My first visit to Petco

So I've read so much about how terrible the conditions are at Petco especially for ball pythons, and I've decided to go see for myself. Things are worse than what people even described. They have 4 snakes all about the same size living in a small tank. They have those dial thermometers and hydrometers both displaying temps and humidity way below what it's supposed to be. The humidity was 15%, although they are not the most accurate thing, they are also somewhat in the right ball park. That's outrageous. All four of them were EXTREMELY skinny, way underfed for how long they are. 3 of them are peeling and seems to be in shed but they can't do it at all, they look super dehydrated, their skins were very wrinkly and it's so sad. Two of them looked dead. Not moving, not breathing, they look emaciated and starving and so dehydrated it's so sad. I don't ever want to go there EVER again.

Yeppp, we had awesome mom and pop pet stores here, great people, great animals, great supplies...now all we have is Petco, because they put everything else out of bussiness. I hate it. Put in a complaint to management, that's all you can do to try and help out. Our have been getting better with the living conditions, still not that great, the animals all still look pretty sick, but someone must have said something, because the baby Beardies are finally off sand, so are the baby Leopard geckos. They even gave them a humid hide, and I see fresh fruit in the beardie and iguana tanks.

If this was a store in Norway, that would have been reported as horrible animal abuse.

How does it work in the States? Do they take care of it if you report it, or is it ignored?

:mad:
This stuff makes me so mad. AS IF snakes aren't the easiest animals to take care of... especially when you have the means, aka a big store, money, supplies, food. There is no excuse.
GRRR
Take pictures and report their sorry butts for animal cruelty

I definitely will take pics and report them, not sure to who? But I will at least talk to the manager, it's outrageous. I'm not sure what is supposed to be done in the US, is there some kind of real authority I could report to? Because seeing those poor snakes made me tear up it was so heartbreaking...

I called animal control on ours and she gave me a different number to someone else. I can't remember who. But, the next time I went into petco they had a new rack system for their reptiles. Temps and humidity looked good. It seems to have done good on my end. For now.

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Originally Posted by stratus_020202

I called animal control on ours and she gave me a different number to someone else. I can't remember who. But, the next time I went into petco they had a new rack system for their reptiles. Temps and humidity looked good. It seems to have done good on my end. For now.

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Good for you!! I'm returning tomorrow even maybe tonight, it's just not right...

go you im glad people are doing something about there inexperience. petco employees are not animal enthursiasts, or not herpetoculturists anyways, they know jack crap about reptiles in general. hopefully this all resolves

I just called our city's animal control and asked whether or not there's something I can do other than just talking to the managers, because I feel like they really need to be punished for something like that. But they said there's nothing, so I guess I'll just have to talk to the managers? I live in Denver, does anyone know of any place I can report it to other than Petco itself??

CamStatic, there's not much we can do here in the states, other than report it to animal control or the managers of Petco. But usually they don't do anything.

I would print out a ball python care sheet we have here and give it to the managers! We need to try and educate! That is more important than trying to get them in trouble! I had the same experience here with a new reptile store. The tanks were dirty, old sheds, old poos and dirty water. I tried to educate by giving them the info and they said they know what they are doing and its fine so I called Animal Control and I went back a couple weeks later and it was totally cleaned up! Now they are a great store. I don't know what changed it but I am glad it did! All you can do is try!

This is the careshhet I used!

http://www.ball-pythons.net/modules/...warticle&id=59

I work at Petco, and our store treats and cares for the animals very well. We also have extremely knowledgeable staff, so don't assume that just because one, or two, or even three + Petco's are horrid that they all are.


Petco has corporate animal specialists that check on things like this -- I would reccommend looking up the specialists who cater to your Petco district.


Good luck.

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Originally Posted by EvesFriend

I work at Petco, and our store treats and cares for the animals very well. We also have extremely knowledgeable staff, so don't assume that just because one, or two, or even three + Petco's are horrid that they all are.


Petco has corporate animal specialists that check on things like this -- I would reccommend looking up the specialists who cater to your Petco district.


Good luck.

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Aren't you the one who thought pastels had yellow eyes, not green? Sorry, you just came off as overly-defensive, so I did too.

I agree though, just because one is bad doesn't mean all are. However, when you see a store mistreating animals, always report it!:)

I just looked, can only find companion animal specialist...so I'll just print out a caresheet and give it to them.

With taking pictures you have to be careful in some of those stores. They usually wont allow pictures to be taken. There has been threads like this before and employees from petco and petsmart said the stores arent usually camera friendly. So just do it discretely.

My petsmart is actually pretty good. They dont have the most knowledgeable staff. Ive had to help people before in the store with the employee right there.. That being said the staff does a good job of taking care of the animals.

IT really does vary from store to store. Around here most pet stores I have found that actually keep their snakes in decent condition will refuse to sell live rodents as feeders. Petco's primary sales on rodents are for feeders and I've never been rejected. Although their costs are excessive.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

IT really does vary from store to store. Around here most pet stores I have found that actually keep their snakes in decent condition will refuse to sell live rodents as feeders. Petco's primary sales on rodents are for feeders and I've never been rejected. Although their costs are excessive.

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We charge $2.99 for a mouse, and we def don't discriminate ;). What is the price where you're at?

2.79/mouse. Rats are 6.99/9.99/16.99. That's at Petco, they're actually decent but the cost of rats and mice is, in my opinion, high. And mice are like 7.99 for 3 F/T.

Oh I completely agree that not all stores are the same. The Petsmart near my house is great, the guy that takes care of them own ball pythons and king snakes and corn snakes along with other reptiles. I learned a lot from him when I first got my ball python. All we can do I guess is to make sure that abuse doesn't happen whenever we run across something like this. I'm not judging Petco as a corporation, but at that store, even if I didn't know anything about ball pythons, it would still be very obvious that something is seriously wrong with those balls.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

2.79/mouse. Rats are 6.99/9.99/16.99. That's at Petco, they're actually decent but the cost of rats and mice is, in my opinion, high. And mice are like 7.99 for 3 F/T.

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That is really expensive, there's a place called Scales n' Tails around where I live and they sell it for much cheaper, f/t med rats run about 2.50 per rat.

Oh, and BPs are 79.99 and they keep about 6 in there, about hatchling size, thin, but they never really look dehydrated, though they have no hides. Red tails are rare but 169.99 and usually look pretty good.

The prices arent as high as other places around here for snakes and from time to time Petco sells BPs for 29.99

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Originally Posted by Eversolulu

Oh I completely agree that not all stores are the same. The Petsmart near my house is great, the guy that takes care of them own ball pythons and king snakes and corn snakes along with other reptiles. I learned a lot from him when I first got my ball python. All we can do I guess is to make sure that abuse doesn't happen whenever we run across something like this. I'm not judging Petco as a corporation, but at that store, even if I didn't know anything about ball pythons, it would still be very obvious that something is seriously wrong with those balls.

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I'm not even gonna lie, when I saw your ball in that pic I thought the thing was way way too skinny. I guess you prove your point.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

Oh, and BPs are 79.99 and they keep about 6 in there, about hatchling size, thin, but they never really look dehydrated, though they have no hides. Red tails are rare but 169.99 and usually look pretty good.

The prices arent as high as other places around here for snakes and from time to time Petco sells BPs for 29.99

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Yeah, $79 is how much we sell them for here but recently there was a sale where you could get them for $29.

Also, we ALWAYS have red tails, usually for $159 -- recently we had a 50% off all reptile sale that brought them to around 80 bucks. I am still debating on getting one, red tails look awesome.

They do but the only one I want is:

http://www.boaconstrictorforsale.com...orph-Ghost.php

A ghost that looks like that. Amazing. Anyway...

It really does depends on the store, their management, and whoever controls their reptile section. At the one Petco I go to their fish guy knows a lot about snakes, has like 3 BPs and knows how to take care of them. Of course he isnt in the reptile department...

^^^ that is one cool lookin snake