Ellensburg Pet Center — Local services in Ellensburg

Really wish I could give more stars. I went there twice while staying in Ellensburg. First time was great! I was impressed with the quality of foods, great local raw options, but the staff was pretty inattentive. I only bought a couple items my first trip there, but decided to go back again to buy more stuff to bring home since I'm from out of town and wanted to support this local business. So this 2nd time My wife and I noticed they had birds over to the side, so we went to look at them. After maybe 5 seconds, I noticed a toy hanging from the top of the cage that was snagged on a piece of wood. I lightly slid the toy from the top, not putting my finger IN the cage and was promptly yelled at (yes, yelled) from across the store "DON'T SCARE THE BIRDS!!". Needless to say, that was wildly unnecessary, considering the birds were calm and I had done absolutely nothing to scare them. I was about to ask the associate what I had done wrong, not to be rude or argue, but to see if maybe I had done something I was not even aware of. I wanted to learn from this experience. Unfortunately when I responded with "oh, I wasn't trying to scare them at all, I'm sorry, can I ask what I did?" She rolled her eyes and ignored me, then walked away... So, my wife and I put our items back where we found them and decided our business was clearly not wanted or appreciated at this establishment and walked out. I work as a pet nutrition specialist, I own a Dog Training business and a non-profit that helps get all different types of animals transported, fostered, fixed, medical, etc. I have worked in privately owned pet shops and dedicated years of my life to educating myself about animals, including birds. I had hoped to potentially get in contact with the owners of this business to see if they would be interested in getting involved with adoption events or food drives sometime. I always try to expand my network to nearby areas. However, if this is the type of employee they are okay with having around their customers and animals, and consider this an acceptable interaction, Im forced to question the integrity of the entire business. Maybe this is just an isolated incident with 1 employee, but as a 30 year old adult, with more experience than most, to be yelled at by this teen-early 20s person like I'm a child...that's just insulting. I hope that employee learns to treat people more respectfully and REALLY hope she doesn't treat the animals with that...

I feel like this is so unnecessary to have to say, I can't believe people who have ran a petstore for God knows how long in this ramshackle town still don't know how to properly take care of FISH. One of the most abused animals in the pet trade and they are willingly subjecting who knows how many fish to horrible care by just giving them out for free for some downtown event. If they truly gave even the tiniest sliver of a damn about their animals this would not have even been an idea that crossed their minds let alone actually be something they regularly do yearly. So sad to see happening in MY town and so sad to see so many people blindly participating.

Very disappointed with the quality of everything that comes out of this store. I use to purchase frozen rodents from this establishment for my snakes but every time I fed them anything from this store they would regurgitate them. The rodent care is NOT up to the standards it should be for pet consumption. My animals refused food multiple times when it had to do with this store, my ball python specifically lost multiple pounds from the stress of regurgitation and refusing food in general. Live feeding is unsafe and was never an option for my pets so I was forced to take my business elsewhere 45 minutes outside of town. After living in town for the last 2 going on 3 years I have not seen much if any improvement to the treatment of the rest of the animals, it always hurt my heart when I would go in there for cat litter to see how depressed the reptiles clearly were. No reptiles should be subjected to inaccurate heating and humidity. It was honestly always surprising to see that their lizards didn't have metabolic bone disease. I think the only saving grace for these animals was them either dying young before it could set in or they sold quickly enough that they could hopefully recover outside of these individuals poor and inexcusable care.

Take your business elsewhere save your money and your own animals health. If I could leave zero stars, it would be greatly EARNED by these...

Where do I start… With this being the nearly only place in Ellensburg to get fish it is unfortunate that care seems aloof and their staff are often dismissive or disinterested. Nearly every fish (except for one), that I have gotten from here has died far too soon to be acceptable. I have had tropical fish and aquarium setups for more than 10 years and have never had fish die so quickly. I have purchased the same species of fish from other pet stores that have lived over 2 years. The same species being purchased here and multiple dying within 48 hours to a week is devastating. Many other businesses guarantee their fish from 2 weeks to 30 days with receipt and water sample. A window of 48 hours is so unfortunate especially given the amount of fish that I have seen sitting dead in their tanks. A good handful of the workers seem unenthused to be there and handle the critters (especially fish) with such a lack of compassion. This most recent time getting fish from here the fish died within the 48 hours and a replacement fish was issued but the lack of care during this replacement was disappointing to say the least. While waiting for the water sample to be tested I noticed multiple fish and other aquatic animals who had died and were still sitting in the tanks here. When the water sample we brought in was finally approved the person working was looking for the same fish to replace our deceased fish and when we selected one of the fish we were told “that ones face is all deformed” and told “it probably has health issues so I wouldn’t get that one”. Then the fish was put in the bag and shaken about while getting the rubber bands on and there was barely any air in the bag. Supporting small businesses is essential and I wish this could be on my list of businesses to support but not with the lack of care for the critters, the disinterest and disregard of the staff, and the amount of fish that have died from here with tests being well within the healthy range...