Re: Swollen eyes at Petco, or just my imagination?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Blueraven99
I have a few animals from big chain pet stores. My local Petco is really amazing. The people that work there are passionate about animals. I have purchased 2 fuzzy ferrets from them a year apart and they are in perfect health and are adorable little psychos. I have purchased another ferret that was very ill and I took him to the vet within 2 days of getting him, the vet told me he did not feel that he would recover well if at all and that I should just let the pet store take care of his vet bills. Which at the time I decided that was best. My Petco kept me informed of his condition and how well he was progressing and that he eventually went to a nice forever home. The employees do try to educate customers about the animals they are interested in. They do try to tell people that are captivated by the super adorable animals that they can't be tossed in a cage and forgotten about like a hamster and they need hours of work, a proper cage for them is going to cost 200 plus dollars, their food is expensive unless you feed raw, ect. But people just think they are cute and I see lots of them on CL or returned to the store.
As for the reptiles I purchased my first ball python from them. He is normal, he was held rather frequently, I was told to purchase my supplies before, read, read, read as much as I could before I made my decision. I had 3 different Petco workers spent 30 minutes talking to me about the animals and their needs, handling, ect. My boyfriend does fish and live aquatic plants as his hobby, every time we go there one employee in particular spends a half hour min. talking him and sharing information.
I'm not defending in any way, just stating that, at least in my area all the animals look very healthy, the staff seem to really care about them and have a passion for them. Even the little mice and rats that are bred for feeding get played with and handled by the staff. And even the employees will point out when the set ups and displays aren't the best in the store and will show you which product is better for the animal in the end.
My boyfriend went in today actually, and the girl that helped me pick out my snake even asked how he was adjusting, and how his behavior has been, ect.
As I learn more about 'exotic' pets big chains aren't going to be my go to for animals but the staff is top notch. And any problems with a sick animal was resolved and the animal was taken care of and it was proven to me that they were. Which I respect and I totally appreciate.
Good to hear!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jhill001
OK, so here is the deal with "Big Chain" pet stores. I feel I always have to toss up some defense on their part.
Most reptiles that you can get from a big chain pet store are perfectly decent pet quality animals that are healthy.
There I said it.
The majority of those reptiles, ball pythons, veiled chameleons, leopard geckos, beardies, crested geckos, corn snakes are all even captive bred.
Most instances of bad reptile caging advice is caused when the associate learns of the person's budget and tries to get them into the "minimum setup". Not because they don't care about the animal but because its a teenager that is afraid to tell someone no this pet might not be for you. I remember when I worked at a Pet Supplies Plus way back when and that was something I did before I got more confident. And I KNEW it was probably a bad idea. Of course this was back when a lot more animals were wild caught and most animals died anyways.
It has the appearance on this site that all big chain stores have nothing but disease ridden abused animals in them because no one ever posts the perfectly healthy Milk Snake that has taken longer to sell and is thriving, moving about because he smells the tasty baby corn snakes. But you'll see the anole at petsmart with a huge growth on it's head. Do we really think that anole was their long enough to have a growth or do we think it was shipped like that?
A Pet Store only has the animals that are sent to them. Ordered from a list of possible animals on a list. Is this ideal? No.
It looks worse with ball pythons because they are bred in such large numbers to supply the pet trade and are probably the breeders worst animals, sold in bulk without feeding yet etc.
This one probably got bonked somewhere along the line.
These chain stores have really smartened up, sticking to MOSTLY very popular animals that are CB. You don't see random dead/horribly sick animals all the time like you used to.
You will see certain occasions where a big retail store will fit the worst case picture of what we all describe them as. Report these via proper avenues and they will address it. But I've also been to big chain stores where the cages looked better than those at the zoo in terms of cleanliness and healthy animals.
Also you learn very quickly that just because a store is small doesn't mean that it's magically going to be nicer. You can check my review on google on Harbor Pets in Boardman Ohio if you want to see what I mean.
Thanks for sticking that out there :) needed to be said
If you wanna step inside, pay admission at the door...
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