The Worst Pet Store

[Rikki]

Yesterday I went to check out the new pet shop in town with my cousin, it was terrible. I dont even know where to start. The building was tiny, everyone was bumping into each other and such, it smelled horrible like dirty animals, the cages were on the dirty ground, dust was every where. They have a 15' green anaconda in a tiny cage, a 14' burm in a very small cage with wounds all over him (im guessing from feeding live prey), and a retic about 12' in an even smaller cage, must have been about 60 gallons! Dead animals in nearly all cages.

The people who worked there knew nothing about the animals. It was very depressing :(

[Reticsrule]

thats terrible! IMO pet stores should not be allowed to sell anything bigger than BCIs because they clearly do not know how to care for anything that size.and chances are anyone who buys a large snake like that from a pet store will want it for the "cool" factor and not have any clue how to properly care for the animal.

[JeffX]

We have a couple around here that are like that. One has a full-grown Bearded Dragon with a missing tail. The other used to keep Rainbow Boas out on the floor without any protection of being stolen. They were in these little carriers in the back with the other reptiles.

[SnakeyeZ]

Thats a terrible thing to witness. We all have those poor excuses for petstores in our home towns, and its very unfortunate. These places SHOULD be exposed for what they are! and how they take care of there animals!

I was in one with my buddy last week...almost every cage on the reptile display was empty, BUT the cages above a average persons height had quite a few dead animals. The girl was cleaning the cages and assumed they wouldn't be visible in the top displays.What it looked like to me since they were all in the same cage, appearing to be just thrown in. I took pics with my camera phone. Simply disgusting.

Everything from anoles-geckos-a ball python and a albino cornsnake were dead, dryed to the bone (They've been dead awhile).

This isnt the first time ive seen dehydrated, sickly, mite infested animals in this store. Theyre relitivly new, and supposedly "know there reptiles"

Ahwell, thats my rant for today.....

[Rikki]

I know, and its a shame the 'humane' society is not in control of the situation so they say.

[snakelover111]

yea it may be sad but true, there r tons of petstores just like that. if u ask ppl the mojority of members on ssnakess has put a bad pet store thread but theres really nm we can do about them...

-jake

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

I have seen shops start out, simply organized and clean.....but over time (3 years and more) they have expanded from from aquaria to reptiles, mammals - birds, insects - amphibians. The more they expanded the more things went a bit off with organization and jusy basic husbandry and cleasiness. The mixture of all these animals, lack of space (due to expansion and over stocking materials and animals), poor up keep on the animals and not enforcing and getting the workers to keep the up keep on the animals. The bigger chains seem to make all this more pleasant but the prices are also something that make that happen. I prefer the smaller mom/pop shops but few can be pleasant to enter, like mentioned they just don' t make or can' t make it pleasant. The big thing is the smell, again funds - space - and over stocking makes this happen. Shops should special on more certain animals but if they did how long would they be around really. The few that go strong do so because of the clientele.

Just a few things I have seen in both mom/pop shops as well as the big chains:

Dead fish in tanks while saleperson tries to sell fish to a customer :(
Feces on dogs and cats that are about to be presented to a new interested customer or a bought animal already :(
Injured birds in same enclosure with interested new buyers wondering what happened :(
Over stocked tanks with a litter of snakes (in general) while a salesperson just adds more in the tank :(
Other lizards mixed together that should not be housed hours let alone days together :(

The list goes on, this plus the rarity of finding animals I enjoy makes me look but never buy anything from a pet store.

Again it not just one thing but once they expand them seem to loose control of the basics.

:) just my 2 cents.