Amy Truman said:
Once they realize that you know what your talking about, they will usually drop the price considderably because they will hope that you will buy it so that they don't have to learn or work to take propper care of it......about they tend to want to make the problem disapear
quickly...... It's worth spending a little extra when you know you can offer a better home or find a better home, or even save a life.
Although I can appreciate that many are willing to take in sick/injured/poorly healthed snakes (and other animals) I must strongly disagree with this type of thinking.
I agree that when confronted the owners will want the problem to disappear unfortunately this does not take care of the problem itself. The problem is that the pet store owner/workers might not know what they are doing and/or just don't care. You buying this animal will give them one more sale and will open the door to them purchasing more to restock.
The problem is not, in this case, that there is a tick and mite infested snake in their store. The problem is that the store owner has done nothing about it. The problem is that the snake either came in in bad shape (owner bought it for cheap from a crappy dealer/seller) or was left to get that way while at the store for the months that it was there. The problem is that the owner doesn't care enough about it. Therefore, buying it and caring for it out of pity for the animal is band-aid solution.
I know amy and I are thinking along the same lines because she said it herself:
so that they don't have to learn or work to take propper care of it.
I'm not saying it's better to leave the animal there to fend for itself and most likely not having the care it needs to get back to being healthy.
I'm saying that maybe it would be more effective for you to help the owner see what kind of condition s/he is keeping this and other animals and how it can be rectified for the benefit of the animal's health and to the buyer who will appreciate a now healthy animal.
If you have the time, maybe you can spend some extra time in there one afternoon to introduce yourself and present the owner, nicely, with some helpful hints perhaps even going so far as to help clean this snake's enclosure and all others in the area (I'm wiling to bet there are more than just this one snake in this condition). Care for the snake as you see fit (there is plenty of good information on Fauna about how to rid snakes of ectoparasites) and ask that come back after a few days to repeat, and then again a few days after. If s/he is willing to let you help out and is looking interested in fixing the problem (learning how to do it) then you are going in the right direction. If not, then s/he doesn't care about the health of his/her animals.
I know it sounds a little cold hearted but cut your losses and don't buy any animal(s) out of the kindness of your heart because it looks sick and needs help. You just leave the door open for the seller to continue selling this way and you've just made him a few bucks along the way.
Give a man a fish....
