Purchased From Petsmart

I believe it all depends on the employees. I have 3 Petco's within 10 miles of me. 2 of them have experienced reptile employees. One guy even breeds leopard gecko's. But, the one is horrific! As for Petsmart I have 2 near me. One we bought a bearded dragon from and have had no problems. She's a little aggressive. But the other Petsmart is BAD! I could see the bones on their BP's, bearded dragons and they had a dead water dragon. So, I won't even return there! Guess there are good and bad of both stores!!!!

no actually my petsmartanimal has been great to me i got a ballpython from them an so did my friend before me mine is living heatlhy ive had ont times maybe 2 where he didnt eat but hey its a bp lol but he doing fine my frinds is doing fine an i also didnt wanna add this but i also go a bp from a breeder sadly the bp dead aan i miss him but i would go to petsmart anyday matter of fact im getting a redfooted turtoise from petsmart i cant wait

Every fish I have owned, spare 3 and my betta have died. All from petsmart.

I was also at one close to my work the other day, and I checked out their ball pythons, they had what they thought were two males in the same 10 gallon. It turned out to be a male and a female, we asked if we could see them (5 days out of their feed) and they were the most agitated aggressive Bp's I have ever seen. They were so aggressive the lady working there wouldnt even let us hold her, cause of "liability" issues.

I have vowed to never purchase any pet from Petland or Petsmart (No Petco in Canada) Anything I get will be from a dedicated and well informed breeder.

To this day I still don't understand why people buy from Petsmart or Petco. They have pretty much a puppy mill set up for various reptiles. They buy from a "breeder" who's goal in life is to produce a bunch of normals and make money no matter what. Most of the time the snakes don't last a month at the stores, so they die and the company buys new ones. Cage setup and husbandry is HORRIFIC no matter if the place has reptile people or not.
By purchasing animals there your pretty much fueling the fire to a reptile mill......congratulations

I'm a dog trainer at petsmart and each store will be different. A lot of the people at my store care about the reptiles and if they're not sure about something, or a customer wants to know about the snakes, they come and get me.
We keep the temp and humidity right for each species, but if nobody at the store knew anything about them, I can only imagine how bad they would be.
I would take it on a store by store basis.

I buy straight from breeders but when I go into petsmart the results vary store to store. just be sure to know your stuff so you can decide if the animal is healthy or not since you would be diagnosing it for the rest of it's life.

Since my page 1 post in this thread, I have purchased some female guppies from.. I forget which pet____ big box store. They were founding stock for a big tank of guppies, and from which I now have a thriving colony of a couple dozen adults, and plenty of juveniles/newborns.

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Originally Posted by Mallory

I'm a dog trainer at petsmart and each store will be different. A lot of the people at my store care about the reptiles and if they're not sure about something, or a customer wants to know about the snakes, they come and get me.
We keep the temp and humidity right for each species, but if nobody at the store knew anything about them, I can only imagine how bad they would be.
I would take it on a store by store basis.

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With dial guages? And housing multiple snakes together? Baby leos on sand? Snakes only a heat bulb for warmth?

All of the stores are setup the same, it doesn't matter where you go. Reptile people who know what's up or not. Animals are kept like crap. End of story.

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Originally Posted by MitsuMike

With dial guages? And housing multiple snakes together? Baby leos on sand? Snakes only a heat bulb for warmth?

All of the stores are setup the same, it doesn't matter where you go. Reptile people who know what's up or not. Animals are kept like crap. End of story.

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At the petsmart near my house, the only snakes housed more than one to an enclosure is corn snakes and I've never seen more than two corn snakes in one enclosure. I've never seen leopard geckos on sand, babies or adults. Yes they use dial gauges and heat bulbs. I use heat bulbs and my humidity and temps are fine. Not all stores are the same. I know reptile loving friends that work at Petco and they will not allow management to skimp if it's hurting the animals. Not all stores are the same.

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Originally Posted by maverickgtr

At the petsmart near my house, the only snakes housed more than one to an enclosure is corn snakes and I've never seen more than two corn snakes in one enclosure. I've never seen leopard geckos on sand, babies or adults. Yes they use dial gauges and heat bulbs. I use heat bulbs and my humidity and temps are fine. Not all stores are the same. I know reptile loving friends that work at Petco and they will not allow management to skimp if it's hurting the animals. Not all stores are the same.

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And using dial gauges for ambient temps (no hot spot gauge) and a humidity dial gauge is not skimping? Dial gauges work at well as the weather rock.
Atleast some stores "try" and keep animals alive. But trying is not good enough.
Why are you defending a chain of store that pretty much buy from reptile mills? B/c a few stores do it somewhat right is it ok? Not so much.