Irresponsible Petsmart...like always

So, I went to Petsmart to get a larger Kritter Keeper for my crestie and while I was there I glanced around the reptile section and noticed they put in a new "wall of reptiles." I looked at the various reptiles in the new section, it consisted of a Rose Hair T., being held in a mini KK, a crestie in a small KK, (which was reasonable to an extent), a "fancy" corn snake in a mini KK, a Chinese Water Dragon in a normal Petsmart tank, and a few others I couldn't stand to even look at because the freaking T. and the corn snake in mini KKs pissed me off so much that I just got the Medium sized KK I needed, purchased it, and left. Oh, and to top it off, while I was in line, there was a mom, a dad, and their son who looked to be about 8 or 9, they were returning a "Snake Starter Kit", I asked them "What kind of snake are you getting?" They looked at me like I was crazy and then said "We're returning the cage, we had a corn snake but haven't seen it since we bought it, it's been hiding under the water bowl." So, at this point I'm starting to get even more pissed and then shake my head and say "How long have you had the snake?" The mother just looked at me blankly once again, and said "We've had it since the first." I was just so shocked, all I could say was "Oh, sorry for not being satisfied by my hobby, I quite enjoy it." So, then we are stuck behind them a little longer while the stupid cashier went to find a manager because she didn't know what she was doing, the son looks at me and says, "How many different kinds of snakes do you have?" I just kind of knelt down to his level, and replied with "At the moment I have none but in the past I've owned a corn snake, who was very adventurous in the tank, a ball python who was lazy, as expected, a boa, who was beautiful, and an anaconda that ate my father." The boy just looked up at his father and I walked away to another register to get out of that hell-hole as quickly as possible. So, as expected, I had a terrible time at Petsmart (:mad:) which was semi brought back up by the family that had absolutely no information on an animal they had only for four days, who I enjoyed messing with. :mad:/:P

Don't hate on PetSmart. They give their animals the most basic of care, the same as some of the people who shop there. It's a business, not an animal resort. And don't expect a store associate to inform customers about the full range of care of animals they themselves may have never owned. All some of the associates know is what is in the pamphlets given with animal sales. The pamphlets do not include every aspect of the care of the animal. That is for the customer to research themselves. That family simply didn't know what they were getting into.

I didn't say it had to be an animal resort, but I mean, really, a T. the size of the palm of my hand, in a mini KK, and other animals in too small of a cage? I disagree with you there, I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not when you say "Don't hate on Petsmart, they give their animals the most basic of care." but I'm pretty sure you are. If not, then here's my response to you, I understand not giving the animals some five star hotel like enclosure as it may not be their long, but really? a Kritter Keeper, much too small for the animal? That is not okay.

What size cages/tanks/tubs are the snakes at reptile expos housed in during the 2-3 day expo??


http://upscalereptiles.com/2011/wp-c...1240943567.jpg


only about 2x as big as the snake is...still pretty small.

Businesses do what they 'have to' do, but can always improve. Sad fact.

Don't just hate Petco, hate capitalism in general.

I'm sorry, but you threw away a chance to educate this family by explaining that hiding is perfectly normal behavior for a baby corn snake as it's a perfect sized meal for many birds and it doesn't know that it's safe and living protected in a tank. Once it grows up a little it will be out and about more often.

Unfortunately most people wouldn't respond well even to kind gentle education like this

I've found most people just blow off most of what herp experts tell them in preference to what the internet or some PetCo employee would do.

Just some thoughts:

Its places like these that get people started in the hobby. I got my first snake at PetSmart. Some of the things they told me were correct. Other info was not so right. Yea, I did it the wrong way, but now I have educated myself and taken every opportunity to educate the people I know and meet. I’ve gone back to PetSmart, on several occasions, to give updates on my purchase and to share what I’ve learned. They look forward to seeing me and Bellatrix (my first purchase) and now pass on what I have taught, to their new employees and customers.

It’s up to US to educate the ignorant. It’s the only way we’ll eliminate the prejudice.

The 'trick' is not to come off like a know-it-all or with condemnation. I will ask questions on how they do things and offer what I have learned. I remember having a new employee show me a baby BP saying “Be careful of that one, he’s mean”. I showed him how to approach the snake from behind and pick it up and hold it until it relaxed and started to move. From then on, that snake was a ‘favorite’ of the store and everyone was sad to see it sold.

In defense of the OS... My first reaction is to slap the _ _ _ _ out of people too. LOL With age, comes wisdom (if you've paid attention), and I should be pretty wise at this age! LOL

[SOAPBOX]

I'm completely confused by your post. It is a retailer's job to provide proper basic care for a short period of time while the animal is in their store. Nothing in this post suggests they were doing otherwise - you said nothing about the health of the animals other than being cramped.

I'm not sure how much tarantula experience you have, or how large your palm is for that matter, but I'd much rather see a rose hair being kept in a mini Kritter Keeper in a pet store than a too tall ExoTerra/ZooMed terrarium where it was prone to falling from the ceiling. To further the point, most tarantula breeder's collections are kept in containers that many people unfamiliar with the hobby would consider to be too small for them, but they are obviously thriving with proper care and maintenance. Also, you never said how large the fancy corn snake was that you were so upset by seeing in a mini Kritter Keeper. The ones I've seen being kept in this size are no bigger round than a pencil and are proportionally comparable to keeping hatchling BPs in shoe box sized racks - obviously nothing wrong with that. I also second the post that Mephibosheth1 made about Reptile Expos - the animals are obviously kept for short periods of time in enclosures that obviously don't meet their husbandry requirements. Compared with these expos, the display that you were so put off by at Petsmart is a resort - complete with free heat, food, and water! :)

I'm also not sure why you were so put off by the experience you had in the check-out line. PetSmart has a return policy on any animal they sell (for any reason - health or otherwise) because they understand that things happen in the real world once the new pet arrives home. It's the associate's job to provide basic care information - not give them the encyclopedic knowledge that you seem to think it takes to care for a snake or give them a real world snake keeping preview. That's what these forums are for! :gj:

Also, would you rather a cashier screw up a transaction at the cash register, or ask for help when needed? It also sounds like they also opened up another register so you won't have to wait as long behind the family you were getting impatient with. What horrible service! ;)

What really gets me though is that you were the one pouring fuel on the fire with the family you encountered and weren't by any stretch of the imagination being a good ambassador for the hobby. I mean, seriously - an anaconda ate your father? Who says that to a stranger's child? Obviously, the family had some interest in bringing an unusual pet into their home, decided it wasn't for them, and you enforced their declining feelings towards our hobby and the type of person they now feel owns snakes. :rolleyes:

[/SOAPBOX]

Eric

Quote:

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Originally Posted by therunaway

I just kind of knelt down to his level, and replied with "At the moment I have none but in the past I've owned a corn snake, who was very adventurous in the tank, a ball python who was lazy, as expected, a boa, who was beautiful, and an anaconda that ate my father." The boy just looked up at his father and I walked away to another register to get out of that hell-hole as quickly as possible

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Great job on possibly scaring a harmless child out of this hobby/community. :rage:

I cant comment on the care of the animals, because I have no idea what a kritter keeper is, but yea, scaring the child by telling him that an anaconda ate your father is just wrong, and did nothing to educate him and could have ruined his chance of ever owning another snake and being a part of the hobby. Feeding into the crap the media already spews is not a good thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by therunaway

So, I went to Petsmart to get a larger Kritter Keeper for my crestie and while I was there I glanced around the reptile section and noticed they put in a new "wall of reptiles." I looked at the various reptiles in the new section, it consisted of a Rose Hair T., being held in a mini KK, a crestie in a small KK, (which was reasonable to an extent), a "fancy" corn snake in a mini KK, a Chinese Water Dragon in a normal Petsmart tank, and a few others I couldn't stand to even look at because the freaking T. and the corn snake in mini KKs pissed me off so much that I just got the Medium sized KK I needed, purchased it, and left. Oh, and to top it off, while I was in line, there was a mom, a dad, and their son who looked to be about 8 or 9, they were returning a "Snake Starter Kit", I asked them "What kind of snake are you getting?" They looked at me like I was crazy and then said "We're returning the cage, we had a corn snake but haven't seen it since we bought it, it's been hiding under the water bowl." So, at this point I'm starting to get even more pissed and then shake my head and say "How long have you had the snake?" The mother just looked at me blankly once again, and said "We've had it since the first." I was just so shocked, all I could say was "Oh, sorry for not being satisfied by my hobby, I quite enjoy it." So, then we are stuck behind them a little longer while the stupid cashier went to find a manager because she didn't know what she was doing, the son looks at me and says, "How many different kinds of snakes do you have?" I just kind of knelt down to his level, and replied with "At the moment I have none but in the past I've owned a corn snake, who was very adventurous in the tank, a ball python who was lazy, as expected, a boa, who was beautiful, and an anaconda that ate my father." The boy just looked up at his father and I walked away to another register to get out of that hell-hole as quickly as possible. So, as expected, I had a terrible time at Petsmart (:mad:) which was semi brought back up by the family that had absolutely no information on an animal they had only for four days, who I enjoyed messing with. :mad:/:P

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I understand that you are passionate about the animals and the hobby in general, we all are or we would not be here. However, making the statement that was made was a bit absurd and inappropriate. You may have scared that child away from the hobby permanently. We need the future generation to be involved to keep the hobby alive and thriving. As for the level of care that Petsmart gives their reptiles, you really cannot fault the employees, they are taught a certain way to care for the animals and that is all they know. Petsmart and Petco for that matter do the best they can with the little knowledge that they have. You should have taken this opportunity to educate folks about the proper care and husbandry of the animals, not frighten them half to death. This hobby has enough negative reputation from the main stream media and the ignorance of people. What you said not only makes the rest of us look bad, it also makes YOU look bad. Maybe next time this issue presents itself you will think before you speak.

I agree with everyone, I shouldn't have said what I said, it was a spur of the moment, diarrhea of the mouth type deal. I apologize if I offended anyone, and will think before I speak next time, and work on educating the GP.

My Petsmart cares for animals quite well compared to my Petco who do not even give water to the animals and have dead insects and rotting veggies in the reptiles tanks. But every store is different. The only thing is that in my area reptiles do not sell as well and Petsmart has had a corn snake for a year that is about 2 and a half feet long in a very tiny cage because it never sold. And a lot of Petcos baby beardies and leos die due to impaction from using sand at a young age. I do not agree with all of their care but hopefully these animals are just there for a short time until they find a home.

The family probably did the right thing. I always say, unless their parents are herpers, snakes make a lousy pet for little kids. There's little to look at and excite kids, so when the fun wears off the snake starts to slip everyone's mind (especially since a corn snake is so easy to care for). This can end with snakes being neglected.

On the other hand, I know how you felt. I was pissed as hell at Petsmart the other day because they had this ball python in a glass display about half the size of a shoebox with exposure on two sides to the public and no hides. He was, as expected, very stressed and trying to escape. But then that might help him get sold--people don't tend to buy stuff at Petsmart if they can't see it. So in the end, having no place to hide might find him a nice home. Y'know, if he ain't straight from Africa with parasites galore or what not. So don't feel too bad. I'm sure most people on this forum have felt that way at a pet store at least once in their lives. You just gotta accept that as long as people are buying, the big box stores will be selling, and the best way to help end it is to buy your snakes from breeders and not from them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alykoz

Don't just hate Petco, hate capitalism in general.

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http://i.imgflip.com/2ge54.jpg
If it wasn't for capitalism, you wouldn't have no damn snakes. :P

On topic, I actually work to impress my local PetCo/PetSmart's employees; educating them and even unintentionally making a mini educational seminar with the customers while holding one of their display animals. I ask the tough questions to employees too, such as those regarding disease and quarantine and don't judge it against them if "I don't know" is the answer, but rather, point out why I'm asking that and how important it is. After all, I owe it to petco/petsmart for providing me with two beautiful BP's. (One is highly unusual and very pretty- I'll post pics in a week after she sheds. :))

I just want to throw my two cents into this conversation..

I worked at a PetSmart for 4 years. While I can't speak for every PetSmart through out the entire country I can speak on my owns behalf. We try really hard to give the animals the care that they deserve but what the general public doesn't seem to know/understand is that we HAVE to follow certain policies and procedures. Otherwise you get written up for breaking rules no matter if it's on behalf of the animal or not. We have to answer to our managers who in turn answer to corporate. There are also things called "plan-o-grams" which is basically how a display, be it shelf/animal set up/signage, should look. Again we have to follow these to a T and cannot create short cuts or add our own stuff into otherwise we get into trouble with corporate. PetSmart is a business and at the end of the day the animals are unfortunately commodities. I was lucky enough to work at one of the high performing stores(made it to the top 5% quite a few times) so we were able to get newly updated enclosures for the animals to keep them happy.

With that said I worked directly in the Pet Care department(where the animals are sold) and I can tell you that most animals stayed in their cages for about 1-2 weeks before they were sold. We would try very hard to educate every customer that purchased an animal and explain exactly what they needed but it's very hard to get with every employee and customer to make sure the proper information is being passsed on. I'll admit those care guides they offer aren't the greatest and give a very, very basic over view of pet care. Half the responsibility of pet ownership, though, is doing your research before you get the animal. It's not fair to expect an employee to know every thing and sell you all the correct stuff because most of the time it's just a another retail job to them plain and simple.

As a supervisor of that department I tried really hard to pass out information to all employees to make sure everyone was on the same page but you'll always have a few bad(or lazy) apples that just don't care.

And as for the cashier don't be so harsh. It could have been his/her first day! I really doubt that you mastered every task you've ever been set to do in one day!:oops:

About the critter keeps with the tarantualas. We never sold tarantulas at my store but all I can assume is maybe they were holding them in there because their habitats were not set up yet. We would do this sometimes to keep the animals warm and comfortable while their actual cage was being set up.

Thanks for reading!