Awe, petco grew a conscience.

I went to the local petco today, mostly because I needed a few female rats that were not dying. Petco is actually my best local source for rats; they use carefresh bedding and none of the ones I get there are on death's doorstep.
Anyway, I noticed they put little labels by the rats and mice, urging people to consider adoption before buying a rodent pet. They also said something along the lines of "a pet is a longterm commitment" etc. Then by the reptiles there were tags saying "research your future pet before buying."
I guess these are good steps for petco to take. I have no comments on their reptiles, because the ones I know about (BPs and boas) were not in stock at press time. I do know that the guy working in Rodents is a snakekeeper who breeds rats too, so that could be why the rodents are in good living conditions.
But hey, any changes at petco that are for the better, are OK in my book. I didn't even see any green iggies there; I hate seeing them in pet stores. And the fish looked pretty good too. Overall, petco had better conditions than most of the local shops round here.

well, that is a refreshing change!

That's wonderful to hear! I don't know how Petco or any of the big pet chains work as far as what is "corporate polidy" and what is each individual Manager's decision making as far as what animals are sold and the housing/housekeeping of them.

I know here in our little community we have two privately owned pet stores. One is very good and where we purchase our pets and supplies from. The other is excellent on fish but not great on reptiles and birds. Heck last week they labelled 2 baby ball pythons as baby albino burmese - makes me concerned as they did have a baby burm in that tank 2 months ago so if they couldn't change the label on the tank they most likely never even cleaned it after the burm was sold.

We make sure our "pet dollars" are spent in the other shop that seems more knowledgeable and certainly houses and identifies their stock properly.


~~Joanna~~

Yeah, I usually shop at my friend's store (it's a little, local type shop.) But there's only one guy she gets rats from, and it's too sporadic for me to rely on them being there. Heh, I am going to be the one supplying her, so I geuss it is kinda tough for me to buy from her! lol
But for 90% of my pet needs, I support her as well as a small family-owned shop in Buffalo.

I agree, Petco is the best around here, it is also the newest and most expensive. The store is clean and the staff has been knowledgable.

glad to see that at least one petco store is starting to straighten up. every petstore around here takes real cruddy care of everything. its rediculous. but at least your petcos trying.


PS...i still hate petco

Yeah, petco is super-expensivo. I bite my tongue and flinch as I fork over $7.99 for a darn rat. :(

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

But for 90% of my pet needs, I support her as well as a small family-owned shop in Buffalo.

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Markheims?? I always forget if we had ever discussed that place but I think that you were the one that knew about that place when I brought it up. They usually do a really nice job & they have a knowledgable crew working in the reptile area. I was a little dissappointed the last time that i went in there though because they had SO MANY Beardies in the same tanks & some of them had missing limbs from previous battles with old tank-mates. Still, as far as pet shops go in the Buffalo area, Markheims is definately at the top of the list!

I really like Markheim. Last time I was there, they really didn't have much in, in the way of snakes.. maybe I just caught them at a bad day? They did have a huge amount of beardies though.
The local place I was talking about, is my friend's shop in Arcade. If you're ever that way, you should go there. She has a few reptiles and keeps them pretty well. She mostly focuses on tropical fish and dog rescues, but she is also into beardies and a few snakes, and she has a big boa too.