PetSmart - Seattle

Shop Address: 13000 Aurora Avenue North
 
Reviewed By: Chrissy
Overall: Very Good
 
Times Visited: More Than Ten Visits
Freshwater Selection: Good
Saltwater Selection: No Saltwater Section
Stock Selection: Good
Staff: Good
Prices: Very Good
 
Comments: I used to live just down the street from this store and now that I've moved farther away, I still visit it often. It is clean, the fish and plants are healthy, and Petsmart prices tend to be a little bit cheaper than other places.
 
The staff at this store doesn't seem to rotate quite as often as most chain stores but there is still always someone new here. Their fish are consistantly nice and the people, although they might not always know much, are always reasonably friendly.
 
As far as selection goes, they carry about the same stuff as other Petsmarts. Nothing is too out of the ordinary but I've always been able to buy good quality fish here. Their female Bettas are particuarly nice, they get fancy females on a fairly regular basis and they keep their cups clean. I have yet to find anything but VT males at any Petsmart but the VTs they have at the store are nice looking and vibrant.
 
This Petsmart usually has a little bit better selection of plants for some reason. It is the only Petsmart I've seen get in Water Lettuce (which I have bought there and has since grown and multiplied) and their normal aquatic plants are healthy looking and have taken off well in my tanks. They do occasionally sell plants that are not true aquatic plants like Mondo grass so be careful.
 
This store also adopts out cats and dogs and provides grooming services. I would strongly suggest you avoid the attached Banefield Vet Clinic. After I had first bought my dog I took him there for a check up and some shots. They did some skin scrapings and told me he had a genetic flaw which caused him to contract mange, a skin parasite. They suggested I return him to the breeder and inform her she should not breed that pair of dogs again. I could not imagine giving up my puppy but the services they quoted me to take care of his mange were more than I would have been able to afford. He needed roughly $700 in treatment in lotions, dips, and other medications and they told me I would not be able to interact with my dog for several days after each dip. They said this treatment would need to be continued every few months for the rest of his life.
 
After some quick internet searching I decided I needed a second opinion before engaging in such drastic treatment. I took him to a trusted vet that my family had previously used. They preformed the same skin scrapings and determined that he did have mange. However, that vet said it was normal for puppies with their weak immune system to have an occasional flare up of mange and that 99% of puppies with mange can fight it off themselves. He suggested I do nothing and see if my puppy would recover on his own. In less than two weeks his hair started to regrow and skin scrapings determined that he had fought off the parasites on his own. He is now over three years old and has not ever had any problems with mange again.
 
To think I could have given him back to the breeder (and who knows what she would have done with him) or subjected him to toxic chemicals and periods of no human interaction his whole life if I would have followed their advice is incredibly upseting. Although the two companies are affiliated, I don't hold this against that Petsmart location.

I agree. I am never going to Banfield again. When I brought my cat in, it took 2 hours just for 2 shots and a check over by the vet. She wasn't sick. I understand that they are a bit cheaper than other vets, but they could let you know when you call that the catch is that you have to take the entire afternoon off from work in order to have your pet seen there. When I complained, several times to the the staff that I think they are under the impression that my time is not important and that I have nowhere else to be right now, I just got rude comments in return that confirmed that they really don't care. I think they purposely plan to make customers wait becuase, as they suggest, they hope you will SHOP more! during that time. Jerks.