# Pets at home



## Laguna6 (Feb 23, 2010)

Just been in my local Pets at Home they have been selling darts since november last year. 
Last year they got in some D.alanis,green & black auratus,and what i think was oyopok, all pretty healthy looking but not long in store.....spoke to the staff at the time as nothing was priced turned out they were feeding exclusively on crickets, i challenged this with the staff/manager and they said they had been told that was OK by the wholesaler....a few weeks later i went in again ...... low and behold less frogs but a couple with prolapse....this store has a inhouse veterinary clinic, but it took me to get the staff to try and rescue these frogs. These frogs are in relatively small enclosures often 8 or more each one, furnished with spagnum moss, cork/bark and a few artificial plants. no water bowls or wet areas. the smaller vivs are only 8-10 " high. no species names are on any of these and staff didnt have a clue what each species was just green yellow or blue dart frogs.

last few weeks i noticed new stock more alanis, leucomelias, green & black auratus, el cope and triviatus and another species i wasn't able to identify..... guess what these are all mixed in 2 vivs.....again i challenged staff to be told they would discuss it with the manager, still 100% diet of crickets apparantly they cant source flies ( more like they dont want escaped flies in the shop). just as i was about to leave i noticed one alanis in the back of the viv partially hidden under a cork panel looking paler that the rest and in a strange position i called over staff thinking this one was dead but the assistant tried to pick it up in his hand it tried to jump but immediately took what looked like a fit stretching out , twitching and rolled over the assistant took this away, yet again i recommended they separate the species, reduce numbers alleviate possible stress and feed on flies and other varieties of foods and provide shallow water. 

i returned to the shop a few hours later to pick up dry foods and dog food only to see the sick frog back in the viv (unless this was a second casualty), still alive but very very not fit and suitable for sale.....

All frogs in here are priced at 58.00 they are fed on an exclusive diet and kept over crowded and mixed species vivariums..... my other thought on this was that the general public see this and emulate the pick and mix collection at home, they are also feeding as advised by the store.

Dont think dartfrogs are really suitable for this type of pet trade as they require special care and commitment to successful upkeep. While we need to encourage new people into the hobby is this the best way ?

On a plus note to finish as i see Pets at home have been getting a hard time on the TV (Watchdog)for various incidents mainly aquatic and small animal related but I can say the larger whites frogs and banana tree frogs are looking good as are the various reptiles bearded dragons, chameleon and gecko.

Oh and for the record i dont buy frog here just dry dog food.... but i always have a nose around to see whats there. Anyone else seen darts in their local branch....


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## frogman955 (Feb 7, 2010)

I`ve not been in my local branch for a while but have lost count of the amount of complaints made about these cowboys.
One guy locally got put out of the shop for daring to suggest that they feed their reptiles vit powder by dusting their live food.
They had the powder in a dish expecting the reptiles to go get it themselves.
They should not be allowed to sell live animals if they can`t look after them properly.
Definately a store to be avoided.


Mike


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## AilsaM (May 18, 2011)

I've never noticed my local [email protected] selling frogs, just beardies, cresties and snakes and with the latest bad press I can see why people feel that they should be avoided however, not all [email protected] branches are like this, the one I use I cannot fault them at all - their animals are all kept clean and well maintained, their staff are very friendly and knowledgeable of the animals they are selling and their care requirements, I've never bought animals from them but I do by my supplies for my snakes and spiders from them and the quality of their frozen rodents is good.

Anyway, I don't keep amphibians but I just wanted to point out that not all their stores are bad.


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## Colosseum (Aug 8, 2008)

The local [email protected] here is complete crap and should be shut down, the amount of times I have pointed things out to them and gone back and they have been the same. Grr!


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## mitso (Jan 14, 2010)

ours is the same with amphibs and reps,really dont know but i heard that they were banned in the past from keeping reps,and recently i have noticed them re appearing,i popped in a few mths back and they had some king snakes with notes on that they are not for sale until they have fed for them which i thought was fair enough,they are still there so evidently they are doing something wrong!!.


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## REDDEV1L (Nov 27, 2008)

There's two near me that i've been to.. a few years ago the main one had some firebellied newts... either kept with crabs or mudskippers I can't remember exactly... but I struggled to see any that didn't have toes or even LIMBS missing !!!
Never seen any amphibian since that visit, back when I was just learning about phibs (but do wonder what they did with them all  )
The only thing I go in for is their frozen bloodworm, which is the biggest and best quality i've found, it's not even their brand, but is relatively difficult to get hold of.

Interested to know which store has frogs tho


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## Laguna6 (Feb 23, 2010)

The flagship re vamped Edinburgh store !


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## AilsaM (May 18, 2011)

Laguna6 said:


> The flagship re vamped Edinburgh store !


Never been in the Edinburgh store, it's the Falkirk one I use.


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## Jazzy B Bunny (Jun 21, 2007)

My local one has never had amphibians. They've only just got snakes, so maybe froggies are next....


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

The one I sometimes visit in Sittingbourne only does the standard bearded dragons and crested geckos. I don't buy animals there, but I do sometimes buy live food or bulbs, and the staff I speak to seem to know their stuff- but this seems hugely variable across the chain.


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## Bradleybradleyc (May 7, 2012)

[email protected] are :censor: !!!!

I would rather have a two hour drive to get my live food from somewhere that care for what they are selling, I have never and will never spend a penny at [email protected]


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## ChazzieJo (Jun 14, 2012)

I'm Head of Reptiles at my local store where I work part time and despite this, I don't agree with us selling them. They should be sold only by specialised shops. It's only me and a colleague (who is the other Head of the Dept.) who are passionate about them. In our hands, the reptiles have the best care, all their food is gutloaded and dusted in a rotation of calcium dust and nutrobal, they're given health checks daily, they're cleaned out daily, etc, etc. Basically they're given care equal to the animals we have at home. We only sell Beardies, Cresties, Leopards and King/Corn Snakes at current, as far as I know we're not looking to expand our collection and to be honest, I hope we don't! They are introducing Royals into some stores which I don't neccesarily agree with due to their sometimes difficult natuer (i.e. feeding). I don't claim to be an expert but I certainly know my stuff, and I'm not afraid to tell customers information that PaH may deem "not policy" in order for them to get the best results. We've had nothing but praise for our department and many customers who before knew nothing about reptiles, leave after being given the chance to handle one or two, happy and educated and in some cases, keen to join the hobby! Don't tar all stores with the same brush. Most employees are just following policy, and just because a customer points out something that they don't agree with, if it fits in line with policy (like any company has), there's nothing they can do about it. We have to keep our beardies on sand because it's "policy", whilst some keepers don't see anything wrong with this, I hate using loose substrate with Beardies so therefore I'm currently in a battle with HQ to try to change their views, but because it's "vet recommended", we don't have an awful lot of ammunition against them. Rather than complain on a forum, write in to your local store, pop in and ask to speak to a manager in a civil manner and put your points across with facts. 
: victory:


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## lungz (Dec 30, 2009)

Is pets at home a franchise? If so it would explain a lot about the different techniques used to care for livestock. If not, there are serious problems at hq. In my opinion apart from being able to generate a higher percentage of impulse buys from common pet owners (dogs / cats etc) they're no worse than many (not all) all-around livestock suppliers apart from the well known name. 

They are however quite well priced and handy for equipment and dry foods. Its a shame we can't force them to focus on this and ban livestock. 

They seem to be following the trend of the hobby though. I've thought for many years that amphibians and lizards have been following the way of the aquatic trade as equipment has got increasingly affordable / easily accessible and [email protected] have jumped on the financial bandwagon. 

I admit to being mightily miffed when I learned they had moved into the reptile market the other year.


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## frogman955 (Feb 7, 2010)

Someone posted this link to BBC Watchdog on another forum.
Go to 19 minutes into the program.
BBC iPlayer - Watchdog: Series 30: Episode 2
Judge for yourself.


Mike


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## AilsaM (May 18, 2011)

frogman955 said:


> Someone posted this link to BBC Watchdog on another forum.
> Go to 19 minutes into the program.
> BBC iPlayer - Watchdog: Series 30: Episode 2
> Judge for yourself.
> ...


I watched that also, and while certain [email protected] branches were featured you can't tar ALL their branches with the same brush, some are good, some are not so good and some, as detailed, are just down right shocking, I have no problem with the one I use and I'll keep on buying my supplies from there.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

AilsaM said:


> I watched that also, and while certain [email protected] branches were featured you can't tar ALL their branches with the same brush, some are good, some are not so good and some, as detailed, are just down right shocking, I have no problem with the one I use and I'll keep on buying my supplies from there.


Agreed, plus a lot of that 'secret footage' made me laugh.. Mollies, uhm not small fish. Dead and sick fish in tanks, welcome to aquarium stores. Ooh they went to 8 stores, out of how many 100?

Go on an ISPs forum, you will see a forum full of unhappy customers complaining. Count how many of them there are though out of the ISPs total number of customers, you find it's a tiny percentage. Same stands here.

I use 2 [email protected] stores regularly, with a high degree of trust and satisfaction. These been Stafford and Wolverhapton. [email protected] aren't the problem, a small number of their store managers and staff are. It's the same across most pet related stores. Heck, some stores it's policy to do things wrong, and you can argue with your managers even as staff until you are blue in the face, they'll just argue back that customers want cheap livestock, so corners get cut so prices can be cut. Want to see higher staffing numbers and more high end training for these staff? Be willing to pay a lot more for the livestock you buy, as this is the cost of this.

Pet retail isn't pet hobby. It's a very, uhm, different kettle of fish. Go work in a busy fish room some time, where you have a queue with people waiting 30-45 minutes to get served, see how much time you have to go hunting the tanks for dead fish, even where a policy exists that it should be done every 20 minutes... Then enjoy been faced with sudden entire tank die offs, often caused by a couple of fish dying and fouling the water of the tank with ammonia... Pet retail isn't fun for anybody working in it or trying to make money from it.

Ade


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## Drpeppertom (Sep 19, 2012)

i agree with some of you [email protected] has some decent stores but i would like to share my experiance
1. my family used to have 3 healthy vet checked rabbits my mum bought my little sister another 1 for her birthday and just a few days before our new rabbit had hid appointment our other rabbits started going lethargic and walked into things clearly visable it turned out the new rannit had passed on miximitosis (sp?) and decimated our beloved rabbits (rip coco,jake,nikolai,fudge)

2.my dad took me and my step brother to [email protected] to get a new heatmat for my geckos so me and joe went to look at the fish... 2 male siamese fighters in a tank with 'x large neon tetras' that were oviusly cardinals next tank 5-6 dead platies and in another a tank FULL of desiesed (white spot) clown loaches and silver sharks i told the man and he said 'oh god yeah ill put some medicen in there thanks little boy '(IM NOT LITTLE!)

3.last point i saw the most unhealthy leopard gecko ever its tail was as thin as a cable it had puss on its nose and its bones were deforned (MBD) 


sorry to rant some [email protected] are good but that is not the case with them all........:devil::devil::devil:


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## ChazzieJo (Jun 14, 2012)

Drpeppertom said:


> i agree with some of you [email protected] has some decent stores but i would like to share my experiance
> 1. my family used to have 3 healthy vet checked rabbits my mum bought my little sister another 1 for her birthday and just a few days before our new rabbit had hid appointment our other rabbits started going lethargic and walked into things clearly visable it turned out the new rannit had passed on miximitosis (sp?) and decimated our beloved rabbits (rip coco,jake,nikolai,fudge)


Did you quarantine the new rabbit? I would always suggest people quarantine for a period of time before introducing any animal to one another.

As for the other complaints, it sounds dreadful but again, unless you complain to HQ (as that is obvious negligence on the managers part) nothing will change. 

As a company with 360 stores, there's bound to be some worse than others, but it's our job as public (and mine as an employee) to ensure pet welfare is being reached. 

If I were to visit ANY animal store and felt their standards weren't up to scratch, bordering on cruelty, I would be straight to the council to try to have their licenses revoked. I would be writing to Head Office, petitioning. Unfortuantely people are happy enough to whinge and moan but when it comes to the leg work, they obviously don't care enough.


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## stevemusson (Oct 16, 2010)

I only use them for frozen food for the snakes and frogs. I got a lovely crestie that is doing well from there in July tho


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