emberNchester
Member
Hi All,
So I really just wanted to vent here. My brother bought a Male 3 year old beardie 2-3 weeks ago and named him Mortimer. The beardie had been previously owned for literally 1 day before he was returned to the reptile shop. We've had great experiences from this shop in the past and they're really passionate about their reptiles. So when my brother chose out the only adult male, the sweet lady helping us mentioned that the beardie was previously owned and most likely abused. Apparently, these 18-20yr old guys had bought the beardie a week before we came in and tried to return him the day after they bought it. 24 hours. When they brought him back, there was red dust on his feet. The lady asked what it was and they laughed and told her it was from HOT CHEETOS. They apparently forced him to eat hot Cheetos. When the beardie was back in the shop, he didn't eat as much. He was extremely stressed out and became deficient in protein. The shop lady was concerned about him being stressed out also Bc of the female dragon that he could see also. So when my brother felt bad and ultimately asked how much it would be for him, she sold him highly discounted to us and with some needed food to help nurse him back to health. When we brought him home, he started doing really well for about a week or so and then suddenly he just stopped eating. He got really lethargic and we tried everything to get him back. Maybe it was the bulb? We got a new one (reptisun ofc). Maybe he was dehydrated? Bathtimes twice daily. Maybe it was too cold? Got a higher wattage basking bulb.Maybe he didn't like the feeders anymore? Served more variety of insects and veggies. We tried so much for the poor guy. Finally, we planned a vet visit and the reptile specialist was only in 3 days out of the week. A day before our visit, poor Mortimer ended up dying. When we talked to the shop lady about it, she apologized profusely. We were so focused on nursing the the poor guy back to health that we didn't even think about the obvious issue and probable cause. The hot cheetos could've possibly burned up his tummy or have caused other severe internal issues that we missed. Dragons are notorious for masking their pain and also, there might have been more things that they did to Mortimer that we don't know about. It's so infuriating though that there are people out there that do things like this. They harm sweet, defenseless creatures for fun. I don't understand it at all but people like that don't deserve to be loved by anyone. What gets me the most is that they spent $100 on Mortimer just to abuse him. Just to have some fun, force feed him cheetos, and bring him back when he didn't willingly do what they wanted. I'd understand it more if it was a child ignorantly acting like that, but grown-ass men? People like that deserve to rot.
So I really just wanted to vent here. My brother bought a Male 3 year old beardie 2-3 weeks ago and named him Mortimer. The beardie had been previously owned for literally 1 day before he was returned to the reptile shop. We've had great experiences from this shop in the past and they're really passionate about their reptiles. So when my brother chose out the only adult male, the sweet lady helping us mentioned that the beardie was previously owned and most likely abused. Apparently, these 18-20yr old guys had bought the beardie a week before we came in and tried to return him the day after they bought it. 24 hours. When they brought him back, there was red dust on his feet. The lady asked what it was and they laughed and told her it was from HOT CHEETOS. They apparently forced him to eat hot Cheetos. When the beardie was back in the shop, he didn't eat as much. He was extremely stressed out and became deficient in protein. The shop lady was concerned about him being stressed out also Bc of the female dragon that he could see also. So when my brother felt bad and ultimately asked how much it would be for him, she sold him highly discounted to us and with some needed food to help nurse him back to health. When we brought him home, he started doing really well for about a week or so and then suddenly he just stopped eating. He got really lethargic and we tried everything to get him back. Maybe it was the bulb? We got a new one (reptisun ofc). Maybe he was dehydrated? Bathtimes twice daily. Maybe it was too cold? Got a higher wattage basking bulb.Maybe he didn't like the feeders anymore? Served more variety of insects and veggies. We tried so much for the poor guy. Finally, we planned a vet visit and the reptile specialist was only in 3 days out of the week. A day before our visit, poor Mortimer ended up dying. When we talked to the shop lady about it, she apologized profusely. We were so focused on nursing the the poor guy back to health that we didn't even think about the obvious issue and probable cause. The hot cheetos could've possibly burned up his tummy or have caused other severe internal issues that we missed. Dragons are notorious for masking their pain and also, there might have been more things that they did to Mortimer that we don't know about. It's so infuriating though that there are people out there that do things like this. They harm sweet, defenseless creatures for fun. I don't understand it at all but people like that don't deserve to be loved by anyone. What gets me the most is that they spent $100 on Mortimer just to abuse him. Just to have some fun, force feed him cheetos, and bring him back when he didn't willingly do what they wanted. I'd understand it more if it was a child ignorantly acting like that, but grown-ass men? People like that deserve to rot.
