Petsmart employees

[Madeve]

My local petsmart has horrible pet husbandry except for their birds and rodents. Most fish tanks have dead fish, they keep their fire-belly toads in a completely aquatic setup with only a few floating plants. I saw this beautiful Uromastix once and he was kept in one of the smallest tanks they have (10 gal I think). They don't have many exotic pets, they usually have a couple turtles or tortoise and a few small grass lizards(not sure exactly what they are but that's what they are labeled as), every now and then they have something really unusual, like the uromastix. I've never ever seen any newts or salamander available.

My local Petco is amazing. The have knowledgable employees and I have yet to see a dead fish. Save for their crested geckos, their reptiles are kept in pretty good conditions, tank size and housing is appropriate and they even separate some animals if they have a size difference. They even told me they could order me some newts if I really wanted some but I have a better place to get my newts from.
The same 4 crested geckos have been there since the store opened earlier this year, I've been tempted many time when they go on sale to grab all 4 but then I'm afraid they will just get more in and they'll not sell and grow too big for their enclosure.

We used to have 2 local pet stores, one closed after hurricane Rita, about 3 years ago, it had pretty bad conditions. Their fish section was decent but the few rodents they kept were over crowded and inbreeding.
The other used to be the place to go to get exotic pets, they could order you anything you wanted. When I started my quest for an axolotl they knew a breeder in TX but their price was a bit out of my range. They always had snakes, frogs and a few lizards or gecko on display. Unfortunately after the last hurricane season, they relocated to a smaller shop where they only sell a few supplies, mostly for dogs and cats, and have a dog grooming salon.

So I have to shop the big corporate chain stores for supplies or order online and with shipping prices sometimes, I'd rather make the short drive.

[Kurt]

They don't have many exotic pets, they usually have a few small grass lizards(not sure exactly what they are but that's what they are labeled as)

Takydromus sexlineatus, an Asian Lacertid or true lizard. They are all wild caught and rarely do well in captivity.

[into]

My local Petco is amazing. The have knowledgable employees and I have yet to see a dead fish...

The original complaint on this thread was against a local Petsmart, but they do have the one of the cleanest pet stores around. The local Petco on the other hand is not so good (there's where I purchased all my frogs) They are understaffed and as stated earilier, they keep getting more WTFs in whether they need them of not... so I wasn't concerned about buying one that was in need and them taking that as a demand for them and ordering more.

There is another Petsmart in my area and their store is beautiful and the the WTFs are in at least in a 30 gallon tank and only a couple are in there at a time... so I guess the blame goes to the individual store managers? since there are good and bad Petcos and Petsmarts around.

[SludgeMunkey]

I have found that both Big Name "Pet" retailers in the US to be very, very, touch and go both on cleanliness and knowledge. I often purchase supplies for my pugs and our snakes at them, however I would never buy anything live from them, other than fruit flies. Here in Omaha, PetSmart is better stocked, but PetCo has better prices.

If I were to make a judgment call on employee knowledge between the two here, PetCo would win, however I found that most of them in other locations around the country were masters of misinformation.

Then again, I am a bit of an elitist when it comes to pet shops in general...

[Kurt]

Aren't we all?

[SludgeMunkey]

Aren't we all?

The wife claims this is my main interest in this hobby:

"You just like going to pet shops and making the poor idiotas that work there look stupid in public. You also enjoy watching them squirm when you ask to see the manager/owner."


She is right...I guess...

[Kurt]

Yes, that is fun! The other half of the coin is when you get employees that worship you like a god. I think those ones are the caring ones, as they seem to want to learn everything you can teach them.

I do like shooting down the ones that think they are better than me just because they work there and they are the "expert". There was this one employee at Petco that comes to mind.
Their hermit crab enclosure was overly wet, I mean it was really swampy. There was so much water in the substrate that you could pour it like gravy. Anyway, there was the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh emitting from the enclosure. I told an employee and he said they had a new guy that doesn't quite what he was doing yet and he had taken care of the animals the day before. Other cages were screwed up too. He then went and got the "expert". She came over looked and at told him and I that's just the way that hermit crabs smelled. I have never kept hermits before, but I have been around quite a few and I know the smell of rotting flesh, so much so that I can usually tell what kind of animal it is down to class.
I argued with her over it she was having no part of it. Even after I told her who I am and what my credentials are. My friend who is a wildlife educator/science teacher was with me. She has kept hermit crabs and she was even arguing with this pinhead of an employee. I should've asked to see the manager, but I just walked away in disgust. Its a shame she had to hide behind her arrogance to cover up her lack of knowledge and the fact that an employee and ****ed up and they had not fixed the problem.

[adawinters]

I would love to know where she got the idea of "swampy" for a hermit crab enclosure. The tropical beaches they come from can't really be classified as "swamps." They need water/humidity to keep their gills wet, but a bog isn't really their thing.

I don't even think of it as arrogance any more: just insecurity. When someone is factually wrong, and fighting with made-up or inaccurate facts, I often think it's just not having the sense of self to admit it. It's scary to be wrong. Yeah, sometimes we get old or bad information, but what ever happened to, "I have never heard that. Let me look into it." Is that really so hard? If I could get that sentence out of more clerks' mouths, that alone would be enough to send me home with a smile on my face.

[sschind]

I have found that both Big Name "Pet" retailers in the US to be very, very, touch and go both on cleanliness and knowledge. I often purchase supplies for my pugs and our snakes at them, however I would never buy anything live from them, other than fruit flies. Here in Omaha, PetSmart is better stocked, but PetCo has better prices.

If I were to make a judgment call on employee knowledge between the two here, PetCo would win, however I found that most of them in other locations around the country were masters of misinformation.

Then again, I am a bit of an elitist when it comes to pet shops in general...

Why wouldn't you buy anything live from them?

[cvBon1]

Ugh, Petsmart.. dont get me started. My best friend used to work there and she would tell me horror stories, the stupid people looking to buy animals. It should be illegal for people to buy animals if theyre uneducated, at least.. like.. for example to put a fancy goldfish in a bowl?! Omg! thats ridiculous! Its like putting a dog in a closet! Its cruelty!! I remember she came home one day infuriated. A customer wanted to buy a chameleon for his sons school project. Just to sit in a little habit he built... thats it!! She said no, they went to another employee and they were able to buy hermit crabs. Petsmart doesnt care, nor do they care enough to train there employees about proper animal care!

And its not just the big companies either! I have a few shops around here called Petworld... and its horrid. I was told that one of the employees my best friend currently works for (a natural foods pet store) went into there and noticed the Chameleon that was for sale was COVERED in Mites, to the point it probably couldnt be healed. And she asked the woman nearby if they were treating it, she said no! She said NO!! And that infuriated this person and she asked the woman to speak to the manager cause that was animal neglect, and the petworld employee replied.. "I am the manager" .... ... then she just walked out, cause that was just... too much

I think she should've called someone.

That or people need to crack down harder on Licensing people to sell pets.


Uhhh... sorry for the rant. It just drives me CRAZY...