A Postitive PetCo experience...believe it or not!

[JLC]

And a mildly frustrating one as well! :?

Anyhow...there's this local PetCo that I visit from time to time, but not often. The last time I was in there a couple months ago looking at their reptiles, my daughter and I held a couple of their bp's. The poor things were so dried out. The humidity in their tank was reading 25%! They all had bits of shed stuck to them.

I went in there today because I wanted to see if they had some frozen meeces for Caesar. I took a cruise past the reptiles, and was pleasantly surprised to see some vast improvements. The bp cage was at about 55% humidity and had a decent hide. There were still several animals in there, but it is a pet store after all. All the ones I could see looked very healthy, though. And all their other reptiles (A surprisingly good variety!) also looked to be in very good health and in as good husbandry as one can expect in a pet store.

I talked to a guy who said he was in charge of their reptiles now. A young kid, but decently knowledgeable about their care...and he truly cared about their welfare. The frustrating part was that they had a GORGEOUS black pine snake in there. I love those...and this guy was so totally black. (Many of them have brown markings.) The guy I was talking to was frustrated about the pine becaue he knew no one was going to buy him. He practically begged me to buy him and said he would give me his store discount on the snake and ANY supplies I wanted to buy with it. (20% discount.) Oh it was so painfully tempting.

And as I was checking out with my little meeces and mealworms, he offered me some free gerbils, complete with a free cage! LOL! I guess they have an overpopulation problem or something. But I just can't do any new pets right now. As tempting as it was. ....is........no, WAS. ........is..... *sigh*

I gave him our website address here...and he said he's been here before, but I didn't get the impression he ever registered. Maybe he'll stop by and register. I hope so. Very interesting guy! I'm gonna have to stop in there more often.....even if it is so painful! LOL

Just wanted to share....sorry for rattling on for so long.....

((PS....PetCo store located on Old Keene Mill Rd in Burke, VA))

[CrazyBoutHerps]

I got Pauliocho from a PetCo. His owner couldn't care for him any more. So My bf and I were looking at fish originally, and the guy kinda directed us over to the bp. Lowdown is, we got the snake for free, and only paind about 100 bucks for his setup, we got an awsome discount, and a wonderful snake. I think it varies from store to store though, I went to a diff PetCo, and their animals all looked crappy, even though they had a clutch of about 18 bp babys. I wanted to take them home and treat them right.

[Marla]

Randy, are you on your way yet?

[RPlank]

I'm considering it!!! LOL

[Marla]

"But honey, he just followed me home!"

[JLC]

LOL! Randy...maybe I could talk my husband into letting me get him if I were only holding him for you until you could take him off my hands???

[iceman25]

The petco where I live is pretty good with their reptiles too!

[JLC]

I know they certainly have the potential to be a great place for herps (as well as small mammals, birds and fish) but it seems SO variable. I wish the overall corp headquarters would take better steps to ensure their stores are run by competent managers with properly trained employees. They could do a LOT better at making sure good stores are the rule, rather than the exception.

[Marla]

Mine is too, thanks to one specific employee. The others are clueless, though. I had to tell an employee he was wrong when he told a customer her crestie's tail would grow back. Not in this lifetime!

[iceman25]

Mine is too, thanks to one specific employee. The others are clueless, though. I had to tell an employee he was wrong when he told a customer her crestie's tail would grow back. Not in this lifetime!

LMAO! Go Marla! Woooooo!