fucking_hilarious

As someone who also works in Pet Care, how do you deal with individuals who claim that goldfish and tropical fish can go together? It is one of our biggest problems currently and its frustrating. The most our managers will currently let us do is to deny the return policy.

Can confirm. We had a veiled chameleon that we just couldn't sell and so we moved it to the biggest available space. We were worried we might have to adopt her out (since she was already 40% off) so we could get her into a proper habitat. Luckily a couple came and bought her and all the perfect enclosure items.

Can't speak for OP but I also hold the position at my store. Pet Care Specialist is just a normal position in the store. I applied for the job on the website, got trained as a cashier and told the store I was interested. I was then trained in Pet Care. I just graduated college and this is my first "real" job outside of student teaching and work study.

PetSmart requires you to be 18 to apply but other than that, there wasn't much required.

My store has turtles. We do not keep any turtles in back and as far as I know, its not really a thing. Sometimes if we have an injured pet returned (usually from dumb people), we keep them isolated in the back. These are usually hamsters and their cages have everything they need to live happy lives until we can adopt them out. I've never had a turtle in back. If we got one back, we would probably designate one of the tanks in front for it individually (which is what we do when one doesn't want to eat).

Also (at least at my store), we are not allowed to take rescues. We will not accept animals to care for unless it is one of our own animals within the return period. Otherwise, we suggest they check out the local humane societies. Many times it is due to the fact that rescue animals need special care we cannot give or are full grown and we do not have the appropriate enclosure for it.

Our animals in "back" are usually newly arrived birds and small animals (and sometimes customer returns). Reptiles go straight to the floor after being warmed up.

That being said, my store has a Chinese Water in back right now because he had an injury after attempting to eat his bedding and messing up his mouth. He is all better now but his front enclosure has a snake in it (because we had to move the chameleon to a bigger cage). He is up for adoption (free) though because he will only be hand fed. He refused to feed himself after his lip injury. He is still a baby (only 5 inches long) and in a 20 gallon set up with heat lights and a big waterbowl/dish.

We can deny pet sales but for fish we have to have a good reason. Some of our managers don't understand the issue and will tell us to sell the fish (when the customer demands to see them). However, we can always say there will be no refunds. For the nonfish pets, its easier as the managers just go with what we say.

Dwarf Gourami are great. I love to suggest them for people looking for a large fish in a small tank. They just look so much bigger because of how wide they are.