Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im thinking about going to some of the pet stores in our area and asking them some herpetological questions to see how much they know about the care of herps that most stores carry. Can you think of any consensus questions that I could ask. I will also be grading on cleanliness of cages. What other catagories are important to judge a store on?
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2.0.0. guinea pigs (Midnight, Nathan)
1.0.0 Jeweled curly tailed lizard (Hunter)
0.1.0 Hatian Curly tailed lizard (Lizzie)

Ask if they keep detailed feeding/shedding records as well as medical records on the animal. See if the animals have ever been checked by a vet or tested for parasites. I doubt most pet stores do this, but I know of a handful of local ones that attempt it at least.
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Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

If you steal in hunger, I will kick you when you try. These stand for me. Name your god and bleed the freak. I'd like to see. How you all would bleed for me.-Alice In Chains

Is your intention to decide which one to buy from? Or are you "rating" them just on general principle? If you are thinking of buying you also want to consider cost. If there are any good reptile shows in your area...that is often a much better alternative to a pet store.
If you feel that you must buy from a pet store, I would focus on the individual animal(s) you intend to buy and ask them for general knowledge about them. Be open-ended. Say things like, "What can you tell me about this type of snake?" See if they come up with anything really dumb... Then ask to see the animal that YOU would like, hold it for close inspecion. Ask to watch it eat and check on it every day for a few days if you can.
Again...It depends upon your intentions. Duffy

its for an article that I might submit to a local newspaper.
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2.0.0. guinea pigs (Midnight, Nathan)
1.0.0 Jeweled curly tailed lizard (Hunter)
0.1.0 Hatian Curly tailed lizard (Lizzie)

Ask about the diets of thier animal, a majority of health problems in reptiles is dietary (is that a word?) related.

-echo-

If you are planning to submit an artical to a paper critiquing these places....you might want to let them know at least afterwards that you intend to do so, because you never know what kind of response they might have to being surprised by a critical or negative article about them (like, there's always the possibility of them going after you for affecting their buisness or something). general health, cage cleaning, their knowledge of their animals and record keeping would definitely be things I'd ask about in your survey
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Sue Barnett
1.0 Florida King (Vega)
0.1 Western hognose (Sola)
0.1 Egyptian spiny mouse (Mia)
4.2 mini rex rabbits (Basil, Pippin, Reggie, Hayden, Jackie and Peek-a-boo)
0.1 Plott hound (Molly)
1.0 half Arab (Zarr)
1.0 Betta (Flash)

....You would probably be best off talking about the conditions in "several local petstores" ...not mentioning ANY of them by name. That's not to say that if a person read your article carefully they couldn't figure out which is which.

I know. I might do that. and als im pretty sure the paper would edit it out.
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2.0.0. guinea pigs (Midnight, Nathan)
1.0.0 Jeweled curly tailed lizard (Hunter)
0.1.0 Hatian Curly tailed lizard (Lizzie)

it is very cool!!

its a tiger reticulated python

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-echo-

1.0.1 - Ball Python
1.0.0 - Tiger Retic
0.0.1 - Brazilian Rainbow Boa
0.0.1 - Savu Python
0.0.1 - Spotted Python
1.0.0 - Tiger Salamander
1.1.0 - Red Spot Toad
0.1.0 - Betta Fish

I´d try a few general ones:
What amount (in IU) of D3 would you recommend to give to diurnal reptiles?
What dosage of Fenbendazol do you give?
What do you think is the best to cures Cryptosporidium?
Which Ca/P ratio do you recommend and why?

etc
etc