Other Turtle Discussion :: RES at petco

[Blue Flamingo]

I always hear bad news about how petco, petsmart, and other large chains dont provide a healthy envrioment for there RESs. The other day I was at Petco and to my surprise they had a tank of RESs. Im proud to say that my Petco had a very decent setup. They had a huge basking area, lights, the water level was at a decent heigth, and they provided water filtration. Maybe the rest of the chains will catch on.

[steve]

I think a lot of Petcos and Petsmarts do a good job. The Petlands and LFS that I have seen all fail, IMO. For what it's worth, there is much more criticism about employees dishing out bad advise.

[CountryGirl68]

I think alot has to do with who is in charge of each area. I've been to a petco where the guy (who was 22yrs old) in charge of the fish aquariums had a lot of knowledge - he'd been a fish keeper since very young, so the fish aquariums were well taken care of.

But I've even seen rescue places that don't do that great a job at keeping their turtles. I went to a reptile convention last weekend where several NY rescue centers had tables set up for adoptions. One place had about 6 RES - all over 7" - that they were keeping in an average sized cardboard box filled with old dry T-shirts - no water, no light. Those poor turtles were in that condition from 10a-4p.

[stray_647]

I've been to a lot of petco and petsmarts here in chicago. I think that petco does a good job of housing their RES, they have a huge tank and light and a powerful filter. Petsmart has dissapointed me as I've seen them house several alduts in a very small space with no water and barely any light.

[daredevilgirl013]

The Petland here doesn't have any res, but you ask them any questions about them and they look at you like Uhhh...

But from what I've seen of how they take care of their fish (which I wonder if they even do at the rate when every time I walk in I see handfuls of dead fish in every tank..which is why I bought my new betta today among other reasons..I didn't want it to die) So it worries me if they ever would get turtles in, how they would take care of them.

[Andrew7769]

yea bettas everyone thinks are happy in those little bowls but the only reason they are kept like that is because they can breath air as well as get air through their gills...bettas are much happier in fish tanks its too bad......The petco near me only has one fish guy who is nice but he is never there petsmart i found better in terms of fish but i havent dicussed turtles with them

[z-chic]

I was the fish manager at a Petland until it went bankrupt 2 weeks ago ( I had worked there 4 weeks) the fish tanks were disgusting when I started, and the reptiles were dyeing. I ended up busting my butt to clean up the fish area, finally got the fish to quit dropping dead, and I started in on the herps. The bosses son was in charge of the herps, and was doing a terrible job. There was a side neck turtle in a critter keeper with and inch of water for a week.....the turtle was about 6". It is no wonder that they went bankrupt. Petlad is the biggest puppy mill store in the US. They especially like buying from the Amish (who are about the worst puppy mill people). I was told that they didn't give a crap about the customers or selling anything but puppies that are OVER $700.00! That was the night before they closed the store..and I had come home and told my hubby I had to find a new job. I guess them closing made that easy for me. LMAO

[missibsu]

Does this mean that Petland as a chain is closing, or is this just one franchise? I haven't heard any news here of them closing, but then I haven't been there in awhile either.

[daredevilgirl013]

From the rumors going around town there is a petland opening up near me. So I doubt they are going under. Though at the rate things cost in their and the rate their animals keel over I could see why. (I wanted a gallon tank for my betta, they had them for 30 bucks........so he got a half gallon, way better compared to the inky dinky cup he was in and he likes it. He has a plant he plays in now, and he has plenty of swimming room because he is so small ((I believe he's a runt...or else really young)) and he has matching color glass rocks to help him blend in with) But they also stopped carrying turtle chemicals aka turtle clean, biotize, aquatize etc etc at the petland I went to yesterday and stopped carrying several things I buy there..so maybe they are...it is possible. Though it wouldn't break my heart because there is another pet store I go to, but it was nice getting a discount on ghost shrimp if you bought them in bulk.

[z-chic]

Just the franchise I worked at in Mt. Vernon. Thats the problem with Petland...the care of the animals depends on who owns/runs the stores. Most stores I have been to are barely getting by, and they cut corners to try and save a buck. Really if they would put some$$ into the animals, then they would sell healthy happy animals which = happy customers that return and spend more$$$$$.

[daredevilgirl013]

Yeah at petland I bought a female betta just to get her the heck out of there. I knew she was going to die (they put her in with a male who had ick and he was fighting her constantly) So I took her home, gave her a nice little place to stay and then she died later that die. I figured if nothing else I got her the hell out of there.

I went back the next day and ripped them a new one. Especially when I saw that they put more female bettas in with that male and every single one of them was laying there dead at the bottom of the tank. I ripped them till the sun went down I was beyond ticked. They didn't like me that day....nor have they really liked me since. Which is why they tend to ignore me a lot (like last time I went in to get Ghost Shrimp the guy said they didn't have as many as I wanted, I counted them..I said go get them. I got the look from hell and then he was like..well what are you feeding them to? I said a turtle. That shut him up cause he knew nothing about turtles)

The only reason I really go to petland was because they carried the water treatment and chemicals and turtle food I like and to get some ghost shrimp. And for their 33% discount which you get like every couple of months so I can get the UVB light bulb cheap! (which they stopped carrying the brand I like now too...) so from now on, I'm going to go to the ma and pa petstore when I need to and I'm going to be ordering most of my stuff from a pet store online that offers really good prices.

[matt2615]

I went to petsmart the other day and they had 15 res that were about from 4 inches to 6 inches. And they had them in what looked like a thirty gallon long tank and there was about an inch of water in there, and there was small gravel in there and there was a very small space for them to get out of the water. And on there website it says that they mostly eat crickets.

[scripta_elegans]

The Petco near me has a 75 gallon tank mostly full of water, with a large basking area with a UVB and heat light. They also give them any of the plants which are looking old. (I even think they are all edible.) The only issue is that they have about 20 turtles between 4-8 inches in the tank at a time. I have seen it with far less, but it averages at least 10.

[friscogiants]

personally i think petco does a not do a good job of taking care of there animals in good condition around my area

i always see dead fishes in there tanks and personnally i think there service sucks

but theres no other petstore around here so im force to go there

as for the turtle they are over crowed in the tanks, they dont sell hatchlings so there turts are lik 5-6 inches and the tank they are in is not very big

[Spookster]

I went to petsmart the other day and they had 15 res that were about from 4 inches to 6 inches. And they had them in what looked like a thirty gallon long tank and there was about an inch of water in there, and there was small gravel in there and there was a very small space for them to get out of the water. And on there website it says that they mostly eat crickets.

It's exactly the same at the petsmart that just opened up here in Myrtle Beach, SC. They had around 6 - 10 RES around 4 - 6 inches in the tank. An inch of water on one end of the tank. It looked more like a puddle of water. No basking lamp and probably no UV light. All they had was a flourescent light.