Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It sounds like a lot of people here have had bad pet store experiences. I would like to say that not all of them are bad. Unfortunetly about 75% of them are bad. Not all of us recommened anything to make a dollar. We're generally more worried about our animals having a good home then making an extra $10. I just wanted to tell everyone that it is possible to get a good and healthy reptile from a pet store. It's the same thing people say about getting dogs and cats at pet stores. That they all buy from puppy/kitty mills and we don't care for them. We aren't all bad! Good ones just are hard to find. My first leo I bought was from my store, and her tail when she was there was as much is not fatter then I see some breeders selling at the same age online. I know this post probably seems stupid, but I know we do a great job at my store and want people to know you can find a good place to buy crickets, and sometimes get some great deals on some good little leos!

-Kristen

No I agree with you 100%. In my life, I've seen two awesome pet stores (one specializing in retiles and fish) that was privately owned, and other one is a the PetCo in my neighborhood.

The leo I bought from the PetCo DID have pinworms. However they reimbursed me for the vet bills I had to pay.

But what pains me to see are the petstores that are BLATANTLY bad, i.e. dried up water bowls, feces everywhere, dead animals in the tanks, obviously sick animals, mites, serveral species housed together that should not be housed together (leos and fat tails), ignoring fighting (males vs. males), etc. and don't do anything about it even if a customer alerts them to a problem.

However, even if a petstore has less than stellar animals but attempt to correct it's husbandry practices (I tell them "hey, leo's should be in with fat tails" and they immediately do something about it), then I commend those stores for trying their best and not simply saying "well thats for the manager to decide", even if I'd never buy an animal from them, I'd come back just to buy some mealworms to support their efforts.

-Lemur 6

I completely agree. I have one of the best pet stores around near my house and it's a super pet (one of the big chains in Canada almost like Petco). A good friend of mine is the reptile manager and he knows what he's doing. He owns leos, beardies, ball pythons, a savannah monitor, and 2 tree boas. The housing is always immaculate and his staff is very well informed. Altough I do go in and make comments about some of their husbandry. One of the new girls had a full grown beardie (up for adoption) in the tank with thier hatchlings. As soon as I mentioned that the babies might get sacred into not eating she immediatley moved the juvies into a seperate enclosure. Not all pet stores are cess pools of filth. You just need well informed and caring employees and any store can be a haven.

I'm hoping you meant to say "shouldn't" rather than "should".

So in this supposedly good petco, were the babies on sand? (They are at mine, and the poos are chock full of sand. There is no calcium dish or humid hide either, though I have told them they are required and they say so in their own care sheets!). If a gecko gets sick, is the enclosure fully sterilized, and all other geckos removed for treatment or at least extended observation before being sold? I doubt it.

There are "less bad" petcos but I honestly don't believe that there are ANY that follow the basic health practices we advocate here, and that many of the reputable mid-sized and smaller "boutique" breeders adhere to. Not to mention many breeders raise hatchlings individually or in pairs, and petco dumps em all in one enclosure.

Did I mention the time I saw an employee lift the open-style (I'm sure the baby gex can't feel very secure in there) hide and there was a dead baby gecko whose head had been smashed in stuck to te bottom of the cave by the glue of its own brains?
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Oh that poor baby...that is disgusting... I dont' agree with you on your PetCo comment though...I think it just depends on the individual store. They may all be owned by one person or whatever...but a different person runs each individual store...the care of the animals is going to depend on the people running the stores and the people they hire. While in general they may suck...lol I'm sure there are at least several very good ones with caring managers and intelligent workers.
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Christina

0.3.1 leos (soon to be 1.3.1!)
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)
-soon to be 1.0 tangerine rainwater albino
1.0 australian shepherd/cattle dog (Foster...although he was being fostered before I got him...that has nothing to do with his name...It's after the beer!...lol since he's australian and I'm a college student!)

a petco is going to remove the substrate, completely sterilize the enclosure, and treat or remove all geckos for extended observation from the enclosure if one comes down sick? If one person can tell me of even one Petco store they know for a fact always does this I'll eat my shirt. Well, not really but you know what I mean.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Why wouldn't you believe that a handful of PetCo's would do that? Have you been to every PetCo in the country? Many don't even have more than 10 enclosures with reptiles in them...I don't see how it would be difficult to sterilize them should need be. I'm a strong disbeliever in stereotypes, and I believe everyone and everything should be given a chance to prove themselves. Most every store is run by different people and has different workers (there may be a few where one person runs multiple stores...), and so they are all going to be different and get their animals from different stores. I would never not go to a store just because the reputation of other stores of the same name (unless its like a clothes store or someplace like that where they get all of thier retail from the same place and its all the same).
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Christina

0.3.1 leos (soon to be 1.3.1!)
-0.1 tangerine het rainwater albino w/jungle background (Blinkers)
-0.2 jungles (Vahz & Skissor)
-0.0.1 albino (supposed Tremper)(Spitfire)
-soon to be 1.0 tangerine rainwater albino
1.0 australian shepherd/cattle dog (Foster...although he was being fostered before I got him...that has nothing to do with his name...It's after the beer!...lol since he's australian and I'm a college student!)

I haven't been to every petco in the country, but I know big business, and I know how it operates. I've been to the back room in the petco near me and yes they have a ouple of tanks for sick and injured animals. They don't have facilities to boil hides. You can believe whatever you like, but I haven't heard anything to change my mind one bit about Petco.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

The geckos there were kept on astroturf, bowl fulla mealies with calc powder, another bowl of water, etc. From what I heard from the person that was responsible for the reptiles, they never have their reptiles long enough for them to get sick , and if one happens to arrive sick, the entire shipment gets sent back to the breeder before they put even one animal into their enclosures. I guess they have some sort of holding tank in the back since they say they have a vet that runs mass fecals.

The guy also said he puts baby oil on them once a week (I dunno where he got this advice from) to prevent mites. I couldn't say anything about this so I opted not to.

At one point they had a tank full of a dozen or so adult geckos with some of the fattest tails I've ever seen, and they were all sold out of them within 2 weeks.

It's also the only big petstore in Washtenaw county, so guess their business must be pretty good (there's a couple Pet Supplies Plus'es around but they're kinda hidden and I guess no one goes to them since every time I go to one they never have what I want).

The private petstore that specialized in reptiles and aquatics has since gone out of business a while ago. The owner always seemed tired and something was troubling him that he never was willing to share.

-Lemur 6

diseases have incubation periods, and illness is not always recognizable upon arrival. Also, many diseases do not show up on fecals. I still don't believe they would thoroughly sanitize properly if a gecko in the enclosure got sick, boiling hides and everything, but glad to hear they are better than most.

I don't think leos generally get mites, but I'm not sure about that either.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos