Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok so the second part won't be off topic, but my mom was getting a guinea pig and we were at a petsmart and she asked them where they got their animals. The ladie said We only btain our animals for USDA ( U.S. Department of Agriculture) approved faciities. Has anyone eve rbeen to one of these facilities and seen if the animals are treated properly? Anyways, not to worry I am not getting my corn from a petstore regardless.
Also petsmart sells a digital thermometer for ten dollars that has two probes and displays. I cant remember then brand, but it is the only digital thermometer I found there, it was a off white colour. Any one ere use it? If so would you recomend it? Thanks for putting up with my ramblings.

getting a reptile permit from the USDA is not extremly hard from what I have heard. To my knowledge, they don't do any kind of routine inspections of the premisis unless there have been complaints issued. where they are bred is not my biggest concern when buying a pet from that type of facility, however. It's more of how they are treated at the actual pet store. Most aren't fed even half as often as they should be. I know this for a fact...I have worked at two pet stores. Didn't stay at either for more than 2 weeks, because I got mad at the owners who wrote the feeding schedules to the associates (most people fed more than they were supposed to actually). The dogs were fed every morning...thats it. not even as much as I feed mine at one meal. The snakes were fed every 10 days...newborn, and every 2 weeks for adults. birds and small animals had bowls of food but most of that was just husks..very little food in it. they get it cheaper that way. thats why i HATE pet stores. The only reason I would get a pet from a pet store is to get it out of that hell hole!

Please note, these are two pet stores in the panahandle of Florida. One is a national chain, however it is a franchise. the other is an independantly owned and operated store. Not all pet stores work this way (i hope). After blowing up at the owner i filed complaints with the bbb and informed the hsus (as much as i hate them) of their practices. sorry this has been lengthy.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

Battling ignorance one stupid person at a time.

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat(Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)

off topic but how many times a day do you feed your dogs?i have two purebred german sheperds i feed once a day for years and have never had any problems with skinniness(in fact my older dog is a little on the fat side)
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My herps:0.0.1 savannah monitor 1.3leopard geckos,1.0.1 green iguanas, 0.0.3 chinese water dragons,0.0.1 gray banded kingsnake 0.0.1 egyptian toad,and 0.0.1 firebelly toad,0.0.2 green tree frogs

I can't speak for crtoon83, but I bet he was talking about puppies; you don't really see too many older dogs in pet stores. For a full grown dog, once a day is fine, but a puppy should be eating 2 or 3 smaller meals a day - kinda like the corn babies eating every 3 or 4 days instead of every 10. For me, pet stores and puppies just don't mix. Puppies require too much care and most pet stores provide too little. Just my thoughts...
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2.0 Anerythristic Corns
1.0 Sunglow Corn
3.4 Leopard Geckos
3.1 Crested Geckos
1.0 Peacock Day Gecko
0.1 Gold Dust Day Gecko
1.1 Giant Day Geckos
4.2 Cats

yeah...well we have 5 dogs and 2 cats (my gma lives with me and my mom and she has 3 my mom has 2)...well they are all small dogs toy breed (ankle biters)...they get fed twice a day.
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The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

Battling ignorance one stupid person at a time.

Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat(Lola)
1.0 Neonate Black Rat (het for Lic Stk's) (Frankie)
1.1 Texas Bairds (Jose and Rosa)