Another Sad Petco Story

[Highline Reptiles South]

I took this picture of a GTB at my local PETCO...

[Annarose15]

I took this picture of a GTB at my local PETCO...

That poor thing doesn't look alive.

[KMG]

Similar to what I found but it wasn't coiled at all. Looked like a rope tossed in a corner.

I wonder what their cost is on a gtp.

[Artemille]

That's really depressing. My local petco has at least one guy that's into reptiles at least at a knowledgeable hobby level. However, I'm still shocked that they sell marine animals and angelfish.

[Jons2012pied]

I was a store manager at petco for five years. The animal care starts with the manager hiring the correct people. I hired one person mainly for small animals one for birds and one for reptiles and I oversaw the fish. I made sure that those people had there hours and where happy. I had other associates complain but i told them you do not take proper care of the animals so that is why you are on the register or stocking. Since I left the store it went down hill quick. They begged me to come back and be the manager cause they did not like the other one. Yes it is sad that most of the store out there do not give proper care. If I had to guess that gtp only cost them $150. You wouldn't believe the mark up on the animals.

[gsarchie]

Never seen anything but balls and corns in my local Petcos and PetSmarts. There is no way that a store like that should have that kind of an animal. Sad.

[Bluebonnet Herp]

I haven't experienced many problems with my local pet stores. Both of my ball pythons were purchased by each major chain pet brands, PetSmart and PETCO, respectively. Both of these stores have only ever sold corn snakes or ball pythons as far as snakes go. I don't remember actually having any problems with PetSmart. The lady who sold my first ball python to me has had experience with ball pythons before. Since the only ball python they had hadn't eaten since it arrived, she said they typical wouldn't sell them and was greatly discouraging me from buying it. I, however, decide I would take the gamble. (Didn't matter much to me anyway; I wasn't the one paying for it, I was just a teen dying to get his first snake.) My mom doesn't know squat about snakes, in fact, she's the one to asked if we could still buy it. (I'm slightly impulsive, especially if it isn't out of my pocket, so I didn't argue.) The good news was, I always seem to find that captive bred balls who are 'picky', just want fresher food, as that fat pig of a python goes to show. (Both chain stores have to feed frozen/thawed due to policies, although not all ball pythons like frozen/thawed.)
As far as PETCO goes, the manager there is also quite discouraging as to ward off ignorant impulse buyers who want a pet snake just to be "B-A". She, however, said I seemed like a knowledgeable pet keeper on pythons, and that I sounded quite smart. (Gee, don't I get that a lot! ) I didn't get the ball python then, as that was the night I was nagging my mom about how orange it was. I came in a week later to pick up the orange python, except I had a different staff member help me out. Being a blunt up-front person I am, I didn't allow ignorant comments fly by unnoticed (like when he said that there were "plenty of ball pythons in Florida") and would kindly correct him. Although like all pet store personnel, he was a bit sketchy that I would be an impulse buying teenage boy, I asked him questions in regards to care, quarantine, vet records, and again, openly educated him, as well as interested shoppers, he too said I was quite 'snake-smart'. Anyway, I had something to rub in my mom's face.
Back on point, the stores I visited seem to know at least something about a few of the reptiles and did an "okay" job on care. ("Okay" as in the animals looked healthy, except for one skinny ball python, and they were kept slightly colder and dryer than they should have been.) They actually both knew of a local vet who treats reptiles! (It was the same vet for both stores.) They would have animals checked out if they showed any signs of disease. All in all, I would trust the stores in caring for my ball pythons more than I would trust my parents to do the same thing.

[kimmm]

I went to my local Petco about a month ago and I was looking at the BPs. I couldn't believe it, there were tons of mites everywhere! I went to the manager and she said they would take care of it right away. I went back to the store the next day to make sure they took care of it and there was nothing in the tank at all. I remembered seeing a shelf with a couple tanks through a door that said Manager's Only. I opened the door and saw a tank with the BPs. They still had mites and there was no heat lamp on top of the tank. There was also a tank with a bearded dragon in it.. no heat lamp and a thermometer that said 75 degrees. I went off on the manager, and when I went back the next day, everything was taken care of. I also bought the poor beardie that they said they kept in the back because his brother bit his foot off.

[4theSNAKElady]

I worked at a Petco for 7 years. I worked together in both the fish and the reptiles dept with another full time guy. He took horrible care of the reptiles, and didn't even own a single one at home. I constantly confronted our store manager about it, showing him how they should properly be cared for. The manager was finally tired of our arguing, and made him the reptile manager, and me the fish dept manager just to keep us apart! I praised the day he was finally fired, for his improper care of the reptiles. It was just sad that it took so long, and for my manager to finally see what I was trying to tell him all along. The guy that was hired to take his place was screened carefully....by me He ended up being a great guy, actually cared about the reptiles, and even owned several himself, including two ball pythons. He took wonderful care of them while he was at PETCO. Today, I work for a smaller privately owned pet store. Its completely different. Its incredible how much cooperate BS there really is in those big pet store chains!!! I don't know what Petco's markup on animals is, because I was never allowed access to that information. But im sure its ridiculous....because many of my store's merchandise is cheaper than it is at Petco, and you know they buy it at huge bulk discounts! Please, support your local small business.

[Jons2012pied]

The mark up is outrageous. I know that most saltwater fish is marked up 3x the purchase price. Reptiles where about 2 to 3x the purchase price. Next time you go into a store and just look at what it is on sale for. That will give you a reasonable amount of how much they mark it up for. I seen when the balls are on sale for 29.99 orignally 79.99. So that alone is a $50 discount and they are not losing money one the snake.