Is this typical of most pet shops anymore?

[LadyGecko]

I had to go and get some Care Fresh bedding and a few other supplies that I could not wait for with ordering online yesterday and I went to one of the large chain pet shops for this
While there -I wandered over to their reptile display and I was actually surprised to see that conditions in their Leo enclosure were the worst that i had ever seen them
The had the usual 20 plus tiny Leo babies laying in the Calci-Sand which was filthy with feces and of course the usual bright fluorescent lighting was on

They did have an juvie/young adult in a separate enclosure that I was told was brought in by someone that could no longer care for it and it not only had No moist hide but no hide at all and of course it was laying in the calci-sand
I asked the girl why that gecko didn't have a hide and she told me that "we had one in there and he never used it-so we took it out"

Now that takes me to the Crested Geckos- when I asked to see what they had-the girl took out a teeny tiny Blonde Dalmatian baby (maybe 2 or 3 grams) and held it by the tail with her thumb while it gripped her finger

It being a Crested-it decided to jump back into the tank and it's entire tail went one way -flying onto the bed-a beast on the floor of the enclosure and wiggled around for a while and the baby Crested ran for shelter in the leaves of the plant in the enclosure

I said "man that sucks"-to which she replied "That's no big deal-it's tail will grow right back
I then told her that I thought that when they dropped their tails from the base of their body that they never regrew and she said-"
OH NO-we had one that dropped it's tail and it grew back in 3 weeks
Their tails ALWAYS grow back when they drop them"

OK........

Sooooooooo-then I asked her for the hell of it if she had any other colored morphs in the tank and she pointed at the sign that read New Caledonia Crested Geckos
and she said-
"That is the only color that that kind of gecko is"

While she and I were talking a guy comes up and makes the comment-"I've been keeping geckos for years and Crestie's ALWAYS DO regrow their tails
I was flabbergasted and I took my Care Fresh up to the register and left shaking my head as I walked out the door

I just wondered if that is a typical visit to a pet shop anymore as I don't(thankfully) get out to many as we no longer have one in the town that I live in and the nearest one is around 40 miles one way from me
I might get out to a pet store-privately owned or large chain maybe twice or 3 times a year for stuff that would cost a fortune to ship when bought online
and I am beginning to think that is 2 or 3 times too many

Thanks for letting me rant and ya know-I can still see that little white tail wiggling on that coconut fiber




Sandy

 

[barbie69]

Oh wow!! What a bunch of idiots!! ...and unfortunately I think that is how the majority of big chain pet stores here are . Sad but true...and they DO NOT WANT YOUR HELP !! Just walk away...and try not to look back.

...and how sad for the little crestie

 

[bandit42]

thats totally true.Pet shops dont take care of the reptiles like they used to.My local petshop has 2 tanks of leopard geckos.The hatchlings are kept on sand and have no hides and the light is totally too bright.Also the water dish was completely empty.The other is for juviniles through adults and they had a small juvie male in with large adults.One adult was a male and thankfully that it did not eat it yet.They also had no water or any hides and were kept on sand.I was like your lucky that gecko hasnt been eaten.He took it out and said "what should i do wiht it?" i was like put it in with the babies for now untill you get another tank for it.Also i made him fill the water dishes and put in hides.I also reccommended he change the substrate to repti carpet or better yet paper towels.I think i did a good deed.Well thats my story.

Dylan

 

[markface]

unfortunately many petshops do fit your description . however there are good petshops out there . i know because i work at one of the good ones . the shop i work at hires specifically for each department and you must first pass a written test showing that you do indeed have knowledge of the animals you are going to be working with .

i wont go into details on the other departments(birds, small animals, fish , ect) , but in the reptile department most of the staff are keepers and/or breeders themselves . with very few exceptions all our reptiles are kept one animal per encloser . we spend a couple hours every morning cleaning , feeding , and maintaining our livestock . we try our best to maintain high standards of care for all our animals .

we also try our best to make sure that our customers are informed as to the care of any animals they are buying from us . the owner of the store makes it clear that if we(the staff in general) feel that someone is not qualified to care for something we can refuse to sell it to them .

i know there are some bad shops out there , i just wanted to point out that there are also some really good ones too .

 

[LadyGecko]

Awesome Mark-that is very refreshing to hear !!
Thanks everyone for your replies-wouldn't it be a wonderful world if every pet shop was like the one that Mark described?
I happen to believe that no matter how high or low the pay-when you are working with animals that you should have a clue as to what you are selling and it's care
I know that is rather idealistic but it would be nice........



Sandy

 

[romad119]

I think you see two categories - chain stores and individually owned. I usually. but not always, see the individually owned ones have a better level of care etc becuase of the tie between the owner and the store. Also the ones I frequent are owned by people who breed etc along with having the retail side of it.

 

[HylaVersicolor]

That's typical of some pet shops. There are two pet shops in my area (currently Ames IA) that are really good about listening to what I say. One of them has taken to asking me questions when I'm in and using what they can.

As for the conditions, yes, they are always that bad. There have been a few instances where I've been able to get the workers to make changes to cages, but it's generally not their decision (these are hourlies.) I can't really blame them for not making the changes just because there is a chance it could cost them their job.....

 

[Stephies_Leos]

Well las year I bought my very first leopard geckos at Petsmart. I got a normal and an albino and they have been perfectly healthy. So when I have seen posts about the horror stories of other chain stores I thought well not mine...lol. But I have to say since the end of last summer the geckos I have seen at that same Petsmart have been in pitiful shape. They have some adults that come in looking healthy and then seem to just waste away. The little babies, which in my opinion are too young to sell, have been emaciated and sickly looking. So I kind of think it's a combination of the care they get at the store and also the quality of the geckos they get from the breeder. I consider myself lucky to have gotten the healthy ones I got. I certainly wouldn't recommend someone buy a gecko from that store now even though I love mine. I don't think they give them belly heat and maybe they have gotten some with parasites and it passes on to the rest. But ultimately they should be responsible for giving them proper care. I certainly wouldn't want to be an associate or manager at the store and try to convince someone to buy those sick animals.
Well that's my story ! lol

 

[Miss Tuniwha]

I have been to very few pet stores that I actually liked. The only ones I did like. Where the ones I managed myself. LOL.

I have been kicked out of my share of pet places. Been to some with NO uvb what so ever on their sick and dying lizards.

I guess the best thing we can do, is nicely try to inform the people, and hope they will learn.

I WILL say this. If you do come across that situation again ( and yes I know what store you were at by the sign title) go to the manager and talk to them. Employees tend to think they know it all, but the manager GENERALLY will look into your info.

 

[TheKeeper]

The pet store that I work in would never let stuff like that happen... at least as long as I work there.

 

[lizardsister2]

private owned vs. petsmart

I have two petstores I go to for supplies, one closer and not very good and one further away and great.

The aquatic critter on Nolensville Road in Nashville is excellent. Most of the employees there have or are working on education in herpetology. One guy who works there actually used to do the rep care at the Nashville Zoo. They keep their animals excellently. Everything is kept not only clean but also disinfected constantly, and they never have an animal for sale that they don't have a plethora of accurate information on.

When I need crickets fast and don't have time to drive to the other end of town before closing time I go to petsmart where they overcharge for live feeders and count each individual cricket. They also take terrible care of their animals. I once went in and found a baby beardie dead and had to tell someone. I once went in and saw that all the baby leos were scarred up and missing tails because they had been housed together with young pictus geckos. I informed them of the danger of this immediately but the condition remained the same for weeks. Just last week my fiance and I went in and noticed that they had an escaped fan-footed gecko hanging out right by the tank he must have come out of, just a little juvie. I informed the woman that the gecko was out, showed her where he was and offered to help. She reached for him once, scared him back behind the tanks and said " it will be impossible to catch him without moving all of these tanks." and then she locked the cabinet that the tanks were in back up. I informed her that if she would be willing to leave the cabinet open my fiance and I would catch him and put him back and that if he was left loose with all these other animals running around he would die. She replied "I'm not really supposed to let you do that, besides he's only $7." I was appauled!