Petco?

Any stories or comments about petco :?:

Just curious,
Why is it that you are asking, almost sound like an employee or something, do YOU have any stories about petco?

P.S. sorry I didn't mean to sound so rude.

I was gonna get my bp from them but it seems a little shady. They have them on sale for 29.99 and most reptile stores sell bp for around 50-75. I went to another store who specialize in reptiles to compare cages and prices, they where suprised that petco wouldn't even let me hold one. The other store let me hold a 1 year old female and she wasen't even scared she was very sweet. They said it would be better to get a older bp(1 year ) then to get a baby like the ones they sell at petco, they tend to be more aggresive not easy to handle. I also heard that most bp's from petco are wild caught.

well i went to petco and the let me hold some ball pythons and some red tail boas. I havent heard that babies are more agressive but anyways....im not sure if the snakes are wild caught, they might be. did u ask if they were ?? i paid 30 dollars for my baby ball, i bought it at a small pet store here in town i usually dont buy animals from big pet stores becuase with so many animals they cant provide the proper care for them. I use petco mostly for supplies or some place to go in my free time. if the snakes look heathy and you know that they are eating well then i see no problem in buying from them. Some petcos are great and others are just crap.

when it comes to ball pythons, the money cannot be too much of an issue.


and fyi, theres no way in hell i'd buy a snake from petco.

i remember one petco i went to i was horrified, i picked up one of the wood climbing thingies for the snakes and it had snake skin on it and i thought to myslef "hmm thats wierd" and then like 15 minutes later this ladie is running through the store saying there is a snake on the loose, i thought it would be this giant snake or something but it was just a baby ball i picked it up and went to find an employee and when i told him he didnt seem to care much, he just took it from me without saying a word and put it back in the cage. i should have just taken the poor thing, he would have been better off with me...(im just playin i wuld never steal) ohh i almost forgot, when he put it back in the cage with the others (a cage with no hides) i saw one and it only had one eye ! it wasnt bleeding or anything but still thats just horrible

(sorry about this super long post, i am really bored)

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...(im just playin i wuld never steal)

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LOL, stealing? In your case that would have been liberation!

When it comes to buying your bp, go with your gut.......if you feel bad juju at the store, leave and buy one that you won't start out worried about. You'll feel much better when you buy from someone who's knowledgable and as excited about them as you are.

You'll hear various things about Petco & Petsmart & basically any other big chain store. As Brandon said, some are great, others are horrible & I would imagine that there are some in between. And, as Steel said, you really hafta go with your gut. If you know what you are lookin for then you should be able to tell whether or not you are gettin a raw deal. Sometimes you hafta look at the ups & downs of the whole thing. I know that i never shoulda bought Hissy (my BP) cuz she was not well taken care of at all at the petstore (a small, independently owned joint) that I got her from. On the other hand, I am extremely glad that I was over zealous & did buy her because I Know that she is being taken care of SO much better than she was &, by all accounts, she seems to be an incredibly happy & VERY healthy snake now! You gotta use good judegement. Just do your research & then you decide.

I will say this tho, if they won't let you handle the snakes, then i would be awful concerned that there is some sort of sketchiness happenin thurr!!

I do not personally buy anything from petco. even though some of the stores are tolerable, tolerable is not what I look for in a pet store. I look for reptiles specialists who have perfectly clean and correct cages, healthy feeding herps, and are willing to tell you the breeders they buy from. If a store will not tell which breeder it uses, you can bet that their snakes are wild-caught and probably tick-infested.
Of all the sources I have used for Bp purchasing, the best method I've found was ordering right from a reputable breeder. Your snake comes in the mail a day or two after you order, and you get the security of knowing its sex, date of birth, and parasite-free status (if you go with a reputable breeder.) I got my newest Bp frrom Alex Hue Reptiles, and she's healthy and perfect!

Thanks everyone for the replys :lol:

I purchased my bp from Petco and he was and is fine. I had him check by a vet about mo after I got him. He is doing well but if I had it to do over and when i buy my Red tail Boa it will not be from Petco. I am sure mine was w/c but my Petco swears they are cbb and they get them from Gourmet Rodent.
If a store or breeder doesn't want you to handle then do not buy.
You need to handle and inspect any animal you buy, unless of course it is from a reputable on-line breeder and then they should have pics and gurantees
Good Luck

i got my BP from Petco when it was on sale for 29.99 and my snake is doing great. Very friendly and never balls up. Not sure of the sex though, but overall I am very pleased. Also I have never had a problem feeding f/t so it may just be cbb.

I actually had a good experience at Petco. The guy who works there has over a dozen snakes himself, including 2 bps. So he was very knowledgeable with the reptiles. He said the pros and cons of buying from petco, and what usually happens (i.e. the people that don't know squat about snakes), but he said that the ones they had in he has taken care of them, and the other store employees have taken care of them very well. And of all the signs from my jub jub that seems to be the case. Healthy eater, very friendly, and likes to roam around his cage at night a lot.

But, I could see where there could be problems.

Some of the large chain pet stores have a policy of not using ANY wild caught pets. That said, one problem they have is that their hiring standards are not always the best. The manager of the store is a manager, not necessarily a "pet specialist", and he or she may or may not be highly concerned with hiring employees that are knowledgeable about pets. This is the same problem many large stores have. You do NOT want to know how many times I have gone in to Home Depot and known more about what I needed than the employee in that department knew, and I am not a home repair expert by any means. When the guy working in the heating department doesn't know what a plenum is, the store either needs to review their hiring practices, or institute some serious training.

Petco and Petsmart are, as previously pointed out, dependent on the quality of the individual management in the store. If the manager knows enough to hire people who are experienced with the various pets, and supports his employees in assuring the animals are well cared for, they can be a great store to shop in. If, on the other hand, the manager hires someone for other reasons ("She's got HUGE tracts of land!") you're liable to be shopping in Pet Hell.

The local reptile specialty shop here in town has not been a reliable source for frozen rodents. Even though they freeze their own, the last few times I've gone in, they have not had any. Petco has been carrying frozen rats from a national supplier, and most of the time they have an ample stock. I would really prefer to patronize the locally owned specialty shop, but if it won't make enough effort to stock what I need, I will go someplace that does.

well I guess I can talk about petco....I work there. I take care of the reptiles.

As for the $29.99 price tag. There is nothing wierd about, petco just has a sale rotation and it was just their turn.

Also I saw mention of our snakes being wild caught, that is just not true. They are all captive bred I assure you. I make the orders for petco so I know where they are coming from.

Now I am not here defending petco be in stretch of the imagination. I dislike many of the policies because they are complete off the wall and are sometime just straight up bad for the animals.

Now for their hiring, I do have a very big problem with this. Petco has almost no interest in if you keep the pets, now this is just to get the job. If you want to care for the animals, you must prove that you have the knowledge base to handle most any situation that arises. For example we have been having problems with red mites and I have been forced to take a large amount of reptiles and put them in the back to get them back to health. When it comes to care, the animals are VERY well cared for while in the store. The problem with petco is its suppliers most of them are all big companies that are just looking at the bottom line not quality. So that is where the problems lies, we have animals coming in majorly under wieght, to young, or just plain dead. I have the skills needed to care and even nurse them back to health but many are in such bad shape that it is not possible. If any animal does have a hope we send it off to the vet asap. I say we send about 2-3 animals to the vet each week. Looking at other pet stores I don't see them having these problems, because they make sure to get a good supplier.

Hope this helps a little. If you have anymore questions about what happens behind the scenes at petco feel free to ask.

thanks

Sure, that's your Petco you work with, but not all Petco's are that decent with their animals. :( And if the suppliers are supplying mistreated/malnourished pets, then wouldn't you find other suppliers? You can blame them to an extent. But common sense tells me you'd find a better resource for your animals. :(

Ya well the petco were i live te sold BP's for $180.00 !! i was like ok bt luck me i got mmin for free!!!!

The PetCo where i live has gotten much better since I reported them to the ASPCA.

what kind of stuff did you report them for ??

HAHAHAHAHA I wish we could go to other employers, but the real purpose of petco, IS TO MAKE A PROFIT. So they pick these huge animal making factories, more or less, and they pretty much set up a contract. This means I HAVE NO CHOICE ON WHO I ORDER FROM.
I would think you would understand how corp's work, they may put on a nice front, but when all said and done they only care about the bottom line and in my time working there I have come to realize this. I can make no difference since I am just a grunt worker. Now its the comsumer who has the chioce, if they chose not to buy from the these huge businesses and supported there local stores there would be no problems like this, Now I just mean the animals. We make no profit off the animals because of such high overhead. Now we do make a nice chunk on the equipment, that is where petco makes its money not on the pets like some would believe.

Well I guess this turned into a rant. didn't mean for it to be that way.

thanks
JR

So I went to the petco again and held a 4 month baby just came in today, they said they came from flordia (The Gourmet Rodent???).Isn't that just a feeding supplier?Unless she was just confused she said she just started to work in reptiles. The bp's looked good no mites or ticks no signs of any illness good color too. The only thing that I was concerned about was the humidity was 40% I asked and she didn't know but they where cleaning cages so maybe thats why? I have nothing against petco I even have a pals card. I hope I didn't offend anyone :cry:. I really want to get the baby (I fell in love :D) but I wanna make sure it's the right choice. They are going to hold s/he until friday.

i say go with your gut if your happy with the price and the snake is healthy and well fed then get it, if you still arent sure about it than just try and find a local breeder.

I would get it, the humidity guages we are requirered to use are piece of junk. They are always way off, every time I clean a cage the humidity drops to 40%, in the whole system, so that is normal. all the tanks are connected by a central air pump, so all tanks hold pretty close to the same temps and humidity.
Usually the new hirers don't really know much, ask for the specialist they are the ones that REALLY take care of them, such as meds and all that. They can tell you how the care has been and will be more helpfull.

thanks
JR

Which petco do you work at?

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HAHAHAHAHA I wish we could go to other employers, but the real purpose of petco, IS TO MAKE A PROFIT. So they pick these huge animal making factories, more or less, and they pretty much set up a contract. This means I HAVE NO CHOICE ON WHO I ORDER FROM.

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Lasco (Wild caught), Mid-South(Wet Tail & URI's), Flukers(which includes all of their yellow fungus and adenovirus) Seagrest (horrible shipping protocol)

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I would think you would understand how corp's work, they may put on a nice front, but when all said and done they only care about the bottom line and in my time working there I have come to realize this.

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And that quote is the direct reason we live in such a capitolistic society.

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I can make no difference since I am just a grunt worker.

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Only if you choose to be. There is always a difference to be made.

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Now its the comsumer who has the chioce, if they chose not to buy from the these huge businesses and supported there local stores there would be no problems like this, Now I just mean the animals. We make no profit off the animals because of such high overhead. Now we do make a nice chunk on the equipment, that is where petco makes its money not on the pets like some would believe.

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I am unsure about Petco, but I do know at PetSmart they price match on supplies. You can easily find wonderfully cheap prices online and buy at your local chain store. Or better yet, pay the extra couple of bucks and support your local mom and pop store if they are decent.
It's not always easy. But it can be done.
Renzema, please do not take this as a personal flame as I have not meant to write it as such. I have a long history with the chain stores in question and have bit my toungue on too many occasions.
Thanks all
Rusty

hey I take no offense, I love debates...lol. This is still quite unoffensive. Been in a few I had to go walk it off, but that is mostly when it comes to fish.

Now back to business.
Petco will not price match online or e-bay, because of the fact it really cuts back on their profit(I wish they did because I would come in everyday with adds from online).
I really do hate the way petco picks their suppliers and man I was reminded by that today. we got in some house gecko's and man they were all so thin that I had to isolate them in the back so they would be able to get enough food, I think about half will end up dieing because of it. This is the problem I face with every shipment and I have talked with my bosses, and once again the bottom line comes into play. They get them cheap so we just keep on ordering. Now the reptiles is better than fish. This is where I have my biggest pet peeve(no pun intended). We order about 3000 goldfish a week(3000 is correct) and I would say we lose about 1000. Now that is just insane also we bring in about 20-30 WILD CAUGHT saltwater fish(now this is where the comsumer come in). So many ppl come in and want a "nemo". We most of the time won't sell it to them but if they have the setup or lie we will and I know about 90% are going to be dead in the first year. That is just sad that, that many fish are dieing each year and they are all wild caught.
Ok I am done with this thread just getting depressed. I am a saltwater freak and hate it when I talk about the impact of it. I have been able to run a saltwater tank with all rare and hard to keep coral and fish and haven't lost a thing in about 1 year. It just depresses me on how we impact the enviroment just by complete stupidity/ignorance. Also please don't say we should educate them, we can steer them. We can't completely prepare them for what they are getting into, we just inform.

thanks

Well, I have my doubts about large chains having truly captive bred and born herps. A lot of suppliers list their animal stock as CB but that is just to mean that it is captive born, or may have been "captive bred" (read: farm hatched) in the country of origin. I was just at a Superpet last week, and despite their being located in a city with bylaws that only allow the sale of captive bred herps, they had some little Savannah monitors for sale for $65CDN. Well, needless to say, captive bred Savs aren't exactly a dime a dozen let alone for sale at WC prices. Not to mention, the condition of their Savs looked too poor to be captive hatched, let alone captive bred. Of course, although they kept them in a very nice looking display, it didn't have nearly hot enough basking spots, burrowable substrate, or even a half-decent hide (just some random decor that the Savs were trying their best to be half-hidden under). None of the dozen or so crickets jumping around in the tank were dusted either, and I sincerely doubt they fed them any pinkies. Sorry, went off on a bit of a rant there... I actually don't mind the sale of farm-hatched Savs as I often see quite healthy, well-adapted ones for sale, although I am completely against niles sold in any pet store (in my opinion, you should have to specifically order them from a very select source)

Anyway, just because a supplier says its animals are "CB" doesn't mean they're captive bred.

By the way, the only reason I didn't report the Savs to local authorities is because most of their other herps were pretty well kept, and much better than their major competitors by far.

Most quality places wont let you handle a BP, because they are such fussy eaters and once handled it makes them feel they are relocating habitats so, they dont eat for 2-7 months at a time. Thats why good BP sellers wont let you handle the BP until you buy it. Thats why petco didnt let you handle the BP. So that is a positive about the place!