Petsmart and crickets...

[flamekitty84]

So I had an incident at my local Petsmart that reaaalllly upset me...I went in to find a small snake dead in his home with a cricket jumping around...I also saw several corns who were very sad looking and sickly...probably getting 'fed' crickets as well
I was so shook up by this that I avoided Petsmart for a while, but the scene disturbed me so much that I made a special trip to talk to the reptile lady on duty at the time.
I asked her what she fed the snakes and she replied immediately with crickets. I informed her that snakes will not eat crickets and u know what she told me?
and I quote
"They will if they are hungry enough"
I seriously almost flipped
So after discussing with her how I've been dealing with snakes for over 7 years and I would know better, and after threatening never to return to another Petsmart, she said she didn't know who was throwing crickets in the tanks and that it would stop...
What opinions do you guys have about such a situation? I was so appalled by the poor snake that lay starved to death by these oblivious and uncaring people, I honestly don't think I can set foot in another Petsmart again..
Has anyone else seen this before and confronted them about it? Has anyone contacted the company with any luck about resolving these issues? And is it even worth the time to do so? Please tell me your stories and what your course of action was for these defenseless babies.
I'd like to do something more for them.

[Eric Alan]

PetSmart, as a company, does not feed their snakes crickets. This is a specific store problem, and should be addressed at that level. If they aren't willing to listen, and you've not acted like a crazy person in your attempt to educate them, then you would go higher than that.

[flamekitty84]

The thing is, the lady was pretty nice and I was pretty calm about my explanations and concerns for the animals, but I'm just not sure that the word would get around to the employees...should I ask to speak to the store manager at this point?? Or have I done all I can do?

[DVirginiana]

You can try speaking to the store manager. It might not change anything, but it won't hurt so long as you're okay with the employees at that store maybe disliking you. If it's not store policy to feed crickets they will probably change it if they think you might be upset enough to call corporate. (Not sure how that works at a Petsmart, but it's what I'm familiar with from other retail chains)

[Jhill001]

Yeah they sell frozen mice at our petsmart. They don't provide the best care to their reptiles but I'd say most places do a decent job of holding the most popular reptile species for a few weeks while they get homed. Most aren't entirely ignorant. In fact I'd say the majority (not all) of pet stores have that one "reptile dude" who's been working there for like 10 years and actually knows how to care for the animals.

The moron teenagers everyone runs into are literally there to open the cage and box up the animal. That's it. Those people aren't responsible for the actual care of the animal. They give terrible care advice but to be honest even if someone gives a total noob amazing world class advice their animal will probably still die because they didn't research the dang thing in the first place. If the customer doesn't care enough to read up on their new pet they probably won't care about their new pet after its not "new" anymore.

[auhsojnacnud]

Hell yes talk to the manager!!!!! That employee should be fired based on her answer of "they will if they're hungry enough" This sickens me. You should have said "Obviously they won't!" You should have talked to her supervisor immediately!!! Maybe her getting fired would be a bit extreme but she should at least be demoted. This is absolutely horrible. You should ask her how long she would wait in a cage before she'd eat crickets.

[Jhill001]

Can you really demote someone who makes minimum wage?

[slithering_BP]

Can you really demote someone who makes minimum wage?

Yes right to the unemployment line!

[pythongal]

The problem I have with PetSmart selling snakes, is their policy against feeding live. This coming from an employee of PS. I got my snake from there, and doubt it had eaten before because it definitely didn't eat at the store. I tried and tried f/t then gave up and tried live and he took is voracious and eats every 5 days like clockwork. I mean, when I got this snake, I'm not sure how old he was but he weighed 49g! And he had been at the store 3 weeks. I've had him approximately a couple of months now, and he weighed 150g at last check.

I just think having a hard & fast rule is detrimental to the health of animals like my guy who will only eat live.

[Eric Alan]

The problem I have with PetSmart selling snakes, is their policy against feeding live. This coming from an employee of PS. I got my snake from there, and doubt it had eaten before because it definitely didn't eat at the store. I tried and tried f/t then gave up and tried live and he took is voracious and eats every 5 days like clockwork. I mean, when I got this snake, I'm not sure how old he was but he weighed 49g! And he had been at the store 3 weeks. I've had him approximately a couple of months now, and he weighed 150g at last check.

I just think having a hard & fast rule is detrimental to the health of animals like my guy who will only eat live.

Did you attempt to feed him f/t when you brought him home or did you go straight to live?