Another one of those chain store threads...but with a different tune.

[Ehatcher]

Well first off, there are a lot of chain stores that could care less about their reptiles, but I came across a CHAIN STORE, yes a CHAIN store that made me excited to look at their animals!!! I will include the name of this store since it is a GREAT compliment to the staff that works their. The P ETSMART in Knoxville, TN in the Turkey creek shopping center.

This is the 2nd time I have been in there and I must say that the cages are SOOO CLEAN, No loose crickets running around. The younger girl working there was cleaning and changing tanks that looked clean! The Snakes looked fat and healthy, the Mali Uromastyx was basking in his heat lamp in his huge enclosure, The chinese water dragon was running around and acting crazy. The veiled cham was alert and looked awesome. They had a blue tounge skink that wouldnt show himself. Even their mammals and birds were in great condition.

Now to the leo cage. It was in fantastic conditon! It was a 10 gallon tank. They had 4 fat, healthy, active and alert juvi Leos that had all of their tails. Best of all they were all the same size. There was a moist hide which consisted of a repti shelter with moss. Another hide that was on the opposite side of the tank. a couple pieces of drift wood, and what really blew my mind...they had a CALCIUM DISH AVAILABLE TO THEM! :main_thumbsup:

Great job to this store. It is 1 of the 3 stores in my location. It really made me realize that all hope isnt lost with the chain stores :main_yes:

 

[Pepper]

Lucky!!!

I just went to our only pet store, a chain store that put all of our good ones out of business, and it was the exact opposite, actually the worst I've seen yet, they even were selling Savannah monitors and the temps were like, barely 80!! They had like 40 anole crammed into one of those tiny 10x10 tanks and there was poo EVERYWHERE! They've had a large water dragon there for about a month or 2 and today it looked horrible, its mouth was open and it had a white mucus surrounding its whole mouth, but of course, "All of our animals are 100 percent healthy"

I'm glad you had a good experience!

 

[JordanAng420]

Good for them! I think a lot of stores have been making a better effort to take better care of their reptiles, exotics & other mammals.

 

[Haligren]

The pet store from up the street from me (the one I don't work at and is a chain store here in Canada) seem to take very good care of their reptiles as well. In fact I'm hoping to get a job there. Granted they have a small selection and some of the tanks are a bit too small, despite this the animals always look healthy and active. The leos are kept on sand but their eyes and colors are bright and their tails fat. In fact this is the store where I got Tiamat. Their tanks are nearly always free of poo and except during feeding time there are no loose crickets or mealies running around. And they DO give them calcium and vitamin supplements as I've been there during feeding time and they dust the crickets and mealies.

Tomorrow is my last day at my store and I say good riddance. I feel badly that I cannot take care of the reptiles though. I know they need better care but I don't do much as it is. I'm only there once or twice a week due to university. Despite that I feel I've been pretty much managing that section. I do everything from cleaning their cages, feeding them, watering them, changing substrate, repricing stock, stocking stock, mopping the floor, dusting shelves, etc. About the only thing I don't do is order the stock itself. :\

I've already posted the horror story that is my store so I'll leave it at that.
It's really nice to hear about good stores though. You and those reptiles are very lucky.

 

[Shem]

Sounds nice, the only chain petstore I've ever been in was housing Leopard Geckos with bearded dragons. -.-

 

[Haligren]

Sounds nice, the only chain petstore I've ever been in was housing Leopard Geckos with bearded dragons. -.-

Your post made me go o__O . Like literally. lol

 

[Foreverandever]

That's good to hear. The chain stores near me do a pretty good job with their reptiles too. It's nice to see

 

[Shem]

Your post made me go o__O . Like literally. lol

Yeh, It was a nice bald SHTCT.

 

[2bacop]

well its good to hear that another store in my chain is doing a good job. Sometimes it is hard to get people to understand that not all Pets_marts are alike. It sounds like that store is following the policys and procedures, which a lot of stores dont do.

 

[leonut]

That's great to hear! although a ten is a bit small for 4 geckos it's still better than my local pet stores. The employee that works in the reptile section at one near me didn't even know the name of the species!