Petco — Local services in Federal Way

this is a very late review, but DO NOT GET HAMSTERS FROM HERE. MY HAMSTER WAS INFECTED WITH MITES FROM THIS STORE AND DID NOT HAVE ANY SHOTS. the particular strain of mites he had are microscopic until they feed and reach maturity, which takes a few months. i noticed the mites almost 2 months in, and the mites positively came from this store as they feed on small animals to live and not humans. THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO GET RID OF, and my other hamster (who had no mites or sign of infestation as i had had her for a year) was infected. i could not get rid of my little angels eventually DIED from thousands of mites smaller than a pinprick infesting their cages. i mourn my hamsters every day because of the hell they were in that i could not relieve them from no matter how many deep chemical cleanings their cages went through or shots at the vet.

backstory: i picked up a lovely male short hair syrian a couple years ago, and it was the most unpleasant pet store experience i've ever had. i told the female manager (the only person in the store at the time) that i was thinking about breeding my hamsters and i had all of the supplies for it. i was totally confident in my endeavor. she was very rude to me, as she had been before i divulged this, and took my hamster in his box from me and wrote "NO RETURNS" on it and laughed at me saying she "doesn't want me to return him when i bring him back crying that he's injured because i was stupid". she was unbelievably rude the entire time.

i brought him home and less than 2 months later 9discovered the tiniest barely-visible bugs crawling on him, and thought nothing of it, cleaned him lightly and moved on. this continued and before i knew it, the population grew to be likely hundreds of thousands. they bite humans so i knew when i had one on me. because of their size you cannot eradicate them all. there were shots at the vet and cleaning solutions and hamster shampoos i bought and nothing worked. archie would scratch at himself non-stop and died around a year after the first mites were discovered, covered in them. lily, my old girl, was kept separate from him but a family member handled them too close in proximity and they spread to her, and she had the same fate as they infested her cage. i was delivering a eulogy with a gloved hand and thousands of them were crawling over me. it was unbelievable how many of them there were. they spread like wildfire. i had to give up, as every time i cleaned their cages they would spread to other parts of the house (luckily they need a host to survive) and i could not do anything but spot clean.

below is archie, where his mites are visible. every little speck is a mite, and those are only the ones visible on the surface of his fur. there are many more mites that are visible. picture 1 is when he's wet (was trying to brush as many out to give him relief) and picture 2 is when he's dry. you can also see where he's been bitten more.

please do not get hamsters from here. do not give them your business. i came here often for supplies and they are very unpleasant to work with generally. they are comically rude and unprofessional. they also house hamsters in the same enclosure, even when they're obviously stressed out. there are always dead fish in the tanks and they're lackadaisical about handling it if you let them know. i could go on, but there is so much wrong with this facility that i'm upset they still have any business.

this was a waking nightmare for my hamsters and i. i have no doubt that others have experienced this. please go to an ethical breeder and shut unhealthy hamster farms like this down, thank you. rest in peace,...

Went in today to make a return and buy a bunch of other supplies for my zoo we call a house. My wife and daughter went to get the stuff we needed while I made the return. When we walked in the store, the cashier "Angelica" was leaning across the counter with her hands supporting her head. When I walked up to the counter, she did not bother standing up, or even acknowledge I had walked up to the counter. I told her that I needed to make a return..... Now a big exhale and the questions : what's wrong with it? and "I don't suppose you have a receipt? Wow.. Really? I responded there is nothing wrong with it. Well why are you returning it then?..... Now..... We have all heard it's not what they said, it's the way they said it. I don't know how to convey just how snotty the tone was, let's just say it took me back a bit. I just looked at my wife with a confused, am I really experiencing the kind of horrible customer service???? I simply told her we found another cage that suited us better. Now keep I'm mind, this was a birthday gift for my daughter that wanted a small animal for a pet, it had not even been opened. Angelica proceeded the rest of the transaction without saying a word, except when she scolded me for swiping the credit card I used instead of inserting it because it had a chip. Needless to say, we decided not to buy anything else that day and just abandoned the cart we already had filled with other pet supplies. It is just amazing to me that employees don't even try to win customers over, it just seems that they don't care. Oh well, petsmart is less than a block away and the customer service associates do seem like they want to help, or at least they know it really is the customer that signs their paycheck. To be completely honest, I usually do shop at petsmart, but I this instance, I decided to give petco a shot. I see now, that...

I’m still in tears after losing a brand new member of our family. Went in to buy dog food on Sunday and do my usual looking at cute pets, what I found was a mouse cage covered in blood, on the back grate, all over the side, all on the front glass and one curled up, scared little mouse that was clearly being torn apart. Upon making management aware I got the strong feeling they didn’t care much and wouldn’t help him so I took him (they sold him at a discount due to his injuries) and drove him immediately to our nearest exotic pet vet, he started a course of antibiotics but sadly passed yesterday afternoon, I know it’s just a mouse but I’m still emotionally not alright.

I’m glad he was so happy his last couple days, glad I was able to show him love and compassion. However, I will say I am absolutely disgusted with everything that happened in that store, the carelessness of the manager that Sunday July 6th, 2025 at around 1-2pm (older lady with brown/dirty blonde hair), even more disgusted after the vet told me it’s IMPOSSIBLE the mouse “had been alright in the morning” as per their medical knowledge, the mouse had been like this for atleast a few days. I have worked at PETCO, I have had the pleasure of having managers that RUN injured pets (including mice) to the vet, RUN, not walk, even when we were understaffed, because the pets well being and lives are not negotiable, it should be 1st priority at all times no matter what, and if that’s something you can assure as PETCO, then maybe you shouldn’t have a million stores open when you clearly don’t have enough staff for them all. Leaving animals to bleed and suffer o death in the same store that “guarantee all lives pets will be healthy” is disgusting,...