Ok, yesterday our city got its first real pet store in about 20 years, its a petland. Its a very big store and very nice, everything you need is there. They had great starter kits for every reptile, from small setups to big set ups and of course the price varied. Who ever put the kits together worked with reptiles and know what they are doing! And all the good stuff ends there!
Except a few things were missing if you didn't buy a kit and they would not seperate a kit. They had one kind of hide and it was small, so if you had anything bigger than a leo or a african fat-tail you were out of luck. They had alot of cricket nutrition, the regular flukers orange cube and blue and yellow stuff in flukers, and thats it! As far as stuff for your lizard or other herp, the only thing they had and I do mean everything is about 20 or so different kinds of can "O" whatever, and they had live food, crix meal,wax etc.....thats was the only plus from here on out! No calcium, no vitamins, nothing else. Sold alot of heat rocks and I mean alot. Two more pluses, I bought the exo-terra waterfall it was about $30, and the had Thermostat for heat or light setups, pricy though, Ok back to bad stuff.
To the lizards- they had 3 blue tongue skinks, 10 Leopard Geckos, 2 African fat-tails(adults) and that was down to one by the time I left and I didn't buy it!
3 iggys, 2 Bearded Dragons, a ton of anoles, and one bigger lizard and I didn't know what it was, some one was holding it and I couldn't get a good look at it, and about 10 to 15 different snakes, no frogs, no salamaders, no turtles, no spiders, that was it! And most of the above was pricy, anybody with blue tongue skinks tell me if $ 225.99 is a good price for one?
Now to the really bad part, As I was listening to the petland employee help this lady buy the African Fat-Tail, she told her and her son that was around 8 or 9, that thet were gentle and great started lizards and she had also bought one of the starter kits which had everything the AFT needed and was healthy to live in. She told the lady that it ate live crix or mealworms and she was cool with that and to help her out she gave her a care sheet which was ok as I read it, then she went and paid for it, I watched the petland employee put the AFT in the box and hand it to the kid, I was behind them in line, when the lady was finished I went to put my waterfall on the counter and when I did I kicked something, it was the box, I didn't pick up on it at first, but when I was done I started walking for the door all three of my girls which no nothing about my sons AFT said look at Reptinas tail, I looked and it was the tail to the AFT the lady had just bought and it was wiggling, and by that time she was back through the door and when I got to the parking lot I saw the kid crying the lizard sqaushed from someone trying to stop it by stepping on it and it had no tail.
I had talked to the employee that took care of the lizards and she knew what she was doing and she did care so I went back in and they petland girl said if I knew that was going to go like that I would have given it to you free.
Ok now I'm done and still mad, sorry for the long drawn out story!!!!!!!!!

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When in doubt, Pinky out!
croc-o-dile6

I know exactly where you are coming from with Petland. I too, thought that it was going to be a great store. I was in on the store from day one. I put in every bit of the plumbing as the store was being built. Come opening day I found out how wrong I really was. Yes they were oh so particular while the store was being built, but it was all asthetic as they were just like so many others. Interested in the almighty buck and nothing else. That was about 5 years ago and I haven't been back since then.

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Fran
January 9, 1940 - June 1, 2006 (R.I.P)

Here's a question for everybody. Have you ever even seen a chain petstore(Petco, Petsmart, etc.) that is actually good with herps? I certainly know I haven't

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~Jason Richardson

No Jason you are correct, I dont believe I have ever seen a good chainstore either. Petland is right down on the bottom with petco and petsmarts.

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

Hello,

The problem with the big chains is that they are trying to compete with one another. Its almost impossible for them to stay afloat if they don't carry and sell what the competition sells.

Good examples are heat rocks and calcisand. Both of these items have been destroyed online by enthusiasts and horror stories they have as a result of their use. Those are 2 things I always find in petstores. They are good sellers for those that don't know any better. To remove them from the shelf would be to take a hit financially and the giant chains just aren't willing to do that.

When their employees are being trained, they are instructed to "push" items that the store carries to go with a reptile purchase. This means that the employees need to push the sale of both calcisand and heat rocks.

Here is a good example and this just happened the other day:

I was at my local petco grabbing a rat and some mice for my snakes. While I was there, I headed over to the reptile area as I always do. There was an employee chatting with a lady about what she needed for her reptile. he was trying to sell her one of the broad spectrum basking lights and a porcelain socket. I interuppted him and asked her what she had for a reptile and was informed that she had a leopard gecko.

As soon as she told me she had a leopard gecko, the employee immediately stated "well...you don't really need this for a leopard gecko as they are nocturnal." Then he walked away.

I gave her the link to HC and informed her of what she actually needed saving her some good cash.

He KNEW that Leopard Geckos were nocturnal but he was still trying to sell her a full spectrum basking bulb. Why would a nocturnal creature require a full spec. basking bulb? They don't. She didn't know better, and she assumed he was trying to help her set the leo up properly. As you can see, his only interest was selling product.

Chain stores need the money to compete and that is why they will not make decisions that will affect their financial situation. They keep products that sell quickly and that includes those that are known to cause harm. They just don't care.

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i HATE my local petsmart and petco...they dont no jack squat about herps and what they do know came straight from an out-of-date employee's manual.

I went in this summer and they had a baby Chinese Water Dragon that they were feeding large crickets to...i can say this because their were regurgitated crickets all over the coco-fiber substrate.

then I asked an employee about how good of pets Chinese Water Dragon's make...( i always test employees lol)....and she was saying that she really didnt know..but the whole time she was talking to me she was reffering to the australian water dragon in the next tank...and I clearly said Chinese Water Dragon!!!!!.....stupid stupid stupid..

so yea to answer your question about Blue Tongue Skink prices....NO! lol that must have been super skink laced in gold or something because most Blue Tongue Skink go for 80-100 bucks depending on the locale.

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-Adam

"Help Protect our Planet from Overcollection, Purchase Aquacultured Livestock and Captive Bred Herps"

Yeah, all the chainsotres care for is the money, nothing more nothing less. There is a local petstore here,that have a nice varaitey, but when you open the door there is a god awful stench. They don't clean or take care of the animals. I refuse to go in, cause of the smell, fear of bringing something home, and I just can't stand it. They also have carpet..... Why in gods name would you have carpet in a pet store??, Under and around the fishtanks it is stained,

I've complained several times, all for nothing, cause they don't care.

I've complained to petsmart when I seen teir Leopard Geckos underweight, and found a dead one in the tank.

So in theroy, chain stores, or small locale stores, neither care, just want money.

*if some of this makes no sense, I'm posting from my cell phone, it cuts the text box off*

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does anyone work at petco or petsmart

One of our Pets Unlimited outlets here actually has some good herpers working for them -- but they're overruled by the need to keep their job. Prime example:

I was picking up some crickets from PU and had asked to see the baby AFTs (I always do, can't resist lol.) Once I got a good look at them I realized that one had shed-strangled toes, and the other had two shed-strangled back feet. J (won't use his name for propriety's sake), an acquaintance we've made both thru the hobby and the store, was devastated when he saw them and immediately started working on them with some damp paper towel. While he was diligently trying to clean off the poor critters, one of the other staff members called out, asking him if he wanted to "make a big sale." J looked at the other employee, looked at the gecko in his hands, sighed, and placed it back in the enclosure so he could go make the all-important sale and keep the boss happy.

Nuff said.

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I give up! I've officially lost count of the critters...

It's things like this that makes me feel like I'm cursed to have this hobby, it always pays off though to see good epople at a place like here

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~Jason Richardson