Although not all petcos are all the same,most do not practice acceptable animal husbandry.Many animals are not well taken care of,not because of purpose neglect ,but because of the fact that most employees have not been properly trained to care for most animals.Let me just say that you should never trust the employees.Not even if they seem knowledgeable and caring.Sad to say,many employees do care,but not completely knowledgeable about the animals they sell.Many employers are so ignorant that they would promote fish "caretakers" to herp "caretakers".In  other words,it is usually not the fault of the employees,but that of the managers.Nonetheless,Petco would not be the best choice to buy pets.

    Although each Petcos abide by different standards to who they want as employees,most employees are teens looking for a job to make extra money.Most of them are irresponsible high school students that although care about the pets,do not know how to properly care for them.Many also do not know proper customer service and usually just ignore you until you walk up to them and give them a request.Some also would care more about the buck rather than the creatures they were trusted to care for(or were they???).

   The herps are kept in saddenning conditions.In fact,I have an actual sad story I would like to share later on.But anyways,the reptiles are weak,kept in wrong conditions,are sickly,and usually dying.I have seen ball pythons having severe scale rot due to being kept in tanks set up for red tail boas and ocassionally bearded dragons being kept with leopard geckos.What confused me about that is that they scolded me for keeping tree frogs with my carpet python in the same enclosure,but they did this themselves with two animals that have different requirements.Atleast my pets have identical requirements and predation is impossible since the kinds of frogs I have are brightly colored,poisonous,and secrete a rpelling odor.Also,their caresheets state that two different herps should never be kept together.

   Petcos that sell fish usually are able to keep them alive until they go to homes where they eventually die of stress,diseases,malnutrition,etc.The fish are usually so hardy they can survive the most deplorable conditions,but Petcos still manage to kill them....Aya.Many only survive  a few weeks at their new homes.The fish are always overcrowded and spread diseases to each other.Some,though not all Petcos put incompatible fish together.Some long finned fish such as fancy gold fish with large Oscars that often nip the fins.Some Petcos even put unaquatic herps such as box turtles,tiger salamanders,and land hermit crabs in aquatic tanks.They also put largely aquatic animals into dry terrariums.In simplest form,the fish are not healthy.

  Fortunately,many Petcos are no longer ordering large birds.However,the large birds that have not been bought yet are still for sale and suffering from boredom.Many birds have many missing toes which were lost mainly from smaller birds like parakeets and lovebirds being kept together with larger birds that were attached.The bored birds have few toys to play with and usually pluck their own feathers to relieve stress like emotional people do,but instead of cutting themselves,they feather pluck.Most are sick and unhappy being kept in a cold lonely room being bored.In other words,they are no good either.

   Luckily,most Petcos now separate their rodents by sex ever since PETA made a huge complaint.However,some are not sexed properly and end up become pregnant so instead of coming home with a Henry you may just come home with a pregnant Henrietta.Some are also inbred and have passed on hereditary problems to their offspring.Mice and rats are considered so insignificant that they are put into overcrowded tanks with no toys.They are often seen canabalizing one another.Many have wet tail and what this is is a common problem in rodents that occurs when they are stressed.Most come from rat "mills" where they are inbred for so many times that they start being born with problems.

    The reptiles are the worst.They are often seen dead because of inappropriate habitats.Many snakes have shedding problems,mouth rot,scale rot,pneumonia,and other problems from being kept in incorrect humidity and temperature levels.The snakes are sometimes even fed "mice in a can".I think these should only be fed to monitor lizards as most snakes refuse these and usually starve to death.

    I was visiting my uncle and aunt with my cousin.I wanted a pet so I asked my cousin if we could buy a pet at a Petco so he took me.I wanted a garter snake,but I had too many so my cousin offered to keep it in his home .He had never had snakes so he was excited.The nice lady said to feed it crickets and said they laid eggs and she knows because she met the breeder.I was confused because I have always thought they they had live births,but okay.We took home two beautiful garters and turns out every single thing she told us was a lie.One of the snakes did not appear to be a garter snake,and was having a problem shedding.Once she had shed,she began eating.A few weeks later,the snake was sick with mouth rot and we wanted answers.It turns out that we were told a lie.That snake was a keelback and we had not been keeping her in correct conditions.Luckily,the other snake was a garter snake.There were no actual breeders for keelbacks and despite what Petco says do not trust them.The mouth rot had gone so far that she was no longer eating.She was put down after just three months because of malnutrition.R.I.P Lilly the snake.Me and my cousin were crushed.By the way if you want to purchase garters,make sure they do not have a striped belly as this may indicate a keelback.When there are no true garter snakes Petco will sell "exotic"Indonesian garter snakes(keelbacks)that although are similar,they have different requirements.PLEASE DO NOT BUY REPTLES OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY ANIMALS.Indonesian garters are not true garters.