Is it just me?

[jasonmcgilvrey83]

I have written letters to the manager of the pet smart I use to go to and everything stayed the same. I just started going else where to get feeders. If possible search for mom and pop pet stores to get feeders from. I rather do it that way anyways cause I'm helping out a personal company and not a chain that could care less about their animals and all about the money.

[megan8706]

I would love to get mine from a mom and pop store, but unfortunately there are none around me. There were several until petsmart came in and pretty much put them out of business. Closest is a good 2 hour drive from me :/

[pmarks]

I worked at a Petco for years and did everything I could to help the reptiles stay healthy. However, the companies priority is to sell supplies, not reptiles. They conditions in most stores are horrible and there is no real knowledge among most employees of the needs of these creatures. It frustrated me to the point that I could not longer work there. I have seen employees mix kingsnakes and cornsnakes, which led to some happy kingsnakes when they ate the poor little corns. I have also seem weeks go by where they were not offered food and have been told not too feed them due to time restraints. I brought up many suggestions on increasing humidity to help with all the stuck sheds but no one would listen. I have personally seen so many snakes die there or come in dead and it gets no response from upper management who are more concerned with profit and loss reports than the well being of the animals. I urge everyone to avoid buying reptiles from most Petco locations because that is the only way to put a stop to their animal cruelty and unless you want a sickly mite infested animal then you are much better going elsewhere.
I know that not all Petcos operate this way but from my experience a vast majority do and its a shame that these stores have killed off many of the local pet stores that did have knowledgeable employees. This is by no means an attack on Petco employees. I know that some employees care and do everything in their power to help animals but in my opinion it is a losing battle working for a company with such poor standards.

[SlitherinSisters]

It is tough to see sometimes. The bad thing is, you buying the snake supports them keeping and selling them in poor condition. The best thing you can do is offer to take a sick/near death animal from them to attempt to save it, but they rarely agree to that. Some pet stores have great looking reptiles, some don't. All depends on how knowledgeable the staff are at the store.

[Chee]

My boy is from a petsmart, normally I only rescue or buy from breeders but I fell in love with my guy. My local petsmart has snake owners run their reptile section and the animals seem to be healthy overall, though the humidity is off in almost all of the tanks, but my local one only has a small stock. If it wasn't for the fact that I love Nazeer so much I would regret buying him from a pet store instead of a breeder, but really I wouldn't give him up for anything.

[albinos_rule]

I buy all mine from breeders, and also my feeder rodents, so I seldom go into a pet store.

[zachbinger]

Look around for feeder breeders locally post on Facebook in the reptile classifieds and even see if there is a page in your area if not i would say start 1 you can get ppl within reasonable driving distance that sell them thats how i found my source for feeder rats and fyi the price is usually alot better from breeders

[MonkeyShuttle]

If you work at the store you have problems with your best option is to volunteer your time to correcting the situation. If you don't work there, fill out an application and be the difference. Otherwise theres not much you can do about it.

[Bayonet]

I work at a Petco and I just gotta say not ALL pet stores treat their snakes and reptiles this way. Our fish manager Adrienne was also the reptile expert. She LOVED our snakes. She baby talked to them and made sure they all ate. She was very knowledgeable about their care and husbandry. The enclosures in my store are always clean and had plenty of hiding spots. It's a shame that most big stores don't care about their animals. I had a bad experience as a kid getting a rat from a pet store. We bought one and ended up with 13 -_-

[kiasyd]

I went to my local Petco recently and they had a Brazilian Rainbow in stock. I know that it should be the responsibility of the customer to know what they're getting into with an animal, but you have to think about the demographic that Petco and other big chain stores cater to, that family that comes in knowing that they want a pet but not really knowing much about each animal in question. A kid sees a Brazilian Rainbow and thinks it looks cool, the mother sees a hatchling and thinks it won't get that much bigger. They ask the clerk that may or may not know much about them and then you have poor husbandry and a whole mess a few years down the road when the snake gets too big for the family.

I mean I know as far as boas go, Brazilian Rainbows don't get that big, but they're certainly not a corn snake.