This is such a sad story I used to shop at Petco a lot, then one day I was looking for a lizard. I went back to the little octagon "terrarium" where they had Gecko, chameleon, and some other funky looking lizards, and SNAKES! There had to have been 50 snakes in the same cage as all these lizards! What's one of the snakes favorite foods? You guessed it, Lizards! Looking around the cage i saw this sad skinny brown as the dirt lizard, looked like a sick iguana, but it wasn't, it was a Chinese water dragon, also known as the GREEN water dragon! I had one of the workers take him out and she was just mean ripping him off his perch, where he was obviously fearing for his life, and sort of tossed him into my arms. (I'm pretty sure she was afraid of him)
I complained about the snakes in with the lizards, explaining the natural fear of snakes, and the fact that there were lizards from all different climates being kept in the same cage. I bought the poor dragon, took him home and got him all fat and green like he was supposed to be, and fed him small mice and fish and things, even though they told me he only need 8-12 crickets a day! I went back after he died,(months after I bought him) and they hadn't changed a thing! I complained again, and got the response "they all seem to do fine together". Poor George didn't do so fine, and he later died on his top perch and fell dead to the cage floor I only had him a few months, but was so glad to have made him feel happier and safe for his last few months.

That was the day I boycotted Petco. I still go to PetSmart, still a conglomerate, but the one by me is clean, and so are the cages. And they seperate all lizards by species!

I'm sorry you had to see this same lack of care for animals that Petco has, but I'm glad at least you were there to help him out at the end. And this is how they treat a "rare" keet?!
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Dianne,
Mom to a 12 yr old human girl (still in obedience training!)
A 1 year old Aussie/Border Collie mix "Jack"
A 9 year old gray short-hair Korat-looking kitty "Timothy"
A 9 year old black 'n' white short hair kitty "Trouble"
4 parakeets "Salty" m 3yrs,"Skye" f 2.5 yrs, "Sea" f approx 1yr, "Pepper" m approx 1yr.

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