Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was in Petco today ( i hate that place) and i saw that they had a columbian black and white tegu. Me and the worker there got to talking and i mentioned that i had an argentine at one time. She proceeded to say that columbians are much easier to keep because you can feed them DOG FOOD. I said no, thats not a very good idea because of all the preservatives and all of that stuff, and she said well thats why you feed them a high quality dog food. And that ignited the fire. I said "does that tegu look like a dog?? i dont think it does, it is not a dog therefore you should NOT feed it dog food. You are a human but do u eat cat food?? no i dont think so." Then i just kind of left it at that while she picked her jaw up off the floor. Some people just wont listen.

i've been round and round with the pet stores. gets real old watching them kill animals. i used to be really militant about it, but it's real hard to get them to listen at all, even when you're being reasonable. case in point, of the three local petshops in my area, one is bad, one is god-awful and the other is so heinious i won't go into it at all. the one that is just bad has at least been (partially) trying to clean up its act. but these are the same people that when i asked them why they were feeding their emaciated, dying, too cold wild caught chuckwalla that iguana chow that looks like fruity pebbles and some lettuce when he needed to be in a hydration chamber in the herp vet ER, when they shrugged and let it die. and this is the best pet store in the area. the one that is god-awful makes me grind my teeth every time i go into it; the latest offenses were the adult jackson's chamealeon that was so weak it was on the floor of the tank dying, and the hatchling sulcata that was housed with two adult WC box turtles. not pleased. not at all. the police and SPCA don't care much...screw 'em, they're reptiles is generally the attitude i get. sorry for the long winded post, needed to vent. i hate pet stores. most of them, anyway...

nate

What do you expect? Petco, Warlmart etc get what they pay for: You pay $5 an hour = you get what you pay for.... you expect more from people who can barely tell a dog from a cat much less a lizard from a dog?

100 years ago, it was decided by the 'powers that be' that they teach only so much so people do not become too wise = over the last 100 years we have seen a tremendous doumb-down effect - to now we teach(?) to the lowest common denominator - like in fractions - so that now the stupidest* person may feel challenged while the others in a class yawn and act out... how far down will we go? Lets wait and find out....its going to get lower and expectations drop lower, so to avoid your anguish and frustration as I do, I never go into places like that ever....

*stupid = a person who refuses to learn when the opportunity is available; dumb = a person who is incapable of learning due to toxicity of heavy metals(= mercury, arsenic, etc.), brain damage, or just plain old lack of proper nutrition when very young (= a zombie).

cheers,
mbayless

"*stupid = a person who refuses to learn when the opportunity is available; dumb = a person who is incapable of learning due to toxicity of heavy metals(= mercury, arsenic, etc.), brain damage, or just plain old lack of proper nutrition when very young (= a zombie)."

forgot flouride, and chem trails...
Hahahahaha

youre killing me here man.

warm regards,

http://www.myspace.com/mr2gurl4life

reg. Pet stores should not be allowed to sell reptiles cuz most of the petstores by me in NY can barley take care of the dogs and cats they sell..
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1 Burmese python
1 savu python
1 blood python
2 Uromastyx mali, Nigerian
2 savannah monitors
some other gems i will leave out..

corporate management. Petsmart for instance tells its employees that they have to tell customers the Petsmart way of caring for animals. You would be disciplined or fired if you worked at Petsmart and told someone to use yard dirt, flood lights from Home Depot, and that the $100 aquarium was not a good cage.

Then again most of the teenagers that work there do not know or care to learn how to keep the animals. The managers, district managers, and regional managers don't care either. The animals don't matter. They make their money by selling the cages, accessories, and such.
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Ed

These heat lamps make my electric bill to high.

I do not disagree, there are horrible conditions to be found in many petshops. You correcting them is not going to work, the reason is its apples to oranges. (so common on this forum)

Your task as a keeper is to take good care of your animals, there are ways to do that. That is you job.

A petshop is not a keeper, your not the same. Their task is to provide you with your pets/animals, whatever you want to call them. Yes, their task is to provide/supply healthy animals. Its possible that if you approached them with something they understand, you want to buy healthy individuals, and will not buy unhealthy individuals, they may respond. This is apples to apples.

Unfortunately, there are so many people who buying sick reptiles is rescuing them. That petshops do not have to change. As someone will buy all but the dead ones.

Remember, living animals are not money makers, they are leaders to sell hardgoods. Their money is in tanks, lites and food. Consider, Food is something expendable and keeps the customer in the store. Its well known, that convience allows purchase, which means, when people are in the shop, they buy something. Their task is to keep people in the store buying goods.

If you can lead them to believe taking better care of their animals(leaders) they will increase their goal of more sales of hardgoods, they may listen. FR

very good point, but 'may listen' should be more like... 1 out of 100 % chance of somthing changing.
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0.1.0 BCI, 3 yr old
0.0.1 Ridge Tail Monitor, Juvi.
0.0.1 Leoperd Gecko, Juvi (My girlfriends)

But remember, their job is not the same as yours and it should not be.

In order to help, you need to make it part of their job. FR