Gail":35soayf5 said:
Translation:
Guys I am really at a loss. I went to my local petland the other day and well, to make a long story short they have hatchlings on sand, only one climbing tree and only one light.
I know they are hatchlings because I went to petsmart and got my first bearded dragon about a month ago and they were a decent size. The one I choose named Hul is a pastel, he had a blue number on his back. I remembered upon my research I found that a lot of reputable dealer use this system. The babies at petland had no markings. They will definitely take offense to me saying anything but what should I do guys? They need help
Having a number does not mean they came from reputable dealer. No reputable breeder would ever sell babies wholesale to a petstore.
Most big petstores have a set of care rules set down by corporate and the employees can't change the care or they can get fired. Start by speaking with the store manager, if that doesn't work then you can email the corporate office with your concerns. You will need to write a polite letter outlining your concerns without attacking the company. Use good grammar and spelling.
It really hard to get petstores to change their care of animals though, I find it best to completely avoid the animal sections.
That's not entirely true... When I was breeding, I had 70 babies at one time, and couldn't find people to buy them... I searched around to all the local pet stores to figure out which one had the best reptile care setups, and found one that had proper enclosures, lighting, feeding practices, and wasn't a chain store, and sold them half of my babies at $20 each... That store called me a month later to rescue an adult beardie that was too aggressive to sell to a normal customer. Some stores are very responsible when it comes to baby dragons, others are definitely not. My local Pet Warehouse also houses their baby dragons on sand, and I'd like to tell them they should be on newspaper, but other than the substrate, they are in a proper enclosure with good lighting and good food.
By the way, the remainder of my baby dragons went to Grossboy Exotics in Waterloo, and he took them to shows to sell.
As for the OPs situation, talk to the manager, suggest they do research on proper care of baby dragons, and remind them of the risk of impaction for all dragons when kept on sand and other solid materials. Remember also, that most stores care little about that risk, because their rate of turnover on baby dragons is alarmingly high... they pay $10-15 per dragon, and sell them for $60-100 per baby. They bulk order greens and crickets, so they are almost always making a profit. Their goal is to convince YOU the consumer to purchase their dragons as soon as possible, so they make the enclosures LOOK nice with little regard to the health of the animal. What would likely be best is that hard packed digging sand that you add water to and it turns hard like dried clay - but soft enough for them to dig holes and caves in - so that there is no loose material on the surface. As the dragons dig, you spray more water on the surface, and it rehardens just like powdered clay.
Also, for the rest of you, if you're a breeder with business cards, your suggestion will carry a lot more weight with the store managers when you make suggestions... I got an entire reptile department revamped when I was breeding, just because I was also selling the store Phoenix Worms.
