Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Report on pet stores that are either doing a great or terrible job of looking after their hermit crabs on display.
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Ginger
Zoea II
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Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Post by Ginger »

I'm going to get straight into this.
Ok, so I went to petbarn to stock up on fish food, and as always, went past the crab section. I think I have mentioned this before, but I will do it again. They have switched to supporting a brand called "Krabooz". After many questions and observations I found out that they provide absolutely no source of humidity, all painted shells, gravel as the substrate, shallow,floppy silicone water bowls, bad commercial crab food, a bare pine climbing frame, dyed wooden huts, small undertank heater. Not only this, but the shells are classified into "tribes" to obviously enhance the marketing.

There was one small crab in an natural shell - the only natural one there, which was on its back, barely tucked into its shell. I asked to see it, and the lady says "sure thing, but I would not recommend getting him as I'm pretty sure he is dead" - straight outright to me! She grabs him out anyway and *drops* him on top of the plastic tank for me to look at, but he was definitely still alive. She then said "I was going to dispose of him this afternoon", so I asked if I could take him off of her hands. "Oh no! Sorry, that's against policy". I then asked if could meet her after hours where I could take him before she dropped him into the bin but again I got the same answer. She then told me that if I really had my heart set on him I could buy him for... $13. I really wanted to give this guy a chance, but I cannot afford to pay that much for a small crab that may die before the day was out. Not joking, she was going to bin him in a few hours while he was still alive. At least with the other healthier and more marketable crabs they would have had a slim chance, but this guy really didn't unless someone experienced came along. >[

This was before proceeding to *churn* through the dry substrate looking for the other poor souls. She grabs a *handful* of them and *drops* them into the water bowl and encourages me to watch them, which I did to see what would happen. They literally took at least a minute to even come out of their shells. She then grabs one and puts it right on the very top of the climbing frame saying its interesting to watch them come out of their shell, but when he fell off the top of the tree I wasn't exactly happy.

This store has made me extremely angry, and I will definitely not be supporting them as much as possible. I cannot do anything about this at the moment due to time commitments, however if you have any suggestions please let me know.
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Wai
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Re: Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Post by Wai »

That is awful. Such people should not be allowed to handle animals.
Wai
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Ginger
Zoea II
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Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 12:19
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Re: Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Post by Ginger »

I completely agree. Thank you Wai.
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appps
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Re: Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Post by appps »

That is awful. I was actually going to post a few weeks back about our pet barn and how good they were. Same setup as yours by the sound of it but they were really good to talk to and quite proud of the fact they had had their crabs since opening about six months ago and hadn't lost any. They are a display to sell the kabootz stuff rather than for sale themselves though I think.

Compared to the unheated, uncovered tank at our other local Petshop they looked good.

It says a lot about the staff or store that they would rather put an animal in the bin than give it to you.
Annette
Carer of 5 Australian Land Hermit Crabs
Fili & Voldemort since 12/07/2011
Turbo since 29/09/2011
Frederickson & Kai 12/02/2012
and our new addition Stripey Ninja 25/10/2014

Our Crab tank setup & Journal -http://crabbycreatures.wordpress.com
Ginger
Zoea II
Zoea II
Posts: 212
Joined: 22 Nov 2014, 12:19
Gender: Female
Hermit crabs: 11
Total gallons: 60
Total tanks: 3

Re: Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Post by Ginger »

That is very surprising appps! Yes, the marketing is over done I think, and yes, it does say a lot about them. I remember when they had a better set up before the Krabooz gear. It was a large (about 40g) glass tank with a UVB light, crushed coral substrate, fresh foods and a muesli mix, two ceramic water bowls, safe driftwood, coconut hides and a mix of natural and painted shells. Still no humidity was present, but it was better than what they have now.
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appps
Zoea III
Zoea III
Posts: 292
Joined: 15 Jul 2011, 13:01
Gender: Female
Hermit crabs: 6
Total gallons: 57
Total tanks: 1
Location: NSW
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Re: Petbarn's Treatment and Care

Post by appps »

Our other store is atrocious (their tank would be about 1-2deg overnight at the moment) that anything looks good lol
Annette
Carer of 5 Australian Land Hermit Crabs
Fili & Voldemort since 12/07/2011
Turbo since 29/09/2011
Frederickson & Kai 12/02/2012
and our new addition Stripey Ninja 25/10/2014

Our Crab tank setup & Journal -http://crabbycreatures.wordpress.com
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