Petco trip today....

Well I went to petco to pick up a chain and collar for my dog. While my girlfriend was getting what we needed I went to check out the snakes and stuff (like most of us probably do) and to my surprise (sarcasm) there was a teeenie tiny pinstripe laying on its side dead. In another tank, there was a 200 gram looking normal bp with a horrible horrible shed and it's like they don't give a #@~!.. Anyone else think they should not keep reptiles? I do. Just ridiculous.

It is sad, but it really varies from store to store. The petsmart by me does a fairly good job caring for their reptiles.

All you can really do is file a complaint with the store. That is pretty awful having a dead animal laying there like that :( You can also refuse to give them your business in the future.

The sad thing is i iaed to work at petco. I never dealt in the reptile area because i was scared of everything except the snakes, but i know from working there no one had experiece with the reptiles. There enclosures are only cleaned once a month they dont feed consistantly. i think reptiles should be left to specific exotics shops or breeders not to big name pet stores.

Thats a horrible story. The Petco by me is really nice. They have brand new racks for all their reptiles and the guy running the reptile dept is awesome. He actually breeds snakes on the side.

I have been having to get some feeders at my local Petco for my pesky bee that isn't wanting to switch to f/t. First time I went in there to grab a feeder 2 weeks ago they had not cleaned any of the enclosures, had a tone of lethargic animals. I called the general manager over and told her she could either get to cleaning the cages while I was there or I was calling the local humane society. Took about 3 minutes for her and another employee to start cleaning. I filed a complaint and took pictures. I have been back once and they cleaned out all the inhabited enclosure but the others were still horrible. Called her over again to attempt to explain the need for them all to be clean and then filed another complaint. This week we will see, planned on calling the humane society and police department before hand just to file a complaint and again if conditions are still bad.

I figure if enough people start raising the alarm and making it cost the pet stores money things will change. If not then my time spent trying to improve the few lives it does is still well spent.

Petco policies and procedures state reptile enclosures be cleaned once a week, mice/rats/ferrets twice a week, and other critters once a week. There are supposed to be hourly walks by managers and animal employees. If their habitats or animals don't reflect this, complain.

The petulant by me is ok but none of the employees know anything about rodents or snakes at all they know anything you want to know about fish and that's it

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Originally Posted by CBconstrictors

The petulant by me is ok but none of the employees know anything about rodents or snakes at all they know anything you want to know about fish and that's it

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I am unfamiliar with that chain. :)

I'll assume that's a typo.

I work at petsmart and at our store the animals get the best care we can give them(based on the rules we must follow), sadly even though most of the animals come in pretty healthy we sometimes get a sick one. It's so sad when that happens, it's usually upper respiratory infections in small animals and underweight reptiles. I've been to a few Petsmart's and Petco's where the care is horrible, it sickens me when I see cups of dead bettas, at the store I work at we have pretty healthy bettas because I treat any who look ill, have fin rot, parasites, or swim bladder issues. They also get 2 100% water changes a week.