Pet stores aren't as dumb as they seem.

[Hermie's rule]

Believe it or not, once I called up a petstore and asked what kinds of hermies they sold, and they said we sell Purple Pinchers. And I'm like do you have any other kinds? They said, no, but we can special order some strawberry hermit crabs for you.

[CrabbyJo]

So it's definitely worth a shot to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[emmac350]

I agree that not all pet stores are horrid places for our favorite pets! There is one in town that I like that has a decent setup, and especially since I kept hinting that it still needed work a while ago. When I first started going there, the tank had two empty shells, a grape vine climbing loop with dirty-looking sand like an inch deep, a water bowl, and a food bowl.

Now, it's sand and EE that's at least 3 or 4 inches deep and has lots of fake plants, still only one water and food bowl with pellets, but a bunch of shells (some painted, some not) and I couldn't see hermies just looking in through the glass (I didn't ask about it) which meant that they were hiding somewhere...possibly dug in to molt...or they didn't have any at the moment. This pet store is a good one, though - they have parrots whose cages are open so they can climb out and on top, and the same thing with their iguana cage. They have a bunch of "not for sale" pets there that are actually workers' personal pets, like huge boa snakes and Pacman frogs and such. I love it there...even though stuff is a bit more expensive, it beats a half hour drive to the next pet store.

[CrabbyJo]

Yep, and I'll gladly pay a little more at a pet store where I feel they care well for their animals. Especially if it saves driving time lol. But I'll also drive out of my way if possible for the same reason.

[pookie_spike09]

i wish my petsmart is like that... their terrible when it comes to hermit crabs!!

[HermieLove19]

The Petsmart closest to my house is disgusting. There is another one about 15 minutes away but i've never been in it. I'll have to scope out that store. The last time I went to the dirty petsmart it was against my will and they had no water in the hermies water dish. There way food in the food dish so there must have been a crab or two in there some place. It makes me so sad

[Hermie's rule]

My petsmart is wonderful with their animals. I made it a point to compliment them well on their good animal care and the happy looking animals and they said that's what they love to hear. The hermies were eating lettuce for supper along with some carrot and other stuff (it was all fresh!) and all the hermies were climbing everywhere and a lot were in the food bowl eating. They had a pretty bridge set up with climbing stuff in the tat. There was a mini waterfall going in the tat and there was tons of humidity. There was some gravel rocks in the bottom of the tat and the tat looked so spiffy and impressive.

My mom never likes petstores but she loved this one!

[pookie_spike09]

wow thats good!! the petsmart that i have doesn't keep a shell spot 4 them and they have only a sponge that looks as if there is only3 drops of water in it!!! !!! when the lady picked one up the crabs body was almost all the way out of the shell:'( so.. sad:'(
*tear**sniff**sniff*

[ilovehermitcrabs!]

when i went 2 my petsmart the temp was down by about 10 degrees and the humidity was olny around 50 i cant belive the way they treat the smaller animals there

[pookie_spike09]

i no
it is terrible