Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if any of you guys have seen this any pet stores that sell Beardies? I walked into this large pet store (I won’t mention the name of the PET COmpany) & saw that they were selling Beardies. I looked in the cage & saw a young healthy looking bearded dragon. They had it on the calcium sand that everyone says is bad for them & they were feeding it lettuce. So I found the person that was working in the area & told him what was wrong. He basically told me that the company that sells the sand says it safe so the use it.

Have any of you seen this type of stuff?

Claymore

Yes I have ( I also won't mention the name of the PET COmpany). They have their baby beardeds in a tank that's less then 10 gallons. Usually there are about 5-6 bearded's in there at any given time.

Now they've sold all but 1. The last one is a Rankins Dragon which I think we be awesome to have but I don't have the money for it.

There's no heat in the tanks that they provide for their animals. This PET COmpany sells snakes, leo gecko's and other animals all of which need heat of some sort and the PET COmpany doesn't provide it.

I wish someone would get enough proof of this abuse from all the companies all over and give it to this PET COmpany's boss and hopefully have this place shut down.
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2 mali uro's-Ares and Apollo
2 saharan uro's-Orion and Iris
2 bearded dragon-Hades and Draco
1 leo gecko-Kalypso
1 tokaye gecko-Sid Vicious
1 tarantula-Peter Parker
1 dog-cheeka
1 zebra finch-beeps
1 african gray parrot-keya
1 red headed parrot-pancho
And some fish

Pretty much all the stores we've been in do not properly care for any of their animals, let alone Beardies. They never provide the proper lighting...they're lucky to get even a heat lamp. Most of the time they're kept on bark substrate and are fed negligable amounts of lettuce or chunks of food that are too big to possibly eat. The Dragons are always WAAAY too small (literally about the size of ours right out of the egg, which is actually the result of a poor breeder, not the store) and are stressed beyond belief. They lay there all lethargic and don't even bother to lift their heads or open their eyes.

We refuse to sell to any stores unless they provide a proper enclosure (inspected by us), which we frequently check up on. We make frequent visits to see how our babies are fairing in the store environment. With that said, we will NEVER, EVER sell to any large chain stores.

That's kinda funny. I do the same thing. There's about 5 pet stores in my area, but the only one that has met up to my standards is one in Statesville NC('bout 20 miles from my home). This is the type of people that I like to deal with. If I ever see anything that seems to be incorrect, he'll jump right in & fix it. And it doesn't seem to matter to him if it's gonna cost him some money to do things right. He'll do it. And he'll make sure whoever buys one from him know how to properly take care of them. I'd like to think that all my babies end up in happy, loving homes. But storekeepers like this one are few & far between.
Cricket

I dislike pet stores as much as everyone else, but i just wanted to shed a little bit of different, slightly positive light on this.

I used to work for a certain PET COmpany, that made me keep my beardies on calci-sand. I fought the company about it but they wouldn't budge in there opinion beccause none of the beardies had died. This is all the fault of the company, i just wanted to sort of back up the kid who you spoke to at the store, as far as substrate, they really dont have a choice how sad is that? Trust me, its a [bleep]ty place to work.

As far as the other stuff, i dont know about stores in other parts of the country cause i have not been there, but in my state (maine) the PET COmpany that i worked for was pretty good (other than the substrate) about letting me change this as best i could for the beardies. There was a UVB strip set in the top of their tank unit which i was allowed to change as i saw fit. There is (unfortunately) no basking spot because the entire unit is centrally heated, but it was heated to at least 90degrees. Still not hot enough, i know, but i did what i could. The babies were fed gut loaded small crickets and a mixture of greens and other veggies.

The babies do come in much too small but at our store we had the knowledge in the staff to take those babies and nurse them until they were bright eyed and perky as the others.

I hate going into pet stores, even the one i used to work in because i know the animals are not cared for properly, but i guess the point i am trying to make is that it is not (always) the fault of the employees you see. Its usually a company policy that is IMPOSSIBLE to fight. I agree that there are some retarded people who work at these stores that dont care and dont bother to try and fight, and those ones are worth hollering at. But the others, try talking to them instead, they may be able to shed some light on the situation and should be willing to listen to all of your suggestions. They also have access to all the necessary numbers to report their own company. *wink wink*

What makes me the angriest is when i go into small independantly owned pet stores (and i have worked at those too) where they have no policies to comply with and their animals are kept in such filth!

If you ever think you see animal cruelty, definately report it.

Just before i go i want every one to know i DO NOT SUPPORT CHAIN PET STORES, I THINK THEY ARE MONEY HUNGRY AND DON'T CARE A BIT ABOUT THE ANIMALS. But the employees are sometimes differnt.

SOrry this is so long

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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
1.1 Common Boa-Un-Named, Ursula
1.0 Ball Python-Anabell (go figure!)
1.0 Red Tegu-Uteg
1.0 Albino Cal King-Pig
0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
0.1 Hermans tort-Esio
1.1 JCP-Milton, Medusa
1.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Snow Corn-Unnamed
1.0 Hypo Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Motley Okeetee-Unnamed
1.0 Western Hoggie-Wyrm
0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

One thing i forgot to add...

again, i dont know how all the other stores act on this but the PET COmpany policy is that any animal that is sick MUST go to the vet. It is almost funny sometimes, the store would spend hundreds of dollars and i would spend hours nursing a feeder mouse back to health and then it would be sold as snake food. Lol. But the point is, everything went to the vet, and everything got treated.

Up the street from that store was a pet store that kills any sick animals. My friend worked there and they had him break the nexts of any animals showing symptoms. I would like to get them busted!
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1.0 green iguana-Deitrich
1.1 Common Boa-Un-Named, Ursula
1.0 Ball Python-Anabell (go figure!)
1.0 Red Tegu-Uteg
1.0 Albino Cal King-Pig
0.1 Mexican Black King-Morticia
1.1 Bearded Dragons-Unnamed, Hanabil
1.0 Albino San Diego Gopher-Unnamed
0.1 Hermans tort-Esio
1.1 JCP-Milton, Medusa
1.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Snow Corn-Unnamed
1.0 Hypo Okeetee Corn-Unnamed
0.1 Motley Okeetee-Unnamed
1.0 Western Hoggie-Wyrm
0.0.1 Rose Hair Taruntla-Unnamed
2.0 Leopard Geckos-Reptar, Pogo
4.1 cats-Tucker,Poe,Abhib,Emerald, Felicity
0.1 Bullmastiff-Asha

I wonder if the aspca would be interested in something like this?
It just makes me angry that places like are still doing crap like that.

Claymore

Well, I'm not trying to defend the pet stores out there, but there is nothing wrong with putting several 3-5 week old beardies in a 10 gallon tank for a short period. You don't know that they don't feed them crickets with there salad do you? Also, calcisand is alright to use in my experiences.
Jeff

I see crickets in the cages & most of the time the lizards that I've look somewhat healthy. The point being is that if the pet stores do not know how to take care of the animals in which they are selling, that will get passed down to the consumer who will assume the pet store knows what they are talking about. here is a url that I just found.
Link

I was in a pet store not going to name the company that thought they were "smart" but the sales woman is telling me what not to do while their bearded dragons are on sand and being fed crickets bigger then the space between the eyes.

I bought my very first beardie from our local tramSteP store. It died within the first few days. They did refund my money, but I was heartbroken. I've never bought reptiles from them again.
Cricket

You know, it's really not a specific company or store, it's the individual taking care of them. I got a great beardie from petsmart at an awful price and it ended up being the largest one I've got. I bought one from a small time breeder and it died a week later. It depends soley on training, knowledge, and how much a person cares.

I'm sure lots of people have bought happy, healthy herps from PetSmart. It's just that I'm the type of person that doesn't go back. If I go to a restaurant and get lousy food or service, they've lost me as a returning customer. I don't give them an opportunity to burn me twice.
Cricket

My manager wants the beardies on sand because that is what we sell. So, I made the best by putting a large bowl in the tank and feeding the crickets in the bowl. The crickets usually don't jump out (never understood that one) so they don't ingest the sand.

How about all the customers who demand water in the tanks even when we explain that the babies don't drink from bowl and are misted. We finally gave up and put small bowls in the tanks.

Personally, I prefer to shop at smaller, family owned shops. It seems at these types of shops, the employees actually seem to care about their animals, and even know something about what they are selling (at least the one that I go to. It is worth the 45 minute trip, esp. if I am buying feeder food for our snakes and annoles. In my area (central NJ) we have a PET Company that routinely has to quarentine their animals due to disease and parasites. Makes me think twice about even buying my dog and cat food from this particular company.

Sharon

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2 - beardies- Dropkick and Murphy
2 - green annoles- Sid & Nancy
2 - garter snakes- Fric & Frac
1 - giant day gecko- Martin
1 - emporer scorpion- unnamed
1 - Albino kingsnake- Whitey
2 - dogs- Wheezer & Loki
2 - cats- Samuel & Tezcatlipoca