Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i keep hearing people bashing them but are they realy that bad? have any of you pics to show me as to the conditions of the cages etc? (im english so i havnt seen them non of hte chain petstores over here dont deal with herps but some fo the smaller shops stilla rnt that great im glad i found a good shop tho)

its just i dunno what its realy like for them and these sort of things people have a habit of exagerating.

so if any of you have any pics can you post them please and if anybody goes to one of the shops can you take pics to show us?

thanks nafan

Actually, in PETsMART we aren't allowed to take pitures without corporate permission . . . However... I can answer any questions you want about the care in my store and the policies of the company . . .

I MAY have a pic somewhere or two that I snuck . . . nevermind . . .

I will tell you that the cages are spot cleaned daily and cleaned totally once a week as needed. Animals are fed daily 5-10 crickets PER reptile. In my store we probably feed more crickets than we sell in a week. Fresh water is supplied and filled twice daily as well. They all have the proper lighting. The only thing I DON'T agree with, is the calci-sand with the 6 inch geckos. However, regardless of how hard I fight it, they tell me all is well and there shouldn't be problem. Juvies are kept on cage carpet. Both of my leo set ups have humid hides and normal hides. My Juvies have two normal hides and a heating pad under their humid. Both set ups also have a calcium dish as well. Humid hides in my store are misted twice daily as well. We closely monitor the temps and humidty in ALL of our habitats. I am EXTREMELY anal about the care of the animals in my stores,

All animals come very USDA approved REPUTABLE breeders . . . CRAP, LASCO, Flukers, and Sandfire Dragon Ranch for Reptiles . . . the company researches EVERY vendor/breeder anytime there seems to be any type of problems. We send feedbacks in on every shipment, sick, or ill animal so that we can monitor the stores and the breeders/vendors. All breeders/vendors are required to work with vet assistance at all times to be considered a Vet Assured vendor with our company, or else we will not deal with them.

This is a link that gives more info on the Vet Assured program . . .
Reptile Vet Assured Program

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Trish
2.0.0 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko "Lyle" and "Thor"
0.1.0 Hypo-Gold Leopard Gecko "Goldie"
0.1.0 High Yellow Lavender Jungle Leopard Gecko "Lucky"
0.1.0 Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail Leopard Gecko "Storm"
0.1.0 Blizzard Leopard Gecko "Ice"
0.1.0 Normal Leopard Gecko "Cosmo"
0.1.0 Cockatiel "Jewel"
0.1.0 Pitbull/Golden Retriever "Guiness"
0.2.0 Cats "Athena" and "Violet"
0.1.0 Horse "Arian Gold Karma"
And who knows how many fish

CRAP = Ron Tremper

It's different at every store in every city of the states.

The Petsmart here in Yuba City, CA. The geckos are kept pretty well except for the fact that little kids would run in and start tapping the glass constantly to get the geckos to move. One worker didn't do anything, which bugs me. I called a manager over and told him what was going on but I don't know if the manager will really talk to the worker.

They charge $15 more for babies compared to another Petsmart in Sacramento, CA.

I haven't been to Petco much. I have but for fish and cats stuff. So I don't have much to say about them.

Their set ups are pretty small. The tank is roughly around 5" x 5" x 5". They have reptile carpet and hold around 5 babies in one and 3 adults in another. There was only one hide for each tank, which is a humid hide. No calcium dish and a small water dish. A branch for decoration and a light.

Don't know about how much they have been fed, and what temperature they live in.

I didn't get a chance to get a good look at them because the worker would not let me look them over unless I am sure of buying one.

Petsmart is the only pet store here that carries leopard gecko. There are other stores which seems to be doing well but they don't carry leopard geckos and won't order unless they know that the geckos will be sold within 2 weeks.

But that's only in Yuba City, CA. I don't know about the other city and places.

Every single petco and pet smart is different. Although the corperation holds the same general standards different stores order from different breeders and each store manager holds certain levels of standards as they see fit. So its tough to say.

At petco you are not allowed to take pictures in the store because of the trouble they have had in the past with PIDA taking pictures and psoting them online.

I ran the Petco reptile department at one petco for a couple years so i can tell you about that specific one, but as i said they are all different.

Generally speaking they do all work with a vet (they started doing that after all the law suits for animal cruelty a few years back) although the vets are not always good reptile specific vets because they use the same vet (usually) for their birds, small animals and reptiles.

Care in my petco was:

spot cleaned daily
weekly total cage cleans
ok temps (a bit on the low side but not too too bad) The big problem i had with the heating system at Petco was that all the reptile tanks had central heat. So for animals like beardies that need a real hot spot to stimulate their digestive system properly it didn't work so well.
Mealworms fed constantly
Crickets daily or every other day
Crickets are gutloaded and calcium dusted
substrate = Calci-sand for ALL leos, regardless of size

My biggest issues with that particular petco reptile care was the size of their animals. Leos and beardies in particular and ball pythons came in soooo tiny it is ridiculous! I mean sometimes they haven't even had their first shed. Fecals are never preformed so its hard to say if they have parasites or not. I also hated the fact that they were on Calci-sand. The petco i worked at got their leo's mostly from Calzoo exotics...I don't know too much about them but i doubt they are that good if they ship their babies so tiny.

I think the biggest problems are probably size, parasites, calcisand and over crowding.

I was going to post a pic of my baby leo that died shortly after i got it from petco from a superinfection of parsites despite my efforts and the efforts of my vet to save him, but apparently i deleted the picture. Oh well...
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican Black kingsnake
1.1 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Tokay Gecko
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Anerythristic Corn
0.0.1 Red Tegu
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

Here are two pics of PETsMART Leos . . .

The jungle is Lucky . . . she came to us as a Juvie from Sandfire. She is now roughly about a year (probably about 8 months in this picture). She has a slight tail deformity . . . but otherwise very healthy. She eats like a pig now. Has laid two clutches already. And no, they are NOT on that bedding anymore.

The other pic is a Juvie Leucistic. Came in from Sandfire Dragon Ranch as well. Probably about 3 months in this pic . . . Housed with roughly 3 or 4 Juvies . . . in a 10 x 12 enclosure. Two hides, water dish, calcium dish, and cage carpet. (My smallest enclosure in my store is 6 x 12.)

There you go . . . two leos from PETsMART.


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Trish
2.0.0 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko "Lyle" and "Thor"
0.1.0 Hypo-Gold Leopard Gecko "Goldie"
0.1.0 High Yellow Lavender Jungle Leopard Gecko "Lucky"
0.1.0 Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail Leopard Gecko "Storm"
0.1.0 Blizzard Leopard Gecko "Ice"
0.1.0 Normal Leopard Gecko "Cosmo"
0.1.0 Cockatiel "Jewel"
0.1.0 Pitbull/Golden Retriever "Guiness"
0.2.0 Cats "Athena" and "Violet"
0.1.0 Horse "Arian Gold Karma"
And who knows how many fish

Here's two more for you too . . . Thor and Cosmo are both from PETsMART as well. Both roughly a year old.


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Trish
2.0.0 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko "Lyle" and "Thor"
0.1.0 Hypo-Gold Leopard Gecko "Goldie"
0.1.0 High Yellow Lavender Jungle Leopard Gecko "Lucky"
0.1.0 Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail Leopard Gecko "Storm"
0.1.0 Blizzard Leopard Gecko "Ice"
0.1.0 Normal Leopard Gecko "Cosmo"
0.1.0 Cockatiel "Jewel"
0.1.0 Pitbull/Golden Retriever "Guiness"
0.2.0 Cats "Athena" and "Violet"
0.1.0 Horse "Arian Gold Karma"
And who knows how many fish

Here's Cosmo.

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Trish
2.0.0 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko "Lyle" and "Thor"
0.1.0 Hypo-Gold Leopard Gecko "Goldie"
0.1.0 High Yellow Lavender Jungle Leopard Gecko "Lucky"
0.1.0 Super Hypo Tangerine Carrot Tail Leopard Gecko "Storm"
0.1.0 Blizzard Leopard Gecko "Ice"
0.1.0 Normal Leopard Gecko "Cosmo"
0.1.0 Cockatiel "Jewel"
0.1.0 Pitbull/Golden Retriever "Guiness"
0.2.0 Cats "Athena" and "Violet"
0.1.0 Horse "Arian Gold Karma"
And who knows how many fish

Wouldn't call that a Jungle. More so an abberrant.

Like others have said, it really varies by store. I think a lot of the things that lead to problems are unintentional. For example, employees cleaning / caring / handling the animals don't usually seem to take any measures to disinfect their hands between cages. Also some stores are really bad about musical cages, this is a problem, because although the cages are cleaned, they are not thoroughly disinfected. I've gotten a few wonderful leos from these stores as well as some guys with major parasite problems buying from just about any petstore is a big gamble.

-Alice

No, Petsmart and Petco aren't that bad, but they offer animals for about a tenth of what you pay online. Why buy carrot tails, albinos, blizzards, leucistics and jungles for hundreds, if Petco has them for $20?

"Great guy" posts and flashy ads could be hyped. Unless you *personally* know your breeder, buying from Petsmart is the same chance.

It is just not fair to bash stores when so many sellers keep their animals walking on crap, drinking from slimy water bowls, don't disinfect tanks, and sell sick animals. The most common infections? Pinworms and mites. Both easily avoided if they did not overcrowd tanks, and disinfected them.

The latest trend is to blame it on the crickets. Some of these guys get away with murder before taking responsibility and spending money on a reptilian specialist...

But in all honesty, those who witnessed unacceptable circumstances at Petco or Petsmart should take a firm step to report it to all pertinent agencies. Otherwise, the talk is crap and they're tolerating a crime against animal rights.

... and who the $%@* is this Jane to badmouth sellers like that? Oh, just one more victim of the ripoffs I speak against, thanks.
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Email me

Just the way you have to check out a breeder, you need to check out a pet store. I have purchased pet store animals, and gotten lucky.

I just figure you need to check out a breeder, with a pet store you have to check out both or cross your fingers based on what you "see."

Either way you need to quarantine and test for parasites, etc before introducing your new leo... so go by your gut. I am purchasing a pair of Blizzards from a pet store here in town that I NEVER would have purchased from just 3 months ago... but its under new management and boy does it show.

Six of one, half dozen of the other... some pet stores suck, and so do some breeders.
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Mommy of Many

1.0 Tremper Albino Leopard Gecko
0.1 Normal Leopard Gecko
0.4 Incubating Leo Eggs
0.1 Rosey Tarantula
1.0 Boxer Pit Bull
0.1 Springer Spaniel
0.1 Lhasa Poo
1.1 Domestic Cats
3.1 Humans

Email Me!

Now you're talking wisdom.
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Email me

There are 2 Petcos in my area. The one in the nicer, richer part of town is very nice, always clean, and the animals are very well taken care of. The employees are also very knowledgeable people. The one that is further away from me always has tons of dead fish on the floor near the fishtanks, the animals are overcrowded, and no one seems to know what they are talking about.

Petsmart, I've never seen a bad store. The one that I usually go to has the ASPCA there quite often doing cat adoptions and animal care seminars. So, the people would be stupid to not care for the animals there. I have no problem spending my money there.

The all-time worst conditions I have ever seen is at a family owned petstore around the corner from me. And yes, I have reported them.
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~*Chibi*~
Sir Iggy ( 1.0.0 El Salvador Blue Iguana), Ryo-ohki, Orion, Bud, & Finnegan (3.1.0 crazy kitties), Rosebud (0.1.0 cockerspaniel), Trixie and Kayko (0.1.1 leopard gecko)