Petsmart gave customer odd advice I think but unsure

Ok so today I went to my local petsmart after work for some cat food etc. and while I was the I was looking at a few new decorations as well as substrate they got in for the reptiles. While shopping around there was a little kid buying a beardie. They had a big starter kit as well as a beardie pamphlet and book on them. But what I thought was odd was the sales clerk was telling the kids mom that fish aquarium decor works great as they are the same as the reptile ones and are sometimes better due to the many different designs and also aquarium rocks makes a good substrate and works better then the sand as that's what she uses. The only thing I can think of was the poor beardie that lives with this clerk :-(. I'm no expert myself as I only had my first beardie for 11 months now but even I found it strange. What does everyone else think

Fuzzman":2f4uc6d3 said:

Ok so today I went to my local petsmart after work for some cat food etc. and while I was the I was looking at a few new decorations as well as substrate they got in for the reptiles. While shopping around there was a little kid buying a beardie. They had a big starter kit as well as a beardie pamphlet and book on them. But what I thought was odd was the sales clerk was telling the kids mom that fish aquarium decor works great as they are the same as the reptile ones and are sometimes better due to the many different designs and also aquarium rocks makes a good substrate and works better then the sand as that's what she uses . The only thing I can think of was the poor beardie that lives with this clerk :-(. I'm no expert myself as I only had my first beardie for 11 months now but even I found it strange. What does everyone else think

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I don't know about using aquarium rocks for beardies as substrate... i would feel very scared that my beardie would eat it and cause impaction. I am no expert either but learning about different substrates, i would stay away from that person who mentioned it. I also feel bad for that beardie who stays with that clerk from petsmart The list they gave me when i got my beardie from Petsmart most was all wrong! It's sad advice but you really have to double check, better yet ask questions with a certified reptile vet before purchasing one. That way you can go right in buy all the decor , accessories that you need , feeling confident that you are making the right choices.

You absolutely should never use aquarium gravel for a bearded dragon's substrate, especially a baby or juvenile beardie who could die from swallowing just one piece of it. They'd be better off on the sand! UHG...

I actually saw a breeder who had 4 week old hatchlings on blue aquarium gravel for her display tanks. She had like 10 babies per little tiny plastic cube, and each one had an inch or two of blue gravel. I was going to say something, but before I could say anything, the guy from the breeder's stand across the aisle beat me to it. He told her it was not only dangerous, but she was giving bad advice to new owners and was being a very bad influence. She got really upset about it, and she got extremely embarrassed after I found 2 dead juvenile beardies in another display tank that had sand in the bottom (they didn't die from the sand, they were both emaciated)...

So those are the kind of bearded dragon owners/breeders who use aquarium gravel as a substrate.

Yeah I thought the same thing. I'm fairly a new owner myself but I did do some research before making the decision to buy my first beardie. Granite I still have questions but we all do. I have only 1 beardie which he is my first and even though I only had him for 11 months now,I would never even think about aquarium gravel. I don't even have sand in my tank as I feel it's unsafe. I thought it was very poor advice also but I'm fairly new and didn't want to say anything. I'm really thinking about emailing petsmart corporate over this even though they prob won't do squat,ugh!! As I feel if she's given so called 'professional' advice,how many beardies in my area can be in trouble :-(

Isn't that just typical of petshop staff.... chances are the staff member was telling porkies about owning her own beardie , it's all part of the sales stategy (gain the customer's trust and make oit like you actually know something even if you don't).

Rocks are OK - BUT ONLY if they are way too big for an ADULT bearded dragon to swallow.
Little rocks even if too big for the hatchling to swallow become life threatening risks pretty soon as hatchlings grow fast and soon those rocks become small enough to be ingested by the dragon.

Gravel sold to go in the bottom of aquariums is lethal to bearded dragons when it is ingested as they can accumulate in the gut and form a blockage which if not cleared WILL KILL the dragon.

Bet they walked out with "BITES" and a coloured basking globe, an INFRARED globe, a horrible Chinese UVB globe and a bunch of mealworms too.

I hope the kids mum finds this board and has enough presence of mind to ask questions here.

Yes, the gravel would be definitely one of the worst things.

As for vendors at reptile shows, anyone who owns beardies can breed 2 dragons and get a table at a show [ if that's where you saw them ] and sadly whatever advice they give to potential customers is looked at as " expert " advice since this person is the " breeder." Hopefully she didn't influence anyone but too late if someone saw it + thought it looked good.

I know,I couldn't believe the advice I heard but bein I'm a newbie I didn't want to say a word. Buy him just glad I was 1 of the few that did some research before buying my beardie to make sure he stays healthy.

The aquarium decor can be used as it's basically the same thing as the reptile decor, but the gravel is a huge no no as already covered.

I've been in pet stores where someone was asking the clerk about lighting for beardies and it was so painful to listen to.
I have a hard time deciding if I should step in and help or leave them be as it is not my issue, nor can I help everyone.

I take my dragons into petsmart with me as they seem to enjoy the experience, and because of this I'm pretty well known by the employees.
There was an employee just last week who confided in me saying someone returned a baby beardie that day because he was aggressive, and she accurately told me what they were doing wrong and said they were glad they gave up because now the baby can live.
Apparently they had him on green calcisand and were feeding him only mealworms and had no uvb. This was from an employee who does not own a dragon, so it is good to know not every pet store employee has terrible advice

Yeah I thought that about the decor also but even as a fairly new owner,I even had enough sense not to use fish gravel. If they were bigger stones I could see but def not gravel. I just hope someone else puts that clerk in her place with proper info. I know next time I'm in Petsmart and she gives any info to new beardie owners or looking to buy,I'm sending them here and tell them to get the proper info. I just feel bad about the beardies who live with that clerk. But I'm just glad not all pet store clerks are like this. There was a pet shop in Philly where I use to live that the owner refused to sell any reptiles to new owners without him asking the customers care questions. If he felt you knew your stuff he will gladly sell them to you as he'll know they were going to a safe home. Wish all pet stores were like this

AHBD":3h0pen5p said:

Yes, the gravel would be definitely one of the worst things.

As for vendors at reptile shows, anyone who owns beardies can breed 2 dragons and get a table at a show [ if that's where you saw them ] and sadly whatever advice they give to potential customers is looked at as " expert " advice since this person is the " breeder." Hopefully she didn't influence anyone but too late if someone saw it + thought it looked good.

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Yes, it was at the Pittsburgh Reptile Show, and that particular breeder wasn't the only one that had dead reptiles on display either (she was the only one with aquarium gravel though ?.

There were probably 4-5 breeders that had beardie displays on freaking yard mulch, like the really dark red, dyed mulch you put around your flower beds. And then there was the guy who bred only geckos, which actually looked pretty good, but he had a bearded dragon who was at best 6 months old, or at least the size of a 6 month old, who was his personal pet, and he was letting little kids feed him thawed-out frozen pinky mice all day long. He had a sign about "Feed the bearded dragon!", That beardie must have eaten at least 20+ pinkies. I didn't say a word to anyone, I just bought my discounted Silkworms that I can't buy locally, some cheap pieces of Mopani wood for my new baby's enclosure, and then I headed to Jerome Betis Grill for beer ?. They never listen anyway, especially if they have a booth at an expo or a reptile show.

I only been to one reptile show , was run by SOFAS my local club , never again .... had a guy there who was feeding live geckos and skinks to his juvenile lace monitor.... no of the other breeders were batting an eyelid at this . Apparently they were fine with him catching wild lizards and giving them as live food (a terrifying experience for the unfortunate lizards who had no chance of escaping unlike the wild situation where they have a chance of escaping the predator) , and it's OK to destroy their habit and homes and interfer with them to get that perfect photo , while I was breaking the law rescuing and rehabilitating Lucky ?!?! and giving food treats to my resident wild lizards - hypercrits !


I'd tried to get some members interested in starting a reptile rescue survive (no WIRES here in my area and the RSPCA is useless and snake wranglers are in it for the $) , but no one was interested , I'd even been abused verbally for rescuing Lucky and feeding my resident skinks.

It was an hour drive to the monthly meetings and I never made it to any of them.
And they had no club newssheet , no discounts at vets or pet shops , not even a list of breeders, and hardly ever had experts speak , so for me there was no benefit in being a member.

The guy feeding wild caught geckos and skinks to his pet goanna was the last straw , I never bothered to renew my membership the club.

At least here, you can't have reptiles as pets unless you have a licence to keep one as a companion pet or a licence to keep reptiles and breed them . So no blow ins can walk into a reptile show or a pet shop and buy one or more reptiles on a whim and walk out 1 minute later if he has cash or a credit card to pay for it/them.

The main bad advise I hear given by pet shops here is
>>> use sand
>>> use kitters' krumble
>>> use kitty litter
>>> fed it mealworms or superworms as THE STAPLE
>>> when they are grown up give them dog food (we have big dog food sausages you can use)
>>> fed it pellets as a staple when it's grown up
>>> buy our shop brand UV lights (they are just as good as the expensive brands but 1/2 the price ..... yeh right)
>>> you need a red INFRARED globe or a Blue MOONLIGHT
>>> you need a de-ionizer globe
>>> buy a fishtank to house the lizard
>>> buy one of our flatpack laminated particle board vivs
>>> sure you can house 2 or 3 beardies together for ever
>>> lights on 12 hrs only.