Lost faith in all pet stores

I've never been a huge fan of pet stores that sell animals - especially those with puppies (puppy mills ). After getting into leos, I've learned the horrors of the large chains. But, I held out faith for the specialised stores.

When I was living in the Arlington area, there were TONS of really nice store that specialised in herps. Here in Chicago, there is only one anywhere close to me - and I have now lost my respect for them.

We went in today so I could pick up some cleaning supplies (will get online from now on!), and to browse the animals (which are usually very nice). I was horrified. Eric told me they had a lot of leos, so i naturally go straight there. They had about 20 juvies/sub-adults (all 30 - 40g) in a 20 long. There were males TOGETHER in there fighting. 75% looked as if they had crypto and were in various stages of malnourishment/dying. One was having a HORRIBLE shed - only had about 10% off and was too tired to get off the rest. The only ones that looked healthy ALL had TURNIP TAILS!!!!

We continued to look around and saw malnourished Beardies, Blue-tongued skinks, and more. There was a (trying to think of name.....we called them "Jesus lizards" in Panama because they can run across water when young) lizard in a 20g (long) along with 3 sub-adult water dragons, and had the most horrible mouth rot I've ever seen.

I will never buy from them again! These were suppose to be the specialists - the good guys! And to think, I nearly had these guys watch my collection while I was away!!

Shanti...unfortunaelty that is no surprise. One of my favorite reptile stores, a friend of mine owns, is not one I would buy from now. He always had great looking reptiles until he started to sell puppies. He turned his attenton away from the reptiles and they are now suffering. He used to be really good and knew the personality every reptile he had in his store, now he does not. He started off with just two kennels for dogs and he has increased that number to about eight. The last time I went into his store all the snakes were in their water bowls and they were on the skinny side. I took two of his snakes which he told me upfront they were sick and regurgitating, he just did not want to deal with them. Unfortunate, but it happens.

Man that sucks! Sorry you had to see all of that horror esp from a store you had some faith in.

We only have 2 family run stores here and a petsmart and the 2 small family run stores are small and take very good care of the herps and their prices are high as well, but worth it for the good care they give them. I bought Cody a couple of those little green frogs but they order all of my supplies that are easier for them to get a good price on than I can get onlien plus shipping.

On a side note, Ive only been to the petsmart twice now and had a fit both times arguing with the manager so I finally reported them to animal control.

Yeah there is a "specialist" herp store here in Columbus that I won't even walk through the doorway. Sick and half dead animals, filthy conditions (that includes the store also, it stinks to high heaven!) and piss poor customer service.

I know I'm tired of seeing too young juvie leos that are near death skeletons, and that's in at least two "major" pet stores branches.

I know the feeling, we have a small family run pet store in the town that we live in also. Snakes and lizzards are in to small and dirty cages. African spurred torts and Bearded dragons housed together with one very small heat light. And there fish are not that much better. I would not go there at all if it was not to hot to have crickets shipped to me in the summer here.

I agree that a lot of petstores are sickening. There are only two near me that have really good conditions. They take very good care of their herps, and their other animals as well. And they both advise against buying the animals they have that are not well. Those two stores have my faith. One of which i got both of my leos from. They are both chubby little gluttons.

However there is one store near me i find frightening. Most, if not all of their animals are in poor condition. The store stinks to high heaven and i find it repulsive. Not only that but they sell certain pets there i would never advise to even keep captive, unless you were a professional. I find it disgusting and i haven't been there for more than two years now. Hopefully i never have to go back if I'm in a bind for feeders.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune of seeing such horrors. I feel your pain. These horrible establishments should be put of business.

The same one that sponsors Tinley Park NARBC ?

Well that USED to be the best in Illinois since "Arachnocentric" closed .

Bought a "Rainbow" Panther Chameleon from them 10 or 12 years ago, they were a nice shop then .

I have seen my share of pet-store horrors. But, since I moved to a small town outside of Dallas there is really only one Pet Store near me to go "Browse". They had 9 or 10 Collard Lizards in what seemed to be a 10-gallon tank. They had 2 juvi-leopard geckos in the same cage as a Rainbow Rock Lizard (or something to that affect. That's what PetCo calls them). None of them had water bowls. There were feces all over the cages. She had 4 cages with chihuahua mixes in them. One was so ill that it's stomach was actually convulsing. You could see the muscles ripple up and down it's abdomen. She had tons of birds. All of which seemed to be self-mutilating (I'm not a bird guy -- lol). They were plucking out their own feathers. She had a large wall of fish that seemed to be the healthiest animals in the store!

Shanti,

I know how you feel and I don't like it either. There's a regular pet shop (also sells puppies from mills) by my house - I always go in to check out their reptiles and to see if there were any changes. The regular pet store would have their lizards separated by species (thank God), but they'll be smashed together in a 5 gallon tank with one small hide and some of them don't even have lights on them that NEED them (UV lights for beardies, frilleds, torts, etc.). I never buy anything from them .

There's also a reptile specialty store by me... I had a good experience with the employees and I'm happy with the tort I bought from there... But, my problem was that not only were the torts mixed with another species of torts, there were several iguanas (big enough to rest on my forearm) also inside the enclosure. I felt bad for them and I was also kinda nervous that the iguanas would tail whip the employee that was trying to help me... they almost got him There were tons of fruit and veggies that had gone bad on the plate and there were flies all over it...

I guess there are a lot of pet stores out like this and it's terrible that some really good animals are living under these conditions

Originally Posted by groovygeckos

The same one that sponsors Tinley Park NARBC ?

Well that USED to be the best in Illinois since "Arachnocentric" closed .

Bought a "Rainbow" Panther Chameleon from them 10 or 12 years ago, they were a nice shop then .

You hit the nail on the head..that's the place I'm talking about!