Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Doing some research. Looking for that single thing that is just missing from your local pet/reptile store. What's the one thing that you wish your local guy did? Is it a product you wished he carried? A service you wished they provided? Or the one thing that makes you cringe when you think about having to go down there?

Thanks in advance,

Daniel Wedeking
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles
http://www.exoticlizards.com
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles

Or the one thing that makes you cringe when you think about having to go down there?
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I just wish the local stores around here would CLEAN once in a while LOL

I was shocked and amazed that these stores were allowed to stay open when I first moved here. I left Virginia beach and came to to east central Florida and the pet stores are horrible!

At least they are here in my town
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Lisa
Cricket free babies!
www.beginnersbasics.com

The idiots that work in them. All of our local ones employ people who THINK they know what they are talking 'bout; only they are way off base.

If I were to believe what I have heard one girl tell me or other customers I would think that:
1)chinchillas are rabbits - they just look different.
2)Don't worry 'bout the upper respiratory problem in that kitten - it is normal for a cats to have goopy eyes.
3)African greys make great pets for children, they don't need much attention at all.
4)Your lizard shouldn't need a vet check-up, they rarely ever get sick.

And then yesterday, while picking up some feed, after she was kind enough to diagnose a respiratory problem and recomend NO treatment for another customers snake, I asked her 'bout the purebred fancy rats that she was selling (a friend actually wants to buy one from her - I have advised against it). She claims to have bred them for many years but didn't know the difference between a curly or a rex, didn't know what the genetics of the traits she was breeding were, didn't know that one of the traits she was breeding has a genetic predisoposition to health problems, and wasn't even really clear what traits her own rats had - but even after that discussion she still claimed that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Sorry this is a rant - but if a new pet owner get wrong information at the petstore, they may never get it all corrected before the animal up and dies on them. I know not everybody is this incompetent; but unfortunatly incompetency seems to be a requirement to work in the pet stores in my area.

Russ

Ps - I had a pet Peeve once - it was a rat my wife got me after we got married.

Tell me about it- some know-it-all reptile store owner gave me advice that killed my second snake within a month. Apparently he thinks snakes from the desert need 90% humidity, and still keeps them in the store this way. By the time I figured out the problem, it was just too late. Bleah.
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Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

I wish they would, at the very least, hand out care sheets with CORRECT information on them. Depending on the employees for info is a nightmare. The bad thing is, most people trust them to know.
(And Maybe they could all carry Classylizard Hammocks..lol)
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www.classylizard.com

the biggest thing to the local pet store owner that is around me who knows how to keep reptiles is to keep them clean, well cared for and in the approiate enviornments! i know that this owner knows better and after looking in on the animals off and on for about three weeks, nothing changed. the baby beardies for one were on the SAME disgusting paper towel with feces that they had been on for so long it was collecting dust! but to keep the cages clean and with water would be a huge improvement. next, to keep them healthy...free of mites and other parasites and other preventable problems. i could go on, but we all know the story!
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Jamie
0.0.1 corn (Rio)

The mits and stuff they usually will have when they are shipped to the pet store. I know this because i bought from a dealer that sells to the pet store and he said to me " yeah if we see tics or mits we try to pull them off as best we can, but they are animals and they get them in the wild so its not that big a deal, it's not like they need to go to the vet." And then i told them i take mine to the vet and he just shut up, needless to say I've never talked or ordered from him again.
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Ryan
beardeduro@yahoo.com
1.1 mali's Drakkin/Fina
0.0.0 Snow beardies soon to come