Petsmart....

[houdini1]

As some of you know I have waged a war against Petco, I will not buy or support them in any way. So my husband wanted to get some new things for my leos enclosure today so we drove into spokane to Petsmart I told him i really didn't even want to go in. To my suprise, The Animals were in tip top shape. They had an adult blizzard leo there in his own tank by himself proper setup. They had albino hatchling leos and what looked like normals 3 to a tank, NO SAND spotless enclosures the rest of their reptiles were just as healthy and well taken care of. The other animals like the Birds and small furry creatures and fish were just as well taken are of. I was in total awe. It pleased me to buy from their store. I have heard really good things about this petsmart before. I will definately go back again. I just wanted to share my Good experience with everyone it really made our Petco here look like a complete nightmare. Sorry everyone if this didn't belong here, like I said I just wanted to share, Not all Pet Big Chain Petstore are bad. Makes me feel better.
Kristy

[Leogirl]

:iagree: Petco is HORRIBLE :hot: !!! Petsmart i like! It's the ONLY pet store that doesn't use sand! I don't see how petco is still in business :uzi:

[NicoleO]

It really depends on the area as far as which one's better. The petsmart near me does use sand and over crowds their little tanks with leo's. I went into petsmart one day while waiting on my vehicle to be finish and they had about 7 or 8 juvi leo's in a tiny enclosure that didn't give them any room to move, in fact the enclosure was so small that the leo's were standing on each other. At first I wanted to take one home because they were all albino's and one of them had red eyes but my husband soon snapped me back into reality reminding me that we were in petsmart. I don't shop at the chain pet stores because I have a wonderful little family owned pet store near me that actually values my opinion and most of the customers actually think I work there when I'm there which I might as well work there since I'm there so much. If I had to choose though I'd go to petco only because they actually cared enough to listen to me when I said something about them keeping the leo's on sand and when I pointed out that one of the little leo's needed the shed removed from its toes. Its different everywhere and if it came down to it I'd order everything online before I'd use a chain pet store but thats me.

[LeosForLess]

HAHA, My PetSmart has gotta be the worst! They love using sand and overheating the lil guys. But PetSmart has JUMBO geckos for 89.99, lol just an adult. And they know the difference between albino and stuff. It makes me angry that the leo is in with other rainforest geckos because theres like 4 other empty tanks they could be in! I was there yesterday and there was a baby crammed against the wall, because it was too hot. I would tell them off, but they wouldn't really listen to a 15 year old.

[Mari]

yeah...it varies here. There is one petco that is the closest to my house and that one is pretty bad with regards to reptile care...I have seen some of the baby leos from there and they are the skinnyest things ever,and sometimes lying in the water dish etc., although they do keep their reptiles separate(no mixing leos with AFTs or any other reptiles), which is more than I can say about a couple other petco's and petsmart's I've been to. There is one petsmart with leos on repticarpet, and also a petco with them on carpet in my area and these are relatively well taken care of....it really all depends i think

[snowgyre]

The Petsmart by me is mediocre at best. They can handle larger, more robust lizards no problem (although the cages are too small, overcrowded, and the animals are underfed), but their smaller lizards die. They've got baby leopard geckos in there on real sand, and they're all dying. It's pathetic. I suppose it depends on the management. I always said you can judge the quality of a pet store by how well they take care of their reptiles, since that's the group that's chronically neglected.

[Ivyna J Spyder]

I work at a PetsMart and I make DANG SURE that the lizards are properly cared for. I'll raise hell if they're not. :(

Sadly company policy says we HAVE to put leos over 6 inches on sand. >_< It's so stupid. I came in one day and our two leos were on nasty orange calcium sand, so I'm trying to get it so we can at least put them on NORMAL sand which isn't as much of a danger. (Ideally I want them back on reptile carpet...)

We have several baby leos, but in a 20 gallon tank so they have plenty of room... Stupid guys still manage to keep losing their tails though. :(

[The NY Gecko]

all the petsmarts by me are excellent. al lnon sand, nice room, not overcrowded. actually usually all i se eis 2 to a tank. the fish are also awesome. fish have been a long time addiction of mine. longer than leos, so inevitably go to the fish first. i know theres always a few dead but it happens. petco is different. i refuse to buy from them. ever.....

[dragonflame]

We just had the grand opening of the first Petsmart here in Harlingen Saturday. I checked it out just to see how things were going and if I should be mad yet lol. Everything looked really great! All the leos were on reptile carpet and there were 2 babies to 2 seperate tanks. Actually, one of the babies was SO beautiful, it was in what appeared to be, great health. I think it was a little bell. SO CUTE. I would have gotten it cept I'm not buying animals from chain stores. Fortunately (and unfortunately) there isn't a great demand for reptiles down here so there might not be crowding problems.

[ltf_oh_my]

I bought that blizzard that you spoke of. He is quite the eater! I saw him there over several weeks and finally I talked myself into taking him home. He should be of breeding age this spring so, I'm hoping to introduce him to my very pretty ruby eyed albino girl.

[Saucy]

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.

[Playnwifsnot]

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.

[geckoluv13]

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.

[The BoidSmith]

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.

[Nagini]

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