Now petco does it too!

[kb1290]

ive never understood this policy at all, in the same store they sell frozen mice and rats as well would they not all end up in the same place?

It's corporates belief that it is upsetting to the customer to know that the mice/rats will be food. The f/t are kept in a cooler labeled "Reptile Food" that way only "reptile" people will see/ know of the f/t food. All other customers go along oblivious to this and see that we sell "fancy pets".

lol....corporate cares so much about the pets that the mice are contracted to be pets and not feeders....but won't spend any extra money to educate their employees, update their care sheets, and correct their husbandry. Interesting...

kb1290...just pointing out nothing against the employees, but the corporate end of those chains are rediculous. As we've talked about this before, not all employees are like you BUT that's because most aren't educated on specific animal care requirements.

It is true that employees are given limited training on animal care, but I think it comes down to each individual employee to do the work. If your going to sell an animal to people I think it is your responsibility to do the research and make sure you know proper care and husbandry. Otherwise you shouldn't be talking to customers and selling animals. Like I know nothing about birds so, I don't sell birds! In a corporate business like this it can't be blamed on the top officials when the employees as the base aren't doing the work to stabilize the pyramid.

It's all about image. Have you noticed how many pet adoption days they have? They make more money on food and supplies than they ever would on animals. People adopting kittens and puppies may not appreciate that cute little mouses are being sold as snake food.

Plus, I would imagine that hsus and peta donate significantly to their advertising campaigns to help get those future pet owners in the stores. Can't bite the hand that feeds you if you're corporate.

Bingo! Petco's policy is to feed f/t to all snakes in the store. If we get in a "picky eater" I have to go buy rats/mice from another local pet store so that I can feed live. I cannot just take a mouse off the floor. They are "pets" only and not food. Do they become food, yes all the time, but Petco doesn't want to know that.