Reptile & Amphibian Forums

last night i was in Petsmart, and of coruse, they have beardies again, well they were in something no bigger then a 1.5X1.5 enclosure, had to be 10-13 beardies crowded in there, there could not have been the proper heat gradient and they were on calci sand, sigh...i had carrick with me, i was picking up supplies for the birds and horse (farriers formula which they carry for a good price) its close and needed the supplies. The people there couldnt beleive how big he was, etc, im so saddened, i know i support them by shopping there, and i try not to, but sometimes things arise and you realize you didnt have the supplies you needed and you are in a bind at 8pm in the evening, so what are ya gonna do. Im gonna bring in some care sheets this weekend to them, what can we do to get these large chains to stop selling exotics? i have writen the CEO of petco here in san diego, and many others have with no response or change, dont these people realize they are killing animals?i have even gotten the reptile rescue to go in there and check on them, they all looked so lifeless and thin, and to think they are gonna go and sell these animals with the same information supplied tot hem that they think is correct. sickening really
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reiko
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I believe it! I see it almost every time I got to Petco or Petsmart. It's so heart breaking. Now I know why you need the care sheets. Good luck with the Reiko.

Veronica

Reiko,

I know how you feel. And I work at PetCo.

I started about 2 months ago, I got my beardie about a month and a half ago. When I started I knew 0 about bearded dragons. I purchased my guy, set him up in his 55gallon, had him on Desert Litter, some driftwood, and a 75 watt bulb, no UV striplight, supplements, or anything.

That night I went home and started researching about beardie's. Started with BeardedDragon.org. In that week I got a 50watt bulb, long UV light, calcium and herptivite, and every little thing I could think of. We have a kit at our store for beardies with the wrong supplement, a 150watt bulb, 20inch strip light with the bulb inside prob only reaching 16 inches. Calci sand, and all the other horrible stuff.

I can't really take that stuff out and put in new stuff, but whoever wants to buy a beardie I tell them everything from the cricket size to acidphillis(spell?). I've had a few people listen to my 45 minute speech and say " Forget that, I'll get a hamster" or another type of small animal)

So what does this mean? Well, basically, and I'm not afraid to admit it.. The people who work at mass pet chainstores really don't care about the animals. It's not like the people at the store I work at don't care about the animals, don't care if they die, don't feed them, it's not like that. They just don't care enough to do some research to better the health of the dragons at their store and the info they give to the customers.

I've had customers get so upset at me because I tell them one thing and someone else said different. Like, a customer a few days ago came in and wanted to buy more Repti-Bark. I ask what it's for, and he tells me a bearded dragon. I say right away change that ASAP, and he freaks out telling me they said it was perfect for him, etc etc etc. I don't want to approach the person who gave this info or anything, I don't want to start anything with them, but that doesn't mean I don't call PetCO's private number for associates and complain.

I try my best to help educate each person who wishes to buy a beardie( and not just beardies, reading about geckos, snakes, birds, and everything else all the time) and sometimes I have managers breathing down my neck wondering why I am telling them different that what everyone else in the store tells them.

I can just keep helping the customers with BD questions as much as I can, and try to educate the employee's who wish to learn. Some don't care really about the animals, and just want the paycheck. I wish I could address your concern and start changing things at PetCo, Reiko, but for now, working just 2 months, and my voice being nothing in this huge company, it's not gonna be easy.

petsmart over here (scotland) stopped seeling reptiles quite a while ago. im glad this happened, ive not seen any reptiles for sale in any pet chains here for a while now.
i feel so lucky that i have a pet shop like the one i do close by. they only deal in herp's and fish (marine/tropical). all their staff are very clued up and seem to have owned most of types of animals in there.

the other day they actually put me off a sale. i was interested in one of their fire bellied newt to live with my goldfish but apparntly they can pick on each other and stress each other out, its good to see they care for their animals and dont just see them as a way to make cash

We all appreciate you trying to better the staff, and giving the proper advise to would be customers. That's basically all you can do, and the best you can do. Just think that person without that info would have bought the beardie, and possible killed it. Most of the time pet stores don't pay enough to get employees to learn and study or know about the animals they are in charge of selling. I doubt if you are giving proper info to customers that the boss would give you trouble, and If he does well then he's an a22 anyway. I wish more people got jobs like that for the love of the animals, and not the weekly pay check. My buddy is a manager at a pet shop and he is quite knowledgeable in herps, actually he makes most of his money in breeding them and the pet store job is for the discount he gets on other reptiles and supplies. What bugs me the most is the people you try and help, give all the right info too, and they think you are just an overly caring owner and believe they really don't need to eat that much, or really need that much space, or really need supplements like calcium and vitamins, and 105 degrees is to hot for them cause it's to hot for us, and my friend doesn't use uvb lights with his gecko. These people come back with a sick animal in two weeks not giving vitamins, and calcium still are keeping it in a 10 gal., and are feeding too big of food well, because it's cheaper to buy bigger food cause they eat less. I hate that the most. Thanks for trying to do the right thing at your pet store.
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Mystical Dragons