Petsmart Rant

[BMorrison]

Was just there to grab some aspen as it was tub cleaning day and I walk past a pied, pewter, BEL, banana and lesser... All very high quality morphs.. The bel was gorgeous but no way would I ever risk bringing home another big box animal into my collection as the first one had a massive mite infestation and after ivomec, provent a mite and mucho denero in husbandry changes thanks to this forum (back in January 2008) he's a champion now.

Here's my issue...

So say someone just in the store see's one of these gorgeous critters and they set em up with this most likely sick animal (the cages were wet with humidity half log hide and frantically scrambling bp's) then we're back to where half these threads start anymore.. "My BP is sick" "is this an RI" etc and after said person wasn't maybe ready to fork the cash out to an exotic vet this animal dies. High quality animals, low quality husbandry... I've sent an email to their corporate about this particular store by me's husbandry issues (doubt they'll correct anything) but am I the only one that this scenario makes particularly... Angry?!!?

[treaux]

I had a similar experience at a Petco and complained via their website. Someone got in touch with me quickly and told me they had all the snakes I mentioned taken to the vet for exam and were told that they are healthy. When I returned to the store several months later, conditions were pretty much the same though...

[cchardwick]

At my local PetCo it looks like they don't feed the baby ball pythons, they are really skinny and just waste away. Although I do feed my babies live rat pups twice a week now and they really look fat and happy, I'm sure PetCo employees would never feed a live rat pup LOL!!

[Hannahshissyfix]

I think the issue is that you're putting a higher value on the snakes life because of the higher morph cost. I get equally upset about seeing how crappy they take care of their normal BPs. A normal starving or a pied starving shouldn't make a difference, they've both alive and hurt equally regardless of color. I have a thread from a couple weeks ago about this poor guy at Petco. Big box stores just shouldn't sell what they aren't willing to learn proper husbandry for and are more worried about selling the wrong housing for to make money.

[BMorrison]

I don't put a higher value on the pattern at all but there haven't been any normal at this particular store in probably close to over 2 years, not much in the way of herps at all actually just happened to be lower on aspen than if thought so the trip there was necessary.

My first was from a petco and he's a normal I just know the problem you face in that scenario. A 35/55$ normal and whatever terrible setup they try getting an inexperienced or uneducated keeper is the problem and taking a 500 hit on say a BEL from there plus another few hundred in setup to possibly encounter that vet bill that maybe the 17/18/20 year old kid doesn't have or isn't prepared for resulting in the death of said animal is my issue.


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[blue roses]

The biggest problem with the big box stores is the fact that they are only as good as their managers. I know that the only place in the store they really look for expairienced people is as a fish specialist. Otherwise whoever is assigned to reptiles and birds, and small animals are interchangeable no matter what knowledge. The only reason the petco by me, where my daughter used to work just sits accross the street from a reptile shop, and if he has no job openings they will go over to petco. At one time they had a reptile knowledgeable person on each shift. My daughter said that store was the best kept in this area especially for reptiles. She was sorry to go to her new store, but more money and a promotion was too good to pass up. So its not really the company its the individual managers.

[thingsthatmakenoise]

I had a similar issue with my local PetSmart and when I contacted corporate they just referred me back to the store. I already spoke with a manager and two employees, no one there knows how to properly take care of bps. I was furious and contacted animal control along with my local herp society. I saved a little baby from there but I refuse to set foot in a PetSmart ever again. They don't care about their animals and every ball python out means another one in. It's just stock to them.

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[Captainsloose]

My neighbor bought a normal from my local Petco. The first one they gave him had a respiratory infection and they had him set up the tank with a heat lamp and no thermostat. I told me he was going to roast this snake, and sure enough, two days later he did because he didn't believe the Petco people could be so incompetent... He brought the mostly dead baby back and they gave him another baby and this one is painfully skinny. They told him to feed the baby one pinky mouse every week to 10 days. They informed him he should feed them in another cage and feed them every Monday. Sigh.

I told him he has to start feeding this baby more often because it is too skinny. He finally started listening to me and the baby is coming around... it just made me mental that they treat their animals as poorly as they do.