I have been to the Morse road store a few times, twice to pick up crickets for our bearded dragon that we purchased there in early July. Had I been on this fourm a week ago and read the bad stories I would have said I didn't believe them.
Since then, our bearded dragon has been diagnosed with MBD. We followed the store's instructions and used what they gave us, having been told they would provide everything we need for proper care of our new pet. Our baby dragon had been doing wonderful, until Saturday morning when he wouldn't even lift his head. I checked into it and found a vet that will handle reptiles and has experience with them. They kept our little guy for 3 nights giving him calcium injections and treating him. We brought him home (still very weak) yesterday, giving him supplements and hand feeding him with a syringe.
Because he came from who I assumed was a reputible breeder of reptiles, I contacted Terry by email, just to let him know what had happened and to see if it was his employee that had told us wrong care instructions. This is our email correspondence to date:
The major problem that you are having is a common one, talking to anyone but us about your bearded dragons care. Stay off the internet( I would fire an employee for surfing the net for care information) and do not take advice from anyone but us.
- Sand is the proper substrate. Beardeds live on sandy soil in the wild, they would have gone extinct in the wild a long time ago if sand was an issue. Grains of sand are non- absorbant and easily passed when ingested.
- Never turn your lights off. They must be on twenty- four/seven, especially for a young bearded. Your animals body temp will be within three degrees of surrounding temp. when you turn your lights off you are crashing his metabolism, immune system, etc.. Unless you live in Southern California or South Florida and don't use an air conditioning turning your lights off for any length of time, on a daily basis, is guaranteed to kill a young bearded.
- Reptical is mega- dosed with vitamin A. Vitamin A is toxic to reptiles in large quantities. You have been giving your animal poison in addition to suppressing his immune system. Most reptile vitamins on the market will kill any reptile that they are fed to. We do not sell reptical.
If you stick to only listening to and buying your supplies from us you would never have had a problem. When you take information from others you are experimenting with your animals life, most experiments fail. We have already done the experimenting and we are conveying to you the results.
Terry
On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 7:43 AM, Jessica Rich <
[email protected]> wrote:
My biggest issue contacting the store would have been that if we talked to the same person a second time and were told we were doing everything correctly still, what would that have done for us? When we thought he had an injured leg, our last thought was to call the store we bought him at.
To answer your questions:
What size aquarium are you using? 29 gallon, long aquarium, which we have also been told upon purchase from your store would be sufficient for him as an adult.
What is your substrate? sand, bought in your store. Though we're being told by everything else we read that isn't good for a baby dragon to be on.
How long are you leaving your lights on? 10.5 hours a day.
How are you watering your bearded? Using a dripper, bought in your store, also misting him. He will drink from the water dish, but also drinks well when water is dripped or misted directly onto him.
Where are you buying your crickets? From you, in boxes of 500.
What vitamin are you using? Reptical
Did you buy vitamins when you bought the bearded? When we were given everything else we needed for our new bearded dragon, we were not given vitamins. I can't remember being told about needing them. Maybe we were? But since everything we needed was put together for us I would say we were told nothing about vitamins.
Was my employee male or female and what color hair did they have? Old or young?
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Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:03:15 -0400
Subject: Re: [Email Us] Baby Bearded Dragon
From:
[email protected]
To:
[email protected]
I wish that when you first starting to experience dificulty that you had contacted the store. Nine times out of ten wheen you start having problems it is due to set up issues. In addition, never ever go near a vet with a reptile. Most people believe that DVM stands for doctor of veterinary medicine, it actually stands for dumb, very moronic when it comes to reptiles. Ask your vet to show you their reptile medicine certification. Their are twenty-six vets schools in this country and not one single school offers one single course in reptile medicine to undergraduates. Your vet is unqualified to treat a rabbit. A DVM touching a reptile and charging you amounts to malpractice. You would have gotten more reliable information by driving through Wendy's or McDonalds and asking the drive through worker to treat your animal. In 2012, I plan to sue a DVM in the state of Ohio for malpractice for charging a fee to "treat" a reptile. Usually the patient leaves the clinic in far worse condition than when it went in. As long as peopple are willing to freely give their money to someone without a degree these scam artists will continue to fleece their clients. Please show your DVM my e-mail.
I have been breeding bearded dragons since 1994. I have produced thousands of babies and if a customer loses a baby it is due to that customer not being giiven adequate information or the customer did not follow instructions. I need to know the following to help you and if you had called earlier you could have saved your animal and four hundred dollars.
What size aquarium are you using?
What is your substrate?
How long are you leaving your lights on?
How are you watering your bearded?
Where are you buying your crickets?
What vitamin are you using?
Did you buy vitamins when you bought the bearded?
Was my employee male or female and what color hair did they have? Old or young?
-Our crickets are fed Kale, Collards, Dandelions and Mustards which are high in calcium. But, we know that you where not buying your crickets from us. Our crickets are already gut loaded. If you are using the proper vitamins and hydrating your crickets with potatoes your beaded will have sufficient calcium. Many stores are feeding and hydrating their crickets with a jello looking substance which is toxic. If your store has been feeding their crickets that diet you have been giving your bearded poisonous crickets.
- The second leading cause of death in young beardeds is feeding them anything other than 1/4 inch crickets. No vegetables, mealworms, etc. until they can eat large crickets.
- A good screw in reptile basking bulb has sufficient wide spectrum light to raise and breed beardeds. Not one single breeder that I have ever dealt with uses a wide spectrum florescent tube. I'll take your money if you want to buy one. I have them hanging on my wall but I do not push items on my customers that will not benefit their animals.
I have numerous clutches of bearded dragon eggs in my incubators that either I produced or my customers produced. My customers that are producing beardeds buy everything from me, especially their food and they never go near veterinarians.
If an employee does not convey the correct information to a customer and an animal dies the value of that animal comes out of their pay, If they do it twice, I fire them.
Please excuse any spelling errors, its late and I am tired.