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Beware of reptile depot W.C. trash

B

bosman

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Just need to vent, Went to the show in chicago this week and purchased several reptiles to include a pre-made tank setup with the doors that open in the front with plants, rocks and a pump driven water system. Great setup, proceded to my mistake of the day and purchased 2 red eye tree frogs from reptile depot. Brought them home aclamated them to there new home the next day they ate and semmed happy in there new surrounding. Monday morning rolled around and I awoke to a dead frog in the bottom of the cage, went to work and wrote R/D about there frogs and 20 min later recieved an email that read the following........Wow that is odd we use the same setup for ours.. The mgmt crew is on its way back from Chicago today. Will be sure this e-mail is addressed upon their return.

Sincerely,

Reptile Depot
www.reptiledepot.com

Tuesday morning woke up to another dead red eye, I call the store that day and was told I would get a returncall from mgmt, which I did went to my VM from steve determining factor was my cage setupthat caused the red eyes to expire. thats wierd theres must be all expired to because they use the same setup as indicated in there resonding email. Any way spoke to steve today and again my setup is what caused the red eyes to expire he would send me 2 more frogs if I covered the frieght, which I think if he wasn't selling wild caught trash at a premium price, I woldn't have $150.00 empty setup sitting at home. All I'm saying is, its not the shipping cost that the issue here its the intergrity the red eyes were 70, the tank was 150 and the three snake were 7500 so in conclusion of this vent I need to say if you are going to sell wild caught animals have the intergrity to back it up
 
What is the TOS, the guarentee, if any, provided by Reptile Depot to you on these frogs?

Did you buy them knowing they were wild caught?

thanks in advance
 
I did not ask, what your opinion do you think the cage could of been a contributing factor
 
I have heard "city water" can be bad, chlorine etc..
We do not sell amphibians, but I know some who do, and often there is no guarantee at all because they are so fragile. Good luck.
 
Do you know the PH and ammonia levels present in the water they had? What were the temps? It's unlikely that it was the cage, but I couldn't say for certain.

What is their standard guarentee?
 
Wilomn said:
Do you know the PH and ammonia levels present in the water they had? What were the temps? It's unlikely that it was the cage, but I couldn't say for certain.

What is their standard guarentee?
Click to expand...
Do you know the PH and ammonia levels of the water?
 
I'm sorry to hear about your froggs. We've done quite a bit of animal purchases from Reptile depot and only work with Steve. He's always been very honest if I ask about the import status on an animal I'm considering. I know it's no excuse, but with all the shows they go to could the frogs be overstressed? I just saw him in Aniheim and right before that Sacramento. Maybe it's not necessarily a CB/import issue as much as a contained for shows issue, frogs are so darned delicate. No matter what the reason, the froggies are dead. I hope eventually it everything works out to your satisfaction.
-Ginger
 
35$ per wild caught red eye is only a premium price for adult wild caught red eyes. If I had CB adults I would sell them for no less than 50$ each. Wild caught adult red eyes are typicaly very hardy. I think it was very professional of Reptile Depot to send you replacements. I know most large reptile companies have a strict "no guarantee on amphibians" policy.

I know they said they keep them in the same setups, but that statement is rather vague. You have different water, different temperatures, different substrates, etc etc...

If you don't like the "wild caught garbage" you should inquire about the animals before you buy them. I would venture to guess that over 98% of adult red eyes are wild caught, and many people that sell them do not label them as wild caught (even though they should) since the price usually dictates their background.

I cannot tell you why they died, but I would bet money that CB adult red eyes would have died also under the same circumstances.

I would try to pinpoint the reason for their death before you recieve the next two to prevent any further losses.
 
Eric,
I can understand your disappointment, but whatever the reason for their demise, I do not think that whether they are WC or not would be the major, if even a significant, factor. Amphibian enclosures can be quite problematic, and usually the smaller, the worse. Whether it be your set-up or however RD had them, as Wes alluded to, a quick build up of ammonia, nitrites, and PH imbalance is inevitable in a new set-up that is not changed daily, and where over-crowding may be present. Almost like a new fish-tank, the environment has to "cycle", and filtration will not do it for you. These enclosure set-ups usually have a solid bottom, so moisture is allowed to build up, whether with standing pools or just below the surface. Septic heaven on top of the chemical imbalance ! I think it was stand-up of RD to replace them.
 
Pauls advice was "right on".
However, I believe Red Eye's that are offered are about 99.9% W.C.
AND, with the proper set-up, they are quite hardy.

Randal Berry
 
I guess there are a go-zillion things that have could of gone wrong with the red eyes I guess the best advise I can take from this is to buy from people you know and have established good relationship with
 
To my knowledge, red eyes can be very delicate if not maintained properly. Have you ever kept them before? Good of them to replace the poor dead ones, hope the new ones work out better than the last, good luck!
 
I just wanted to comment on the this...

PAULSCHUMANN said:
If you don't like the "wild caught garbage" you should inquire about the animals before you buy them.
Click to expand...

A seller should fully disclose & advertise that they are selling wild caught without having to be asked. People new to the reptile hobby won't understand the difference between w/c & c/b & if you've ever been to a busy show, their is little time to "chat" with a seller before you're bustled along.
 
Here we go...Perfect example...

If the RETF's on their site are WC, it needs fully disclosed on their website to prevent any misconceptions. In this day & age, if it doesn't say WC, I assume it is CB.
 

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Stephanie, I disagree. It's caveat emptor, or however it's spelled. Buyer beware.

It's the seller's job to present the animal and answer questions and it would be nice if origins were disclosed BUT I don't think if a buyer forgets to or just doesn't know enough ask about origins, well, that buyer did not do the minimum research necessary to assure the aquisition of the best possible example of the animal that buyer is interested in.

About Reptile Depot. They are located close to me and used to be quit the scummy pit. However, they moved, cleaned up their act, and were looking pretty good in the shop last time I was there, appx 2 months ago.

I saw them in Anaheim and it was more than obvious that much of their stock was imported, though there were no signs that I saw saying so. They may well have been there, I simply did not see them.

Buyers have to take responsibility for the purchases they make. Especially when purchasing live animals.

Homework Homework Homework
 
Red eyes in my experience are a high stress frog, and super sensitive as w.c. They are definately not for beginners(not to say you're one).If they are even left in the cup for too long, they can tox themselves out. When I used to work for a wholesaler, we used to put the freshly imported frogs in a teramycin(hope I spelled that right) solution after removing them from the containers. The survival rate was much, much higher. Some import batches are really good and thrive well, and some look good at first, then crash in a couple of days.Like previously posted, many stores won't carry amphibians or guarantee them. That's way cool if they replace them. Josh
 
Reptile Depot's terms are pretty straight forward. It says they will never refund shipping. If they replaced the frogs, then they did exactly what they said they would do and this entire bad guy post is nothing more than spite. If one frog on the available page is listed as CB, and another is not, then why would someone assume the one that didn't say CB, IS captive bred. Personally, I would assume the opposite. In any case, as the buyer, it is my responsibility to ask for answers that are not obvious BEFORE I hand the seller my money. It is also my responsibility to read the terms of service and decide wheather or not I'm okay with them if something goes wrong.
Chris

Reptile Depot Terms
 
Wilomn said:
It's the seller's job to present the animal and answer questions and it would be nice if origins were disclosed BUT I don't think if a buyer forgets to or just doesn't know enough ask about origins, well, that buyer did not do the minimum research necessary to assure the aquisition of the best possible example of the animal that buyer is interested in.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I disagree. If they're willing to put CB on the animals they advertise, they should be just as willing to put WC. I fully disclose any & all information on the animals I sell and expect other sellers to do the same. High expectations. ;)
 
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