Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey, i'm getting a job at petsmart, and i was waiting fo my dad to pick me up after an interview, and i wasllooking at the leos and i noticed many things
-tails were extremly skinny
-crickets weren't dusted
-alot of the leos were trying to catch the crickets for like the whole time i was waiting there which was about a half hour to an hour

i was wondering would it be a reasonable request for them to start treating these problems? or should i just not really care, i mean well, yea, lol, would it make sense for them to be seperating the gecko's for feeding, or should i just ask them to start dusting the crickets??

-i hope that made sense, i'm not feeling to well, so me thinking is kinda screwed up

Ok, here is some advice. I just picked up a part-time job at Petco for some extra cash.

Depending on what department they put you in, you MAY have a tad bit of control over what happens when the animals get fed. Since I open and I am the one feeding the reptiles, I make sure the crix get dusted. I also feed the you-know-what out of them. The biggest problem that you find when keeping baby leopards together, is that there tends to be dominance problems. One or two gex get most of the food.

Now the other problem with working at these places. When I was in charge of the reptiles at a small private petstore, I had complete say over how they were kept. At these places, you have to keep them the way they say. It sucks but you have to do the best that you can, with what you are given. Like I said, I make sure the animals are fed a ton of crix, since they put no limit on how many I can feed in a day. You can't really change the way they want things done but if you do the best YOU can, then you will be able to sleep at night.

Also, if you get the job. When you get home after work. TAKE A HOT SHOWER AND WASH THROUGHLY BEFORE GOING NEAR YOUR ANIMALS!

Actually, I worked at Petsmart for about 3 years... we had COMPLETE control over how our reptiles were housed. Our store always got good marks and our animals were always healthy. We dusted our crickets and housed each one exactly how they should, and we were allowed to do what we needed, write off what we needed, and everything. the employees were allowed to change the setups how ever they felt was correct. i LOVED it there.

I just got a job at Petco recently...and im about to quit. Their policies are CRAP. they have many policies we HAVE to do that leads to sickness and death of the animals (ex- they make it mandatory we always keep a dish of mealies in with the baby beardies..which causes gastrointestinal problems) we have no control over how the animals are housed, even though we know how they should be housed, they wont let us change it. Petco doesnt care about the animals at all, and working at both chain petstores, Petsmart definately cares and puts animals first.

In response to your question, yes, just tell them about it. let them know you have leos and tell them how they are supposed to be. if they are anything like my petsmart they will change it right away. =)
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~Melissa~
1.3 Leopard geckos
1.0 Bearded dragon
1.0 Hog Island Boa
0.0.1 crested gecko
1.0 Ferret
0.1 Chinchilla

actually i just got a leo from petsmart and like you sade they were skinny and had trouble cathing the food and he isnt eating i tried taking him back but they bascly said no do you have advise for me