Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well heres the story...I was going to buy some dog treats for my little maltese and i decided to look over at the reptile section..
and there were these small leos, looks like newborns with very skinny tails, (they looked VERY sick) and they were kept on sand!!!!..
i wanted to buy them all but realistically that was not going to happen...
so i decided to talk to the manager about changing the substrate and moving them to the back until they get better...but the manager was on break...
so when i went back..a sales person was setting up a kit for a customer for a leo and she was getting it all wrong...

this was the list...of the things i knew was wrong
A BASKING BULB!?
CALCI SAND!!!!
DEAD CRIX IN A CAN
DEAD MEALIES IN A CAN
STICKER THERMOMETER

and the sales person said that its normal for the leos to be that skinny..and that they shouldnt worry..

and i know that i am not an experienced keeper only kept them and breed them for about 2.5 years...but still i wanted to really help out...
so i politely went up to the customer and told her that she needs..
a 20 gal long (better for the leo) but i told her a 10 gallon was fine but cutting it close
some hides for cool and hot side
water dish, calci dish, mealie dish, and i told her that is could be substituted for house hold things such as NEW ashtrays for mealies and bottle caps and small bowls for the watter bowl and substrate is peper towels, non adhesive shelf liner, newspaper, and tiles. (recomended to set up the tank before brining a leo home...

and then sugested a thermomiter, not a stickerand a scale..
plus some supplements..

then i talked about the importance of a GOOD herp vet and gave her the phone number of my personal vet..

and then i got kicked out because i was somehow causing some thing in the store.

well im glad to know that the custormer left to talk to me outside and she bought all the things she needed ..and said she was gonna buy a gecko somewhere else...
she said i should work there..LoL...
and i think i may apply so i can help some of the herps...

the leos werent the only one suffering...
so yea...sorry about the long post..im kind of letting odd some steam from today..
thanx for reading..

wow that must haev been a bad petco.
most of the petcos i have to been around me have very knowlgdable herp keepers who own then and care for them at thier home.
but i have told many stores that sand is bad but they tell me they cant do anything about it..the chain owners have rules to follow..the cages must look natural.so they have no choice but to use sand.
its sad i know but theres not much they can do about it.

awww thats sad to hear..that same thing happened to me when i set up my 108g fish tank..the stores are only out to make sales and not care how the fish do or in this case the leos ..i know all bout how the chain stores have rules to follow and thats crap..they should have rules to follow too!!!..its called proper rules on how to care for the leos..glad u spoke up and helped that customer..i do same thing when i go to that store and hear the sales person say something wrong i fill them in on how wrong they are
-----

not all the petcos are bad.like i sad the ones i got to are very good.they tell people that they can use sand if they want but they tell them the risk of using it.

I've only had one bad experience with PetCo. I bought a leo there(the 3rd one from there). She wasn't eating, so I took her to the vet and he said she had hookworms. I went from the vet's to the pet store because if she was infected chances are more in the cage were. The manager told me that she was sure she knew more about the lizards in her store than I did. I went back to get mealworms 3 weeks later and talked to a different manager. He told me that 10 leos from the same "batch" had died and that the manager I had talked to had been fired for her "serious attitude problem". He even refunded the money paid for my leo and gave me my mealies for free! I've found that the experienced sales people at PetCo are very helpful and VERY honest unlike other pet stores~PetLand and PetSupply to name a few.
Don't let one bad experience ruin that pet store for you. It is funny when sales people insist they know more about critters than you do even though you've kept them for years.
Below is Halyn, a Pet Supply Plus rescue.

I noticed a similar issue at a specific Petco here in the Denver area.

I recently purchased two geckos from said store. The clerk I talked to was very helpful.

On a return trip I saw another customer purchasing a hatchling leopard gecko for her daughter and a different sales clerk was telling her all sorts of clearly wrong information.

Guess the thing to remember is that different employees have different motivations while at work. Some take their job seriously and learn all they can while others are just there for a paycheck. Sucks that corporate policy lends to a less than healthy environment but that's what happens when you've got business majors making decisions in lieu of a vet. That's why they still sell hot rocks and such.

Strange thing is that the company could make nearly as much money selling the correct merchandise. Sure, they might not be able to move the bags of sand as quickly but they could sell the more expensive under tank heaters, thermostats, heat lamps, hides that are excluded from their leopard gecko "kit", and equipment to keep live food instead of the canned stuff.

Most folks don't do too much research on pets before they buy them. In fact most small pet purchases are done on impulse. Little do they know that a Leopard Gecko can outlive a dog if well cared for.

To be honest, I do have to admit to purchasing pets on impulse but it's pretty much limited to the cheap fish department.

Petco needs ALOT of change. I can say this because I work there.
We carry alot of useless items....hire people who don't know anything (which in itself isn't bad), and who are then not trained for months. When they are trained, sometimes it doesn't matter, because they have attitudes and really don't care about the animals....only about their jobs. And the sand story is right. We have to keep beardies and leos on sand. We have had all of our beardies die (minus two, one I sold, and one I "rescued" from TWO shipments in a row. That's 10 beardies. Corporate won't allow us to change it...our manager won't allow us to change it. We've changed the bedding twice and had him change it back for fear of "getting in trouble".
I'm pretty much ready to quit, except for the fact that there are only 3 other people there who know/ care about what they're doing.
--end of rant--

I've been kicked out of a local petco several times.

The worst time was when I told someone who was interested in purchasing a ferret that the company which supplies petco its ferrets(Marshalls) also breeds ferrets and beagles for laboratory use. I also informed them that these ferrets are spayed and neutered at a very young age and there is speculation from many vets that this leads to health problems down the line. I also told them the names of a few shelters that have ferrets in the area, as well as the name of a breeder(that also runs a rescue) who would be happy to help educate them about ferret care requirements. A salesperson overheard me talking to the person intererested in the ferrets and went to get the manager. The manager told me (in front of the person i was talking to) that i was a liar and that none of what I was saying was true.

Anyhow, this has nothing to do with leos, but interesting none the less. This petco has gotten better and is now, thankfully, under new management.