Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I hear ALOT about people complaining of herps being improperly cared for at pet stores. They're sick, weakly, dieing, malnourished...you get the picture. I've also heard of people complaining to pet store owners and other people in the stores of just how bad their husbandry methods are.I've done this myself on several occasions. You have to think from the manager's point of view about this...Here they are getting a lecture from a perfect stranger about something they probably know ab-so-lute-ly nothing about...It's all hot air..in one ear and out the other. Anyways my parents have been harping on me for a while about getting a job to pay my car insurance (it's highway robbery i tell you!) and I had an epiphany... Why not WORK at a pet store? It's something I would not care to do, and I would be able to see that all the herps have proper care..and that customers are correctly informed. If some of you are like me, you know basic husbandry for several species and it wouldn't be hard at all to set up someone and still make sales. I'm sure I can convince a manager to hire me with what I know. So I urge you all...If you wish to combat mistreated herps..Fight it at the source! Do it yourself, because you know no one else will. I also say to any teenagers here to do the same thing I'm doing..It beat the HELL out of working at McDonald's. Believe me I've been there. Sorry about the rant..Just figured I should share...Give me some feedback.
-Cory C.

I hear you. We all have had those scuffles with Pet stores, and I think that you have a good idea. It goes along the lines of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer.'
I actually thought about doing the same thing, but then I got a better paying job at a vet clinic(had to pay for my car too, 16 with no job and a car didn't work out...) Also the petstores around where I live usually don't sell reptiles, and if they do, they are only iguanas or anoles. So the petstores don't have that many herps around that they can starve and dehydrate then sell to oblivious and uninformed people.
I hope you can get the job and tell the workers to get their ass moving and taking better care of the reptiles! lol

cham on dude

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Kaitlyn

0.1.0 Jackson Chameleon (Kokoro)
0.1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Eclipse)
0.1.0 Leopard Gecko (Sway)
1.0.0 Ball Python (Mitch)

I have to agree strongly with you.
I am turning 15 soon and am thinking about where to get a job in the future, perhaps to pay for a car, but mostly to keep my chams going! There is a pet store I am proud to say keeps chameleons quite well in comparison to other stores i have heard of. Nevertheless, they can still be better. They do just about everything right except that the chams are in glass tanks, and they arent the biggest ones ever. I bought my male from the store about 5 hours after he was shipped in (a good 800-mile journey!) and he was eating like a pig the day after he was put in his new enclosure.

I think anyone that is looking for a job that will pay decently and keep their herp addictions from taking over, working at a pet store might be a good idea. It will help you AND the herps!!

(we should make a better-treatment-for-herps-in-pet-stores organization/cult! )

If you are lucky enough to have a pet store that is open to your ideas it can work really well. I've done it and even volunteered my time for one too (I was there getting supplies pretty often anyway so my pay was a store discount). I usually get friendly with local shops who seem open, offer to help with info or a project they want to try, do some research they don't have time to, give my home phone number in case they decide to get into chams or have customers who need help. The biggest problem I ran into was a mid level manager who did not agree with my concerns. I worked for 2 years at a herp specialty shop concentrating on their high humidity animals...setting them up properly, educating customers, researching the right cage and supplies, trying to get rid of the outdated books, spent UV lights, etc. It was a lot of work but fun, and we sold some beautiful hand picked cbb chams who did well, along with better supplies and books. One woman watched me set up a surrendered female veiled over several hours,(plants from a nursery, new Reptarium, humidifier, new lighting, everything) walked up to the counter and bought the entire thing for $300 cash. The cham laid several clutches of eggs over the next year. Then the shop owner hired a new business manager. I would come in to find my careful setups returned to tank hell, my separated animals grouped together again to save space, miserable wc imports, etc. Turned out this guy was the former manager of another shop that was notorious for bad herp care that I had even reported to the city about. I was stunned. I complained to the owner (who was pretty decent but out of town a lot) several times and finally could not stand it. I resigned and wrote a long letter to the owner about why I would boycott the store in future. All I felt I could do at that point.