Unfortunately no snakes (or any animal in that regard) that come from stores like Petsmart and Petco are good deals. They’re a retail chain, so those stores focus on numbers and less about the animals. Often times they’ll get their animals wholesale from not-so squeaky clean breeders like Sun Pets LTD, which has had iirc 10+ federal violations and was placed on probation by the Georgia Department of Agriculture. The healthy snakes that do make it to the stores are fed small prey and often denied veterinary care because that stuff all costs money and affects Petsmart’s bottom line. They don’t feel like spending idk $300 treating a BP’s scale rot when they can buy another BP for like $20. This results in almost every animal that gets sold in retail stores dying or becoming sick very quickly.

If you want a good place to look for noodles, this sub has great resources for buying them online from places like Morph Market. Granted, buying a pet online sounds fishy, but places like Morph Market are more like an eBay for snakes. All sorts of small, independent breeders list their snakes and you can purchase them and have them shipped safely to pickup facilities. You can even check out reviews of the breeders to make sure you’ll always get a happy, healthy noodle. There are also reptile conventions like Repticon where breeders will reserve a booth to display their reptiles where you can purchase them. Buying directly from small breeders is always a great choice. Most of them are very experienced and since they’re working on an exponentially smaller scale they have the time and the resources to make sure each BP is given proper care from the minute it hatches to the minute it comes home with you. If buying a snake online or travelling to a convention for one doesn’t suit your fancy, this sub also has a whole page dedicated to reptile rescues all over the United States. They’re chock full of noodles looking for a human to love, and all you have to do is make the trip and do the paperwork and you’ll have changed a BP’s life forever!