Pet-Co. .. knows stuff?

So, I know that Pet-Co and PetSmart are unpopular here because of their practices and keeping of their animals. I was in Sioux Falls, SD today and since I get there maybe once every 2 months, I usually stop in because they offer a lot of things I can just not find in my town.

While there, I check out their BP area .. and I was really surprised. This has been a bad area before when going in there, so I expected to be very dissapointed.

Temps? Right on. Measured on both side of the tank.

Humidity? Right on. 50%

Hide? Only one .. and it was a half log .. but I understand that for them, if customers can't see the animal the chances of the animals moving into customer hand and leaving the store and very slim. Not a great setup, but it's understandable from a business perspective is what I am saying.

Bedding? Aspen, and a good layer of it.

Water? Clean and full

How did the ONE BP in there look? Like a great, healthy normal. I have to say .. the snake looked in great condition. No stuck shed, not under fed at all, great color.

I know that this is no case for ALL Pet-Co.s, but I have to say I was impressed and decided to share this with you guys. I think that with all the bad talk around here, when I see one making improvements .. they deserve so props.

I'm trying to get a job at my local Petco so I can make it happen there too. I really want to work in the reptile department(Well duh:P) so I can make sure that the people buying the animals know everything they need, facts about the animals, and I am going to try to steer some people away from getting a reptile if its just a whim or they think they will just get rid of it when it gets bigger(:rage:I really HATE people like that:rage:). I want to make sure that the reptiles are well taken care of.

Some are better than others, that's for sure. The one nearest me is hit and miss. I've noticed it going down hill as of late. Went in today and checked out the reptile section and it was not cool. I counted 9 bp's in one tank for starters. There were a couple that were having horrible sheds. All this for the low price of $80! I moved around to the gecko enclosure and it was worse. There were about 15-20 babies in one tank. The were kept on calci-sand that was supposed to be white but was urine stained in most areas. Some of them were having horrible sheds as well. In my experience it has to be pretty darn bad for leopard geckos to have such bad sheds.
This is just me ranting, it's just that i'm disappointed since the store used to be one of the better ones (for Petco or Petsmart)

Having previously worked for them, you can't really blame the people at the store. A lot of times they do what they can, within policy. Sometimes, when things get good, its because they step outside of policy but then they usually don't last long. I know that some of the habitats at PetSmart heat with a 7 watt light bulb. There is no way they associates can do anything about warming it up. When I worked for Petco however we didn't have the fancy habitats, we had tanks. The new habitats, not sure how they work, so not sure how much they can control things. As for having one snake per tank. Never gonna happen, at a lot of stores the inventory is computer controlled. You get sent 2 snakes, you sell 2 snakes in a week, then they send you 4 snakes, you sell those, and well you get the idea. If the snakes are going on the Pals discount card program then you would get like 10 snakes.

I think both of your chain stores are told even what specific cage to use for what animal. I have talked to a lot of employees from your major chain stores, they really feel powerless to do anything.

They always hire managers, especially at a corporate level, to manage. They dont know anything about animals. They care more about consistancy in the store, and saving money, and making things LOOK pretty, than they care about the animals.

There is a really bad NON chain store in town that keeps its animals in horrible conditions and I feel completely powerless to do anything. They have had all sorts of pythons and boas and cornsnakes in the same tank. They take in animals from people, yeah you combine those two facts and way to spread IBD. The worst was when I saw they had Burms on sale for 40 bucks for a burm and a 10 gallon tank. That is just what your average kid needs. You sell him a neat snake, that you give him all the wrong info on, for a cheap price and it gets huge.

Worse yet? They are COVERED in mites. Horrible. I realized with about 20 of them in the tank, how they must feed too. I am reasonably sure they just dump a bunch of mice in and let whoever wants to eat, eat. I heard a lady yelling at them for doing that with the ball pythons she sold them that now looked horrible. But what REALLY scares me, is I bed any mice that dont get eaten probably go back to their mouse bin. I stopped buying live there. I will no longer walk into that store for fear of my collection catching something.

I don't blame the employees at all in most cases. I know they are following retail policy. I have a privately owned store locally that is just as bad if not worse.

i have a private store near me that is also really bad. the owners say that they are 'reptile people', but the snakes look like hell. its really sad

Alot of it has to do with the reptile specialist as well as the manager and policies. The reptile specialist is in charge of what goes on over there (for the most part), and has the ability to get on to employees who don't mist appropriately, check temps, etc. Its their job to make sure employees understand what to do and why to do it. As far as policies...the caging is unfortunate...but at least it is a temporary home. The downside to this is customers looking in assume that it's ok to do the same at home. However...things like bad sheds (as I saw one person mentioned the geckos and bps having bad sheds) are something we're SUPPOSED to take back to the wellness room, where they are no longer for sale and get special attention (as well as at least one visit to the vet). At my store, right now there is a leopard gecko and an iguana back there simply because they had bad sheds. They are being provided humidity hides and frequent misting.

The problem with these places is that they give you guidelines for snake/reptile care that are incorrect and there's not always an employee who kows better.

For one example, on the snake feeding charts for petsmart it says we are supposed to feed baby snakes twice every week... monday and friday.

Luckily at my petsmart there are a few employees who know a bit about reptiles, but this isn't always the case

And this is why we have decent stores (we can only break the rules so much before we get in trouble... even if its in the animals' best interest) and then we have bad stores.

I still think it always depends on the store. Sometimes managers actually care and are knowledgeable, and sometimes the associates actually care and are knowledgeable. Other times, not...

...and unfortunately, since it's a chain, corporate sometimes will shift managers and associates to different stores as needed. Therefore a Petco that was really great 5 years ago might look awful today, and vice versa. I generally don't think you can count on a particular Petco or Petsmart to be consistent over the years.

Honestly, I do believe it all depends on the store and it's employees. In a nearby Petco, I complained to the manager about one particular bp with a terrible shed going on and it was clearly agitated beyond belief. They ignored me. I contacted the corporate headquarters for our area on line and they actually called me at home and indicated that they were sending a manager down from Mass. to CT to check on the snake. In another chain store nearby - I actually buy my mice here because they're of better quality - I complained about the way they were keeping a baby bp and they immediately moved the snake to another enclosure and asked for my help in setting it up! They noted that they had little knowledge of snakes and once this one was sold, they weren't going to take in another. This turned out not to be true - they got a little corn snake and it ultimately died before it was sold. Like any store - some are good, some are not.

I think that it depends on the store like most people have already said. I actually bought my first BP from the local pet store (bad choice) and she was super skinny, loaded with mites but otherwise healthy lol. So after I'd been around this site and a bunch of others looking for husbandry tips and learning the actual proper way to take care of one I went back to their store and talked to the guy in charge of the reptile department and he actually listened to what I had to say! He's actually a really good guy and him and I have kind of become friends since. They now actually have an extremely good reptile room with some snakes there that you would never normally see in a small pet store. They just got an ATB in, they have a spotted python, a couple corns, a couple BPs (in the same tank but DJ said he'd separate them as soon as a tank opened up) some extremely nice looking leos, a burm (which DJ said he will not sell to anyone that can't handle a large snake) and a few different lizards. PLUS their husbandry is spot on for all of them!

It's amazing what one person can actually do to improve the quality of life for some animals and make it a better place for everyone to go to to get info on them! I know the big chain stores are not nearly as easy to change but if it starts from the bottom up like happened here I think we could really make a difference all you have to do is do a little research and OPEN YOUR MOUTH!

Sorry for the freakin novel lol. :banana::banana::banana:

You guys are all so right, some are good some are bad. My dad lives in new york and the petco there actually has a decent reptile section. Everything looks good and healthy but I think the enclosure is to small. But still the herps look good. Then in burlington, vermont where we have a petco and petsmart there set ups suck. The petsmart uses a cube and its way to small and the animals are always hiding and look underfed. Same at pet co but they use 20L tanks. BUt when i asked to see one of there bps we couldn't even stick are hands near the tank and it would strike. The bp looked underfed and body wasn't looking good. We also have a private store called pet advantage, great store, but way to many bps in one tank. I think I could count 6 in a 10 gallon, when i said something the moved them to a 20L, but still this guys were at least 8-10 months old and they were so stressed, you could tell, one balled up so tight and stayed that way for the hour i was in the store, the others were frantically moving around the tank and they only had one hide for all of them. I think it should be illegal for pet stores to sell herps. I think you should have to run a herp only store in order to sell and you should have to be licensed or something to protect these guys. I bought my bp from a breeder and I am buying another one in may. She has a great rack system with a multitude of snakes and all of them are very hand friendly, healthy snakes. My guy is wonderful I couldn't ask for a better snake.

My local Petco is divided. The youngsters that stock shelves are not especially knowledgeable (but are courteous and helpful otherwise) but the department managers are, and are willing to share advice.
A lot of times I think the problem may be money, the new hires are probably not paid much and I think they may not stay long enough to be promoted.