Good pet store experiences

[Scarabyte]

Does anyone else have good experience with pet stores?
Some are terrible i know but the local one here always has a lot of Ts and their slings are always perfectly setup bc theyre all bought from local breeders, their larger Ts sometimes are setup wrong but when i go in i tell them and next time I'm in they have it fixed.
And their old worlds are sectioned off from the rest and the guy who takes care of them is also a T keeper, makes sure the buyer knows what theyre doing before selling
I kniw pet stores are often terrible but i love hearing peoples good experiences with them

 

[Jokesonmeow]

A couple of my local exotics stores are decent. It’s not always perfect, like T’s for sale being housed in smaller, travel type cups. Like you’d see at an expo. But I do know that both of these particular stores go through T’s quite quickly, so I can’t imagine they are in the cups long. They also give fairly good advice on T keeping. I’m confident when I give them my money.

 

[Razzledazzy]

I was about to say my experiences were similar to Jokesonmeow's but then I realized.... We were talking about the same stores.

I can say that no matter how many chain pet stores I frequent in my area (mostly cruising for cricket prices and miscellaneous tank additions like plastic plants), I've never seen a single T for sale. Might be a local ordinance about it.

 

[Jokesonmeow]

I was about to say my experiences were similar to Jokesonmeow's but then I realized.... We were talking about the same stores.

I can say that no matter how many chain pet stores I frequent in my area (mostly cruising for cricket prices and miscellaneous tank additions like plastic plants), I've never seen a single T for sale. Might be a local ordinance about it.

They are there. They are usually labeled with a picture of a lizard so you don’t even glance at it. A lot of a. avics in not so arboreal setups.

I actually got my a. avic from Pet Supermarket because she was $20 and I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It’s a cycle that I choose to avoid now by not going to those stores. Otherwise I see them and I feel bad. My husband goes to get cat food and frozen mice without me.

 

[Cavedweller]

Zookeeper in Austin is a gem. I'm not knowledgable enough to vouch for the care of their other animals, but they specialize in arachnids and do a lot of in-house breeding. The staff are all real nice too. One of the guys working there did a lot of Aphonopelma field research and got a species named after him.

 

[Jokesonmeow]

Zookeeper in Austin is a gem. I'm not knowledgable enough to vouch for the care of their other animals, but they specialize in arachnids and do a lot of in-house breeding. The staff are all real nice too. One of the guys working there did a lot of Aphonopelma field research and got a species named after him.

Great. Now I have to go to Austin!

 

[PanzoN88]

Every experience I had at the now closed LPS (thanks peta for putting out false information to get it shut down. Notice the sarcasm?) was good (petvalu doesn't count as it is only a pet supply store). The owners were knowledgeable and had a good selection to choose from (I am still kicking myself for not getting that female B. auratum for $70, they even had the molt as proof). I could go on and on about this store, but I'll stop here.

 

[Razzledazzy]

They are there. They are usually labeled with a picture of a lizard so you don’t even glance at it. A lot of a. avics in not so arboreal setups.

I guess that the timing just wasn't right for me! Goodness knows I wouldn't be able to resist a sad Avic that just wants space to climb and a well ventilated enclosure.

Every experience I had at the now closed LPS (thanks peta for putting out false information to get it shut down. Notice the sarcasm?) was good (petvalu doesn't count as it is only a pet supply store). The owners were knowledgeable and had a good selection to choose from (I am still kicking myself for not getting that female B. auratum for $70, they even had the molt as proof). I could go on and on about this store, but I'll stop here.

Ouch! That's a missed opportunity that makes my heart sting for you. There's a B. auratum going for like 150$ at one of the exotics stores in my area and I'm still going 'but I want it'. My mind's telling me yes but my wallet's telling me no.

 

[Toddydog]

Alright, well this isn't "good" per say more like way better than I've ever seen in a pet store.
It's a Petco in a terrible neighborhood. It's connected to a goodwill and a few other businesses that went out of business. The parking lot you can find needles and booze bottles in. Needless to say it's not the best location.
Shockingly this pet store has the best care I've ever seen for its animals (which isn't hard). All look healthy. Leopard geckos aren't on sand and they are separated. They even have 3 hides. They don't usually have tarantulas but sometimes an A. avic will be there. The tank size is more aimed towards terrestials but it has coco fiber, no sponge in water dish, not soaking wet. Sideways tube corkbark and foliage. Besides the tank being wider than it is higher, it was pretty good.

 

[Scarabyte]

Some pictures from the store, i actually bought a Seemanii, Albo and a Darlingi from them

 

[Kendricks]

Does anyone else have good experience with pet stores?

No.

Checked out a couple in my area.
They often keep their animals in questionable or downright terrible conditions, label them wrong, feeder-packages are often half dead (as in half the population of them), you see water-gel being used, worryingly-dirty water dishes/enclosures in general and oh: I have yet to see a tarantula being kept in correct, even just acceptable conditions.
Saw a pokie hiding between chunks of wood-chips in the corner of a miserable enclosure the other day, with nothing to climb but the walls. Ugh.
And on top, often they have absurd prices and the WORST advice.

I developed a deep... negative opinion... for these stores.

 

[FrDoc]

I think all the negative stories, and below average overall personal experiences have made me quite negative about them regarding T’s. However, I have been encouraged recently by two experiences. One, I was doing the wander through the invert aisle and one of the workers noticed I was wearing a tarantula oriented T-shirt. She actually came up to me and asked if I could give her some input on T’s because she didn’t know anything about them and didn’t want to do something wrong. How cool is that? A LPS worker who cared about her dealings with T’s.

The second was seeing a T, an adult B. Albo, displayed in an enclosure that was darn near perfect, clean, proper substrate, water dish, no crickets wandering around, and the T looked great, chilling out in the open, chunky, with no bald spots whatsoever.

Both of these incidents really encouraged me to be a bit less quick to throw out generalizations.

 

[Hardus nameous]

I'm very happy with my LPS. Everything I've bought there has been healthy and their advice has coincided with what I read on this forum.

 

[sasker]

I developed a sort of friendship with a pet shop owner in my town. I have the feeling that he keeps tarantulas more for his own entertainment than to make a profit because I think I am the only one who ever bought a tarantula from him. I often catch him drinking a beer in his shop (this is Bulgaria, mind you ) and he cares for all the cats in the neighbourhood. He gives me stuff and feeders for almost nothing because its me. He also allows me to sex his tarantulas by giving me the molts to examine at home. He is a bit of a substrate scrooge and his knowledge about keeping tarantulas is a bit outdated, but all-in-all he is an alright chap.

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

Does anyone else have good experience with pet stores?
Some are terrible i know but the local one here always has a lot of Ts and their slings are always perfectly setup bc theyre all bought from local breeders, their larger Ts sometimes are setup wrong but when i go in i tell them and next time I'm in they have it fixed.
And their old worlds are sectioned off from the rest and the guy who takes care of them is also a T keeper, makes sure the buyer knows what theyre doing before selling
I kniw pet stores are often terrible but i love hearing peoples good experiences with them

the people at the aquatic critter in Nashville TN were awesome and also kept Ts so they knew what they were doing they kept the Avic i bought in decent condition not amazing but better than petsmart (i had to put some extra holes in its enclosure and a hide n' stuff)