out. I thought my flextape had gone bad, so put the UT heater back there. Now I'm wondering if it's not the Herpstat. Should see what the warranty is on it.... probably just about out :(
 
I have over 50 tanks with UT heaters and the only thermostats I have are on my racks. As I understand it other snake breeds: will actually burn themselves but corns move to their own comfort zone in the tank. I check temps often and have never seen a problem. Maybe I have just been lucky.:shrugs:
 
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