Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Doing some research. Looking for that single thing that is just missing from your local pet/reptile store. What's the one thing that you wish your local guy did? Is it a product you wished he carried? A service you wished they provided? Or the one thing that makes you cringe when you think about having to go down there?

Thanks in advance,

Daniel Wedeking
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles
http://www.exoticlizards.com
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles

...are brains.
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"...I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust"
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wish they'd only double my wholesale prices not triple them.....

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sell more exotic mammals..........

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Let's see... the petstores I frequent:

Petsmart: One of my most recent peeves about them is selling male mice (I live near one of their Male-Only stores). One of my coworkers bought two cages of mice. They were told that mice get lonely, so they bought a total of four mice. Two per cage. Two of the mice were mostly fine, had acheived a sort of equilibrium (except I think it was reached at the expense of one of the testicles of the non-dominant male). The other two were a mess... One had NO testicles, and he'd been attacked so severely his penis was hanging out and half "decapitated" as well. One mouse gets two lonely, two male mice will kill each other.

Petco: I wish they didn't have such unhealthy animals.

Both above mentioned stores: I hate the customer service... being supermarkets they rarely give any serious personal attention, and then when you get it, you find that you know more than they do!

Mom'n'pop petstore #1: Place STINKS, reptiles are often sick (open mouth breathing, bubbling, etc on their "discounted" snakes), snake mites on everything!

Mom'n'pop petstore #2: Place is good, nice reptiles, nice rodents... have fowl of all kinds, including parrots and roosters lying around loose... once had a parrot next to the line to pay... it reached out and nabbed me good, left a baseball sized bruise and a fairly deep cut. I like loose animals in a petstore, it can make it personable, but not when they ATTACK!

Mom'n'pop petstore #3: Large reptile section... but the guys there are VERY annoying, they like to talk big and make the customers seem small, but do not know everything and often say things I know to be bad advice.

Anyway, those are the main ones I could think about. Hope it helps.
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~Sasheena

Oh, urgh, don't get me started... (too late).

First, there's the mall pet store. They carry a great assortment of reptile husbandry supplies, the only thing I had to order online was a thermostat. I got a rheostat there, too. They do all right in that department.

Unfortunately, they don't have clue one about the animals they are selling, and they trust their supplier's insane care instructions. This store sells both cb and wildcaught animals, so sometimes the animals come in looking great, and sometimes they don't. They "feed" crickets to their baby colubrids, they house all manner of species in the same cages (including boas with pythons, and--get this--a baby bearded dragon with a green anole).

Mom&Pop store number 2:
They do better with their animals, but still aren't extremely well informed, and often offer sickly imports as well...but at least they don't mix and match species haphazardly.
Unfortunately, NEITHER store stocks feeders of appropriate size for all the animals they offer. They carry live mice, mid-sized crickets, and mealworms. No smaller crickets for the baby lizards, or pink mice for baby snakes.
Store number 2 has practically nothing in the way of supplies...a few UTHs, a clamp lamp or flourescent fixture or two, and some supplements. One cage carpet, a bag of bedding...
No rheostats, no thermostats, only one choice of thermometer, no hygrometer...you get the picture.

I have slightly more sympathy for store #2, but I'm forced to patronize the mall store because they have the supplies I need.

This may sound odd, but there's a PetCo going in right now, rennovating to open in a few months...and I'm GLAD.
My friend and I are in the process of starting a local herp club, and he has some connections that may allow us to give a seminar at that PetCo to help the new manager (Not yet sure if it is a franchise or corporate store) set up a good reptile department. If he's receptive, we can help him make sure his employees are properly trained from the beginning, before there's the social risk of criticizing him for doing something wrong.
And there will then be a store in town that has all the appropriate supplies AND treats their animals properly, and stocks healthy ones.

ONE thing? There's far more than just ONE thing wrong with the current stores.

The Petco I go to for reptile supplies has a fair amount of supplies. I usually can get what I need. I feed my snakes F/T so have to go there for snake food. As far as their animals...the poor little creatures are in small confinement and usually several to a cage. I saw several red tail boas in the same cage. When I say several..there were at least 5-6 about 12"-14" long. I must admit I bought my first corn there but checked her over real carefully before I bought her. She was one of the exceptions of being health. (That was a year ago now. She's doing great.) There were also some frogs in dirty water and even a dead one lying in the cage. I told the clerk as she was like 'ya we know'. NO CUSTOMER SERVICE with Petco. A 'newby' knows more about reptiles then the people working there.

My other option is Petsmart and their reptile selection/supplies is very small. I don't like to go there. I go to Petsmart for cat/dog food. They are cheaper then Petco price wise.

Another reptile/fish store I bought my JCP from is pretty good. (It's far from my house so don't go there very often.) The reptile guy there seems very knowledgable, lots of supplies you could need or use...but some of their reptiles were cramped as well. Baby corns were in very small container. I know corns like it small but these were SMALL. I bought my JCP from him becasue I was looking in to getting a JCP but not a baby. This one was at least a yearling. They let me hold her a couple times before I decided to buy her. She has been a great pet. Only thing is I bought a piece of cork bark for her to hide under and ended up with mites. I'm possitive the mites were from the cork bark. I treated both tank and snake and have not seen any since. Threw out the cork bark. Over all a nice reptile selection. And all the fish you could ever want. It's a very big place.

I can think of the kitten/puppy pet stores and HATE them. So many stupid people buy a kitten/puppy on impulse! Before they find out what they are getting into. Not to mention supporting the puppy mills. Alot of the times the puppies are in the cages with wire bottom or in the play pens for everyone to paw at them and hold them. They need to outlaw those kind of pet stores!!!!!!! There are SO many unwanted cats/dogs at shelters why breed more????

Just a few of my thoughts on the matter :0)

My local pet shop is pretty decent actually. They have had periods over the past 15 years where they didn't have a reptile specialist employed and the care of their reptiles suffered during that time. My complaints are mostly minor, they don't carry a lot of caging options other than aquariums (wish they had Visions or something like Boaphiles/Moonstruck/Animal Plastics etc,...) and they occasionally bring in rescue snakes and don't have a good quarantine location (they keep all the snakes in the reptile room). I did bring home snake mites from some live feeder mice that I purchased there last summer, but when I let them know, they treated their reptile room to clear it up. Depending on who you talk to, most of their employees have general knowledge of the care of most of the animals they sell and will refer you to their current reptile person for more information.
Lora

oh no, here she goes again

Petco: HATE IT! Supermarket style, less than knowledgable staff, too many animals, and usually too many different species in one cage. Little lizards (anoles usually) escaping all the time! And 100$ for a bag of 100 frozen mice pinks! Also unhealthy rodents, fancy and white rats of both sexes in the same cage for sale at different prices. Cramped caging that induces male dominance behavior in rat and other rodent cages. Birds are often ignored with empty water dishes and terribly soiled floors and perches.

Twin City Reptile: Still very undecided. They have a good selection of fish, but I hate fish. Frozen rodents were dark, looked like they sat dead for a long time before being frozen. Several large lizards, which seem to be for sale all the time, but never sold. Quite a few snakes, not many corns, and the corns they did have were in deli cups rather than cages, and quite over-priced. (Everything there looked over-priced to me) But the cages are clean, and the sales people seem to know what they are talking about. If they kept their corns in real cages, I'd consider selling my hatchlings to them, but not as long as they keep them in deli's.

PetSmart: Probably the best around (sadly). The one I go to has a reptile guy who breeds large snakes, so I've found they keep their lizards pretty well. They usually have great deals on "dog dishes" which make great snake water dish/hides. And bedding and caging supplies are well stocked and not too expensive. Though I would like to see some other cages besides the tanks and critter keepers. They do have a "cat room" and they charge over 100$ for a cat, which if they really wanted to help the cats out, they wouldn't try to make so much money off them.

PetLand: AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!! Puppy-mill puppies on wire floored boxes that they think are cages, with spilled water and empty food dishes. I was even told (by the lady behind the counter) that they get all their puppies from one breeder. And they had several different breeds. Small birds in open top "play-pen" style cages on the floor. I don't mean parakeets, I mean small parrots, who could easily snap a toddler finger, or even my finger, with one good bite. Not to mention how insecure the birds must feel in a situaltion like that. One guy completely mis-represented an RTB to me trying to get me to spend 120$ on a snake, rather than the 60$ snow corn I first wanted, (I did end up buying the over-priced snow corn, and she's great), but she was not kept well there, and the other snakes there were kept in cages that were simply too small or too crowded or both. I found NO supplies there that were anywhere near a reasonable price.

WE NEED A GOOD HERP STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
6.7 Cornsnakes
1.3 Cats
0.1 Child
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

My local pet shop is nto the worst I have seen, but still makes me fairly ill... the employees know very little or nothing at all concerning herps, they keep mite infested animals with the other herps and don't even bother to quarantine the animal, let alone help it properly... but, as I was told- "they only have one or 2 mites, that can't hurt them"...Riiiigghht!This particular animal was in a 10 gallon aquarium, and was seething with mites. Improper diets (lots of cabbage for the lizards), and they've been known to house king snakes with corn snakes!! ("it's ok", i was told, "only a couple get eaten) on top of that,there are more minor annoyances, like they only never have the right feeder animals at the right time and won't carry frozen rodents. But if you want them, they will order them for you and charge the same price for them as they do for live! pinks 2$ anything else 3$. They ended up with a meeeaaaan tempered bird at one point, and my history with the damn thing spanned 5 years. It was my mother's, she rescued it when it was 2 from a pet store that was going to euthanize it because it was to mean to sell... ANyways, the petstore sold this psycho 7 year old bird to some poor sap as a 2 year old. and charged them 90$!! Oh yeah, they sell WILD CAUGHT ball pythons for $100, and do not tell people they are WC!!!
A much worse petstore, that thankfully is now closed had all there animals living in cramped, filthy, stinking enclosures, crawling with mites, most of the animals where being sold as "adult snake" instead of by species.... grrr, i get mad with petstores. If traditional pets were kept in the conditions that i see herps in, you can bet the local humane societies would be stepping in!!
Pet stores need to-
hire people who actually know what they are talking about- people who really are as knowledgable as the customers think they are
Understand that negligence and abuse is negligence and abuse, regardless of if the animal is scaled or furry
and what else???
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1.1 argentine b/w tegus
1.0 anery corn
0.1 western hog
0.1 leopard gecko
1.1 blue headed tree agama
0.0.1 ball python
0.0.1 western fox
And always looking for more!!

I also think 19 year old topless cashiers would be nice.hehehehe

I dont understand why pet stores cant give out care sheets with each animal purchase..How expensive could that be, a little printed out sheet of paper..Sometimes the people buying the pet dont even know the right questions to ask so a sheet of paper covering all the basic aspects of the animals care could be a life saver....
I wont even begin to rant about the pet store that I am forced to go to. I live in a farming community so towns are an average of 45min apart. The store is a small one that cares little for the animals they carry..Its all about money...so sad..