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I thought that we could OBJECTIVELY review pet stores in each of our areas. I have spent so much time in various stores around here, that I would love to help out people, esp. before I move to a new place (with new stores to review). I'd say keep any reviews short and simply, ultimately with a Pro/Con recommendation.


Pet Store Name:
Location:
Recommended:

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:
Turtle Supplies:
Reptile Area in General:
Fish Area in General:
Other Animals in General:
Pet Supplies in General:

Additional Comments:

Pet Store Name: PetSmart Glenmont
Location: Glenmont, NY
Recommended: PRO!

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4.5
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 5
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: 5
Pet Supplies in General: 4.5

Additional Comments: The managers and staff are incredible and helpful. They take excellent care of their store.
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Pet Store Name: PetSmart Crossgates Commons
Location: Crossgates Commons, Albany, NY
Recommended: PRO

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 4
Fish Area in General: 4
Other Animals in General: 5
Pet Supplies in General: 4

Additional Comments: This store is well set up and very clean.
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Pet Store Name: PetSmart Latham
Location: Latham Farms, Latham, NY
Recommended: CON

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 2
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 3
Fish Area in General: 2.5
Other Animals in General: 3
Pet Supplies in General: 4

Additional Comments: This store is fine if you need basic supplies, but they are always out of what you need, like filter supplies. The fish don't look the greatest either.
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Pet Store Name: PetCo Clifton Park
Location: Clifton Park, NY
Recommended: PRO

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 5
Turtle Supplies: 5
Reptile Area in General: 5
Fish Area in General: 4.5
Other Animals in General: 4.5
Pet Supplies in General: 4

Additional Comments: When I first walked into this store, I was greeted by the "reptile expert" who was eager to help me find the pieces I needed for my turtle tank. The reptile and fish section are amazing.
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Pet Store Name: PetCo Wolf Rd
Location: Wolf Rd, Albany, NY
Recommended: CON

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 1
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 1
Fish Area in General: 1
Other Animals in General: 1
Pet Supplies in General: 3

Additional Comments: This is probably one of the worst stores, they have nothing, not even enough cat supplies, and the store is cramped and nasty.
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Pet Store Name: Eddie's Aquarium Centre
Location: Route 9, Latham/Cohoes, NY
Recommended: PRO

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4
Turtle Supplies: 2
Reptile Area in General: N/A
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: N/A
Pet Supplies in General: 3

Additional Comments: This is pretty much just a fish store, but it has a lot of great looking fish! They also sell large tanks for typical prices.
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Pet Store Name: The Healthy Pet Center
Location: Route 4, East Greenbush, NY
Recommended: PRO

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: N/A
Turtle Supplies: 3
Reptile Area in General: N/A
Fish Area in General: N/A
Other Animals in General: N/A
Pet Supplies in General: 4.5

Additional Comments: I know, doesn't look like much by the rating. But this store sells holistic, good quality cat and dog food. They have animals there, but they are all rescues as far as I can tell. So sometimes they have turtles (which are kept in a nice big tank with water and basking area) and sometimes other animals as well.
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Pet Store Name: PetCo Cabela's
Location: The Highland's Shopping Plaza, Wheeling, WV
Recommended: PRO

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 5
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 5
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: 5
Pet Supplies in General: 4

Additional Comments: Although a very new store, it is well setup, well stocked, and well kept.

Pet Store Name: Petsmart
Location: Clovis, Ca. (Herndon St.)
Recommended: Con

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 1.5
Turtle Supplies: 2
Reptile Area in General: 2.5
Fish Area in General: 3
Other Animals in General: 4
Pet Supplies in General: 4

Additional Comments: Customer service is terrible. Ask for help and no one shows up. Not much turtle stuff and tank choices are very small. I only go for turtle pellets if im in the area. (Good if you have cats or dogs though....lol.)
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Pet Store Name: Petco
Location: Fresno, Ca. (Blackstone St.)
Recommended: Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 1.5
Turtle Supplies: 3
Reptile Area in General: 3
Fish Area in General: 3
Other Animals in General: 3.5
Pet Supplies in General: 3.5

Additional Comments: Slightly better than Petsmart in the turtle/reptile area so it barley got a pro rating. Good choices for water heaters. Very small choices for tanks though.
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Pet Store Name: Whitey's
Location: Fresno, Ca. (Blackstone St.)
Recommended: Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4.75
Turtle Supplies: 3.75
Reptile Area in General: 4
Fish Area in General: 4.5
Other Animals in General: 3
Pet Supplies in General: 3

Additional Comments: Customer service is good. Huge supply of tanks! Good amount of turtle supplies. And i think if you talk to the manager you can get better deals (On large purchases like tank/filter combos). Fish area is huge also!

This is a good idea, we should have one for online stores. I've been asked before to add links to the startup checklist, however I do not want to make it seem like I am endorsing any site.

Pet Store Name: Trop Aquarium
Location: Watsonville, CA
Recommended: Pro!

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:4.5
Turtle Supplies:4.5
Reptile Area in General:5
Fish Area in General:5++
Other Animals in General:5
Pet Supplies in General:5

Additional Comments:
My local fish store, it's fantastic. The turtle tank has gravel, but everything else is top of the line and the tank is somewhere around 125-150gallons.
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Pet Store Name:Trop Aquarium
Location:Santa Cruz, CA
Recommended:Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:4
Turtle Supplies:4
Reptile Area in General:4.5
Fish Area in General:4.5
Other Animals in General:4.5
Pet Supplies in General:4.5

Additional Comments:
It's a nice store, just some of the tanks aren't pristine and the layout is bad.
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Pet Store Name: Petsmart
Location:Santa Cruz, CA
Recommended:Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:1.5
Turtle Supplies:3
Reptile Area in General:4
Fish Area in General:4
Other Animals in General:4
Pet Supplies in General:4

Additional Comments:
It's an alright store. The turtle tank sucks.

Pet Store Name: Scales N' Tales
Location: Burbank, California
Recommended: PRO!

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4
Turtle Supplies: 5
Reptile Area in General: 5
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: N/A
Pet Supplies in General: N/A

Additional Comments: Vahe, the owner is a great guy, this place is great for all your reptile and fish needs. Have rare snakes and a 4ft. long shark for sale(and yes, it's in good care, a 300 G tank)

Pet Store Name: Scott's Pet Shop
Location: Westchester, IL http://www.scottspetshop.com/
Recommended: Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 4
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: 4
Pet Supplies in General: 4

Additional Comments: I've been going to this pet store for at least 15 years. The workers are EXTREMELY knowledgeable. They have a certified reptile specialist named Jim so you can ask for him. They also sell the frozen aquatic turtle diet which is sometimes hard to find. Great selection here...especially on fish and aquariums. I also purchased amazing looking anarcharis here for the same price they sell it at petco.

Pet Store Name: Petsmart
Location: Burnsville, Minnesota
Recommended: absolutely not.

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 2
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 2
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: 3.5
Pet Supplies in General: 5

comments: their turtle tank has about an inch and a half of water with tiny rocks at the bottom with a cheap filter floating around the middle. no area for larger turtles to get out of the water.

and the staff and managers are extremely rude.
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Pet Store Name: Petco
Location: Apple Valley, Minnesota
Recommended: Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 4.5
Turtle Supplies: 5
Reptile Area in General: 4
Fish Area in General: 3.5
Other Animals in General: 4
Pet Supplies in General: 5

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Pet Store Name: Leaping Lizards
Location: Burnsville, Minnesota
Recommended: yes for anything other than aquatic turtles.

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 1
Turtle Supplies: 5
Reptile Area in General: 5
Fish Area in General: no fish
Other Animals in General: 5
Pet Supplies in General: 5

comments:
they keep two at least 9 inch female RES in a 20 gallon tank with tiny rocks are no basking area.

they have many books and supplies that are helpful to any turtle or reptile owner in general.

Pet Store Name: PetSupermarket
Location: Jacksonville Beach
Recommended: Pro

Rating (1-5) 5
Turtle Tank: none
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General: 4
Fish Area in General: 5
Other Animals in General: 4
Pet Supplies in General: 5

Additional Comments:
I've known the manager there since I was five years old. Workers are helpful and fish are always healthy. No turtles for sale (which I think is a good thing).


Pet Store Name: BlazinReptiles
Location:Jacksonville
Recommended:No

Rating (1-5) 3
Turtle Tank: 4
Turtle Supplies: 4
Reptile Area in General:5
Fish Area in General:none
Other Animals in General:3
Pet Supplies in General:4

Additional Comments:
Store owners are rude and don't want to help you. Always smells terrible when you walk in. small tank on checkout counter with dozens of assorted hatchlings. As well as a large pond with sliders.

Please don’t get me started on the chain pet stores! The qualification for working at some of these stores is that you must be breathing and you must know where the bathroom is. In past years I cannot tell you how much crap that comes out of some of these stores that the new turtle owner believes. In most cases they do have a clue and on the other hand they don’t care. When you try and pen them down on temps, filtration, amount of water and size of tanks they don’t have a clue. If the store has a 10 gallon tank, that if what they try and sell. What they are absolutely sure of is, where the time clock is and where the restroom is. m.

Pet Store Name: Petco
Location: Boston Post Rd., CT
Recommended: Relatively good, all things considered.

Rating (1-5) 4
Turtle Tank: They don't seem to have anything larger than thirty gallons most of the time. Walmart has bigger tanks than them.
Turtle Supplies: Their supplies are much, much better. Good variety. (You can still get reptomin at walmart though)
Reptile Area in General: Everything is healthy except for the ball pythons. Last time I was their they all looked like they had some sort of skin problems, were too many in the tank and the lighting sucked.
Fish Area in General: Very commercially clean and bright and all healthy looking.
Other Animals in General: Their birds are beautiful looking last time I went there. The furry critters very widely as far as health, personality and looks go. You can see which ones are gonna be bought quick, and which ones will be ignored.
Pet Supplies in General: Huge variety and overall very good and useful.

Pet Store Name: AZ Pet & Pond
Location: Birdsboro, PA 19508
Recommended: Yes

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:?
Heres pic.

Turtle Supplies:5
Reptile Area in General:? As of right now 0 there looking for someone to run reptile area and last was a 5 so I will say it will be a 5 again
Fish Area in General:5
Other Animals in General:5
Pet Supplies in General:5
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Pet Store Name: Zimmers pets
Location: Boyertown, PA
Recommended: No


Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 10 gallon
Turtle Supplies:4
Reptile Area in General: 1
Fish Area in General: 1
Other Animals in General: 3
Pet Supplies in General: 3

This place is horriable, there turtle are all but dead, same goes for fish. i told them they had a dead turtle in with a another one, he told me its was just sleeping. I called him an idiot and told him to look a tank. yep it was dead and other had RI and bad case of shell rot like most of there turtles.

Pet Store Name: Austin Aquatics
Location: Austin, Minnesota
Recommended: NO

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank: 2
Turtle Supplies: 3
Reptile Area in General: 4
Fish Area in General: 2
Other Animals in General: 2
Pet Supplies in General: 3


This is probably the worst place i have ever been to.
There are like 30 turtles in one 20 gallon tank.
The fish's tanks are so gross and small, i feel really bad for them.
The guy has a lot of good supplies, he just doesnt use any of them for care of his animals there.

Pet Store Name: Petsmart
Location:Logan, Ut
Recommended: I'm on the fence

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:1
Turtle Supplies:4
Reptile Area in General:3
Fish Area in General:3
Other Animals in General:5
Pet Supplies in General:5

Additional Comments:The turtle tank was like 10 gallons had like 10 little RES swimming around, the water was nasty, had gravel in the bottom... yeah, it was really bad, and there was no really place for the turtles to get out, and definately no swimming room, I felt so bad for the little RES that were there! They had a pair of sick golden Greek Tortoises that weren't lookin so hot either, and were being fed LOTS of carrots instead of more leafy greens. Thier water dish was deplorable. The rest of the reptiles looked fine. They had an excellent selection of tanks and reptile supplies, but I would NEVER buy a turtle from them! I bought some guppies from them and one them had an infection and had to be uethanized, they had a lot of dead fish in thier tanks.
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Pet Store Name: PetCo
Location:Bountiful, UT
Recommended:Pro

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:5
Turtle Supplies:3.5
Reptile Area in General:4
Fish Area in General:5
Other Animals in General:5
Pet Supplies in General:4.5

Additional Comments: The turtle tank was excellent. It was a very large tank with some very cute healthy looking RES that looked very happy. I wanted to buy one! but I don't have room for another RES. They had no gravel, and they had an excellent filter system running. The fish tanks looked healthy as can be. The other reptiles looked very healthy as well. I would definately buy from them. They had a good selection of turtle supplies but they were sporatically placed through out the store (totally confused me)

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Pet Store Name: The Aquarium store http://www.fishaquarium.com/
Location: Sandy Ut
Recommended: PRO!

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:5
Turtle Supplies:5
Reptile Area in General:5
Fish Area in General:5
Other Animals in General:
Pet Supplies in General:5

Additional Comments: This store is the most amazing store. They have an entire section a whole wall devoted to reptiles. Their turtle tank was awesome, and the turtles looked very well kept. I think my next turtle, if i get another RES or a tortoise, is going to come from them. They also have the most AMAZING fish selection. They have tanks galore, and if you can't find the tank or set up you are looking for, chances are they can either get it or make it relatively cheaply. I just can't say enough about the condition of all the animals there! They had unique set ups for small reptiles, they had all sorts of tanks to choose from. it was so incredible.

Pet Store Name: Pet and Ponds
Location:Woodstock/Canton, GA
Recommended: not any more

Rating (1-5)
Turtle Tank:0
was way to small and had tiny gravel, and there was a dead turtle in the bottom of the tank, they also had another larger tank full of Carolina diamondbacks, of which there were also dead turtles on the bottom of the tank.

Turtle Supplies:2.5
not a very good selection

Reptile Area in General:1.5
animals very poorly cared for.

Fish Area in General:3
the only decent looking part of the store
Other Animals in General:3
Pet Supplies in General:2.5

i was really sad when i went here, cause they first opened it looked to be a promising store. i even bought my pacman there, but this store has gone to [----] and i will never spend a penny there agian.