Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My mom and I went to this pet store to pick up some reptile carpeting and a hide for my bearded.

I went to look in the reptile room and there were 2 baby mali's there about 3 1/2 inches long and semi-fat.

My brother and I go there every couple of weeks to make sure they are feeding the animals properly (they have a reputation for selling reptiles, fish, hampsters, rabbits and puppies that are sick and end up dying on the people who buy them a week later). We go there and make sure that we see reptiles with healthy looking bodies and eyes and make sure there is food there and to make sure that the cages are packed with too many baby beardeds or geckos.

The thing is we know for a fact they don't take care of their animals properly. If you look at the room where they keep puppies, you can see them crawl in between the cage bars and fall out of their cages and hit the ground.

I don't want to see these babies die, and I don't have any hard-core evidence (like pictures, video tapes, audio tapes) to give to an animal shelter to show how bad these animals are mis-treated.

I have a 10 gallon enclousre open and a diff enclosure open. I want to know what you guys think I should do about this.

I would just like to see that the baby mali's are taken care of properly and aren't abused.

What would you guys do if you were me? Would you buy the babies and make sure they are all right and keep them or sell them to people you know would take care of them?
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Don't buy them. It will only encourage them to buy more animals and they won't change their husbandry habits because of it.
If you do buy them, they will probably be sickly and then you would have vet bills on top of an overpriced animal. I'm assuming they are overpriced because all the petstores I go to sell the herps and other animals 2 or 3x more than what it would cost to buy from a good reputable breeder.

I'd try to get some photographic evidence or something and bring it to a humane society, and have some friends call and complain to the human society about them too. Maybe someone else can give you better advice for that, I've never done it personnaly.

Good Luck

i did rescue helga from a pet store and i love her to death but i would probably not rescue another animal from a pet store. like if i think the place looks bad, i just won't go in it now because i do have a bleeding heart and want to save all the babies.
i would call the humane society and ask them to check out this place because you thought you saw some unsafe conditions for the animals.

if you notice something wrong while you are in there perhaps you could try to enlighten them on the proper husbandry so they know that they are selling a more healthy animal. and talk to someone with authority not just some worker.

is that your only pet store? if not, i would stop using them for everything. even if you are not buying an animal you are still supporting their bad practices by giving them money.

it does suck that the animals have to suffer but this is why we need to write to politicians and hopefully have them make better animal laws
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vonnie
***Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not ready for an institution yet. Mae West ***

Actually the babies are only $75.99. I know people who sell juvie's for $60 and these are babies.

I'm gonna check in on them later tonight.

I'll try to see if a friend has a camera phone I can borrow so I can snap some pics of them since you really can't just go waltzing into the store with a giant camera and say you're gonna take pics of the animals.

Thanks for the advice.
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I hate it when that happens. It really is a no "short term" win solution. If you just buy the babies, the petstore will simply buy more, so the best option really is to try to educate them, notify appropriate authorities, and try to convince people not to shop at that store. For ANYTHING. The success of this type of campaign can be minimal, but in my opinion it is still better than just feeding their pockets. That would be positive reinforcment for a negative act.

The Petsmart near me does a pretty good job with their reptiles, I had spoken with them a few times in the past, and I think they finally hired someone with reptile knowledge. However, this chain, as most, is really privately run petstores under a chain name. So each one has to be judged on its own merit.

Never lose your concern though! It is a valuable trait!

Elizabeth
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1.0 Uro Archimedes
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin

I'd wanted to get a job there, so I could make sure the animals in my section would be fine. Since I have a leo gecko, bearded dragon, mali uro and saharan uro's I have good reptile experience. My brother's had a snake, he has a tarantula, a mali uro, bearded dragon, tokaye gecko he's also had chameleons. So we know a lot about how to properly take care of them. The guy who owns the place just hires people with no experience what so ever.

In my opinion he needs to hire a professional who knows what they are doing or me since I know a lot about the animals he carries there and how to take care of them.

I'll go there this afternoon and ask them a couple of questions just to test their knowledge. Then I'll be like, Oh, really? Well too bad that's not how you take care of such and such animals.

That should make them feel bad. Then I'll walk over and point to their books on how to take care of those animals and I'll say Here, you might wanna pick this up and read it before you go talking smack about something you don't even know about first hand.

Hopefully I'll get through to them or at least get a job since I know so much about these animals.
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If you want to get a job there, I recommend you try that route FIRST... People often don't like to hire people who have made them feel stupid...

Just my 2 cents.
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1.0 Uro Archimedes
0.0 Fish
0.1 Sulcata Minnie
1.1 Iguanas Flik and Loki
0.1 Newfoundland Jasmine
0.1 Feline Winter
Indiana & Wisconsin

I think I will try getting a job there first. Cause if I can work there, then at least I know that there is one person there who knows how to take proper care of those animals.
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I'm pretty sure they can't stop you from bringing a camera in the store. If they say anything, just keep taking pictures and don't be bothered by them, or tell them it's for a school project. I'd probably just come right out and say the pics were as evidence that they mistreat their animals. First be sure they won't listen to your advice though.

If you do get them do not put them in that 10 gallon enclosure. That is way too small, they cannot get proper temps and you can cook them. They need something 4 to 5 times that size.......
I would recommened not buying them, don't support bad pet stores, they then have a reason to change their practices
Dex

I have bigger enclosures to house them in. But for now I'm just going to try to get a job working at the pet store so I know that the animals will be safe while I'm working.
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