• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Petco should not be allowed to have animals!

King21

King21

New member
I haven't been to Petco in a while so I thought I would check in on the snakes and see if they really did take care of the mite problem they said the would fix.

Well, they didn't. Mites everywhere. The corns, balls, garters and kings all covered in the microscopic bugs. It's a damn shame.

So, I told the so called reptile expert (aka only person working the floor that day) and she said, "oh yea, we already know about that. The ball pythons were going crazy and we couldn't figure out what was wrong with them so we kept them in back for the last few weeks until they would calm down." They later found out that they were covered in mites and probably didn't do anything about it even though they say the are.

So this girl said that she would take all of the snakes to the back and try to rid the mites tonight. I am going to go back there in a couple days and those snakes better be off the floor or I am gonna flip out on her!

I asked to see the manager about it and she said, "Oh you dint have to tell her, she knows all about it and she cares very much about it." Yea right!

And get this...she said the she was the only employee who was not afraid of the snakes! What??? It's a PET store! Employees need to be able to handle and care for the pets otherwise they should be sent out the door!

Makes me want to just work there. I'd probably be the best employee there because I actually know a thing or two about almost every animal the sell. (ie, you cant feed a corn snake crickets! like my friend was told by an employee there. "You can feed all reptiles crickets...." Idiots! I should say, I want $10 bucks an hour and I want to work whatever hours I want and in return you get a knowlegable and competent employee. Sheeesh!

Alright, thats the end of my rant.
 
Hello one of the big pet stores in Chattanooga feeds there snakes crickets and worms . My aunt told me. WEe feed ours mice.

Miranda
 
Strock said:
Hello one of the big pet stores in Chattanooga feeds there snakes crickets and worms . My aunt told me. WEe feed ours mice.

Miranda
Click to expand...
What kind of snakes were they? Because some snakes will eat crickets or worms, but not many.
 
I totally agree, Petco should not sell animals. I hate to say I did buy my corn from them. I caught the mites early and got rid of them pretty quickly. Every time I go in there I see terrible living conditions for their animals (not just reptiles either) It makes me want to rescue them all. The employees are highly uneducated in reptile care too. I will only buy from breeders from now on. I love my little Pepino though.
 
I dislike pointing fingers at one corporation and claiming that the entire company is bad. Not all Petco stores are evil, nor are they all run by idiots. I have never seen a mite on any reptile in the three Petco stores near me. While their staff aren't experts, I've received decent advice (mainly "buy the book") from them. Employees are restricted by rules in what they can and can't say or do, though many don't follow it and will offer up personal knowledge, good or bad. I've had worse information thrown at me from a local breeder who was a pompous ass than from some young person working at the pet store. That's why there are books filled with information.

As for the conditions, each store is individually operated under company guidelines. Yes, there are certain Petco stores that need to learn better husbandry skills (any pet store could fall into that category), as in keeping cages clean, separating species and whatnot, but keep in mind that they are out to make money. That's why they exist. It would be nice if they did more for the animals in their care. Some do take good care of them. Some obviously don't.

As for pet store employees not wanting to touch the snakes, I think it's funny that someone working in a pet store doesn't like or is afraid of something they sell. I understand it, though. You can't make me touch crickets, and if I worked in a pet store I would either get over it or have another employee do that. Heck, I work in a hospital lab where we get every kind of bodily fluid and excretion (sometimes body parts) and there are some people who can't stand it when we get sputum specimens in cups, but don't think twice about dealing with urine or stool. As for me, I don't like going into our pathology dept because they do autopsies. Yeah, I'm a medical professional, but I don't wanna see that .

You might want to consider going above the store manager and contacting the corporation to report about the conditions in that store. If they were aware of lost sales and dying stock, they might want to look at that store a little closer. Who knows. It could happen.
 
I don't know about the reptiles, but the rodents at Petco are all sickly. I've bought rats at Petco before I knew any better and they had SDA virus. I've boiught several breeding pairs of mice and if they didn't die outright within days they were ALL sterile. This was from several different Petco stores in the area so it's not just one store it must be their rodent supplier.

When people complain about the sick rats they blame it on the carefresh bedding!
 
I have heard that many rodents do have problems with Carefresh. You would think Petco would use something else....
 
I would have to agree with dionythicus

about not all Petcos are bad with the animals (reptiles, rodents, etc) the ones near me also were pretty good about care of the animals (although some of the practices make me scratch my head and say 'huh?') but mostly I see clean stores with good sale prices.. Although since a new law went into affect here they no longer carry corn snakes :cry: Because according to our county they are a threat to people????
 
dionythicus said:
I have heard that many rodents do have problems with Carefresh. You would think Petco would use something else....
Click to expand...

It was NOT the carefresh, they just use that as an excuse that sounds feasible and harmless. What it really was in my case and in the case of ALL the rats at the store at that time was SDA virus which is VERY contagious. Luckily I had no other rats at the time or they would have all caught it.
 
Excuses, excuses.... That's what the lady tried with me when I first brought it up about the mites. Then she realized I actually knew what I was talking about and she backed off a little bit and at least tried to seem interested in what I had to say. But it seems that each employee has an excuse for each problem and how it is "being taken care of."
 
cornsnakekid92 said:
Mine has them for $40 but they go onsale for $30 ( that is when they use to carry them)
Click to expand...
holy!
up here in alberta
we normally get anerys, amels, and snows but i think thats about it in petstores
ive never even seen a normal in a petstore
and all of them are $100+
 
HerpsforU said:
about not all Petcos are bad with the animals (reptiles, rodents, etc) the ones near me also were pretty good about care of the animals (although some of the practices make me scratch my head and say 'huh?') but mostly I see clean stores with good sale prices.. Although since a new law went into affect here they no longer carry corn snakes :cry: Because according to our county they are a threat to people????
Click to expand...


What? For real?? I am in WA ST as well and last time I was at Petco in Olympia (aprx 3-4 wks) and they still had corns. What county are you in?

I prefer to by from a breeder because then I know the lines (usually) but I have had equal success in corns bought from Petco. I had a hatchling die from Petco but replaced after the 14day guarantee with a very healthy animal. A much more expensive hatchling die from a breeder, not replaced. Another snake from the same breeder received in the same box thrive. :shrugs:

Would really like to know what county you are in.

Angela
 
My sister in Chattanooga told me over the phone the other day that the PetCo there had crickets in with the corns and pythons. She asked them about it and the lady said, "Crickets and mealworms sprinkled with vitamin powder are very nutritious." My sister told her I only give my snakes mice and apparently the lady snapped, "Well, then her snakes aren't getting what they need and they will die. She needs to give them to someone who'll take care of them."

Needless to say, my sister left and bought stuff for her new Pomeranian some place else.

She reminded me of our trips to the mall in the '80s, to PassPets. (You know, the ones with the ironic "NO PUPPY MILLS!" signs all over.) She remembered ALL the snakes having crickets crawling all over them. They were the same people who gave horrible advice about animals in general. Luckily, the PassPets here near Fort Campbell closed soon after we arrived.

Carrie
 
I wouldn't go so far as to say any pet store cannot sell animals. Who would decide this and would we really want that decision made for us? I would suggest fines and increased scrutiny should be enough.

Out of most stores that sell animals, I do think Petco ranks pretty low but as everyone here can see, most of those here would not buy live animals from Petco. The people reading this care about their pets and are informed enough to make their own decision. The Anti Petco crowd has been around for years and it has not nor will it ever shut Petco down but it probably does affect their sales. I think Walmart's fish department and Petco in general are the whipping boys of the industry. They probably deserve it too. There will always be BAD stores that mistreat pets and give bad information. We are lucky that we have large corporations we can focus our energy on. This criticism does bring animal treatment to light and benifits anybody who becomes informed because of a bad picture or touching story. :-offtopic
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top