Another PETCO post....

Stopped in as I was next door and was looking at some supplies. As usual, I had to see what they had for lizards. Sure enough, there was a dragon. About 8 or 9 inches. Not moving. On some kind of calci-sand. Looked like he had been eating meal worms and his dish was full of wood shavings from the worm bedding.

The poor thing looked WAY too thin. It was dark in color and not healthy looking in any way. At first I thought it was dead, but I eventually I saw some shallow breathing. I came by a few minutes later and it was even harder to see any sign of breathing - and after looking for about a minute, I saw the ribs just barely move.

I snapped a few pics on my cell phone, then got the attention of the worker:

"how are you today"
"fine - but this beardie isn't looking so fine..."
<Chuckles> "oh, he's fine... those beardies just sleep funny"
I wasn't laughing...

He opens the cage and picks him up. His beard is black and he looks skinny, stressed, and lethargic - but it does 'wake up'.
"He looks stressed - see how his beard is black"
"Hmmm, well, he was fine 2 days ago... Uh, i'll take him in the back and put him in a better cage and see how he does"
"Oh, and this sand isn't good for beardies - can lead to imapaction"
Dumb look is all I get in response as he walks away...

That is so sad. Nothing like that would ever happen at the Petco I work at. I'd be so pissed.

Another rant... I hate seeing all the garbage marketed as "For Bearded Dragons" or "Bearded Dragon Kit", etc. Stuff with a pic of a beardie on it that has no business being used by one...

Even the online store has stuff that shouldn't be part of the 'bearded dragon shop':
http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_ProductList_PC_productlist_N_72_Nav_475_cp_2_Nao_48.aspx

WAFisherman":387eb said:

Even the online store has stuff that shouldn't be part of the 'bearded dragon shop'

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wow, iguana food.
but at least they have reptisun 10.0 tube lights!
i work at petsmart, we don't sell ANY usable uvb bulbs. at all. i've complained noisily. :/ and showed my boss the mega-ray i ordered.
which she responded to with: "wow! it's huge!!" like she'd never seen one before.
we're so badly stocked.

in reponse to the beardie-
he looks miserable !
he probably ate a bunch of those wood shavings trying to get his worms.
poor guy.

do they have a banfield in the store?
i can't remember if that's just petsmart, or if petco has one too.

boxers":06555 said:

in reponse to the beardie-
he looks miserable !
he probably ate a bunch of those wood shavings trying to get his worms.
poor guy.

do they have a banfield in the store?
i can't remember if that's just petsmart, or if petco has one too.

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Banfield is Petsmart, but I have heard horrible things about them. I would never take ANY animal of mine to them.

atreyu917":96a96 said:

boxers":96a96 said:

Banfield is Petsmart, but I have heard horrible things about them. I would never take ANY animal of mine to them.

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Yeah, I work at Petsmart and I don't trust Banfield at all for exotics. AT ALL.
They don't see reptiles, which I think is good. But they do see small mammals.

Once, I took over a guinea pig who was dragging a back leg. I filled out all his paperwork and they said they'd come find me in the store after he'd been seen.
The next day, I went to go ask how he was, and they said he'd been euthanized. I asked why, like, what had been the medical cause of his apparent paralyzation. She seemed flustered by my question, said she wasn't sure, and could check the paperwork if I liked. I said, Please. She went rifling through a drawer, and commented that they were not in the correct order, that people had been filing wrong. She went through every paper and did not have one on the guinea pig I had brought.
I left feeling very uncomfortable. It was like a frightened, nervous feeling. Like, "My God, they didn't even keep his paperwork? Maybe they didn't even fill it out!" The only reasoning I can think is that they were in a hurry to examine him, if it were urgent- but it wasn't. He didn't cry and he didn't struggle around. He just dragged a foot.

i used to work at petsmart as well and the banfeild is such a sad excuse for an exotic vet. whenever we would take hamsters or anything over there they would give us random medicines that in my opinion seemed like it would make it worse. i would sometimes secretly not give them the medicine. i also took one of my own birds there once because i didnt know what else to. her feet became paralyzed and the vet was like hmmm uhhh well hold on let me go look at some books real fast to see if i can figure out what it is. i was so upset. she just gave me some vitamins and sent me on my way. definatly NO banfeild for exotic animals

oh and also that beardy looks terrible, its hard to see him like that

OH, that is soo sad =(
If that dude was at my Petco, well first he hopefully wouldn't get to that point, and if he did he would have been removed ALOT earlier. You can tell he has been like that for more than just a couple of days!

Keep informing us! It is sad to see this continue, but change is in the works. Petco, surprisingly has been listening. The change has started. How long will it take to get everywhere I do not know, but I heard from someone who works in another district that they had a meeting about it and the whole district is changing over. Plus, carpet is now available through store use order - BIG CHANGE!!!

I changed my guys in my store over Thursday - they look so much better!





Again, not everything as changed (mealworms - still have to do those), and the whole change may take a bit more time, but it has started!! Keep up your hard work guys - not only do the beardies appreciate you, but so do some of the employees!!

dramasimms":9c747 said:

whenever we would take hamsters or anything over there they would give us random medicines that in my opinion seemed like it would make it worse.

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ditto!
they give us the weirdest medicines, i was just in iso last night for closing; we regularly use restorin, which says on the bottle "FOR CATS & DOGS ONLY" with a picture to clearly display their meaning.
and our chinese water dragon, who looks like he bumped his nose on something scratchy (scabbed over and everything), is getting some sort of medicine, i forgot the name... but it says "for canary" on it; they scratched that out and wrote "WD." next to it. :shock:
i told my manager that an eye seemed to be irritating him too, because it was like sealed closed when i went in there, and when i took him out and let him cling on my shirt, he took his back leg, slapped himself in the face, and peeled the eye open. it looked like a painful process. she said "wipe it with water and it should be fine." ughh
(for the record, the water dragon is not banfield's mistake- as i said, they do not treat reptiles. we have a separate doctor for them, a doctor fudge { :laughing6: } who is listed as being a bird specialist. wtf!)


woo hoo for petcos that use reptile carpet!! looking much better!

The petco I work at has carpet too.