Nothing like a verbal assault from Petsmart....

[Jay_Bunny]

but what about people where there isn't another store?
I think the high price Petsmart charges is good enough for protecting mice from being "snake food". For 7.00$ most of them will become pets. I think ultimately, in the long run, none of them will be bought at all, though, since they are charging a lot for a mouse. :/
Besides, what about snakes that won't take F/T? 2 of mine do. 2 won't. I'd happily feed F/T to all of them, but these two are stubborn and will NOT eat it. Not even after a live one
I wonder if they (Petsmart) worry as much about their snakes becoming pets as they do mice. Or their fish...or birds...

We sell tons of mice as pets at $7 so that is not going to stop people who want pets.

It is not Petsmart's fault you cannot get live feeders for your snakes. They don't want to see live, and they should not be boycotted because they don't. Lets say I breed and sell snakes. I also sell and breed mice for the sole purpose of being a feeder. Someone comes up and wants to purchase one as a pet, but I only want to see them as feeders. That is my right to refuse to sell said mice as pets. They should not be held responsible for making sure your snakes are fed.

And yes, we care a lot about our snakes, birds, small animals, fish, etc. Heck, we have a small little corn snake that won't eat. I hand feed him several times a week because otherwise, he would die. This isn't Petsmarts fault he won't eat. Some hatchlings are just like that. I have one at home that won't eat on his own either.

[BAMReptiles]

not saying you are by any means, but the people at the petsmart here are absolute morons on the grandest scale. corporate too apparently, if they think a very well established morph with a name already is a "fancy". the one here and a different one a few counties over had very clear normals marked as "fancy". when i asked the guy about it here, he said oh it has a different pattern.

as far as mice and rats as pets, $7 is pretty normal. i work at a pet store here and we sell fancy rats for 7.99, if we ever have them ( mainly the other people just throw them in the feeder bins though ). out of my personal stock/business i sell pet rats at anywhere from $5-$10 depending what they are (fancy,rex,dumbo, and soon hairless).

[Jay_Bunny]

Yea, it sucks. The problem is, WE know the difference between a pastel and a normal but most of the time the people working at Petsmart have no clue about the reptile hobby, especially the snake hobby. They are clueless about morphs and sometimes even species of snakes. It's not their fault. They just don't know and it is up to them to find that kind of information for themselves.

We don't get "fancy" balls into our store. We do get corn snake morphs before that were labeled incorrectly.

[Carlene16]

Absolutely agree! I've been with Petsmart for over 3 years. The policy is for the best of the animal. Petsmart does care about it's animals, they bring every one to the vet if any problem arise and that's policy.

I disagree with you on this because every petsmart I've been to I have had bad experiences.


Sure they care for SOME of their animals, but when I got to the reptiles section I was disgusted at how they kept them! They were keeping two adult crested geckos in with three OTHER different kinds of geckos/lizards. All shoved into the same little box! And you could tell the cresteds were stressed, they both had lost their tails. The box was probably a 6 inch box on all sides, and there was barely any room to move. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm almost 100% sure that different species should be kept apart.

They also had some of the snakes mixed together, the only one kept alone was the ball python. Same for the toads and frogs. I think this Petsmart had it all wrong

Maybe this isn't true for all of them, but obviously this petsmart wasn't in it for the good of their animals, and I'm sure it happens quite often.

I've never had an issue with anyone being rude about mice there, just because I don't buy them there. I go to Petco and they know me pretty well by now, they greet me by my name and ask what size mice I need and how many.

I've never had any employee at either pet stores be rude, but the care of animals at both are sometimes unsatisfactory for ME, I don't know about you guys.

[packer43064]

I disagree with you on this because every petsmart I've been to I have had bad experiences.


Sure they care for SOME of their animals, but when I got to the reptiles section I was disgusted at how they kept them! They were keeping two adult crested geckos in with three OTHER different kinds of geckos/lizards. All shoved into the same little box! And you could tell the cresteds were stressed, they both had lost their tails. The box was probably a 6 inch box on all sides, and there was barely any room to move. Maybe I'm wrong but I'm almost 100% sure that different species should be kept apart.

They also had some of the snakes mixed together, the only one kept alone was the ball python. Same for the toads and frogs. I think this Petsmart had it all wrong

Maybe this isn't true for all of them, but obviously this petsmart wasn't in it for the good of their animals, and I'm sure it happens quite often.

I've never had an issue with anyone being rude about mice there, just because I don't buy them there. I go to Petco and they know me pretty well by now, they greet me by my name and ask what size mice I need and how many.

I've never had any employee at either pet stores be rude, but the care of animals at both are sometimes unsatisfactory for ME, I don't know about you guys.

In all honesty there are over 1000 stores it's not that easy to control over 1000 stores. If you think so become a district manager and be in control of about 10-15 stores. You have to visit each store almost every week. All I'm saying is this....if you see this then CALL the careline(aka corporate) or tell upper management as in the store manager. Don't tell the petcare associate they probably are doing what they are told by the petcare manager. Tell some one high up. Believe me, I have visited every store in out district which is 12 or 13, I can't recall and some were a little bit under my personal standards compared to our petsmart, but everyone wasn't doing as you just told me. Every store is NOT like the ones you have just explained. Believe it or not, they do care. When you have thousands of thousands of employees some people don't care and just working for that paycheck or they do care and have the wrong information. I absolutely agree that all of those animals shouldn't be in the same cage, AGREED. Now as the responsible customer which I hope you are, I hope at least you mentioned to someone that they should not be together.

People need to stop basing negative connections with 3-4 stores around them and hating all 1000+ stores. This was not directed soley at you by any means. I'm with Jaybunny here, but I honestly think it doesn't matter what we say.

[Carlene16]

In all honesty there are over 1000 stores it's not that easy to control over 1000 stores. If you think so become a district manager and be in control of about 10-15 stores. You have to visit each store almost every week. All I'm saying is this....if you see this then CALL the careline(aka corporate) or tell upper management as in the store manager. Don't tell the petcare associate they probably are doing what they are told by the petcare manager. Tell some one high up. Believe me, I have visited every store in out district which is 12 or 13, I can't recall and some were a little bit under my personal standards compared to our petsmart, but everyone wasn't doing as you just told me. Every store is NOT like the ones you have just explained. Believe it or not, they do care. When you have thousands of thousands of employees some people don't care and just working for that paycheck or they do care and have the wrong information. I absolutely agree that all of those animals shouldn't be in the same cage, AGREED. Now as the responsible customer which I hope you are, I hope at least you mentioned to someone that they should not be together.

People need to stop basing negative connections with 3-4 stores around them and hating all 1000+ stores. This was not directed soley at you by any means. I'm with Jaybunny here, but I honestly think it doesn't matter what we say.

I did tell two of the employees there and one of them said "Oh, I'm pretty sure it's ohkay." And she made a face and walked away. Like I was crazy or something.
I also told her the humidity needs to be up too, because both of the cresteds had some stuck sheds which looked pretty nasty.

The thing is for me, I won't visit every petsmart in the world. I visit the one local to me. If they aren't getting it right then I won't go there, and I will probably be biased, and that's just how I am. I get upset when people don't take care of their animals correctly. I've seen this time after time with big chain pet stores.

I understand that there are some great people who work at these places, and they educate people on how these animals are supposed to be taken care of, but those people are rare. Out of all the people you know, how many of them can recite the care of all these species, be it reptiles or the furry ones?

Not many unfortunately. I'm just a firm believer of if you don't know how to take care of an animal you shouldn't have it.

[packer43064]

I did tell two of the employees there and one of them said "Oh, I'm pretty sure it's ohkay." And she made a face and walked away. Like I was crazy or something.
I also told her the humidity needs to be up too, because both of the cresteds had some stuck sheds which looked pretty nasty.

The thing is for me, I won't visit every petsmart in the world. I visit the one local to me. If they aren't getting it right then I won't go there, and I will probably be biased, and that's just how I am. I get upset when people don't take care of their animals correctly. I've seen this time after time with big chain pet stores.

I understand that there are some great people who work at these places, and they educate people on how these animals are supposed to be taken care of, but those people are rare. Out of all the people you know, how many of them can recite the care of all these species, be it reptiles or the furry ones?

Not many unfortunately. I'm just a firm believer of if you don't know how to take care of an animal you shouldn't have it.

I respect what you have said. I wouldn't go into a store that repeatedly didn't follow the basic rules of mixing reptiles. I would probably skip that Petsmart too with how your explaining it....the reptiles at least.

[BbyBoa]

I have a friend that breeds rats so I don't have this problem, why cant you just say they are going to be pets? Especially if they are going to be breeders and your not walking in there every week. If you tell them what they want to hear that they are going to be little furry pets, they cannot turn you away by law. Stores can not pick and choose who they sell to. If they did this it would open them up to loads of lawsuits. They can have policies that stipulate a sale, but they cannot say "oh hes telling a lie these aren't going to be pets" that is a judgement=discrimination=big trouble for petsmart. Aside from this I have never had a problem with petsmart by me they have all been pretty cool for whatever I needed. My advice is don't go in looking to pick fights, be nice to them they most likely will be nice in return.

[packer43064]

I have a friend that breeds rats so I don't have this problem, why cant you just say they are going to be pets? Especially if they are going to be breeders and your not walking in there every week. If you tell them what they want to hear that they are going to be little furry pets, they cannot turn you away by law. Stores can not pick and choose who they sell to. If they did this it would open them up to loads of lawsuits. They can have policies that stipulate a sale, but they cannot say "oh hes telling a lie these aren't going to be pets" that is a judgement=discrimination=big trouble for petsmart. Aside from this I have never had a problem with petsmart by me they have all been pretty cool for whatever I needed. My advice is don't go in looking to pick fights, be nice to them they most likely will be nice in return.

Thank you, honest and to the point. You look like your in the middle here. Which is good, a honest opinion then. Like I said before....ask for a pet, it's that simple. As a Petsmart employee I did not even know about not selling rats or etc. as feeders, i found out about 6 months after I started when I asked my Petcare manager about it and she admantely said no. I told the customer and she was a little dissapointed, I offered her the frozen rats and said give it a try. It wouldn't be the first 10 bucks you've wasted in this hobby have you, I said. She smiled and got the frozen rat. Now if she asked for a rat, and never said absolutely anything about using it as a feeder then I wouldn't have known and she would have a feeder in the box I just gave her. Either way....happy customer.