Petco vs. Petsmart

[Richard]

Why is it that petco almost never sells snakes but they do sell feeders, but petsmart does sell snakes almost always but they dont sell feeders? So why whouldnt they just sell both to make more money. The one that sells the feeders is gonna be makin more money. Now, you go to petsmart to buy the snake, but you have to go to petco to buy the feeders.
This is just really stupid!!

[SoberGuy]

They don't take proper care of their reptiles, at least not at any of the stores I've been in. I figure if they can't take care of the reptiles, why would they be able to care for feeders? I'll only buy supplies from them, and that's if I can't afford the luxury of waiting for a better product at a cheaper price to be shipped. I really don't like either store.

[brownsfan222]

my local petsmart only sells frogs and lizards, they dont sell snakes. They dont sell feeders they sell mice as pets, the animals they do sell are always healthy and there cages are always clean

[lethargiic]

petco and petsmart are furry animal oriented stores..of course some are better than others...however i would not trust a single animal that comes out of those places..not even their fish.... I have my reasons but the only thing good about petsmart is i can get heartguard & advantage for BW..er i mean my dog at a reasonable price.. =)

[Jem_Scout]

It's the opposite here in WI...PetCo sells the snakes and feeders and Petsmart only has the live rodents for pets...no frozen feeders or snakes!

[Alika]

Petsmart doesn't (or at least, is not supposed to) sell snakes. Because they don't believe in selling feeder animals (though their policy claims they respect those that do) they also can't sell the animals that would eat feeder animals (other than crix). I can respect that, though I know a lot of people who went in for a feeder mouse only to be upset that PM wouldn't sell them a pet to feed to their snake.

The animals from PM that seem to be in the poorest health predictably are the hamsters and anoles. Hamsters are hard to keep in a petstore setting because they are so prone to getting wet tail from stress. The anoles that I have seen are almost always overcrowded. Because of the extra food competition, some of the smaller ones are really skinny, and I've seen larger anoles kill the smaller ones and nothing was done about it.

To be fair, though, the PM stores around here are a lot better than most of the locally run pet stores. They do have policies and procedures in place to protect the animals, but, like any corporation, those tend to get washed out and changed by local management... some for the better, and others for the worst. The flip side of being a large corporation, though, is that they have the money in their budget to take sick animals to the vet and get them treatment, and they do... at least the ones here do. I know of some guinea pigs that were successfully treated, then adopted out to good homes.

Still, I wouldn't mind seeing them making some improvements. For example, it would be great if they would follow in PetCo's footsteps and stop selling large birds. It would also be great if they stopped selling unweaned baby birds, and even better if they stopped handfeeding in store (yes, a lot of baby birds do die because of it). I would also like to see less crowded reptile habitats, no selling of large lizards (large being anything over 2 ft adult length) and, if they insist on selling RES, to make better accomodations for them.

Not that great, but, to be fair, PM and PC are, as corporations, really not that bad. It's the management of the individual stores that earns them a bad rap, I think, and that's nothing more than the consequence of being a wide spread company.

JMO... to be taken with a grain of salt.

	Crickets Crix

[Roastbeef]

The petsmart in my area sells snake, ball pythons, columbian boas, ribbon snakes, and a lot of others. I dont think that policy Alika was talking about is updated. If it were, I know a mess load(ok only 2) of petsmarts that should be closed or the snakes at least removed. Alika, do you have a website with their policy on it? I think this is kind of interresting and would love to get those poor snakes out of there(or at least try).

Edit-I forgot that I was in Flordia before xmas, and me and my dad went to a petsmart down there(near miami) and they had moniters and an iryan jaya carpet python....

[Alika]

Originally Posted by Roastbeef

The petsmart in my area sells snake, ball pythons, columbian boas, ribbon snakes, and a lot of others. I dont think that policy Alika was talking about is updated. If it were, I know a mess load(ok only 2) of petsmarts that should be closed or the snakes at least removed. Alika, do you have a website with their policy on it? I think this is kind of interresting and would love to get those poor snakes out of there(or at least try).

Edit-I forgot that I was in Flordia before xmas, and me and my dad went to a petsmart down there(near miami) and they had moniters and an iryan jaya carpet python....

Huh. Maybe it's regional, then?

The PetsMarts here have handouts about their feeder animal policy, saying pretty much what I said above... I've never seen it on a website or anything like that.

Interesting.... and yet another example of how things fall apart when companies branch out.

[schmelkdog]

yeah, the ones in connecticut (petsmart and petco) sell both feeders and snakes, lizards,etc... How healthy they are is anyones guess. The only change I've seen is since the peta case petco is housing their rodents seperately by gender.

[Flatliner]

Well i got my Medusa at a Petco. She was healthy RTB. Glad i got her out of that place.

[blkcrochunter]

I only have a petsmart in my area, and the only reptiles they sell are lizards. They sell rats, but as pets for about $7.00 for a med. rat. They seem to mostly cater to dogs abd cats more than anything.

[NewRTB's]

Originally Posted by blkcrochunter

I only have a petsmart in my area, and the only reptiles they sell are lizards. They sell rats, but as pets for about $7.00 for a med. rat. They seem to mostly cater to dogs abd cats more than anything.

Same here in AZ I think, petsmart is a dog and cat and fish place with a few reptiles and amphibians, but at petco, the herps are in greater supply, but I dont see paying 180 for one of their rtb's, but they're on sale for $99 this month at mine

[Alika]

Petsmart's mother store is in AZ, along with some of the main distribution centers.

I wonder, again, if some of these trends are regional: the farther away you get from AZ, the more you start seeing the larger reptiles, including snakes, and the availability of feeder rodents. I, myself, live in UT, which is pretty close to AZ, relatively speaking.

[snakewrangler89]

I don't use either one for reptiles or reptile accessories. After walking in and seeing a chameleon in an enclosure set up for a leo, i never want to enter another one again.