Bad breeder experience. Looking for insight

[wilgjenk]

For the time being I will not be posting the name/company of the breeder as our issues are still hopefully being resolved.

We ordered a baby bearded dragon from an online breeder on 12/27/13. We paid in full and they received payment on 12/30/13. After weeks of delays with holidays and such, we finally received our little girl on Friday. After we placed our order we attempted to stay in contact with the breeder to get information on shipping so that we could make sure we would be available for pickup but responses from the breeder were few and far between. We finally got an email on 1/7 saying she would ship on 1/8. Immediately we replied with questions about pickup, tracking info, etc and again, no response back. On 1/9 my girlfriend sent a very straight forward email demanding answers and information. Not 5 minutes later they sent a message saying our dragon would arrive today 1/9 at 3 pm and they "thought they sent tracking info" yesterday 1/8 in the morning.
She was shipped USPS on Wednesday 1/8. There was a delay, (avoid shipping USPS) and instead of overnight, we didn't receive her until 1/10 after she spent the night on a USPS truck in Jacksonville. To the breeders credit she was double boxed with a heating pad and insulated with newspaper. When we were finally able to pick her up at USPS we were quite surprised because the dragon we received looks very different than the dragon we purchased. After consulting with many friends and breeders, we do not believe that we received the dragon that we purchased.

So here are the pics of the dragon we "thought" we would receive, and the dragon we actually received. What do you guys think?? Same dragon?

On another note, she appeared to have an eye infection when we received her (swollen, keeps it closed, noticeable drainage) which we immediately notified the breeder about.

The breeder did not respond to our first two emails regarding the eye infection (which has since been confirmed through photos with two vet friends and a local couple who breeds bearded dragons) and our concerns that we did not receive the correct dragon we received this response from the breeder:

"Thank you for contacting us about your dragon. If you line up the markings, you did receive the same dragon. She shed out before she was sent, and that can change things slightly. As for the eye infection, there is no need to take her to the vet. We will send you the eye cream you need to clear it up. It is called BNP and will take care of the infection. Unfortunately this can happen overnight when dragons go through a severe temperature change like yours did.

We will send it out as soon as possible. In the meantime, just wipe any gunk of her eye as you see it. Is she eating for you?"

We have since sent multiple emails over the last 24hrs regarding when we would receive the medication, how they know its bacterial and not viral or fungal (the medication is antibacterial), and informing them that her condition appears to be worsening.

To sum it up we want to know what everyone here thinks about:

Does it appear that we did in fact receive the correct dragon based on the pictures of the one we ordered and the one we got? (the redder of the two is the one that we ordered)

What should we do about this eye infection? We are not getting much help from the breeders and do not know how long till we will get this medication and are worried she might get permanent damage to her eye.

Thanks for your input!

Dragon we recived:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/513/yjrr.jpg

Dragon we ordered:
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/32/qo5e.jpg

 

[Jaskotch]

Well the picture you bought from shows an over saturation of color (everybody does it), so I took your picture and added some color to try and get there.
To me the tiger stripes look much more prominent (thicker) in the original picture. Do these change with a shed? I have not noticed that with mine. I don't know. And it's hard to tell, but the pattern of stripes looks a bit different in places, too. Certainly she looks thinner, and that was an unfortunate journey for the little guy to be sure.
Do these guys have a phone number? I'd suggest taking a deep breath and calling them, talking to them calmly, in person. Could be they just aren't plugged into their email all that well, give them a chance to help and stand behind what they've sold you by trying another way of communicating with them before you make up your mind...

 

[AHBD]

That really appears to be a different dragon. Look at the pattern at the bottom of the tail, between the back legs, that's where you can see the pattern is different . As for the color, some breeders dip the dragon in water before taking pics, that always makes them look brighter and they puff up their body, making them look fatter. Also, it's always good to ask what shipping method is being used....never order a reptile from someone who wants to save money by using the unreliable USPS.[ Not to be confused with UPS, which IS reliable ]

 

[disturb3d0n3]

Is that the only pic they provided? It's very unprofessional to only show "part" of the dragon. Dragons do change with shed I know this first hand. They also look more dull whenever they're about to shed. However, the head of the dragons leads me to believe they are different. I'd still put this breeder on the BOI and next time check the BOI before purchasing a dragon or any reptile for that matter.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13 (if this url is not allowed it can be removed and I apologize, however it is very useful for everyone in the reptile industry)

Here's Daenerys, I never go by the baby pic of dragons anymore as they change so much. If you're questioning it's the same dragon look 6 stripes down from the base of her tail you will see an "x" in it.

and here's a more recent pic of her

As you see they change, however it takes longer than a week for that to happen. Good luck with the eye infection. Did they offer any health guarantee? If so they should either compensate you or offer to replace the dragon or offer for you to send it back for a refund. I had the nightmare of Daenerys getting lost in the mail because the breeder sent her USPS and also marked next day instead of overnight, regardless he got an earful and I made a 2 1/2 hour trip to get her in St Louis at 7pm instead of waiting for her to get to my post office and wait to receive a phone call at 1:30 am saying I could pick her up.

 

[Some87]

The head patterns do look different to me. I would say if you can afford it go to the vet. Who knows how long this baby has had that problem and also it sounds like you might not get that cream in time. I thought that you could only ship reptiles 2 ways with ship your reptile using fedex or sending them on a plane?

 

[wilgjenk]

Got a call from the breeder last night and they took responsibility for sending us the wrong one. They are sending the correct one and are letting us keep the one we have in hand so we are happy with how it has worked out. We got a hold of some eye cream from a vet and are treating her for the eye infection now. It looks like everything is getting sorted out

 

[Jaskotch]

there you go! after checking out a couple of threads on the fauna classified forum, i can see why a breeder would want to avoid ending up a topic there! reputation is everything. You showed class by not naming them before it was clear there would be no other way. Hope the right one arrives without delay! Post a pic when you get him!

 

[sue09]

You sound as if you have researched your dragon well,just a reminder not to house them together which I'm sure you already know. Good luck with your new babies.

 

[Some87]

That's great! I hope everything goes well with that eye infection.

 

[Sauzo]

Well, it's good everything worked out but for the future, always look at the mom and dad to get an idea of what the baby will look like when grown up since they do change colors as they get older. Also verify the shipping method before ordering since if they are using USPS, I would run away screaming unless its for bugs. For any live animal(pet) I would only use UPS or FedEx.