Stupid petland employees!

Yeah, that happened here. The only pet store in town was a place called "Aqua Mart" (or something like that) It had been the only place around, but they took pretty good care of their animals. A friend of mine at work has 2 7 year old BP's and he had gotten his rats from "Aqua Mart the entire time he had owned them. About the time I got my BP a Petco moved into the new shoping area that was built. Within a month, "Aqua Mart has shut down. Now to get anything other than a very small 'adult' mouse, or almost full grown rats, you have to drive almost an hour to get to the next town with a pet store of any sort. -_- I got kinda lucky b/c when I went into Aqua Mart to look around just before I got my girl, every thing was marked down, so I got alot of good supplies for just a fraction of what they should have been. Although, I would have rather paid full price for that stuff, and have a place where I could get decent feeders... =/

That is exactly what happened out here with the Petsmart. There was a wonderful little family run reptile store a few blocks away with really in-the-know people that suddenly disappeared one weekend. My thought is that they were run out by the nearby 'big bad chain store'. Also happened back in ElPaso with a little shop I volunteered at. *Sigh*

It's also very sad that people will listen to and believe the incompetent pet store people OVER the breeders and experienced caretakers just because they 'work at the place that sells them'. It's the same as going to an idiot sleezeball mechanic to fix your car instead of the friend who rebuilds engines and such as a hobby.

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Originally Posted by BostonMacK

My local petstore is NERD :D

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<-- GREEN with envy

Not all privately owned reptile stores are good. The one in the town I live in has pretty awful husbandry for their snakes and I try not to frequent it. The last time I went, I saw some terribly dehydrated and starving sub-adult BP's - just makes you so sad.

I drive 30 minutes to get to a good one (amazon reptile!), which I do every week to get feeders...and from which we've purchased two healthy snakes. =)

I live in Simi valley and they have a pet co and some smaller shops. THeresas feed and pet but they cater to everything, reptiles, fish birds, rodents bunnies, horses, they also sell feed for farms chickens ect. their prices are decent as well there is another store as well 2 blocks from pet smart, then again the pet smart mainly caters to dogs and cats and other furry pets. where I live.

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Originally Posted by Argentra

It's also very sad that people will listen to and believe the incompetent pet store people OVER the breeders and experienced caretakers just because they 'work at the place that sells them'. It's the same as going to an idiot sleezeball mechanic to fix your car instead of the friend who rebuilds engines and such as a hobby.

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What else is sad is that I've been in these stores when people come in talking to the employees about how their snake died a month after they got it. More often than not, they were given poor advice and a poor quality animal. But they don't realize that and think "oh boy, snakes are hard to care for" and it turns them off from the hobby.

The worst one for me was I overheard some employee at PetCo telling a woman buying a corn for her son "Oh yeah, for the first 6 months, just feed it crickets if you don't want to feed it mice." I nearly had a heart attack. Luckily he walked away and I was able to talk her out of buying from them and she actually ended up adopting one of my normal hatchlings that needed a home.

Sadly, here in Toledo, the only two private pet shops are dens of horror. Thank goodness one did recently shut down. Unfortunately the days of good mom and pop pet stores are passing unless these stores get VERY creative with marketing and finding ways to draw customers in and most just do not do this. Best thing any of us can do though, if we know a great private pet store is to pass the word as much as possible and speak with our wallets. If you have to drive out of your way to that small, private store...do so. If you're part of a herp group....promote the store. Everyone complains about chain pet stores, but obviously people shop there and stop going to the private stores or those stores wouldn't be closing down every other day.

hey freaky which private pet store closed in toledo, and what pet stores do you recommend? i mostly go to sweet feed because its close and i dont get out to to many others so i was just wondering. thanks.

It's franky LOL (I'm really not the "freaky" sort). It was the one over on Lagrange, in the polish village area.

I usually only use the pet stores in Toledo for dry supplies like bedding and for feeder mice. We breed our own rats but have a few snakes that will only take mice. Those I buy from the store up at Alexis and Lewis as they will let Mike and I go in the back and handpick our feeder mice ourselves.

sorry about the name i work nights and have been up for about 24 hours so words are not my best freind right now.

Ah... so you have seen the dreaded Petland as well. No use talking to them, they're morons.