Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went into a petland here in nyc, and saw they they had many different tanks with different species housed together. Anoles and chameleons, different kinds of tortoise.... and cresteds and bearded dragons!!!

I spoke up to an employee, telling them that I keep cresteds, and know a lot about their care. I told him that cresteds prefer low temperatures, with 80 being the highest they can possibly handle. I told him that anything over that can be extremely detrimental to their health, or even fatal. That beardeds are heat loving lizards, and that the two are not compatable at all. He went on to say that the cresteds cannot be housed with the chameleon, though, because they fight. I then told him that different species should not be housed together, period, that I understand that there is limited space, but that its just not good for the animals.

He said its good that I pointed this out to him, that its better that I see it and tell them then the health inspectors (who come every week, but have never noticed this problem that i brought up, according to the employee).

He said he would let his manager know.

I hope this changes!!!

Had a similar experience with PetSmart here in Madison, WI. A crested was in a tank with heat lamp over it, and totally dried out baby food in a lid. I asked them if they at least turned the lamp off at night, since the gecko can't take that extreme heat and certainly would be unwilling to come out in that blinding light, and they said "NO". The T-Rex Crested complete meal powder was on a shelf right across the aisle for sale, but they fed baby food, and IN THE MORNING so that by evening, it would be inedible (even if it were worth feeding in the first place). I emailed the company, but after talking to an apathetic employee at the store, I figure that crested did not have long for this world. So much ignorance out there. That's just one reason why I bought all mine directly from reputable breeders.
-----
Terri
4:8:5 crested geckos: Popcorn, Goldfish, Harley, Bear, Big Red, Olive, Smudge, Blackie, Belle, Brilliant, Tina, Brick, Avis & Subtle, Toni(y), Kermit & Zipper

i have a similar story about petsmart here in raleigh. i have a friend who also keeps crested geckos (and managed to beat me to breeding them), and she works at the store. now i know she wants the best housing for each and every reptile that comes into her store, but corporate, who essentially runs the place, will hear nothing about the inadequacy of their setups. as some of you may recognize, many petsmarts have this sort of rock-looking thing with windows in which they put all their reptiles. at this particular store, they used to actually have reptile housed in appropriately sized tanks. but corporate demanded they use this big old rock-looking thing. they've got all sorts of lizards and such, although usually divided by species, all with the same basic setup. and by this basic setup, they only really give true care for the reptiles that can tolerate high temperatures. my friend has become quite annoyed with her inability to reason with corporate, and decided she would do her best to keep their reptiles from dying off. these people would put $200-300 jackson's chameleons in 10 gal inserts with absolutely no ventilation. its quite repulsive when you walk into a pet store and see that they havent even noticed the dead animals in display cages. anyway, the best my friend and i could do was to buy what we could afford when we saw that it had arrived. i got a beautiful crested a while ago from petsmart that i no doubt believe would have died in its enclosure. it felt like at least 85 degrees when i reached in to check her out (thats right...petsmart hires people to sell reptiles that are often too afraid to pick up the reptiles themselves). luckily, she has done well thus far. its sad that they can get away with things such as this, and furthermore that supposed animal health screeners don't pick up on the stores' lack of knowledge/housing adequacy.

its kind-of a double edged sword too...i want to buy all the lizards that they cannot supply the right conditions for. but if i buy them, they might die soon after, and i have thus forfeited my money. if i dont buy them, they'll die unless someone else happens to buy them. in a way, i believe there should be a system of reporting losses like that to headquarters, so they could accurately determine if something needs to change. unfortunately, the only change the pet stores/chains are interested in is dollars and cents.

When you buy reptiles from these places, that just encourages what they're doing. The minute you buy one, they just order another. I know it's hard to look at it that way, but that's the reality of it.
-----
----------------------------------
Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

I thought I would put my two cents in I think that it still depends on store the big ones want to sell quick but the little ones realize if you give someone good knowledge and friendly service you get repeat buisness .Even out here in Montana the big stores buy stuff without knowledge and sell it the same way.We have some little stores that are very good and other little ones that have no clue what they are doing.I think it comes down to which is more important......knowledge and money or money and no knowledge....

just rambling on my 2 cents
Mike

>>I thought I would put my two cents in I think that it still depends on store the big ones want to sell quick but the little ones realize if you give someone good knowledge and friendly service you get repeat buisness .Even out here in Montana the big stores buy stuff without knowledge and sell it the same way.We have some little stores that are very good and other little ones that have no clue what they are doing.I think it comes down to which is more important......knowledge and money or money and no knowledge....
>>
>>
>>just rambling on my 2 cents
>> Mike
>>
-----
----------------------------------
Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

I wasn't saying that all pet stores are bad.

>>I thought I would put my two cents in I think that it still depends on store the big ones want to sell quick but the little ones realize if you give someone good knowledge and friendly service you get repeat buisness .Even out here in Montana the big stores buy stuff without knowledge and sell it the same way.We have some little stores that are very good and other little ones that have no clue what they are doing.I think it comes down to which is more important......knowledge and money or money and no knowledge....
>>
>>
>>just rambling on my 2 cents
>> Mike
>>
-----
----------------------------------
Anthony Caponetto
www.ACreptiles.com

I know what you meant the bigger the pet store the more people above they answer to and the less these people know about what they sell.........There are good and bad stores just like anything else