As someone who has worked at Petco, I always appreciated when people would point out care mistakes because I worked hard to try to make sure the animals were being cared for properly.
@@Sockcatgoldpuppet they are though. It's fucked up. I talked to a girl that works at petco and she said corporate will freak out if she swaps out the sand in the leopard gecko enclosure for eco earth and she's tried and it really pisses her off. I couldn't work there. I'd be getting into it with management all of the time. Or I'd try to weasle my way up into store management and keep them on proper substrate just to switch it out when they do their district checks. But they'd likely find out something was off just by seeing the write offs of the different substrates. It makes ZERO sense to me that they can't just write off another bag of eco earth instead of their shitty calci sand. No sense at all. What they are doing is inhumane at best, but really deliberately cruel and animal abuse, it's bad business because they are selling sick animals that will have a low survival rate depending on how long they were exposed to their crap husbandry or in what shape they were coming from the mill, and they perpetuate shitty husbandry by misinforming their customers. Just total shitshow all around.
@@pewpewcat7679 then dont listen to corporate and keep doing maintenance without reporting it. If they fire you go to the news. I'm boutta get a job at petco just to show yall goofballs how to cause a ruckus
@@pewpewcat7679 As a Petco employee, our location does the best we are able to, it's not true that they are forced to use sand. No bearded dragons or leopard geckos are EVER on sand at my location. The planogram allows for us to put them on repticarpet which gets cleaned regularly.
I was at the petsmart by my house and they had a hatchling ball python for sale that was pretty much dying, he was to young to be up for sale and was not being kept correctly. I asked if I could buy him at a discounted rate since he looked like a piece of shriveled bacon and to their credit they did sell him to me at a slightly discounted rate. When I got him home I soaked him in tepid water and dawn animal safe dish soap to get rid of the insane amount of mites he had. He had so many mites I had to do 3 different soaks and he filled the tub with mites it was disgusting and sad. I finally got rid of all of his mites, now I had to heal his skin so he could shed the layers of shed that were stuck to him from being kept with 0 humidity and thousands of mites destroying his skin. After I fixed all of that I had to assist feed him (obviously) because he lost so much blood from the mites that he had no strength to eat. I assist fed him 3 times then he started eating on his own. His skin healed after 3 sheds and he is now a healthy little guy, his name is Norman and he now lives with one of my tattoo clients who knows how to properly care for ball pythons. I couldn't keep him because I breed ball pythons so I already keep a lot of snakes. I treat each of them as my little buddies, just because you are a breeder it doesn't mean you can't still treat your animals as personal pets, I do it.
I work at one of those stores and I put as much effort into making sure the animals there are taken care of as I possibly can. I hate what are essentially small animal and reptile mills. It makes me insanely sad and the only reason I continue to work where I am at because I know I can take care of these animals and want to make sure people are properly educated when they get their animals despite the awful care guides we are supposed to use. My store luckily has some very well educated pet care employees- but I wish we did not sell live animals. If we used them for education purposes only that would be ideal in my opinion.
The messed up thing is though, I spoke with a girl that works at petco and she is into leopard geckos, so I was shocked when I saw them on sand and it just slipped out "why the fuck are they on sand?!" She said that corporate DICTATES what substrate they must be on even though some employees who are knowledgeable will argue it she said "they will throw a shit fit if they come in and see they are on a different substrate" Just makes me sick. They are just awful companies. They knowingly mistreat their animals and then undermine the few good, knowledgeable employees they have that want to make a difference. I'd go crazy working there.
@@pewpewcat7679 trust me I am going crazy and I only am working there one day a week right now after 2 years 🙃 had it not been for COVID messing up my internship I'd be out by now. Might apply for a local pet store in the fall if they do any hiring that has much better care and supply standards.
I used to work at a petsmart in the small animal department. Our pet care manager was wonderful. We took the time and money to care for any sick animals we got. Our store manager hated all of us because we cost him money on caring for the animals. Big surprise he eventually found reasons to get rid of us all one by one. Ten years later and it's much better with a new store manager. The one near my new house is abysmal though. Poor crestie I saw had stuck toe shed.
Same here I’m a brand new breeder of crested geckos and just the fact of the different morphs and and total lovely animal is my objective!! I only have 3 now and it’s a start up for me but I’m sure nothing will happen until next year but I’m in it for the long run!!!!
That’s sad to hear :< I was so lucky that when I bought my little crested gecko Mocha at Petco I found a guy who knew almost anything there was to know. He even offered my dad and I different places we could get the same equipment but for cheaper. I owe it to him for helping me get what I needed for Mocha and for treating these creatures well. He even owned quite a few cresties himself!
I work at a pet store, im very specific on who i sell animals. I treat them like my own. If people arent going to give the animals the best life they can live, i will not sell the animal. I dint hate the mass producing. I appreciate and have much respect for every animal. I do my research as well and i share what i learn to help educate others. Thats why i took this job. I wanna make a difference and show people that animals are not disposable. Thank you for always sharing your knowledge
Yea the PetSmart I got my first crestie from had the temp too high. I asked what they were feeding it and they couldn't truthfully tell me, like they didn't know. So I bought the little one and it is looking so good and happy to finally get the right habit and feeding schedule. It's a juvenile, when it ate for the first time, it attacked the tip of the feeding stick and then it just licked away at the food. It was starving! Thank you for all the helpful info
I work at petco and I work really hard to keep all the reptiles in the rite Habitats I even get a lot of bad reviews because I won’t just sell to anybody
@@Sockcatgoldpuppet I worked at petsmart. Actually we do have a choice. We can turn away any sale if we believe the animal won't be cared for properly. The key to that is knowing the correct information for those animals
Lol, you guys can't even provide proper husbandry for the animals in your care, and it's not like you guys are vetting your rehomes at all, that's laughable. PetSmart and Petco/petsmart is a joke. You keep chameleons in glass tanks . If you had any backbone you wouldn't work in a place like that. Shame on you. Go work for a reputable place. Those companies exploit young, naive people like you so they can keep their shitshow afloat. Go do something better than abusing and neglecting animals for corporate profit.
@@Sockcatgoldpuppet lol ur assumptions are so fun. If u had any backbone at all you'd ask if I still worked there instead of assuming. I haven't worked there in years so. Go off sis. I was just saying when I worked there we had a choice in who we sold animals to lol just because you feel so safe behind ur keyboard doesn't mean you treat people like garbage. Thank the lord the quarantine is slowly being lifted. I think staying inside this long has cause you to lose all social skills.
Yup every time I visit these big chain stores the reptiles are always in not so good conditions. Unfortunately people thinking they rescue the animal if they purchase to give them a better home just gives the animal mills more power to keep producing and selling these animals.
True, but its hard to walk away knowing that poor creature is suffering through no fault of its own. I stay away from chain stores now as i would feel compelled to buy the Geckos to give them a better life and feel guilty walking away and leaving them to their fate. I am lucky to have discovered two specialist Pet Shops staffed by people who actually are reptile enthusiasts themselves.
@@barbantioslash1 It is such a shame because it really would benefit the stores, the customers and especially the reptiles, to give the staff a little training, there is plenty of good information available too.
Last year when I was job searching I applied to a Petsmart and got an interview. In that I was honest about what I wanted to do, and that was be a caretaker in the reptile department because in my area they seemed to have lacked the knowledge on how to house/care for the animals appropriately, and I felt that I could offer help. Over a month went by and heard nothing, then when I was starting a new job I got the call saying that they would like to hire me as the reptile caretaker, and at that time I couldn't just.. abandon this new job. So, maybe later down the road I can take another shot at it
Any decision that effects someone's "Life Path" for the betterment of that person does not need a reason. This must have been a great family dynamic change, I can see that you have your smile back. Proud of you Brian. Keep up the great morphs my friend. Were did you get that green crested gecko on the wall behind you. I must get one.
Like: I’ve just recently bought a tarantula from Petco and the “manager” told me that these “Inverts” only eat “crickets” and their “diets” basically consists of “crickets” I told him that they can also eat, super worms, mealworms, dubia roaches, hornworms and so on. They told me that they only eat crickets, I tried to feed my baby a super worm and she didn’t want to touch it at all. & it gets on my nerves. So that moment on, I’m going to an Repticon Expo and get myself a crested gecko truth be told, I’ve held a crested gecko a Harlequin crested gecko (adult) and I gotta say: those little guys and gals are so gorgeous and so beautiful. I plan on getting myself one the next time I go to an expo
Hey Altitude Exotics my name is Matt, I dont know what you can do but im a military veteran, and recently for my son's birthday I got him a baby crested gecko terrarium and all. Unfortunately we had a fire and the gecko was lost. My son Mason was heartbroken and he did all his research through you. I understand if there is nothing you can do about a replacement but words of encouragement would be great for his morale. I do plan on getting him a new gecko when I can afford it.
That’s awful. I know I’m not Brian but tell your son that he is amazing! I bet he took great care of the gecko and it’s never always your fault when you lose something you love. I know what it’s like... I got my first crested gecko a few years back and I knew what temps and humidity it was supposed to be at but I didn’t know what substrate to use. The lady at petco told me to use something very dangerous to crested geckos (I don’t remember what but I know it was bad now) and my crested gecko died of an impaction and I was heartbroken.. I felt like a terrible owner and to this day wish I had done more research. Now I have two crested geckos and they are very happy and healthy with perfect day and night temps. I hope your family is doing well and god bless you.
The PetSmart near my apartment kept a young crested gecko in a terrarium with several giant sized crickets, almost as big as the lizard itself! How can you expect the lizard to eat the crickets when they're that big? The poor thing was hiding in the corner like it was afraid of them. Evidently they don't realize that crested geckos eat mostly a special food mix and occasional pinhead crickets.
I sell a lot of my animals now, bc my passion isnt to have a lot of cresties my passion is to breed one single line and inprove it to the point its on the top! 😊
I’m going to get a crested gecko and I went to pet smart to see what they had and I realized that they weren’t even in the correct tank! It’s like I wanted to save one from being treated poorly and give it a better home but I don’t want to support that
Ive recently gotten a gecko and have enjoyed your videos they have been super helpful in me keeping them but i got them from a friend who impulse bought them at a petland and they got the gecko in a cricket keeper they were 21grams when i got them so not a baby i was horrified id never kept a lizard before but now ive had them for a little over a month and i love them so much their super pretty and friendly :)
I dont like buying animals from petco or petsmart. But I'll buy formula or other food items. But the staff at my local Petco are AMAZING. They always make sure the reptiles have more than 2 hides,they also have clean water and food each day. there cages are spotcleaned each day for poop and other messes and finally there cages are perfect. For the crested geckos they have a 12x12x18 cage for the babies and when they become adults they'll put them on sale and move them to a different enclosure to keep them from fighting. One of the staff who is a girl loves reptiles and owns them as pets and while I was having a conversation with her,she said she takes as much care for the reptiles at work the exact same as her reptiles at home as if they were her own.
I'm glad my petco has experienced pet owners. Requires people to tell them how they have to care for the reptiles before they're willing to sell them. I always research for up to a week before buying one just learning about them before purchasing what I need for them.
So sad to hear that people think they are disposable. Here I am doing so much research on a gecko I won in December to give him the best enclosure and care when he gets here. (male dark base tri color harlequin- not that that means much to me) Now using the time the cold weather "bought" me to even better the enclosure, which right now is ok, but I want some real plants and a clean up crew in the soil, for which i need a few more supplies and re do the ground level, with the hopes that he will be with me for a long healthy life. To be honest i don't even like looking at animals in stores because i wanna just take all the reptiles and spiders home lol
some petco and petsmart locations are worse than others. my local petco doesn't have too many Leos in there at once (like maybe 3 max) and the baby cresties have quite a bit of floor space with many plants. the Leos also aren't on sand, they're on carpet (still pretty bad). I just haven't seen sick animals in their cages yet and ive seen worse conditions at other petco locations. mine is also newer
I work at Petsmart and I’ve had so many customers trying to buy bearded dragons and other reptiles without the proper equipment to give them a healthy life. Often times when I try to educate them, they question why they would do that when they can buy the shitty bearded dragon starter kit that supposedly has everything needed to take care of them when that’s obviously not the case. I’ve had people tell me to f*** off and demand to see a manager when all I was trying to do was educate people and ensure the animals went to homes where they would be taken care of properly and given a good quality of life. There are many responsible reptile owners that shop at my store, but every time I see a reptile go home to an irresponsible owner, it’s heartbreaking
I have worked at both of the stores and we always took good care of all of critters. We would also make sure what to expect from the animal you have purchased. I was working mostly in the bird area but do know a lot about other critters. I have had a gecko, a bearded dragon several snakes ,birds and many other species. Now I have a frog ,two birds and a creste. They are all my children. And have told new critter owners to stop by or call if they have questions or concerns. Perhaps not all people that work at these stores take the time to help them take good care of their critters as some last many years ..it's a sad shame if people/ employers don't take that time to help them better understand how to properly take care of their animal that they just bought ..my third crested and bought both at petsmart .it's not always the stores fault, but the people that bought them ...remember there is always google !
regarding the disposable mindset; this tends to happen to any pet that is selled cheap or the price for the individual is equal to change they lose in the couch it is a mindset problem
Do you know the usual morphs sold at petco in Missouri around 5 years ago by any chance?😂 I have no clue what my leopard geckos are which sucks. Are they just pet quality ? Or what would you call them. I can’t find anything on their website
My local petsmart has tried to ban me from the store. I have interrupted a teenager giving BAD information about a bearded dragon. Ultimately she adopted from us(i help run a reptile reacue with 2 other people from our herpetological group) we have also tried to hold an educational seminar after hours at the store to educate the staff. Not only petsmart, but pet food center aswell. Not one buisness was interested. Corperate businesses is the problem.
I was at petco which is so much more ghetto here then petsmart and they had crested geckos that were so so small. I couldn't bring myself to buy one. Still waiting for a breeder. They were 69 a piece.
Hey bro , any reason we can’t make black and red tigers ? I feel like there base colors they only get one or the other of ….. imagine black and red tiger …. 🤷🏻♂️🤯
I think there should be a test or something required for store employees to pass so that the stores themselves are allowed to sell live animals. Maybe a course completion required, that way employees can learn what animals need to live
There is, unfortunately it's not the greatest - it's based off of the (outdated) caresheets. I do as much research as I can outside of work to give people the best information possible. My manager doesn't want me denying sales either, but I do regardless because it's corporate policy that we can and are obligated to, and I am Morally obligated to
Don’t know about the Petsmart by me but every time I go Into Petco they’re always cleaning and taking care of the animals so it depends which one you go to and where you live some of the workers care and some really don’t and don’t know how to take care of them
Is there any reptile pet stores in San Jose California? I set up my bioactive vivarium and in 30 days I would love to take care and love a crested gecko. Anyone have any answers, I would greatly appreciate it.
I had to think about it a lot before buying a created gecko 🦎 But I used your exposable argument as an excuse to buy, if it doesn’t work out well It was worth the try not hard to dispose, thankfully it has been a rocky start but looking like he’s a part of the family now. Everyone cares for him. 12x12x18 fully decorated for looking into making it into a terrarium with natural plants and a small ecosystem that revolves around the gecko
The only time I would ever consider buying an animal from petco and petsmart is when the employees actually know what their doing. But that would only be so long as said employees are well employed. Otherwise the only thing I would ever buy is food and other such products.
Those big chain stores don't even care about their employees so what makes people think they would care about the animals they are trying to sell for a profit? We can't expect an employee who makes minimum wage and is trying to survive to know how to care for a menagerie of animals. The pressure needs to be put on the corrupt CEO's who look at only making money.
I live in San Antonio Texas and we have a lot of pet smart and petco i used to work at one and every thing he said is true and i think they can take care of them better but the dont so that's why i look at it as if im rescuing them from a bad home i have 2 veiled chameleons 4 crested geckos and one pacman frog that i got from pet smart and there all healthy that's why I'm for not closing PetSmart or Petco down but get better care for the animals
My crested gecko from petco is so small. She was the size of my thumb last march (2021). I got another crested from a family owned place and she’s fully grown, calm and healthy. I’ve had the petco gecko for almost year and I think there’s something seriously wrong with her. I’ve giving her the breeding and growth mix food for a while and it’s sorta helping. She is scared of everything and my older gecko does NOT bully her. They get along great. I’ve also noticed they haven’t had crested geckos in a while. Like months. Any idea?
Depends on the petco. Sometimes the vendors don’t have them in stock for stores to order, sometimes the ball pythons aren’t selling well and they have to put more of those on the floor instead of ordering more cresties, sometimes corporate decided it’s not in your planogram…. I’d just ask the employees, they will tell you! The CAL specifically
I hate when ppl ask me what kind of reptile i recommend. Not knowing they have kids. How old ect. I wish ppl did more research. I dont know everyones situation. I dont have kids and its the adult that need to do the caring. Poor animals go through hell...
@@AltitudeExotics it's an albino breed of geckos, found them online going for $600 but got mine for just $15. Makes me think he might have some health issues.
Hey i was planning on buying a crested gecko and i want to place the tank in my room but at night my room is cold(thats what i like) and at the morning when i go to school my airconditonar is not turn on and my fan are not on too. Im scared it will be very hot and cold for the gecko and i live at a hot country(normally around 30 degree) any suggestion?i would turn on my fan to keep it cool but i will waste alot of electricity.thanks!
So basicly you prefer to focus on the genetic art of creating new biological pieces instead of focusing on printing clones of basic uncolored canvases to be sold to the small eyed mass
With the standard the FBI and whoever that was you said came to your house to check on how you keep maintain and sell your animals. They should also be going to Petco and PetSmart and make sure they're up to code and standard with their knowledge and care and all that again
I think that petco and petsmart are huge chains and they could afford to hire someone with intelligence and experience in order to care for their animals
This isn’t totally true,,,,, u shouldn’t judge everyone who works there at these places bc I knw the ppl at petsmart on Staten Island they know all their animals straight up they know everything from habitats to diets and to food and to the care of each and every reptile they have. It’s very unfair of u to judge all these stores without knowing all the stores bc I would love to bet haven’t been to the petsmart on Staten Island. They are very very knowledgeable about what they sell n very honest
Thank you. I've received bad reviews and many of hateful and spiteful words/comments bc I refused an animal sale to an individual. Usually I can base whether or not they're capable and be willing to care for the animal. If they act as if it's a possession or decoration and not a pet, I won't do it. Many times people come and try getting a 1 gallon bowl and 6 small comet goldfish bc they're 20 cents at the petco I work at. I straight told her no and explained why and what she'd have to do if she actually wanted those 6 goldfish
I bought a leopard gecko from Petco and when it was in the cage at Petco it was like 60 degrees in it and there was probuly about a pound of poop in the corner and there was like 3 males in a like 8 gallon tank also there was only one hide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I raised crested geckos gargoyle geckos and let me tell you I'm not hard at all and this is the least favorite crested gecko breeder I know in my opinion next Tiki's geckos
They should pass a law that there is a basis of education given to people who sell live animals. Like a liquor license of sorts. People would get worked up if say I were to be put in the appliance section of home depot and wouldn't know the first thing about a washing machine yet it flies that people who can't even pronounce an animal's name correctly are not only "caring" for but selling that animal AND giving out horrible information so that the cycle of suffering continues long after the animal makes it out of that place. It's wrong. I'm not a person that equates animals to humans in a sense that I'll say my gecko is just as much my child as my son is (like some dog people 🙄🥴). But animals need more basic rights that need to be enforced better. Yeah, people like brian barczyk will have a stroke because that would likely entail a ban on breeding spider ball pythons (don't even get me started on that guy...), but while it is ok to make money with animals, ethics *should* always play a major role. I honestly feel like since youtube has become as big as it has with it's pettuber community, herp community, I don't see the necessity to rely on these big chains to open up the world of reptiles to people.
If you think that you know a lot about them and have experience, you could try to save one but they'll likely have a lot of medical problems. The thing is, if you do that you are also supporting PetSmart by buying from them.
He knows what he knows only because you did the book work what would I trust his breeding programs while you have to its left within the gecko not him so third comment you finally got smart and you stopped selling to Petco and PetSmart so now what are they going to do go back to catching them out of the Wild you might have been lending a better service then you think by selling to Petco and PetSmart I guess New Caledonia is prettily far away sure they can't really afford to go out there and catch their own but they're going to get them from somewhere else
Petsmart does not sell dogs and cats. They allow adoption groups to come to their store and try to find these homeless animals their forever homes. The adoption groups set an adoption fee based on the age of the animal
You're still not telling me why you're not selling to Petco and PetSmart I'm 2 minutes in I didn't know it took 20 minutes to tell people why you're not selling to them anymore there a big star company they abused animals and you don't want your animals to be abused there you go have a good day
As someone who has worked at Petco, I always appreciated when people would point out care mistakes because I worked hard to try to make sure the animals were being cared for properly.
That's a lie. You guys can't even keep bearded dragons alive. Keep telling yourself you were "just following orders".
@@Sockcatgoldpuppet they are though. It's fucked up. I talked to a girl that works at petco and she said corporate will freak out if she swaps out the sand in the leopard gecko enclosure for eco earth and she's tried and it really pisses her off. I couldn't work there. I'd be getting into it with management all of the time. Or I'd try to weasle my way up into store management and keep them on proper substrate just to switch it out when they do their district checks. But they'd likely find out something was off just by seeing the write offs of the different substrates.
It makes ZERO sense to me that they can't just write off another bag of eco earth instead of their shitty calci sand. No sense at all.
What they are doing is inhumane at best, but really deliberately cruel and animal abuse, it's bad business because they are selling sick animals that will have a low survival rate depending on how long they were exposed to their crap husbandry or in what shape they were coming from the mill, and they perpetuate shitty husbandry by misinforming their customers. Just total shitshow all around.
@@pewpewcat7679 then dont listen to corporate and keep doing maintenance without reporting it. If they fire you go to the news. I'm boutta get a job at petco just to show yall goofballs how to cause a ruckus
@@pewpewcat7679 As a Petco employee, our location does the best we are able to, it's not true that they are forced to use sand. No bearded dragons or leopard geckos are EVER on sand at my location. The planogram allows for us to put them on repticarpet which gets cleaned regularly.
@@Christywoowoo
Repticarpet harbors bacteria . Not a good substrate. . Better off on paper towels. Just saying
I was at the petsmart by my house and they had a hatchling ball python for sale that was pretty much dying, he was to young to be up for sale and was not being kept correctly. I asked if I could buy him at a discounted rate since he looked like a piece of shriveled bacon and to their credit they did sell him to me at a slightly discounted rate. When I got him home I soaked him in tepid water and dawn animal safe dish soap to get rid of the insane amount of mites he had. He had so many mites I had to do 3 different soaks and he filled the tub with mites it was disgusting and sad. I finally got rid of all of his mites, now I had to heal his skin so he could shed the layers of shed that were stuck to him from being kept with 0 humidity and thousands of mites destroying his skin. After I fixed all of that I had to assist feed him (obviously) because he lost so much blood from the mites that he had no strength to eat. I assist fed him 3 times then he started eating on his own. His skin healed after 3 sheds and he is now a healthy little guy, his name is Norman and he now lives with one of my tattoo clients who knows how to properly care for ball pythons. I couldn't keep him because I breed ball pythons so I already keep a lot of snakes. I treat each of them as my little buddies, just because you are a breeder it doesn't mean you can't still treat your animals as personal pets, I do it.
You saved his life.
If your gonna have a pet store take care of your pets gosh..
Wow 👏
thank you for doing that bro
Bless ur heart
You're a hero
I work at one of those stores and I put as much effort into making sure the animals there are taken care of as I possibly can. I hate what are essentially small animal and reptile mills. It makes me insanely sad and the only reason I continue to work where I am at because I know I can take care of these animals and want to make sure people are properly educated when they get their animals despite the awful care guides we are supposed to use. My store luckily has some very well educated pet care employees- but I wish we did not sell live animals. If we used them for education purposes only that would be ideal in my opinion.
The messed up thing is though, I spoke with a girl that works at petco and she is into leopard geckos, so I was shocked when I saw them on sand and it just slipped out "why the fuck are they on sand?!"
She said that corporate DICTATES what substrate they must be on even though some employees who are knowledgeable will argue it she said "they will throw a shit fit if they come in and see they are on a different substrate"
Just makes me sick. They are just awful companies. They knowingly mistreat their animals and then undermine the few good, knowledgeable employees they have that want to make a difference. I'd go crazy working there.
@@pewpewcat7679 trust me I am going crazy and I only am working there one day a week right now after 2 years 🙃 had it not been for COVID messing up my internship I'd be out by now. Might apply for a local pet store in the fall if they do any hiring that has much better care and supply standards.
I used to work at a petsmart in the small animal department. Our pet care manager was wonderful. We took the time and money to care for any sick animals we got. Our store manager hated all of us because we cost him money on caring for the animals. Big surprise he eventually found reasons to get rid of us all one by one.
Ten years later and it's much better with a new store manager. The one near my new house is abysmal though. Poor crestie I saw had stuck toe shed.
Same here I’m a brand new breeder of crested geckos and just the fact of the different morphs and and total lovely animal is my objective!! I only have 3 now and it’s a start up for me but I’m sure nothing will happen until next year but I’m in it for the long run!!!!
That’s sad to hear :< I was so lucky that when I bought my little crested gecko Mocha at Petco I found a guy who knew almost anything there was to know. He even offered my dad and I different places we could get the same equipment but for cheaper. I owe it to him for helping me get what I needed for Mocha and for treating these creatures well. He even owned quite a few cresties himself!
I work at a pet store, im very specific on who i sell animals. I treat them like my own. If people arent going to give the animals the best life they can live, i will not sell the animal. I dint hate the mass producing. I appreciate and have much respect for every animal. I do my research as well and i share what i learn to help educate others. Thats why i took this job. I wanna make a difference and show people that animals are not disposable. Thank you for always sharing your knowledge
I hate the mass producing**
Great vid but can i know where you got that green crested gecko on the wall under the altitude exotics 😂
Yea the PetSmart I got my first crestie from had the temp too high. I asked what they were feeding it and they couldn't truthfully tell me, like they didn't know. So I bought the little one and it is looking so good and happy to finally get the right habit and feeding schedule. It's a juvenile, when it ate for the first time, it attacked the tip of the feeding stick and then it just licked away at the food. It was starving! Thank you for all the helpful info
Your commitment toward the geckos and staying firm with your decisions for not selling to these stores are admirable. Kudos
🙏🙏
I work at petco and I work really hard to keep all the reptiles in the rite Habitats I even get a lot of bad reviews because I won’t just sell to anybody
That is wonderful to hear Martika. I hope the store appreciates you :0)
Lol you don't have a choice it's corporate
@@Sockcatgoldpuppet I worked at petsmart. Actually we do have a choice. We can turn away any sale if we believe the animal won't be cared for properly. The key to that is knowing the correct information for those animals
Lol, you guys can't even provide proper husbandry for the animals in your care, and it's not like you guys are vetting your rehomes at all, that's laughable. PetSmart and Petco/petsmart is a joke. You keep chameleons in glass tanks . If you had any backbone you wouldn't work in a place like that. Shame on you. Go work for a reputable place.
Those companies exploit young, naive people like you so they can keep their shitshow afloat. Go do something better than abusing and neglecting animals for corporate profit.
@@Sockcatgoldpuppet lol ur assumptions are so fun. If u had any backbone at all you'd ask if I still worked there instead of assuming. I haven't worked there in years so. Go off sis. I was just saying when I worked there we had a choice in who we sold animals to lol just because you feel so safe behind ur keyboard doesn't mean you treat people like garbage. Thank the lord the quarantine is slowly being lifted. I think staying inside this long has cause you to lose all social skills.
Yup every time I visit these big chain stores the reptiles are always in not so good conditions. Unfortunately people thinking they rescue the animal if they purchase to give them a better home just gives the animal mills more power
to keep producing and selling these animals.
True, but its hard to walk away knowing that poor creature is suffering through no fault of its own. I stay away from chain stores now as i would feel compelled to buy the Geckos to give them a better life and feel guilty walking away and leaving them to their fate. I am lucky to have discovered two specialist Pet Shops staffed by people who actually are reptile enthusiasts themselves.
Starby Ray that’s good but it’s hard now a days to actually find Petco or petsmart staff that know what they are doing :/
@@barbantioslash1 It is such a shame because it really would benefit the stores, the customers and especially the reptiles, to give the staff a little training, there is plenty of good information available too.
Ok, so the thing about this is that there are always going to be people who buy from them anyway. Newbies, impulse buyers, etc.
The biggest plus from wholesale is there’s just no way crested geckos go extinct now
Last year when I was job searching I applied to a Petsmart and got an interview. In that I was honest about what I wanted to do, and that was be a caretaker in the reptile department because in my area they seemed to have lacked the knowledge on how to house/care for the animals appropriately, and I felt that I could offer help. Over a month went by and heard nothing, then when I was starting a new job I got the call saying that they would like to hire me as the reptile caretaker, and at that time I couldn't just.. abandon this new job. So, maybe later down the road I can take another shot at it
Any decision that effects someone's "Life Path" for the betterment of that person does not need a reason. This must have been a great family dynamic change, I can see that you have your smile back. Proud of you Brian. Keep up the great morphs my friend. Were did you get that green crested gecko on the wall behind you. I must get one.
Thank you so much!
Like: I’ve just recently bought a tarantula from Petco and the “manager” told me that these “Inverts” only eat “crickets” and their “diets” basically consists of “crickets” I told him that they can also eat, super worms, mealworms, dubia roaches, hornworms and so on. They told me that they only eat crickets, I tried to feed my baby a super worm and she didn’t want to touch it at all. & it gets on my nerves.
So that moment on, I’m going to an Repticon Expo and get myself a crested gecko truth be told, I’ve held a crested gecko a Harlequin crested gecko (adult) and I gotta say: those little guys and gals are so gorgeous and so beautiful. I plan on getting myself one the next time I go to an expo
Hey Altitude Exotics my name is Matt, I dont know what you can do but im a military veteran, and recently for my son's birthday I got him a baby crested gecko terrarium and all. Unfortunately we had a fire and the gecko was lost. My son Mason was heartbroken and he did all his research through you. I understand if there is nothing you can do about a replacement but words of encouragement would be great for his morale. I do plan on getting him a new gecko when I can afford it.
That’s awful. I know I’m not Brian but tell your son that he is amazing! I bet he took great care of the gecko and it’s never always your fault when you lose something you love. I know what it’s like... I got my first crested gecko a few years back and I knew what temps and humidity it was supposed to be at but I didn’t know what substrate to use. The lady at petco told me to use something very dangerous to crested geckos (I don’t remember what but I know it was bad now) and my crested gecko died of an impaction and I was heartbroken.. I felt like a terrible owner and to this day wish I had done more research. Now I have two crested geckos and they are very happy and healthy with perfect day and night temps. I hope your family is doing well and god bless you.
The PetSmart near my apartment kept a young crested gecko in a terrarium with several giant sized crickets, almost as big as the lizard itself! How can you expect the lizard to eat the crickets when they're that big? The poor thing was hiding in the corner like it was afraid of them. Evidently they don't realize that crested geckos eat mostly a special food mix and occasional pinhead crickets.
I sell a lot of my animals now, bc my passion isnt to have a lot of cresties my passion is to breed one single line and inprove it to the point its on the top! 😊
I’m going to get a crested gecko and I went to pet smart to see what they had and I realized that they weren’t even in the correct tank! It’s like I wanted to save one from being treated poorly and give it a better home but I don’t want to support that
Thats the exact situation I'm in and it's even with a crested gecko
Ive recently gotten a gecko and have enjoyed your videos they have been super helpful in me keeping them but i got them from a friend who impulse bought them at a petland and they got the gecko in a cricket keeper they were 21grams when i got them so not a baby i was horrified id never kept a lizard before but now ive had them for a little over a month and i love them so much their super pretty and friendly :)
Aww, thank you so much and great job!
I dont like buying animals from petco or petsmart. But I'll buy formula or other food items. But the staff at my local Petco are AMAZING. They always make sure the reptiles have more than 2 hides,they also have clean water and food each day. there cages are spotcleaned each day for poop and other messes and finally there cages are perfect. For the crested geckos they have a 12x12x18 cage for the babies and when they become adults they'll put them on sale and move them to a different enclosure to keep them from fighting. One of the staff who is a girl loves reptiles and owns them as pets and while I was having a conversation with her,she said she takes as much care for the reptiles at work the exact same as her reptiles at home as if they were her own.
I'm glad my petco has experienced pet owners. Requires people to tell them how they have to care for the reptiles before they're willing to sell them. I always research for up to a week before buying one just learning about them before purchasing what I need for them.
So sad to hear that people think they are disposable. Here I am doing so much research on a gecko I won in December to give him the best enclosure and care when he gets here. (male dark base tri color harlequin- not that that means much to me) Now using the time the cold weather "bought" me to even better the enclosure, which right now is ok, but I want some real plants and a clean up crew in the soil, for which i need a few more supplies and re do the ground level, with the hopes that he will be with me for a long healthy life.
To be honest i don't even like looking at animals in stores because i wanna just take all the reptiles and spiders home lol
some petco and petsmart locations are worse than others. my local petco doesn't have too many Leos in there at once (like maybe 3 max) and the baby cresties have quite a bit of floor space with many plants. the Leos also aren't on sand, they're on carpet (still pretty bad). I just haven't seen sick animals in their cages yet and ive seen worse conditions at other petco locations. mine is also newer
I work at Petsmart and I’ve had so many customers trying to buy bearded dragons and other reptiles without the proper equipment to give them a healthy life. Often times when I try to educate them, they question why they would do that when they can buy the shitty bearded dragon starter kit that supposedly has everything needed to take care of them when that’s obviously not the case. I’ve had people tell me to f*** off and demand to see a manager when all I was trying to do was educate people and ensure the animals went to homes where they would be taken care of properly and given a good quality of life. There are many responsible reptile owners that shop at my store, but every time I see a reptile go home to an irresponsible owner, it’s heartbreaking
I have worked at both of the stores and we always took good care of all of critters. We would also make sure what to expect from the animal you have purchased. I was working mostly in the bird area but do know a lot about other critters. I have had a gecko, a bearded dragon several snakes ,birds and many other species. Now I have a frog ,two birds and a creste. They are all my children. And have told new critter owners to stop by or call if they have questions or concerns. Perhaps not all people that work at these stores take the time to help them take good care of their critters as some last many years ..it's a sad shame if people/ employers don't take that time to help them better understand how to properly take care of their animal that they just bought ..my third crested and bought both at petsmart .it's not always the stores fault, but the people that bought them ...remember there is always google !
regarding the disposable mindset; this tends to happen to any pet that is selled cheap or the price for the individual is equal to change they lose in the couch it is a mindset problem
Do you know the usual morphs sold at petco in Missouri around 5 years ago by any chance?😂 I have no clue what my leopard geckos are which sucks. Are they just pet quality ? Or what would you call them. I can’t find anything on their website
My local petsmart has tried to ban me from the store. I have interrupted a teenager giving BAD information about a bearded dragon. Ultimately she adopted from us(i help run a reptile reacue with 2 other people from our herpetological group) we have also tried to hold an educational seminar after hours at the store to educate the staff. Not only petsmart, but pet food center aswell. Not one buisness was interested. Corperate businesses is the problem.
I was at petco which is so much more ghetto here then petsmart and they had crested geckos that were so so small. I couldn't bring myself to buy one. Still waiting for a breeder. They were 69 a piece.
Thank you for sharing 👍💪💚
Thank you for watching!
Hey bro , any reason we can’t make black and red tigers ? I feel like there base colors they only get one or the other of ….. imagine black and red tiger …. 🤷🏻♂️🤯
Ha imagine an altitude gecko selling for 11 bucks ! Best move you made bro , you wanna stand out , you have to stand alone ! 🙏🏻🇺🇸👌🏻
I almost cried When you said people for lizards away
I think there should be a test or something required for store employees to pass so that the stores themselves are allowed to sell live animals. Maybe a course completion required, that way employees can learn what animals need to live
There is, unfortunately it's not the greatest - it's based off of the (outdated) caresheets. I do as much research as I can outside of work to give people the best information possible. My manager doesn't want me denying sales either, but I do regardless because it's corporate policy that we can and are obligated to, and I am Morally obligated to
Don’t know about the Petsmart by me but every time I go Into Petco they’re always cleaning and taking care of the animals so it depends which one you go to and where you live some of the workers care and some really don’t and don’t know how to take care of them
Is there any reptile pet stores in San Jose California? I set up my bioactive vivarium and in 30 days I would love to take care and love a crested gecko. Anyone have any answers, I would greatly appreciate it.
I was debating of buying my first baby gecko at petsmart.But I was looking for a hatchling or a baby but I was thinking of buying from a breeder
I had to think about it a lot before buying a created gecko 🦎
But I used your exposable argument as an excuse to buy, if it doesn’t work out well It was worth the try not hard to dispose, thankfully it has been a rocky start but looking like he’s a part of the family now. Everyone cares for him. 12x12x18 fully decorated for looking into making it into a terrarium with natural plants and a small ecosystem that revolves around the gecko
Great moral composes;) make the spieces better not faster .making the animals prettier and happier one gecko at a time.
The only time I would ever consider buying an animal from petco and petsmart is when the employees actually know what their doing. But that would only be so long as said employees are well employed. Otherwise the only thing I would ever buy is food and other such products.
I got 5 mourning geckos from a broader 4 days ago
Those big chain stores don't even care about their employees so what makes people think they would care about the animals they are trying to sell for a profit? We can't expect an employee who makes minimum wage and is trying to survive to know how to care for a menagerie of animals. The pressure needs to be put on the corrupt CEO's who look at only making money.
I live in San Antonio Texas and we have a lot of pet smart and petco i used to work at one and every thing he said is true and i think they can take care of them better but the dont so that's why i look at it as if im rescuing them from a bad home i have 2 veiled chameleons 4 crested geckos and one pacman frog that i got from pet smart and there all healthy that's why I'm for not closing PetSmart or Petco down but get better care for the animals
At my local petco I saw the pet mouse cage it had like a dozen and a third were just sitting their dead
My crested gecko from petco is so small. She was the size of my thumb last march (2021). I got another crested from a family owned place and she’s fully grown, calm and healthy. I’ve had the petco gecko for almost year and I think there’s something seriously wrong with her. I’ve giving her the breeding and growth mix food for a while and it’s sorta helping. She is scared of everything and my older gecko does NOT bully her. They get along great. I’ve also noticed they haven’t had crested geckos in a while. Like months. Any idea?
Depends on the petco. Sometimes the vendors don’t have them in stock for stores to order, sometimes the ball pythons aren’t selling well and they have to put more of those on the floor instead of ordering more cresties, sometimes corporate decided it’s not in your planogram…. I’d just ask the employees, they will tell you! The CAL specifically
This video was too good👌
I have your leopard gecko And I didn't know That you shouldn't buy it from pet Smart cause I did
I went into Petco the other day and in their crested gecko cage, the temperature was 90 degrees which IS WAY too hot for cresties smh 🤦
I hate when ppl ask me what kind of reptile i recommend. Not knowing they have kids. How old ect. I wish ppl did more research. I dont know everyones situation. I dont have kids and its the adult that need to do the caring. Poor animals go through hell...
I got a white knight from petsmart, wonder why a breeder would sell such an expensive breed for so cheap?
What is a white knight
@@AltitudeExotics it's an albino breed of geckos, found them online going for $600 but got mine for just $15. Makes me think he might have some health issues.
Wow
Is it still good to buy gecko decor from petsmark and petco? Like the thrive seriese?
Yes! I've done a few reviews on some thrive products now and I've been really impressed.
The 9 dislikes on this video are the petsmart and petco workers 🐶🐈: 👁👄👁
Not really fair to the dislikes are the worker's. But maybe the out of touch managers l.
Hey i was planning on buying a crested gecko and i want to place the tank in my room but at night my room is cold(thats what i like) and at the morning when i go to school my airconditonar is not turn on and my fan are not on too. Im scared it will be very hot and cold for the gecko and i live at a hot country(normally around 30 degree) any suggestion?i would turn on my fan to keep it cool but i will waste alot of electricity.thanks!
what temp at night?
Saw a bunch of ball pythons with mites so sad.
I got my first crested gecko a couple weeks ago but i dont know what genetics it is. How do i find out?? Looks like a flame but i dont know
MARK NATAL look at different UA-cam videos explaining the different morphs
So basicly you prefer to focus on the genetic art of creating new biological pieces instead of focusing on printing clones of basic uncolored canvases to be sold to the small eyed mass
Exactly
With the standard the FBI and whoever that was you said came to your house to check on how you keep maintain and sell your animals. They should also be going to Petco and PetSmart and make sure they're up to code and standard with their knowledge and care and all that again
I see that all the time
Hello you said you sell leopard geckos to individuals how do I go about finding out what you have available and how much they would cost? Thank you
I think that petco and petsmart are huge chains and they could afford to hire someone with intelligence and experience in order to care for their animals
This isn’t totally true,,,,, u shouldn’t judge everyone who works there at these places bc I knw the ppl at petsmart on Staten Island they know all their animals straight up they know everything from habitats to diets and to food and to the care of each and every reptile they have. It’s very unfair of u to judge all these stores without knowing all the stores bc I would love to bet haven’t been to the petsmart on Staten Island. They are very very knowledgeable about what they sell n very honest
One store out of the entire franchise does not invalidate his point.
Thank you. I've received bad reviews and many of hateful and spiteful words/comments bc I refused an animal sale to an individual. Usually I can base whether or not they're capable and be willing to care for the animal. If they act as if it's a possession or decoration and not a pet, I won't do it.
Many times people come and try getting a 1 gallon bowl and 6 small comet goldfish bc they're 20 cents at the petco I work at. I straight told her no and explained why and what she'd have to do if she actually wanted those 6 goldfish
I bought a leopard gecko from Petco and when it was in the cage at Petco it was like 60 degrees in it and there was probuly about a pound of poop in the corner and there was like 3 males in a like 8 gallon tank also there was only one hide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I raised crested geckos gargoyle geckos and let me tell you I'm not hard at all and this is the least favorite crested gecko breeder I know in my opinion next Tiki's geckos
Having a fish or a lizard is like having a dog or a cat or a chicken
They should pass a law that there is a basis of education given to people who sell live animals.
Like a liquor license of sorts. People would get worked up if say I were to be put in the appliance section of home depot and wouldn't know the first thing about a washing machine yet it flies that people who can't even pronounce an animal's name correctly are not only "caring" for but selling that animal AND giving out horrible information so that the cycle of suffering continues long after the animal makes it out of that place.
It's wrong. I'm not a person that equates animals to humans in a sense that I'll say my gecko is just as much my child as my son is (like some dog people 🙄🥴). But animals need more basic rights that need to be enforced better. Yeah, people like brian barczyk will have a stroke because that would likely entail a ban on breeding spider ball pythons (don't even get me started on that guy...), but while it is ok to make money with animals, ethics *should* always play a major role.
I honestly feel like since youtube has become as big as it has with it's pettuber community, herp community, I don't see the necessity to rely on these big chains to open up the world of reptiles to people.
Get started on Brian plz
Lmao ad for petsmart 😂😂😂😂 watched it so they still pay ya 😋😋😋
Haha you're the best!
So I shouldn’t get a gecko from pet smart
If you think that you know a lot about them and have experience, you could try to save one but they'll likely have a lot of medical problems. The thing is, if you do that you are also supporting PetSmart by buying from them.
Petco needs to check on there employees
He knows what he knows only because you did the book work what would I trust his breeding programs while you have to its left within the gecko not him so third comment you finally got smart and you stopped selling to Petco and PetSmart so now what are they going to do go back to catching them out of the Wild you might have been lending a better service then you think by selling to Petco and PetSmart I guess New Caledonia is prettily far away sure they can't really afford to go out there and catch their own but they're going to get them from somewhere else
New Caledonia banned the export of native wildlife in 1996. No geckos have been taken from the islands since then.
I've seen cats and dogs be sold at our Petsmart
Petsmart does not sell dogs and cats. They allow adoption groups to come to their store and try to find these homeless animals their forever homes. The adoption groups set an adoption fee based on the age of the animal
Jesus Loves all of you guys
Yeah, good thing you quit, cause Petco and petsmart take terrible car of their animals.
You're still not telling me why you're not selling to Petco and PetSmart I'm 2 minutes in I didn't know it took 20 minutes to tell people why you're not selling to them anymore there a big star company they abused animals and you don't want your animals to be abused there you go have a good day