Petco Or Petsmart

[dillowpillow]

I've never been to a PetCo, but the Petsmart that I buy fish in is very clean and the employees are very friendly. All of my fish are from petsmart. If something you bought from them dies within two weeks, they will give you a refund, or a replacement.

 

[ChaseTheBetta]

What is wrong with selling pupies?

They get a lot of their dogs from puppy mills and very rarely have a paper trail on their breeding. They also charge an outrageous amount, even more than most reputable breeders. You also don't get to see their parents and siblings for an idea on temperment. I'd never buy a purebred without being able to talk to the breeder.

Puppy mills treat their dogs horribly. They all live in tiny cages and are bred until they can't be bred anymore. Then they are dumped. The puppies are often inbred and have all sorts of medical problems/diseases.

Then, there are all the poor homeless dogs and cats in shelters. There are so many of them, it's so sad. Check out www.petfinder.com I will only get dogs and cats from shelters. It is wonderful to be able to save a life.

Petsmart and Petco do NOT sell dogs or cats. They run adoption events for local humane societies, spca's, and other shelters to bring their animals in and get them exposure to people who might consider adopting them. I'm not sure about Petco, but Petsmart also houses cats from shelters.

 

[stridm]

I live out in the woods, so I have to travel to get to any place. The closest petco to me carries decent fish supplies, but terrible selection of fish, and a staff that doesn't know much. The petco next to my college has a good selection of fish but crappy selection of supplies. Like posted earlier it comes down to the staff on the up keep of the store. My lfs is about 20 miles away, they have a great selection of fish and pond supplies. If i am getting something like a danio or guppie I go to petco, if i want anything else i go to my lfs.

Mike

 

[jess6905]

the petco and petsmarts here by me thankfully dont sell pupies but do have adoption days, and two different shelters have a small section in both of the petsmarts near me. the one closest has cats, dogs, rodents, birds, rabbits, turtles, and ocasionally a ferret or two. while the other two shelters at the other petsmart and petco have mainly cats, but during adoption days at petco they used to bring in fostered dogs for adoption but i dont think they do anymore.

 

[jasonskillz]

both of them suck, its all about the LFS, best selection and service.

 

[gilaesther]

I've recently noticed that Petco has younger fish than Petsmart here. I don't know if that's true everywhee, but it is in the ones here.

 

[Lynda B]

We don't purchase many of our fish at PetsMart or Petco. We get them at the lfs. I purchased 2 adf's at PetsMart and they were both dead within 12 hours. I've purchased female bettas at PetsMart and done well (only one died for no apparent cause). My husband bought his black skirt tetras at Petco and they've done well, although they were definitely older than he would've preferred. I purchased my black phantom tetras there and so far, so good but again, 2 of the 3 are older than I'd like.

Equipment - Petco on-line
Food - both Petco and PetsMart
Decorations - was using PetsMart but now our lfs carries great stuff, so we'll buy them there

 

[silkiechicken]

Since they are across the street from each other, I just go check each out and pick from which place has the best looking fish at the time. Petsmart wont sell live mice for feeders and petco will, so you have to go to petco for some things. Service varies depending on staffing. However, I usually get feeder fish by the dozens, but haven't had one die when not being used as food. Have a few that I kept just because who are a few years old and 8 inches or longer.

I agree with the 18+ idea... Back when I was in school, I'd see kids buy fish and then just toss them when they were "done" with it.

 

[loachman]

It completely depends on who is working at the stores. If they have decent people who know something about fish, they're generally not too bad. However, if they don't it's better not to look

 

[Tobigara]

i have 2 world class lfs's within an hour drive. luckily one is near my family's house and the other is near my job. i buy pretty much all my fish from them. however i buy everything else at petsmart or petco. petsmart is first choice tho

 

[bordercollie05]

Well, here in peoria I think petsmart is much cleaner and carries healthier fish than petco. I think it depends a lot on the store though, even though they are chains, they all have different managers. In champaign we don't have a petco, so I go to petsmart a lot. However sailfin, the LFS in champaign is awesome and much better than any chain. Peoria doesn't have a great LFS in my opinion, but there's a good one in pekin....45 minutes from me though, so I've only been there once.

 

[Rhykiru]

for me, i find things at petsmart cheaper than at petco. But petco seems to have a lot more variety of things than petsmart. I see plants and decor that i never see at petsmart at petco...