Petsmart....

The Petco by me is decent. The issues they usually have are because the distributer sent them junk animals. The leos have recently been very thin, which they've complained about. All the tanks are clean and everything looked good.

The Petsmart though... is atrocious. Leos on sand and looking very sickly. Mixing 5 species in a 5-gallon space. Frogs jumping all over chinese water dragons... with the fire skink hiding as much as he could. Many different species of turtle and tortoise mixed together. And yes, overheating! I'll take underheating over overheating any day. I hate seeing their baby leos with bearded dragons and without tails all the time, too. They obviously don't know that beardies carry coccidia all the time and it can kill baby leos.

So yeah, it completely depends on the store.

To the OP, have you called corporate and complained? Try getting the number for their district manager and calling them directly.

The Petco by me isnt to bad except for a few species they seem to be clueless on. They seem to like to keep the baby beardies on calcisand and offer them mealworms. The petsmart in my area is at least bright enough to put humidity boxes in the leo cages, although their cages are too small. I personally work for a Pet Supplies, and out stores are hit and miss. I decide on the reptile care, and if I come in and find something the way it shouldnt be, no questions asked, I make it the way it should be. One of our other toledo stores does do a good job with their reptiles, although I can not say that for the other 3 in Toledo. But then again our little private owned petshops here are total trash. We have a store across the line in michigan, they do a great job at caring for their animals, it is a Sweet Feed Co store, although they do not have much of a selection. But they do try to get from private breeders in the area.

The Petsmart I go to is a lot nicer than the Petco near me. Petsmart leos looked a lot better than Petco's. I actually purchased one of my leos from Petco just the save the poor little girl. She is a beautiful hypo tangerine carrot tail baldy NOW. But there her skin was very dull and the was skin on her toes and she was overcrowed with around 10 other junvile leos which should already be sexed. There were basically giving them away for $10.00 and then had been sign this adoption thingy like they actually cared. I went there then around 2 weeks later all the leos were gone besides one which had the skinniest tail. When I told the manager he just ignored me and said they would do something.

In my opinion we can't generalize about one or the other chain. It all boils down to the employees they hire and the store manager. Then again you may also visit on cleaning day and everything looks spotless, then you stop one week later and witness total chaos. I've seen good and bad examples of both in the Midwest area.

Regards.

Its pretty much the oposite near me, I used to work at petsmart(dog trainer) and though they're animals are on repti-carpet, they humidity is way to high, and the associates dont really know much about reptiles.. The petco near me I always see the reptiles in clean cages, with the right amount of food (fat fed lizards but without crickets all over them) The associates all own or know a good deal about reptiles too, though they're leos are on sand I know from working for a pet store, if corparate says so they have to follow