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PetCo Sucks!!!

B

bruce1420

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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.
 
Matt Haines said:
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.
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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
 
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.
 
hhmoore said:
but they still have to keep them alive long enough to sell them
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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
 
PETA does not support reptiles in the wild....they will kill the snake to save the mouse any day, they purposly run snakes over. As my wife was told by a PETA director.

Though I must admit I am a part of PETA(People Eating Tasty Animals).
 
I might be retarded but aren't snakes living creatures as well? Are they not animals? Are they vegatables....no. Minerals.....no. That means they are animals.
 
DragonCharm said:
I might be retarded but aren't snakes living creatures as well? Are they not animals? Are they vegatables....no. Minerals.....no. That means they are animals.
Click to expand...

No, you are not correct in your assumption.

Predatory animals that have no fur and eat furry things are the devil. It seems the fur makes the difference. They abuse the heck out of dogs and cats and have no concept of the actual workings of nature, but a shrew has more value than any snow boa or Mojave ball python. Cornsnakes? Don't even start... Some predatory birds are of value, but most are not.

I like the People Eating Tasty Animals website. If you want to have some fun send PETA members pictures of meat hats ( www.hatsofmeat.com ) and invite them to come to a Hats Of Meat Fashion Expo.

When I worked in research we were watched constantly to make sure the animals were treated humanely. There was an animal welfare department in the company. There was no employee welfare department! PETA still picketed.
 
It's probably a religious issue. For milleniums Christians have told everyone snakes are a symbol of evil. Not because they thought they really were but that they were a positive symbol to pagans and druids.
 
Yet Moses used snakes for the symbol of healing. Oh how the minds of people work.
 
OT: Christianity itself isn't full of hypocrisy, just full of humans (ie. hypocrits)... me being one of the biggest probably!

Sad thing is (back onto the PetCo thing) my hubby and I financially support PetKill by buying our dogs food from them... also, we peeked in on the baby half dead dragons and it was PITIFUL! One was on the fake plant in the enclosure, almost as black as our adult males beard and looking as un beardie like as possible... they always have them on calci sand and when I went in there to tell them their husbandry was poor to say the least (about 2 years ago) the large manager woman told me that the vet who comes in to look at their animals says their husbandry is perfect... BULL! I used to use that vet at that same time and she adamently said beardies should preferably be kept on paper towel...
anyways, that's just my experience.
 
My better half Shannon (being a dog groomer for Petco) informed me that feeding of mealworms is corporate policy and can not be changed at the store level. So suggestions as to proper care of these animals would be better directed to their corporate hq rather than the store managers/employees. Store level associates have no control over it.
 
Dr Dan Wentz has told them the vitasand/calcisand is not safe for these tiny 2-3 week old babies they buy and also that the mealworms are killing them. Dr Wentz has probably done more in depth research into bearded dragons in the US than anyone. He is the man that developed the fetal protocol test for adenovirus in bearded dragons.... yet they will not even listen to him. They have some other vet at corporate that is the one that advises these killing methods they use in the store.

A PetCo (DeathCo) just openeds in Sarasota 2 weeks ago and I have been in their twice, both times there was at least one baby dragon in the process of dying from impaction and 2-4 others covered with sand all over their mouths. Both babies did end up dying. I talked to a "clerk" the first time and she said she would call the manger and get the baby to a vet (it never happened) the next time I talked to the manager myself..... what a loser she was. She knows nothing about the animals, less about what the staff is doing and frankly she could care less to hear anything about proper care.

The place is disgusting and have been cited for poor care of their animals numerous times and taken to count by many groups.... just put in abuse neglect petco in the search engines and plan on spending sometime reading. I refuse to buy anything there, to me it is supporting them in their death pursuit of animals.

MANY people have make each store and corporate aware there are problems, they know the animals are dying... at least on the local store level.... but they do nothing about something that could be fixed easily with proper care and WORSE, they are teaching others improper care and how they too can take an animal and kill it.

Thats called Abuse and Neglect, they should be banned from selling live animals.... or maybe that should be mostly dying ones. I also have no respect for the breeders that sell them animals and will not support those either
 
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