PetCo Sucks!!!

In San Angelo, TX , where i am currently stationed, there is a PetCo where they have no clue how to take care of bearded dragons. Though the funny thing is, they think they do. Here's the thing: they have a group of about 5 bd babies that they've had for about 6 weeks now. All but one look like they are on their death bed, and that one is the only one that has show any amount of growth. And guess what is the only thing they feed them.......medium sized mealworms!!! These bd's are all bout 6 inches long. All they do is lay there in the sand without the energy to even open their eyes. So I tell one of the managers that what the bearded dragons are being fed is not only harmful, but also extremely lacking in nutrition. And her reply is that contrary to what i think, mealworms are the best feeders for bearded dragons. After a short exchange of who's right-who's wrong, I left with nothing accomplished. So in summary: PetCo Sucks!!!

There isn't anything wrong with feeding mealworms to beardies and they aren't lacking in nutritional value. However, a dragon of that size shouldn't be eating them for sure. Pet stores in general lack in the education to care for specific breeds of animals and they do not want to subtract from their profit in order for someone to learn and give the proper care.

Originally Posted by Matt Haines

Pet stores in general lack in the education to care for specific breeds of animals and they do not want to subtract from their profit in order for someone to learn and give the proper care.

The funny thing is that someone learning about, and giving proper care to the animals will only add to their profits. All they have to do to realize that is consider the following: lower in-shop mortality = less money lost per order and more animals available for sale. Then, once they factor in that customer satisfaction (which comes from getting healthy animals AND the correct husbandry information to keep them that way) will generate further profit due to repeat sales and larger customer base (word of mouth is still a HUGE advertising media...esp if it is about a bad experience), it should be a no- brainer

well the thing is, medium sized mealworms is all they feed them. also the worms are way too big for the beardies.

As long as there are uneducated consumer's to purchase their sickly animals the education wouldn't have a positive affect on their financials. It would however boost their reputation. But generally people who know about the reptile in question are going to buy from a breeder for the higher quality.

What I see very often in these stores is the lack of heat needed for the beardies. They figure that there is enough heat for a milksnakes, than the beardies should be fine. Then to add a new animal they started selling sand boas, which also do not have the needed heat. But hey, they give free caresheets to read at your animals funeral.

Welcome to reality. Consider this.......PETA attacked Petco for selling mice as feeders (snakes eat mice in the wild, they would gladly try to save a snake in the wild I'm sure or stop destruction of it's habitat) but says nothing about them killing everything that comes through the door. Petco used to sell feeder mice for around $1, fancy mice for $2.50 or so. Now they are all mixed together and cost $2 regardless. If you do the math and realize that mice as pets are bought once a year and mice as food are being bought weekly you'll realize that the profit has gone up a ton with the added price for feeders. The average sale price per mouse has probably jumped from around $1.10-1.25 to $2. I think we got hustled.

but they still have to keep them alive long enough to sell them

Originally Posted by hhmoore

but they still have to keep them alive long enough to sell them

The one around me doesn't seem to have as many in stock at a time now, that seems to help. The feeder tub used to have a solid layer of them and sometimes so many they were on top of each other. Now it's only a dozen or so per cage.

I was talking about the reptiles, lol. but I have seen that, and it is pretty disgusting