Petco is rediculous

[jlo0001]

Everytime I go to petco they have tons of
Beardies along with plenty of other reptiles in horrible conditions. For instance the last petco I went to there was 7 in a 10x12 inch cage with no baskin light, a crappy strip light that wasn't reptisun( even though they sell them). 82degrees, 70% humidity, they're all sleeping, have bad veggies, oversized crickets in some cases, along with other conditions. I got my
Beardie when he was abou 3-4 weeks old, I was going to order from a breeder but when I saw him sprinting around cage at petco and the woman told me he had just came today.... Well I felt like I had to save him lol, give him a chance. 8 months later he is healthy and happy as could be

 

[SammyJayne]

I have to agree with you. Petco keeps their animals in horrific conditions. I bought my girl her first reptiles from there. They were both leopard geckos who looked to be siblings so we got the pair. Sugar never grew and eventually became ill and despite lots of money spent at the vets and our hardest efforts we just weren't able to save her. Spice is still with us but she has had a series of problems (mainly cysts in her face below her eyes).
We've been to Petco since then and I had to go inform them that one of the leopard geckos they had clearly had a problem with stuck shed (it looked like it was several sheds worth). When the woman who worked there took him out to inspect I could see that the poor baby was going to lose his food and some of his leg from the knee. It was heart breaking.
My fiance and I will never buy animals from them again. I've had to stop my fiance from trying to "rescue" more babies from petco but unfortunately we just don't have the money and we can't save them all.
Petco do need to learn about the animals they're selling. The enclosures are overcrowded, food is often the wrong size, water is either non-existant or near enough evaportated, there's certain species that should have moist hides that don't, the tanks are in need of serious cleaning, temperatures and lighting are wrong. The list of wrongs is never ending!

 

[JangoMom]

yeah.. the last time I was in our Petco I seen they had baby beardies.. I nearly fell over when I seen the veggies and salad they had in there for them.. the pieces they had cut were as big if not bigger than the babies heads!! and they had big crickets in there too, and sand as a substrate!.. If there was an employee around at the time I probably would've went off on them. But there is never anyone around when you need them.. you have to go hunt them down.

 

[Spikeshuman]

Wow.. the Petco near my house is great with their beardies, well great for a pet store anyway. The Petsmart near my house is another matter. The Petco has usually 4-5 babies in a enclosure a little bigger than a 20g long. There are always enough hides in there for the number of beardies they have. They put these tiny half log looking things in there for them to bask on / hide in. So each baby seems to have its "spot". They always have chopped up food.. and tiny crickets.. and if they actually last longer than a few days there.. they grow. They do charge a good bit more.. usually 20-30 dollars more than Petsmart does. I paid the extra for my Spike because I wanted a healthy baby. She cost me $60 and at Petsmart they were $30. The Petsmart has them in a cubicle that is half the size of a 10g. There are anywhere from 2-6 in there. They never have crickets. They get freeze dried veggies that are way bigger than their little faces. I have personally watched one little boy sit there since last July. He has never grown any bigger.. he lost a least 2 inches of tail. It just crumpled up and fell off over a month or so. All Petsmarts babies look weak.. laying flat with their eyes closed. There is no way they can regulate temps in something that small. There is usually one beardie in the tank that looks ok.. usually the largest one. I assume thats the case because thats the only one that eats.

My guess is.. the care really depends on who hired to be in charge of that area.. because the reptiles at the Petco near my house are all well taken care of.. the reptiles at Petsmart are sad, but the rodents at Petco live in horrible conditions.. and the rodents at Petsmart all look well cared for.

 

[hoeseG]

before i found out about this website i looked upto the guy in petco cause he talked like he knew what he was saying that is until i found beardedragon.org thats when it got ugly he got mad that i had spoken with the manager to have them switched to a bigger tank and be fed collard greens instead of iceberg lettuce and crickets that are the size between their eyes and to put a florecent uvb bulb instead of putting the regular 4500k t8 bulb used in the store they did it for about a week and now their back to the same place so i stop going their and now drive across town to a petsmart

 

[trickyspark]

Petco's price was outrageous. I got my beardie around October 2010. I went shopping around for equipment, and comparing prices. The beardies in Petco were $150.00 for babies, while the same size in Petsmart (or close) were near $50.00. Needless to say I got one from Petsmart. The girl that helped me was familiar with a few beardies and recommended one of the larger ones. She explained that it was quite friendly and would drink standing water.

She took him out and he was indeed friendly. I took him (I say him, I dunno ) home and set him up in the zilla "starter kit". I wound up replacing most of that, the temp/humidity gauge was horribly inaccurate. The black night light burnt out in a few days, the heat bulb barely got the top of the tank up to 90-100 degrees. I wound up getting a reptisun, a nice basking/heat light, a thermostat to cut the heat on/off.

I had actually went back to Petco to buy that starter kit because it was on sale. I see why now, ugh. He/she is now a big ol' healthy, lazy monster. Never did find out why the Petco beardies were 3x more. They were kept in the same conditions, had the same food in their bowls, and were all 99% the same size. Mine was the biggest of any from the two stores.

I'd have never gotten a bearded dragon if I hadn't watched a show on Animal Planet (forget host and show name). The guy was showing off different types of pets, and eventually came out with a beardie. I live in the country, so I was familiar with lizards. I figured they were all skittish, quick little things that were not that friendly. That show really surprised me and I had a beardie within two months. I haven't regretted it yet.

 

[tgolden]

Its funny there is always a rant of folks complaining about petco/Petsmart but yet y'all still go there

 

[cilla05]

The petco in our old city was actually great. The employees working in the reptile section owned several reptiles and took great care of the reptiles. We bought our leopard gecko there 2 years ago and he is very healthy.
The petco in the town we live now is not so great but I have to go there to get my crickets. The beardies don't have a basking light, they have sand all over their veggie dish and meal worm dish. The veggies are way to big for the to eat and so are the meal worms. I have never seen any crickets in the beardie set up.

 

[JangoMom]

the only reason I go to Petco is to buy crickets but soon hopefully I won't have to.. gonna start buying them online.

 

[ReptileAddiction]

There are some things that petco does that if they didnt it would save them money. I have tried to make it better but I have kind of given up.