Talked to Petco today...

Yeah, yeah I know...Petco isn't the best place to shop but there isn't much around where I live. While Foster is still growing, I don't want to buy a bug package of F/T until she has reached her final prey size. The only other petshop in our area is nasty, dirty, funky and I believe that they freeze their own prey which look just horrible. The ones that I saw even looked like it has ice crystals on it...stored in thin plastic bags.

Anyhow, I was talking to the BP 'expert' at Petco about the size prey available and while talking to him, they mentioned that they offer buyers a caresheet to prepare them for owning a BP.

Curious, I checked on their website to see if the caresheet was available online and to my surprise, it was. Has anybody looked at it? If you are interested, here is the link: http://www.petco.com/caresheets/snak...ython_Ball.pdf

My question is this...should I mention anything about the poor caresheet to them? Should I print out the BP.net caresheet and point out the difference? Or, should I not waste my time? If you think I should mention something to them, any suggestions on how I should go about it? It may not make a difference but if there is a chance that this employee will take a second look at the care being provided then I'm willing to make the effort.

I will be going either tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks!

well my hubby worked at petco when I first met him and just to let you know they are told by there corperate how to care for all animals ie food to give tank to put them in everything. My hubby was so pissed about this he finally quit but he was a manager and still had no say on how to feed animals. he was only aloud to feed crickets to baby beardies once a week and had to keep meal worms in the tank at all times which is really totally wrong for beardies and it is just not good bast thing to do is email corperate I have a few times with no luck but the more the better

Well then....doesn't that just bite the big one!

Maybe I'll just print out the caresheets and quietly hand them over.

You can talk their ear off but I can tell you from experience it won't do a bit of good. I worked there three years and never got a thing changed. The only thing that kept me sane was that my manager knew that I knew what I was doing, so she pretty much just let me do as I saw fit, and I'd only have to switch things around on the days corporate would come in to inspect us. Otherwise I had free rein.

It does suck, ive heard of people from every animal aspect on different forums saying they have talked to petco, it doesnt seem to help, I wish that all those would finally add up, the amount of people ive heard of it seems we'd have all the petcos covered, and if every one complained, then things would change, but thats a dream sadly.

Like the beardie thing, its scary. The calci-sand thing, them underfed, and the mealworms, and the tiny tank it bites.

Iguanas there also get me angry, a couple was in there buying one, they had no clue how to care for it, and Petco employee told them it can get to 4' if it lives that long...if it does just get a ferret cage... And they sold them a 20L for a 1.5ft iguana and the wrong lights. I had to bite my tounge because i knew this couple didnt care, and petco employees usually cant do squat.

Anyway, i understand the frustration, But handing a caresheet could help, its worth the try, Maybe the employee will read up on all the animals, and at least sell the right supplies to the perspective owner, Even if they are housed wrong at petco, an educated employee may make the difference for the animals housing situation out of the store.

Ben

To be totally honest, I don't think the care sheet is wrong in many aspects, just different from the care sheet that we offer here at BP.net. I think it's outdated, yes, but I think for a novice that has no idea what they're getting into, it's at least SOMETHING to get them going in the right direction and an understanding of what they're actually getting themselves into.

There's a lot of advice in that care sheet that I wouldn't personally follow, but a lot of people do follow that advice and are successful in keeping their ball python.

You have to remember, there's no one single way to keep your bp happy. there are many ways...some recommended over others, but those others certainly aren't "wrong"...

So, no...don't waste your time ;)

Seems like whatever you do, still nobody listens. They say they don't sell sick animals but you have to point out to them which animal is sick! Stupid...

I buy some things at Petco/PetsMart and when we went in the other day we checked out the balls (like we usually do). They had 3 or so babies in one cage, but there was a few handfuls of spagnum moss in there (damp) to keep humidity up. That is a first, never seen that before.....

Heh... someone probably made a big fuss about it enough to get them to do it. That, or they hired someone recently who actually KNOWS about reptiles...it's rare, but possible - I was one of them.

The only thing is, people who really do know about their care often can't stand it and leave after a short time because corporate policies and such are SERIOUSLY outdated and they don't care about upgrading them. Heck, most managers don't care about the animals, as they're just more merchandise to sell.

It all depends on the people at each store if anything gets done. Some places will actually have caring people who will really try to do things right... most will just toss the caresheets you give them in the trash and keep right on doing what they do.
The Petsmart I worked at now carries snakes and it's all I can do to keep from lecturing them every time I'm there...or from grabbing that price card - the one with the 'basic care info' on it - and writing in the PROPER information! SIGH.

Oh, and a note on feeders from Petco or Petsmart: DO NOT buy the prepacked frozen feeders they sell! They're filthy and smelly and WAY undersized and overpriced. If you get live from either store, and most Petsmarts won't sell rodents to snake people or those who come back too often, look very closely at them before you accept. Most animals that come to those stores, especially the rodents, are not really healthy.

Ok, rant over. :P

Yea, the rats especially had a huge problem with coming in with respiratory infections I noticed. And they (and the hamsters) dropped like flies. Their animals vendors are bottom of the barrel.

It makes me so sad to go to Petsmart, and see the BPs. Sadly I think Sekai came from Petsmart (he's a "rescue", so I can't be entirely sure... but all of his old terrarium accessories were from Petsmart, so I'm assuming his previous owner went in and bought everything in one day).

Anyway, I digress... they have 3-4 BPs per cage, one little half-log hide... poor things must be so stressed out, with kids and dogs poking the glass, nowhere to hide, nowhere to get away... makes me want to just buy them all. But, I know they'd just get more in. :(

In a heartbeat. Especially Petsmart... I should know, since my computer skills are pretty good, my *^(&# of a manager always had me enter in the claims forms. The setup at my old store is very similar for the two juvi BPs they have in there: one half log facing front, a small water dish and a thin fake plant on damp compacted carefresh. The corn and kings at least have aspen and can burrow to get away...

print off a bunch of the PetCo care sheets, but not before changing a few key things (like suggesting 2 hides) and more importantly, including a thing at the bottom saying "for more information visit ball-pythons.net"
then swap them out at the store

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Originally Posted by JenH

I buy some things at Petco/PetsMart and when we went in the other day we checked out the balls (like we usually do). They had 3 or so babies in one cage, but there was a few handfuls of spagnum moss in there (damp) to keep humidity up. That is a first, never seen that before.....

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They have a whole bunch of balls at the store here, and they do have 2 hides (though only one stick on thermometer), but they're both giant so that they can all fit in it at once...it looks like they're starting to get big too. They dropped the price down to $29 (from 79:O) so I think they're having a hard time selling them...

My petsmart has bp's. As far as I can tell, they have 1 snake per cage. They use the small half logs and lean it against the back wall so the bp's can hide away from peering customers. The cage is up high too (I have to get on tippy toes and I still cant see all the way back)

So far they've done that style with all of their snakes and it's working out well.

My local Petco is a little different I guess. The store is clean, the employees seem very knowledgeable, and the cages for the Ball Pythons were clean. Even though they had about 4 or 5 in the same cage, they had a large water dish with water, on aspen, a large half log hide, and fake plants.

Good to hear. :) Glad that some stores out there are trying to improve things.

With the corn and king snakes they sell at my old store, they have one to a cage (the tiny ones on the top in the 'reptile habitat' display thing), on aspen with the half log at the back. But with the BPs they just did everything wrong. :( I tried a few times to let them know subtly, but it did no good of course.

I make a habit of subtly, or not so subtly 'butting in' when people are looking into buying pets from these places. The ones I know about anyway.

Some couple was looking into buying a bearded dragon and I could see right away they weren't getting all the stuff they needed... So I casually start chatting, all 'Oh yeah those are great, I've had one for three years' and making a big point of all the expensive lighting they needed and such. Being totally honest about it really, but they'd been given the totally wrong impression of how much care they needed, and in the end decided to put off on buying one til they were more ready. (And of course I told them it was better to get one from a good breeder and gave them links to some good sites)

And really, a lot of these kids working at these stores will be glad that someone else takes over since they don't give a crap. Others however who take their jobs more seriously will be very offended, so be careful what you say. (I was that sort when I worked at a pet store- I DID do my research so I'd get pissed when someone tried to correct me!)

Changing corporate policy is next to impossible, so the best thing you can do is try to educate a few people at a time when you stop in.

Amen to that! :)

I still 'butt in' at my old store when I'm in for supplies (discounts talk). The girls that work there now are really grateful for the assistance, and usually so are the buyers. :)

You do what you can, when you can.

I get all my cat food from petsmart and I have to cross the reptile section everytime I go in, last them they had 3 BPs all piled up on top of one another in a small cage, I just try not to look because I know I can't do anything except tell people I know or meet to do on-line reasearch before buying any sort of exotic pet.

Once I was in line buying cat food and an employee was buying a really tiny BP, a 50gal screen top, heat lamp, water dish, and the largest sized log hide they carried. I tried to tell her some things that would maybe help but all it accomplished was her trading out the big log for the smaller one and she seemed really annoyed with me. Its just a shame though, one of my friends from middle school got a BP from petsmart when we were freshmen - I didn't know anything about snakes then but looking back on it I understand why it died after she had it for a week. One of my friends little brothers keeps his the same way (and got his BP from petsmart) but they have a lot of money so that means they know more than me and they won't listen to anything I say.

I didn't make it to the store tonight but hopefully tomorrow. I appreciate all the comments and I think I will print the caresheets from here and give it to he bp 'EXPERT'. I talked to him for a few minutes and he sounded like he cared about them, it was just that he was working off the wrong information. I mentioned this forum to him and he said he would check it out but we'll see. I warned him that most pet store owners were not favored here but to at least read, read, read. I can't believe that he said I was feeding too often at 7 days.

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Originally Posted by Argentra

Heh... someone probably made a big fuss about it enough to get them to do it. That, or they hired someone recently who actually KNOWS about reptiles...it's rare, but possible - I was one of them.

The only thing is, people who really do know about their care often can't stand it and leave after a short time because corporate policies and such are SERIOUSLY outdated and they don't care about upgrading them. Heck, most managers don't care about the animals, as they're just more merchandise to sell.

It all depends on the people at each store if anything gets done. Some places will actually have caring people who will really try to do things right... most will just toss the caresheets you give them in the trash and keep right on doing what they do.
The Petsmart I worked at now carries snakes and it's all I can do to keep from lecturing them every time I'm there...or from grabbing that price card - the one with the 'basic care info' on it - and writing in the PROPER information! SIGH.

Oh, and a note on feeders from Petco or Petsmart: DO NOT buy the prepacked frozen feeders they sell! They're filthy and smelly and WAY undersized and overpriced. If you get live from either store, and most Petsmarts won't sell rodents to snake people or those who come back too often, look very closely at them before you accept. Most animals that come to those stores, especially the rodents, are not really healthy.

Ok, rant over. :P

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I asked them about their feeders thinking maybe i could get them in bulk. I was horrified at what i saw when i asked for the frozen feeders for my girl.

I went up to the guy, and he brought out a PLASTIC BOWL with TWO crawlers in it (rats, frozen) that were "about" the size of what i was feeding my girl and was like, what are they, 2-2.50 each? he was like "no, they're 15.00 for the two" and i was like..."you're kidding me, right? you'll NEVER sell them." and i told him how great of a price i got on my feeders but i just had to drive slightly further away for them. I get bulk discounts when i buy because I have my own freezer where i store them. 40.00 gets me 2 months worth of food for one female BP. I couldnt believe they had the nads to ask for 7.00 (plus tax) for a SINGLE small feeder.

I work in pet care at Petsmart... And I can tell you that giving them "correct" care sheets won't do any good ;)

Anyways, at least at the petsmart i work at, we care for the animals correctly. We don't follow the "corporate" guidelines tbh... Maybe I just have a cool manager for pet care (by cool, read: actually cares about animals rather than sales?), but whatev. We look down on petco anyways, they take poor care of their animals compared to us ;)

Although i'm sure there are better petco's and worse petsmarts than the ones where i live :)

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Originally Posted by soy.lor.n

They dropped the price down to $29 (from 79:O) so I think they're having a hard time selling them...

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Nope, they have this sale every summer about this time. Be prepared for a lot of new members joining after this sale. It lasts about a month, I think.

i'm moving to manchester NH so obviously last time i was there i froliced in and out of the Petsmart and the Petco.

the petsmart didn't anger me one bit. friendly staff, not too many animals crammed together (only 2 bps in an enclosure). took one of them out, very lovely reduced pattern. you could tell it was handled once in a while. nice calm lil baby, healthy looking size and belly was clean. i put it back and thanked the dude, and went on my way.

petco. oh petco. i hate you so.

their snakes were reduced to 30 dollars a piece. they were all in shed. all 20 something of them in the one enclosure. they were all hissy pissy. striking, angry, dry. no humidity in sight. one very small thin baby in back was so crusty from it's shed i thought it was dead, till the dude poked it with his pen "no look, she's alive"

i almost threw up.

i will more than likely get a job at one of these places (and i'm thinking i'd rather it be petco than petsmart, seeing as the dude who worked there kind of acted like he knew wtf he was doooingggg) so i can make a difference, even if it's misting these poor things with a spray bottle while no one is looking and doing some sneaky move like handing out care sheets or making cards with BP.net on it to hand out to customers who purchase a snake. something has to be done....

what a nightmare. if a regular joe had that many BPs in a tank and kept them like that on a regular basis they would get in trouble for hoarding and be forced to change their ways. because it's a petstore they get to hoard animals and treat them like garbage. it's appauling.

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Originally Posted by LizardofOzz

I work in pet care at Petsmart... And I can tell you that giving them "correct" care sheets won't do any good ;)

Anyways, at least at the petsmart i work at, we care for the animals correctly. We don't follow the "corporate" guidelines tbh... Maybe I just have a cool manager for pet care (by cool, read: actually cares about animals rather than sales?), but whatev. We look down on petco anyways, they take poor care of their animals compared to us ;)

Although i'm sure there are better petco's and worse petsmarts than the ones where i live :)

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no i think you're absolutely right on. petco is a dang joke and really made me irate.

petsmart, the animals look cared for. good job petsmart.

While I was 'out of town' yesterday we stopped in a little mom and pop petstore to see if they had f/t rats and of course I went to check on their reptiles. It made me SICK! Size wise they looked like they were healthy, meaning they were not skinny for their size, they looks like they had pretty good sheds, etc. but the poor things (2 in one tank) didn't have a single hide! The only thing they had in there was a water dish and with it being as high as it was I couldn't even tell if it had water in it. I mentioned something to the girl that they needed a hide and that they looked stressed and her reply was 'Well, look how active they are...they look happy and healthy to me!'. These two poor BPs were trying to get out of the tank and just all over one another. When I told her they needed something she gave me every impression that she didn't care! I did get the owners name and business card but with the way the rest of the store looked, I doubt he will be any different than Petco! But, I could be wrong. I just feel so bad for the snakes..I dont think there was a single snake with anything but a water dish.

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Originally Posted by TanyaL

While I was 'out of town' yesterday we stopped in a little mom and pop petstore to see if they had f/t rats and of course I went to check on their reptiles. It made me SICK! Size wise they looked like they were healthy, meaning they were not skinny for their size, they looks like they had pretty good sheds, etc. but the poor things (2 in one tank) didn't have a single hide! The only thing they had in there was a water dish and with it being as high as it was I couldn't even tell if it had water in it. I mentioned something to the girl that they needed a hide and that they looked stressed and her reply was 'Well, look how active they are...they look happy and healthy to me!'. These two poor BPs were trying to get out of the tank and just all over one another. When I told her they needed something she gave me every impression that she didn't care! I did get the owners name and business card but with the way the rest of the store looked, I doubt he will be any different than Petco! But, I could be wrong. I just feel so bad for the snakes..I dont think there was a single snake with anything but a water dish.

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I have a local store like this as well, Pet Paradise. Last year they had about 15-20 baby snakes, in a 10 gallon, one small log hide and a huge ceramic lamp on top. Bone dry water dish and what looked to be about 2 or 3 dead baby bp's on the bottom of the dog pile. Not to mention there was a hopper mouse running around in the tank with them.

Very sad, their husbandry sucked, I don't even go into the store anymore. After I saw that setup, I told Chris we would never go back.

They must think their special because someone sells them a few morph bp's and other unusual snakes now and then, but overall I'm surprised they make any profit.

Even their small animal section is horrible. I hate that petstore, and tell everyone I can to not purchase from there at all costs.

Not to mention, they MUST buy from puppy mills, because they seriously have all those silly "designer dogs" or aka MUTT puppies. They usually have 7 or 8 on hand all the time. Sell one, they replace it the next day. It always smells like dog pee and diarrhea when you walk in.

Be careful with small pet shops, in my experience around here, they are really shady and disgusting.

I got into a fight with the manager of the local Petco last night. I stopped in to kill time, and asked to speak with her. The tanks were clean and had water and all, but one baby bp was curled up as tightly as possible while another, larger one roamed around on top of it.

Knowing about all the corporate bull they have going on, I was just going to suggest adding at least one more hide. Yeah, it had to be a half-log hide, but at least it's better than nothing. Well, I presented it to her like, "Y'know, everything looks really nice and all but I noticed this little guy was having trouble shedding. If you give them another hide it might help to ease his stress." And she said to me, in a VERY snooty voice, "Oh, all he needs is a soak. I appreciate your opinion but we have it under control. I think we'd KNOW how to take care of our animals." She was not interested in the one tiny suggestion I had made that would help out her animals. I won't ever do business with them again. Not that I really did to begin with.

Really, though I was just appalled. I expected her to take note of a VERY simple suggestion like that - one which would probably help her to sell the animal. :rolleyes:

OK, its settled. Petco really DOES suck, its not just my petsmart employee bias :P

But to be honest I havent even been inside one in years :p No need because petsmart is closer, and since i was hired I also have 15% off ;)

In my area the petcos are better, they hve nice sized cages, and nice prices, and alot of their pets look healthy, petsmart on the other hand, a cage the size of my snakes hide for 2 ball pythons, beardies that look dead, and ALL the mammals had parasites, the birds looked stressed. Every thing was over priced, i am NEVER going to petsmart again, it made me sick:puke:

Baby Beardies are one thing I don't think petsmart should carry to be honest... they require a lot more care than we are able to give them really.

On the days that i work I feed them crickets 2 or 3 times... I also took out the crappy "bearded dragon food" that they werent touching and i give them some of the leftover tortoise salad (which they chow down on as soon as i put it in)

Other than the beardies (which i guess petsmart just doesnt know about the care required for them?) we do a pretty good job taking care of our animals, at least at the one I work.

my belief is this. as far as corporate policies are concerned, i believe petco outdoes petsmart. HOWEVER in reality animal care is on a store by store basis. Not even necessarily petco vs. petsmart. let me put it this way, i love mcdonalds food, but their are certain mcdonalds i will never eat at because their service is shoddy and my fries are always stale. It's not really a chain thing, it's up to the individual establishment.

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Originally Posted by Gooseman

my belief is this. as far as corporate policies are concerned, i believe petco outdoes petsmart. HOWEVER in reality animal care is on a store by store basis. Not even necessarily petco vs. petsmart. let me put it this way, i love mcdonalds food, but their are certain mcdonalds i will never eat at because their service is shoddy and my fries are always stale. It's not really a chain thing, it's up to the individual establishment.

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That's probably true ;)

So if anybody finds themselves in Manassas, head to the petsmart and not the petco ;) Ask for Mike :banana:

i suppose it really is up to people like us to insert ourselves into the "coorperate" herp world and do our misting and loving of these animals while they're in the shady hands of the coorperate pet world. arrrrgh.

haha *frolics off to apply at petco in Manchester* maybe i can help :P

Meh its a decent summer job for someone my age anyways.. I get to screw around playing with animals all day while pretending to be "taming" them :p

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Originally Posted by LizardofOzz

OK, its settled. Petco really DOES suck, its not just my petsmart employee bias :P

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Quoted for truth^^^

I am a manager at PetSmart and Ive been to numerous PetCo's and PetSmart's through out the southwest and Ive never found a petco outdo PetSmart, PetSmart stores have always been cleaner and healthier animals.

Although both places have probs with small animals being that they both get supplied by Rainbow:tears: in this area...

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Originally Posted by AdamJB

Although both places have probs with small animals being that they both get supplied by Rainbow:tears: in this area...

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Our small animals are OK... we get them from Holmes farms or something.

Although our mice are all on crack and our dwarf hamsters are psycho killers D:

Could Just be the TX AZ NM areas that are supplied by Rainbow but they are pretty bad especially guinea pigs and rats

Our rats are good... A little smelly when they arrive but that gets fixed since we probably keep them a little better than the small animal farm does :<

One thing the farm messed up bad though... out of a group of 7 baby hamsters, 2 of them turned out to be female instead of male as they were supposed to be... So as soon as they reached maturity, we suddenly had 2 very fat looking hamsters :O

Have them back in the iso room now, one litter of 7 and one of 5 lol