Offended the lady at Petsmart

[weco]

and unfortunately when people decide to reprimand others on what's right or wrong, it becomes very messy very fast. For one, that person doesn't know YOUR animal. My mother swears by Dentasticks for her dogs - my best friend refuses to touch them because her dog nearly died choking on one. My dogs HAVE to stay in a kennel if they aren't supervised - some people view kenneling as cruel, but I don't think anyone wants to pay thousands of dollars to replace flooring and furniture due to dogs "marking their territory".

Boy, can I relate to your statement.....while I have never, at least not intentionally online, reprimanded someone for their views/beliefs; however, if those views/beliefs are counter to what I think might be the best answer to a query, I will usually post an opposing viewpoint, with supporting information/links, etc. and let the reader make their own decisions...and...may also post whatever additional data contravenes a post that I think imparts the wrong information...often to readers/viewers who are seeking valid/verifiable information.....

 

[Colorguarder08]

I have applied at petsmart several times but never had my application go any further than that which sucks cause I'd be great in a pet store like that. However I am pleased with girl working with the birds at my local petsmart she seemed very knowledgeable about the birds there including that that was the first day speckles was put out on the floor and which parakeets where returned and why.

 

[pycthedragon]

The Petsmart in Rochester, MI seemed to have a pretty knowledgable young woman working there last time I went there, she really did seem to know her small parrots. She gave me a lot of good advice for taking care of my bird and was bluntly straightforward - she told me how to make toys out of boxes for parrots as well as rope toys. Told me where I could buy very cheap and very good seed/pellet mixes and how to mix up the diet. We did (sadly) also talk about people who are irresponsible with their parrots, such as smoking things, legal or not, in front of them, or even having them in tiny cages. She totally knew her stuff. She was awesome!

Sadly though Petsmart often doesn't hire people who really know much about pets at all. One of the most jarring things is whenever I see them sell goldfish with a bowl... The ONLY thing that can survive (not be happy, SURVIVE) in a bowl is a betta fish! I wonder how many goldfish they have killed through that... makes me sad, I love my fish and frogs as much as I love my birds.

That previous woman said that they cannot deny a sale even if they know the person isn't ready to take care of the animal... I really feel bad for the GCC's they get then! I wonder how many sweet GCC's were purchased because rich mommy got her son a birdie that he was definitely not ready for! So sad that they have to put money over good judgement...

 

[Kiwibird]

The Petsmart in Rochester, MI seemed to have a pretty knowledgable young woman working there last time I went there, she really did seem to know her small parrots. She gave me a lot of good advice for taking care of my bird and was bluntly straightforward - she told me how to make toys out of boxes for parrots as well as rope toys. Told me where I could buy very cheap and very good seed/pellet mixes and how to mix up the diet. We did (sadly) also talk about people who are irresponsible with their parrots, such as smoking things, legal or not, in front of them, or even having them in tiny cages. She totally knew her stuff. She was awesome!

Sadly though Petsmart often doesn't hire people who really know much about pets at all. One of the most jarring things is whenever I see them sell goldfish with a bowl... The ONLY thing that can survive (not be happy, SURVIVE) in a bowl is a betta fish! I wonder how many goldfish they have killed through that... makes me sad, I love my fish and frogs as much as I love my birds.

That previous woman said that they cannot deny a sale even if they know the person isn't ready to take care of the animal... I really feel bad for the GCC's they get then! I wonder how many sweet GCC's were purchased because rich mommy got her son a birdie that he was definitely not ready for! So sad that they have to put money over good judgement...

Tell me about it! I think employees love animals and mean well, but they don't probably have enough applicants who are actually knowledgeable in the department the work in. When I got my fist pet, a leopard gecko, 19 years ago (yup, he's STILL alive, his "birthday" was on the 8th) they said he should be put on sand as a substrate and never mentioned pertinent information about gut loading feeder insects or that he was NOCTURNAL (ya, here's some parents buying their KID a pet, and they sell us one who only comes out at night). Anyways, about 2 months after I got him, he stopped eating, stopped pooping and his tail started getting really thin (a fat tail is a sign of good health in leopard geckos). Now my mom had been making sure I had been taking care of him EXACTLY to the "care sheet" instructions provided with him. When we took him to the vet, they did an x-ray and he was literally impacted from one end to the other with SAND. Apparently, they are NOT a sand dwelling lizard, and every time he ate a cricket, he also ate a little sand he was unable to excrete. For 6 weeks, he had to be given warm baths 2X a day and syringe fed mineral oil (no easy feat, my dad had to do that) with no guarantees he would survive to try and clear the impaction (and the vet bill wasn't cheap either, but my parents couldn't let my pet die because we were given bad care information). He did survive, but the vet (who wasn't a reptile specialist) consulted with an exotics vet who was reptile-specialized and essentially EVERYTHING we had been told was wrong. He's been cared for since then as-per a reptile-specialized vet, and besides being smaller than average due to stunted growth early on from the impaction, he's lived to upper reaches of his lifespan.

Many years later, when I rescued our fire belly new from being flushedt, I (stupidly) went up to petco to buy supplies and inquired about care ext.. Again, I was given totally inaccurate information I blindly followed until the newt "outlived" his "3-5 year lifespan" they had told me and I did more research:20: I will have this newt for the next 20-25 years:52:

I really wish big chain stores just sold supplies and not live animals, or only hosted adoption days sponsored by groups who actually know what their talking about with the animals they have who need good homes.

 

[Dinosrawr]

I agree. And to be honest, even beta fish do terrible in just bowls - they need the water filtered so they aren't swimming around in high levels of uric acid all day. It's so depressing to see the animals caged up, though sometimes there is a benefit. For example, the Petland here takes cats from the SPCA and cycles them so that there's more room at the actual facility and there's a higher chance of adoption. But, that being said, they don't belong on a glass box all day.

And April, the care sheets are a joke. The staff care sheets are even more of a joke - the training and information they receive is minimal. Hardly a jack of all trades, and definitely an ace of none is how I describe the majority. I've seen them and reviewed the parrot information, and they learn that if a bird doesn't want to step up that you push into their belly until they do. Brendon had to quit because the management was terrible and he couldn't stand it anymore. Plus risking disease transfer to my birds isn't worth it.

 

[saka_sandora]

I think it depends on the store and pet care manager. I worked as a dog bather at petsmart but once the store closed I LOVED visiting the birds. The pet care manager taught me how to work with them. That's how I got my Genesis.