Where do Petco stores get their reptiles?

[icygirl]

Does anyone know? I know there are big pet vendors out there. For example, I know for a fact that one Petco around here buys from a place called FishMart. But that's about as much as I know... Would be interesting to know more about what kinds of places Petco buys its animals from, and what the conditions are like at such places, how their breeding programs work, etc.

I'm sure this also differs depending on the area of the country.

[Ophiuchus]

Don't know about Petco, but petsfart gets theirs from any of 3-4 distributers. Trying to recall their names: C.R.A.P. (Central Reptile & Amphibian...something?), Sandfire maybe? can't recall the other two.

[spix14]

Let's see if I can remember...I worked at Petco for 3 years. Red tails come from some place called California Zoological, we used to call them CalZoo...beardies and I think cresties and leos come from Sandfire Dragons...and the rest of the reptiles come from a place called Amazon something or other. The guy that runs it is a real piece of work, he was always sending me WC herps, and then when I would call him to ask about why they had mites ect. he would deny it. He once tried to tell me that Flying Geckos ALWAYS have mites no matter what. He also sent us a Red Foot tortoise that was COVERED in ticks, and when we took her to the vet, they turned out to be south american ticks. Now tell me how you get south american ticks on a captive bred animal? The vet reported him for that one, so he may have been shut down by now. I sure hope so.

That was just my store, though...it may be different for others.

[RBCpythons]

well the petcos in the NW buy captive hatched pythons, so needless to say, theyre either sick or have something. boas are from central america. i dont know where any of the other reptiles come from.

well theres my 2 pieces.

[AdamJB]

Don't know about Petco, but petsfart gets theirs from any of 3-4 distributers. Trying to recall their names: C.R.A.P. (Central Reptile & Amphibian...something?), Sandfire maybe? can't recall the other two.

I know at my store we get them from Sandfire Dragon, Lasco Inc and CRAP

[Ophiuchus]

Lasco! That was the other one for petsmart!

[icygirl]

Do you guys know anything about these places? How they breed and if they get shipments of WC animals? Just curious really.

[Ophiuchus]

Well, I'd bet money most of the lizards we got from Lasco were WC imports...at least they sure looked like it.

[josh@outbackreps]

99% of Petco's animals come from Bill Brant/Gourmet Rodent.
He is the worlds largest producer of c.b reptiles, buys/imports 30,000-50,000 c.h balls a year, and imports the basic pet store herps directly all for Petco. He has the contract, and as far as I know he supplies almost all of there reptiles, other than a few specialties. In the next year or 2 albino balls will be in Petco, that is already set in stone, upc code and everything already done, now just a little more production #'s.

He keeps a lot of his stuff private, but he is a HUGE supplier!!

[spix14]

If that's the case then I can't say much for his animals.