Pleasantly Surprised, a petco that actually isn't half bad?

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HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
So if a few of y'all know me, you'd know I have a burning hatred for petco usually, because usually crap like horrid overcrowded tanks all with sand and sick animals and crap like that, you know the drill.

Well basically last night I was going around from pet store to pet store trying to find some fish, as I was starting a new community fish tank, and unfortunately my preferred go to pet store's stock of fish was unfortunately still dealing with ich, plus the tanks were a bit dirty :? But a few of the clerks there recommended I go down to the petco across the street. And I reluctantly agreed to at least look there.

Holy cow, I was very pleasantly surprised.

When I got there, they had a HUGE beautiful fish section with very clean tanks with Chrystal clear water and actually healthy not crowded looking fish. They also had Actual saltwater fish, some rare looking ones too. It was really cool, and the fish section was all run by this one lady who seriously knew her stuff and actually really seemed to care, like she gave me tips and advice on starting my community tank and what fish to put in there and such, it was really cool and surprising.

Then I went to see the reptile section and I also, was very pleasantly surprised actually. Not too crowded tanks, no sand at all, actually healthy looking animals, geckos with vertical-ish terrariums, and the Beardie tank, also seriously surprised me. Only 2 in there, looked to be about 8" and a good weight, and there was actually dubias and greens in the food bowl, and drumroll please.... No calcium sand and a reptisun UVB and NO red light!! :blob5:

So, I'd still say 90% of the petcos suck, but there still are a few gems with healthy animals and people there who actually care. Which gives me some hope. :)
 

Ellentomologist

Hatchling Member
My experience has actually been fairly positive with pet stores, at least in my area. There are about 5 in my area, 4 (2 of which are Petcos) that I go to semi-frequently to browse their clearance stock - have gotten some great hides for CHEAP that way. The last one, admittedly, I don't go to anymore because it sucks, but honestly 4/5 ain't too shabby.

My favorite of the four is a Pet Smart. They keep ALL their reptiles in solitary tanks and do a really good job providing decent food and proper hides for them. They even do a good job getting a /real/ reptile vet out and treating their sick animals! They had a BD who got hurt during transit and developed a pretty bad infection. Over the course of about 4 months they had him in a perfectly decent setup with a no-sale sign as he recovered, by about month 2.5 he looked great. After they started offering him for sale again I really considered getting beardie #2, but luckily for my wallet he was adopted out to another frequent customer I'm actually semi-friends with, a local BP breeder who used to breed BDs too, but quite after he started working with snakes. Reportedly, "Punch" is doing well!

My only complaint is that it's very obvious which of the two managers is there for the day... One of the managers does spot-cleaning throughout the day while the other one tends to leave the poop until the end of the day. ://
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
[/quote]="moon4wolfgirl" yes my store is that way and petsmart[/quote]

That's good to hear. :) my nearest petsmart is also pretty good, not AS good as this particular petco but it's still pretty good.

Unfortunately this good petco is a bit more of a drive for us sadly enough. But I'd personally say it's worth it.

The nearest petco to us is a total craphole sadly enough, with not caring clerks and sick overcrowded animals with bad lights and sand. I really don't like going there if at all possible. :x
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Original Poster
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
Ellentomologist":3q49whdg said:
My experience has actually been fairly positive with pet stores, at least in my area. There are about 5 in my area, 4 (2 of which are Petcos) that I go to semi-frequently to browse their clearance stock - have gotten some great hides for CHEAP that way. The last one, admittedly, I don't go to anymore because it sucks, but honestly 4/5 ain't too shabby.

My favorite of the four is a Pet Smart. They keep ALL their reptiles in solitary tanks and do a really good job providing decent food and proper hides for them. They even do a good job getting a /real/ reptile vet out and treating their sick animals! They had a BD who got hurt during transit and developed a pretty bad infection. Over the course of about 4 months they had him in a perfectly decent setup with a no-sale sign as he recovered, by about month 2.5 he looked great. After they started offering him for sale again I really considered getting beardie #2, but luckily for my wallet he was adopted out to another frequent customer I'm actually semi-friends with, a local BP breeder who used to breed BDs too, but quite after he started working with snakes. Reportedly, "Punch" is doing well!

My only complaint is that it's very obvious which of the two managers is there for the day... One of the managers does spot-cleaning throughout the day while the other one tends to leave the poop until the end of the day. ://
That's amazing to hear! Now if our stores were like that that would be amazing. You're lucky lol. :)
 

Aaradimian

Juvie Member
I can't say for sure, but I may have influenced the two near me to clean up their husbandry practices a little because they no longer have sand or a red light in their beardie vivs after a bit of nudging/nagging on my part. With babies I don't know what a good "beardie density" is, but it doesn't seem that the little guys are in distress. They have greens and may be being fed crickets for protein based on the debris in the tank, which is thankfully not bad. At least the two women I talked to had reptiles of their own, and I do think at least some employees in these places are genuine animal lovers who will try their best if they know there's something wrong. They still sell straight-from-the-egg beardies sometimes, and I still see all the junk kits for sale, but small steps I guess.
 

MrSpectrum

Gray-bearded Member
It doesn't surprise me that there are some individual stores with competent/knowledgeable staff; it's all in who works there. Ellentomologist's comments summarize that well.
Ellentomologist":kvjyqw7g said:
My only complaint is that it's very obvious which of the two managers is there for the day... One of the managers does spot-cleaning throughout the day while the other one tends to leave the poop until the end of the day. ://
Can't help but wonder if s/he is waiting for the end of the day, or waiting for someone else to do it (but I'm a little more skeptical than usual at the moment).

Another chain pet store opened near us recently. First visit, everything was immaculate except that their UVB lighting was all above solid plastic ceiling grids, so I wonder if any UVB was actually getting through. Our second visit, however, was the usual pet chain nightmare... filthy cages that (judging from the # of poops) hadn't been cleaned in days/weeks, veggie leaves that were so old they were cement-plastered to the bottoms of the dishes, and herps that just didn't look all that healthy.

My beef/thread with Petco is about/with their online & corporate presence, and as the proverb goes, "A fish rots from the head down."
 

ComicBookMama

Sub-Adult Member
Both my local Petcos aren't too bad... no sand in the Beardie tanks, no red lights, usually not more than two babies in a tank, good UV strips, salads in the dishes. I'd like to see the tanks a little cleaner, but they aren't horrid. Both stores have herp-owning staff who are honest with their recommendations and who don't push the crappy kits on people. Pockets of goodness, even if corporate Petco is the pits.
 

DorgEndo

Sub-Adult Member
Photo Comp Winner
Beardie name(s)
Devlyn
My local Petco and PetSmart both have always seemed good. I think the reason for that is very low employee turnover. There are some employees that have been there 1 or 2 decades. There are the usual part timers or young people still in school. The less experienced employees seem to be on the register mainly while the forever employees are always checking the animals and cleaning. The local PetSmart half the time I go in someone is cleaning the crickets or someone is sweeping after the crickets got cleaned.

I got scolded recently for buying "large" crickets for my frog. I went in the new day of shipment so those large crickets weren't big at all. My frog tends to eat one or two crickets then he won't eat, so I give him small to medium sized bugs. The person ringing me up said I should really be careful because my frog could get impacted. That cashier was legit mad at me. Those large crickets weren't big at all and the smalls were tiny like pinhead size that day. Overall it's good they will check on what people are doing. I hope no one scolds me here, lol
 
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