LPS appreciation thread!?!?!?!?

hassman789

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 2, 2009
Messages
576
Well latley I have been kind of happy with my petco. They have been taking good care of their rose hair!:clap: Whenever I go it is active and When I walked up to it today it went over to it's water dish (WITH NO COTTON!:clap:) and drank. AND its on eaco earth thats not soaking wet. There is boluses so it has been eating (should be taken out but hey not bad for a lps) and the empoyee I was getting crickets from was very nice and was talking to me about my tarantulas. And she was like the 3rd petsore worker I talked to who said "Oh yeah I have a friend who has one of those giant colbolt blue things or a birdeater". And she also said the petstore had a tarantula lay an eggsac, but said it was infertile. And all this tarantula conversation was coming from the dog trainer!:D I'm very proud of my petco for being able to succesfully take care ore a G. rosea! Does anyone else have good experiences with lps? All I've ever seen were hate threads, there must be some good ones out there!
 

Treynok

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
May 17, 2009
Messages
202
I have a love-hate relationship with my LPS's I have good experiences with them as well as bad. Overall my local Petco could keep things a lot more incorrectly than they do. I have a problem with one of the employees at mine (they argued with me about a heat lamp and wanted me to keep my pacman frog way hotter than he needs to be kept) but overall I give them a decent amount of business and I got my A. avic for only $10. It's a juvie and had a very small abdomen. I think they dropped the crickets in to the substrate and they never made it into the web in the upper corner of the tank they had it for like 3 months, no buyers. I got it home and have had it for about a week now, it has eaten an adult lat every day so far and has plumped up considerably. Today is the first day it didn't literally jump onto the lateralis. I also got my G. rosea there and while their care is simple the ones they have always seem to be in very good condition.

I've only ever had a few discrepancies with them and overall I would say that they have cleaned up a lot as far as information and correct keeping around here over the past few years. I've read a lot of the negative comments on here as well and am proud to say I've never experienced anything nearly as bad with my LPS.
 

seezilla

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
Messages
4
I have to say that of the three LPS I shop at regularly (Polly's, Petco and Gabe's Exotics) that I would say there is at least effort going into caring for the animals. There is a rosie at Polly's that's been there for awhile, Hubs and I were thinking of getting it... last we checked it had webbed it's enclosure and looked pretty healthy, I know the employees of this store try their best, but don't always have accurate information. I give them credit for actually caring. I can tell they do care because the animals are housed in clean enclosures and the tanks for the fish and other aquatics are cleaned and well maintained. Even the birds seem healthy. I rarely see any sick animals there. Of course, it's inevitable that there will be, but the majority of the animals are fairly healthy and cared for and really you can't ask for much more than that.

Petco doesn't sell Ts, but they have crickets when we need them, and *some* of their supplies are priced better. As for the employees... they like my dogs. LOL Unfortunately, there are always sick birds and other animals in there. We've purchased a few fish that lived for about six months. I don't go in there for advice on pets.

Gabe's Exotics has the best prices for supplies, but he's mostly about fish with a smaller reptile room in the back with the usual pythons, milk and corn snakes, some geckos, etc. This store is also the farthest for me to drive and isn't in a chain. I like this store because Gabe knows Brandon from captiveinverts and I can get more than just your usual Ts there. Id probably ask Gabe for advice on fish or reptiles. He's very nice and always answers my questions and puts up with my little monsters running around his store and me asking the kids to stop running. :p Poor guy!

I don't mind giving my business to any of these three LPS. On occasion you can find me in Petsmart, buying fish or fish food and the like. Other than that, I prefer the non-chain stores because of the higher quality staff, but they either have prices that are too high or run out of things I need, hence why I also shop at Petco.

Whew! That ended up being long. Sorry!
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
I've only been to my local petco twice now but so far it looks like they are doing a good job. They have a G. Cola and an avic sp. and both look housed pretty well. The G. Cola has a hide but the avic just kind of hangs out on the side of the tank and doesn't seem to have webbed any. They've got them on eco earth I guess, not sure really but it's not like woodchips or sand.

They've got a temp and humidity gauge in with both also but my eyesight is horrible and I couldn't read them.

The store looked clean, animals looked healthy, they had some lizards and snakes that were being active walking around and stuff, and they've got a lot of fish but I only saw one that was deadish. Was still ... gilling? but was kind of a floater.

Bought some crickets there today for a scorpion I caught. So far so good imo.

Oh they also had all the latin names on everything that I saw.
 

Tindalos

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
158
I love my LPS

I love my LPS i have three of them i shop at, one of them even carry P.metallica's and GBB

i never have to order online and i get a discount as i am good friends with them, if they dont have it, they will order it. most of their more exotic T's actually come from local breeders. Even the worst LPS know what they are keeping and have a good selection, but have poor husbandry methods and ive seen many dead pets, but at least they know the latin names of every pet...fish, reptiles, inverts. etc. and know what they are talking about.

but petco and petsmart really suck. their crickets are always dead and over priced, and their pets.
 

LirvA

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
117
hmm, apparently after a quick look around AB I find that Grammastola cola isn't really a species. It should actually be Grammastola cala.

+1 for a local Petco making that error. Still though, from what I've seen there they have a good store. I'm actually thinking about getting that soda pop ;)
 

xhexdx

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
5,357
Well, if you want to be really specific, it's Grammostola cala...
 

puck4u

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
5
yup---

Actually, Tindalos is correct....for the most part. We may not be the "leaders" in the industry, but we have our fair share. Great selection in at least 3 LPS I frequent (bought locally) as well as several local people I buy from. More people than I possibly expected are in the hobby here. Just my 2 cents from Utah ;P
 

KoffinKat138

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
215
whether you believe me or not
the breeders here dont deal with online forums.
tarantulas as pets is really common here in utah.
here is one of my LPS i go to.
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=12980352&cat=110&lpid=18&search=

I'm with you man. There's lots of underground breeders all over, just because some one dosent have an account with arachnoboards or any other online forum doesen't mean that there isnt still people out there in the hobby. I know of a local shop where you can walk in right now and get a P.metallica juvie for 125.00, I also have a buddy that has 2 gravid females at this moment. There's alot more stuff out there that you dont always see on the Internet.
 
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2oCHEVYo0

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
67
I like my LPS by my house... They don't carry T's but it's all good, I'd rather by them elsewhere. But they have some pretty decent prices on enclosures as well as a very large amount of decorations to choose from. I haven't as of yet started buying any of them as none of my T's are adult nor subadult, but I know where I'm going when the time comes!!!

One a couple more blocks down occasionally has Avic Pinktoes and Rosea, and every now and then carry B. Smithi's and have done a fairly good job on prices as well as maintaining a proper enclosure for each T. IMO $40 for a 1" B. Smithi from a LPS is not a bad price at all! That is with the large sized Kritter Keeper as well, with all the little nick nacks inside, so not bad at all! Way to go Lincoln Nebraska Petco's you ROCK!!!
 

Tessa

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
Messages
6
Our LPS fed us a bunch of bull when we bought our L. Parahybana! Said only a half inch of sand needed in bottom and a heat lamp with a regular bulb was fine! Come to find out we about cooked her!!! :mad: It frustrates me to know they had her for FOUR YEARS and couldn't tell us good basic care info! GRR :mad:
 

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
1,017
My local pet store called Pet House is family owned and it's a terrific place. Nothing but beautiful planted tanks, high quality animals/products, and a very knowledgeable staff. Hell, the majority of employees there are female but they have no problem dealing with the inverts. They definitely break the screaming girl with tiny spider stereotype.
 
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