r/petco

Petco has recently started selling PAC-MAN frogs as desk top pets. Please sign the change petition AND COMMENT ON THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA

https://www.change.org/p/petco-small-animal-care-and-safety

I personally have the common sense to see why no animal should be easily accessible to the public. I witness children and adults mistreat animals, and it is apart of my job to educate and prevent misinformation from turning into abuse.

This is why it’s incredibly frustrating to see an “animal and wellness company” approve gimmicky ideas like desk pets I understand that desk pets have been tested with your vendors and CA merchants. But did you try it at my store? Did you test it across the states? Did anyone consider what actually happens in stores every day? Animals being tapped on, shaken, stressed, mishandled, or stolen by the public?

Why would you expect us to practice subpar animal care while your pacman care guide from March 2015 states that you should provide,

• Size - appropriate size habitat to accommodate Pac-Man Frog with normal behavior and exercise.

• Habitat - provide a hiding area. Maintain less than 70% humidity by misting as needed every day.

• Substrate - provide a deep substrate, such as commercial mulch, bark chips, large gravel, sphagnum moss, or sterile potting soil.

• Temperature - maintain an overall range of
68-80°F; use an under-tank heater at all times.

• Lighting - UVB rays | with full spectrum lighting for
10-12 hours a day is required; low level UVB lighting

How is that tiny critter keeper adequate size for normal behavior and exercise? There is no hiding area provided. One inch of substrate is not deep substrate. No heat is provided. No UVB is provided. No humidity or temperature gauges are provided. Employees are essentially expected to “hope for the best.”

Why would we go backwards in animal care from what Petco recommends from 2015?

To add on your Pacman Frog Care: Tank Setup, Diet, & Beginner's Guide Published on July 18th, 2024, Updated on October 22nd, 2025 states

• Humidity: Maintain humidity at 70–80% by misting substrate as needed every day. Substrate should be damp but not wet. Excess humidity can lead to skin infections, and deficient humidity can lead to dehydration and dormancy 

• Lighting: Low-level UVB lighting is recommended for 10–12 hours a day, and because horned frogs are nocturnal, you may provide a low wattage nocturnal bulb for nighttime viewing, too. Be sure to provide hiding places to allow frogs to hide from light, as needed 

• Water: Provide a shallow, open bowl of filtered water (do not use distilled or tap water), surrounded by plants (such as pothos) that help make a soaking frog less stressed, for frogs to drink from and sit in 

How are employees supposed to maintain adequate humidity with 1 inch of substrate plus the moss the frog was shipped in. The moss is the size of a quarter, if you’ve received pac man frogs you know.

How are these animals supposed to hide from the overhead store lights? The slightly opaque lid is not enrichment or security. And why is a frog or spider being sold as a “desk pet” not even provided with a water bowl????

Not to mention the reality that many stores regularly experience AC or PEST problems. Anyone who has worked in retail stores knows these issues happen.

In a proper setup, the animal has the choice to move between hiding spots, areas of higher humidity, and closer or farther from a heat source in order to regulate itself naturally. In these desk pet containers, they no longer have the option.

I understand the pac man frogs were selected for their “unique requirements.” But the truth is it’s because they are hardy enough to survive poor conditions longer than people expect. Survival should not be the standard for animal care. “Alive” is not the same thing as healthy and thriving. The bare minimum is not okay.

Has anyone thought about what happens on an actual desk?

What about cleaning chemicals? Heat from computers and consoles? Constant vibrations? Lights staying on late at night? Noise? Stress? Are people realistically going to fit proper 10–20 gallon enclosures on their desks after buying these animals?

The whole concept is built on impulsive purchases over proper husbandry.

Most importantly who approved this? Petco’s animal care and education team. Chief veterinarian Dr Shelly Ferris please I ask you WHY? You have dedicated a career to equine and small animal medicine, what about these tarantulas and pac-man frogs? Director of animal care, education and compliance how could you look at this and approve it? What actual testing was done?

Petco’s own animal care and education team approved setups consisting of
One inch of substrate plus the moss provided in shipping
Tiny, publicly accessible containers
No heating
No UVB
No water bowl
No hiding space
No temperature or humidity gauges

If these containers are left on the sales floor there will be theft, stress and preventable deaths.

I am proud to see that many stores are refusing to put this on the sales floor, and to provide more care than we were instructed to give.

I only used Petco’s own care guides here as examples. Experienced pac man owners already know there are far more reputable and up-to-date husbandry resources available.

I didn’t even go deeply into the tarantulas and jumping spiders, because experienced keepers can successfully keep some in smaller enclosures. But animals are not decoration pieces for office desks, and living animals should never be reduced to marketing gimmicks. Hello five below CEO Joel Anderson !!

Advocating for proper animal welfare is part of responsible animal care. If something feels wrong, employees should feel comfortable asking why these standards suddenly changed and whether they truly benefit the animals involved.

TL;DR Petco wants us to provide less than adequate care for a marketing gimmick called desk pets. If set to planogram, it will be easily accessible to the public. Preventable deaths will happen if these frogs and tarantulas are on the sales floor. I hope Petco will answer to why the company is going backwards in animal care!!!

Came to pick up my snake a rat and saw this abomination. I thought the betta fish were bad but at least they had water! These babies had ZERO humidity. I can’t explain how irritated I am at this constant idea that these animals aren’t pets but decorations, that no matter the species it does cost an arm and a leg to take care of the effectively (set up, enrichment, vet visits, food etc) and is not just something you plop down and forget about. As i was taking the picture a worker came up to me and said “oh the last $20 one just got snatched you should get the $40 one!” brother what. you just saw me looking and immediately are gonna sell it to me.

unrelated but similar story I went in there a long time ago asking for information on parakeets and they kept trying to sell me a canary. i kept saying im not interested in a canary but parakeets and they wouldn’t stop with the damn canary (the $600 bird rather than $40). it’s just so obviously sad all they care for is money for a company that claims to care about animals.

Absolutely abysmal

We had our first desk Pet Death, our Suriname Horned Pacman didn't make it through the night, he's not been eating since he came in and I've been trying my best but it's just another thing for corp to see why this shit is awful.

On a positive side note, my manager let me set this up yesterday to help as much as we can to regulate their temps, it's not much but it's better than the jack shit happening for them right now.

EDIT: The bulbs I used were only 50 Watt and the only reason I used reds is because I wasn't sure if my store let us use the ceramic bulbs just because all of them have reds even though I would not use them personally and I've never seen us use a different one. The only reason there are two as well was to allow for a better distribution of the heat rather than only being in the middle

What’s the most random collection of items you’ve brought home from work? Lol I am doing laundry and just emptied all my jeans pockets

When we were told to put pacman frogs in micro habs, i thought this s as dumb as petco can get...now we're keeping them in something smaller than our critters keepers on a display on the sales floor so they're easy to steal and seling them as desktop pets despite them needing 20 gallon within a year?!

I see why we stopped saying "animals always come first"

Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

Employee options

1. You can email your DM and your ACOM with your concerns. Their emails can also receive emails from non-petco emails if you are afraid of using your petco email, or if you don’t have a manager email that can actually send out emails. Don’t give their emails out though.

2. GIVE THEM WATER. Put a water dish in there, if you are concerned about putting a ceramic dish or something someone could steal that you need in there you can use the cups the frogs came in, the plastic cups for the sampling events, or you can buy small plastic sauce cups at a grocery store

3. Print out the Pac Man frog care sheet and the arboreal tarantula care sheet and keep those with the display. Highlight on the pac man frog care sheet where it says 10 gallon minimum, 20 gallon minimum for adult, uvb light needed, heating for mid to high 70s needed, and small water dish needed. Same for the tarantulas.

Customer and Employee options

4. There is the petition someone made that you can sign I don’t have the link right now but I’m sure someone will post it in the comments.

5. Leave reviews mentioning the concerns as a customer. Petco HATES getting low reviews it’s like the only thing they respond to. You can also call petco customer services to submit a complaint.

6. Submit a complaint to your state or local humane society. If petco is sure that this is humane treatment of animals then having complaints submitted to the humane societies shouldn’t scare them right? The biggest thing here in my opinion to mention is the lack of temperature regulation and no water dish.

7. Go to the cabinet with all of the licenses in it, this is usually in the front or by the bathrooms, they should look something like the example on the last slide, you should see bird dealer, kennel, etc it will be a little different for every state. On that license either at the top or the bottom it will say the department which approved it, for most states this is going to be the department of agriculture. Submit a complaint to whoever approves the licenses, most department of agriculture websites have a form on them you can fill out to submit a complaint online, but most will not let you submit them anonymously. If you are afraid to have your name on it see if a friend, partner, or family member will be willing to be the contact for that.

You are not powerless to do something about it. Make your voice heard.