Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was just thinking about that yesterday. i am sure that petshops get a few sick and dying iguanas in witht their shipments. i was just wondering you know what they do with them?
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1.0.0 adopted iguana
0.0.1 rescued petco iguana
1.0.0 water dragon
0.0.1 mali uromastyx
0.1.0 painted turtle
0.0.1 common snapping turtle

then the ussual
2 dogs
6 cats
misc fish
hermit crabs
rat
misc. fish

My Email

ITS NOT ABOUT YOU DIEING FOR YOUR COUNTRY, ITS ABOUT MAKING YOUR ENEMY DIE FOR HIS.

HAPPINESS IS LIKE PEEING ON YOURSELF, EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT ONLY YOU CAN FEEL THE WARMTH

That depends very heavily on the petstore. I'd imagine most do nothing. The good ones try and treat them, but there's never enough money to take them to the vet. Stores usually have supplies for 'home' treatments, though. The really good ones don't stock more iguanas than they can care for, if they have them at all. That's the thing, it would be NICE if there were USCB iguanas for stores to sell, because then they'd have a better chance at being healthy, but with so many CH ones needing homes, it's not really ethical to breed more.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

Thought it said 'what do they do with sick iguanas', not reptiles. Anyway, most of it still holds. The best thing a petstore can do is order in animals that are likely to be healthy in the first place. Many seem to have the opinion that if they get in a 3.00 reptile and sell it for 15.00, then it doesn't matter if 2/3 of them die, there's still a profit. (hope my math is right). But the pet industry has come a long way and I think it's slowly improving, although crappy petstores will be with us as long as people are allowed to own pets.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

Like I said, I work for a petshop before, not going to name it. What they do with sick animals is put them somewhere else, because a sick/dead animal usually gives them complaints or business losses. So they put the animal back in the storage area and if the sickness/illness isn't serious, they will help it so they can sell it, they rarely do it because they love animals, yes it is a sick world. If it is serious, they let it slowly die or even kill it to put it out of its misery. They will usually let it live to see if it gets better.

JamesDarec

Oh yeah another thing, I hope people will acknowledge this. Before going to a petshop or any shop, please know your facts on what you're going to buy, don't let them tell you, their job is to sell stuff to you, some are honest workers, but many will lie just to make a sale. If they give you an attitude, make them pay for it, I know I do. Enjoy your day, bye.

I too am a previous pet shop worker. I can tell you that the one I worked for many years ago is and still was a huge "chain" pet store (Like Walmart or Kmart only a petshop). Any sick reptiles that came in went into the (quote) "love room". In my opinion it should have been called the death chamber, but ya know, I guess that's not as cutesy... This store had it's own vet inside the store chain and they had an office in the store. However, it was also open to the public. The store did nothing with any sick animal that came in but put it in the "love room" and let it die or kill it quickly. Either way, they just left them to rot. So animals that weren't really that sick ended up dying right along side of the ones that were terminally ill. I got fired from this pet shop for taking some of the sick animals to the vets office, even though that is what it was supposed to be there for, they made it clear that was not the way they wanted things handled. They gave me an ultimatum. Either I could take the animals to the vet and be fired or I could just let "whatever happens happens" and still be able to be employed with their store. I quit. Employees offered to take the sick animals home and the store would not allow them. They just left them die, killed them right off, or left them starve to death. I know some of the smaller owned and operated pet shops try a little harder, but the big chains do not care at all.

I work at a Pet Store, and I am in charge of caring for all the animals. I can tell you only what *I* do when and if there is any sick animal. I take them to the back room, place them in an isolation/hospital cage, and treat accordingly. We have not seen but maybe 2 sickly iggies, both were hatchlings, CB bought. Both died.I take great pride in my job, and the health and well being of "my" animals in the store has to show that I do a good job. My reputation is shown everyday when people look at the animals.I am an animal lover, and take as good of care of the store pets as I do my own.I have no idea what other shops do, as I only know what mine does. I think we have excellent records of caretaking/treating/etc. since I have been employed there. That's why I drove 35 miles today in snow to go to work..my animals needed me there)

At least there are some intelligent and kind people out there.

35 miles?
wow you must really care for the animals or the city is far from your house. I live in Los angeles and the farthest jobs i would go to are 10 or 15 miles from home good job

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My herps:1.3leopard geckos,1.0 green iguana, 0.0.3 chinese water dragons, 2.2 fire belly toads, 0.0.1 green tree frog, 0.0.1 egyptian toad, many tropical fish, 1.1 purebred German shepherds

Ya, some petshop workers are nice but most aren't or they simply don't care. Why? Because they are usually hired for their working abilities and usually not their heart. When I was hired, I was asked if I was scared of the animals or alergic to them not that I like animals or love caring for them or whatever. If I was scared of animals and allergic to them I doubt I would try to work there, smart question. I tried to help the animals too, I would sometimes steal a mouse or a batch of crickets to feed the lizards when they aren't looking. They feed their monitor lizard once a week!! That poor little guy, it was Christmas in his sense when I gave him some mealworms. The iguanas were fed rotten, toss away salad. It's like a second hell in there, like some sort of torture chamber. They finally fired me because they thought I was bad for business because I like telling the customers the truth about their animals than lies. Don't worry people, I get revenge from them everytime I go back there, won't tell you how but some of you can guess. I have an evil side what can you say. They charge $60 for a freaken rabbit!! Life is sad, imagine yourself as one of those animals in there.

Revenge Technique: Tell them to go back and get a dollar cricket, he comes out, tell him you need another dollar of cricket, he comes out again, tell him that you need a mouse hehe.

I drive 40 minutes and I work with freakin' computers. Gotta make a living.
My husband works at a petstore even though a single mouse can give him trouble breathing. He takes allergy pills every day. The store he's at needs work, and he just started. But they seem willing to try.
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"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

i hate chain petstores.. all tey care about is bussiness.

when i am out of college my gaol is to have my own pet shot and all the animals will be cared for properly.

Mike D
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1.0.0 adopted iguana
0.0.1 rescued petco iguana
1.0.0 water dragon
0.0.1 mali uromastyx
0.1.0 painted turtle
0.0.1 common snapping turtle

then the ussual
2 dogs
6 cats
misc fish
hermit crabs
rat
misc. fish

My Email

ITS NOT ABOUT YOU DIEING FOR YOUR COUNTRY, ITS ABOUT MAKING YOUR ENEMY DIE FOR HIS.

HAPPINESS IS LIKE PEEING ON YOURSELF, EVERYONE CAN SEE IT BUT ONLY YOU CAN FEEL THE WARMTH

I used to work in Petco and at least in the one I worked at they treated the animals well. All of the animals where properly cared for (I was a bird expert but I usually tried to get involved with all the animals) We had a back room where sick animals where taken to try and raise back to health in the time I was there only about 3 parakeets and a veiled chamaleon died, The chamaleon was because the guy incharged of reptiles didn't give it running water he put a bowl in so the chamaleon dehidrated :0( but he said it was an honest mistake that he would mist the cage every couple of hours but I guess i will never know the exact truth. Over all they did a very good job, unlike Petsmart. Petsmart cared really well of birds reptiles and small animals but was not good at all with fish. One time I told the person in charged of the fish that one of her big goldfish had ick and she told me to take it to the backroom to treat it I did she told me to put it in a small bowl with a little water and add a lot of baking soda I did i tought that would cure him I told him that how long should it be before I put it back with the others and she told me, "the baking soda will not cure him that's what we do to kill sick fish" I was so mad I asked my teacher to transfer me to another tipe of animal store ( this was as part of an intership for an animal ocupation class)

Lol! You actually believed her when she said that baking soda would cure ick? Thats funny man, I hope you were really young to not understand it then or you don't know anything about fish, but u do because you know the fish had ick. Thats sad bro, thats like saying, "son, put your sick lizard into boiling water, that will help cure it, permanently!" lol. If baking soda could cure ick, why do you think people have ick medicine. And I don't get the part about the teacher moving you to another petstore.

Oh and this post isn't meant as anything so don't take it personally, its just funny lol. Have a nice day, hope you learned your lesson. The next time someone says put the baking soda into the water with the sick fish, you know what to do. Smack! Break! jk.