jazyman":13h3hhdp said:I will. I feel bad for those beardies who are brought into homes like that. I wouldn’t have a problem if I was actually doing something wrong and they were helping me to care for him. I hate that they don’t know what they are doing, and they tell customers to care for them the way that they have been. When I got my beardie, he was throwing up and had diarrhea from their care. Since then, he’s been very healthy. Not sure what all they did there. Never looks like they have appropriate lighting, water, or heat. I know for sure they don’t get the right food. I wish something could be done about this. It’s not just the PetSmart near me, but pretty much all of them.
IMO I think that petco knows a bit more and keep their animals a bit better not saying that they treat them the right way but yeah just do what you do as an earlier comment said they are m0r0ns and they really only care about money.jazyman":2moy63c7 said:When picking up crickets from PetSmart for my beardie, we noticed someone carrying a small tote full of crickets. Out of curiosity, my mom and I asked what they were for. They said “a baby bearded dragon”. They said they had around 20 crickets to feed their baby for the next few days. I know it’s none of our business, but we told them “you’re going to need more!” because we’d hate for a baby to go starving. They told us, “are you crazy? They only need like 4-6 a day. We give ours two crickets at each feeding.” They then asked us how many we gave ours and we told them, 3-5 feedings a day, where we allow ours to eat as many as they need. They tell us when they are full when they run back to their rocks. This ends up being close to 30-50 a day. They told us that we needed to stop feeding ours so much and that ours would be extremely unhealthy if we fed ours that many. So far, ours has been very healthy and has had no problems. A PetSmart employee overheard our conversation and told us that we were feeding ours too much. I know that not very many know much about caring for their pets they sell, but she kept telling us we were doing everything wrong. I have done my research (even have a few pages of notes!) and I have not read this anywhere. They told us they feed theirs once a day, and they will get around 4 crickets, or sometimes worms, each. This seems very unhealthy for the babies, especially at this age where they are so fragile. When we got ours, he was extremely malnourished and dehydrated. I’ve noticed a lot of their pets are. It seems that everytime we go in there, this woman (and a few others) criticize me on how I care for mine!
ComicBookMama":u8og1cz6 said:It's definitely unfortunate that most pet store employees don't have any experience with reptile pets outside of the basic training the store provides, which is, as Tracie noted, driven by the bottom line - move 'em out of the store as quickly as possible, make as much money on them as possible (which makes me wonder why they don't advise more feedings of a respectable amount; they'd make more money on crickets that way). The company won't change unless we, the consumers, demand that they change.
BUT - if you go to a store where the employees have pet reptiles of their own, like my local Petco does, you will often get different and better advice. I'm in and out of Petco several times a week buying 100 crickets at a go for Figment, the stomach on legs, and I've never been told that I'm feeding him too much - in fact, I've been asked why I don't order in bulk online instead of coming in to the store all the time!
jazyman":5kkm1wmf said:ComicBookMama":5kkm1wmf said:It's definitely unfortunate that most pet store employees don't have any experience with reptile pets outside of the basic training the store provides, which is, as Tracie noted, driven by the bottom line - move 'em out of the store as quickly as possible, make as much money on them as possible (which makes me wonder why they don't advise more feedings of a respectable amount; they'd make more money on crickets that way). The company won't change unless we, the consumers, demand that they change.
BUT - if you go to a store where the employees have pet reptiles of their own, like my local Petco does, you will often get different and better advice. I'm in and out of Petco several times a week buying 100 crickets at a go for Figment, the stomach on legs, and I've never been told that I'm feeding him too much - in fact, I've been asked why I don't order in bulk online instead of coming in to the store all the time!
The sad thing is, they all say they have beardies. Before going to PetSmart (we got there because crickets are cheaper), we were looking at the beardie supplies at Petco. We asked for a heating pad because our house gets around 50 or less degrees at night and we were afraid of the effects on him. We told them we would have carpet over it and it would just raise the temp a bit so it’s not as cold. They told us that they keep their bearded dragon at home in 60 or less all of the time. They said they feed their babies mealworms and they’re fine. I just try not to listen to anything they say.
The one that told me about feeding them 2 crickets per feeding said that she has a few babies at home. I feel like beardies and all pets are too easy to buy. Most people see them and go “oh that’s cute! I’m going to get one” without any research. I hate that they are impulse buys. Almost makes me want to get a job at one of these stores to help in the proper care of them!
kingofnobbys":87lraak3 said:I know this wont happen in your country - too many vested interests will oppose it, but you really need a system like we have here in Australia (where ownership is restricted, and not a right but a privilege).
We have 2 levels of permit applicable to most keepers -
companion pet ( can be a reptile but only allowed ONE ) on the licence,
general keeper ( can keep more than one so long as it's not classified as dangerous or advanced (requiring special training / experience ) on the licence.
No licence sighted , no sale PERIOD , no iffs no buts.
And only specially licenced pet shops can stock and sell live reptiles ( not an easy licence to get and requires staff to all be licenced keepers ( possibly even advanced level keepers ).
skyfishcafe":3prlikho said:kingofnobbys":3prlikho said:I know this wont happen in your country - too many vested interests will oppose it, but you really need a system like we have here in Australia (where ownership is restricted, and not a right but a privilege).
We have 2 levels of permit applicable to most keepers -
companion pet ( can be a reptile but only allowed ONE ) on the licence,
general keeper ( can keep more than one so long as it's not classified as dangerous or advanced (requiring special training / experience ) on the licence.
No licence sighted , no sale PERIOD , no iffs no buts.
And only specially licenced pet shops can stock and sell live reptiles ( not an easy licence to get and requires staff to all be licenced keepers ( possibly even advanced level keepers ).
I wish this were the case here -- particularly if licensure required a certain amount of education and not simply payment of a fee/tax. I'd happily obtain the training and license required -- though I have enough social privilege that I could probably do so fairly easily. Other people may not be so fortunate.
<<<< if someone can't afford to pay for their licence to keep the animal , they shouldn't really be buying a pet reptile.
When I was in a rough patch several years ago I spent a little over a year as a PetSmart cashier. It's sad but, like Tracie said above, the petcare employees are mistrained/maltrained by what amounts to hearsay that originated with corporate bean counters and sloughed its way down the company chute.
Pet stores dont normally have older bearded dragons because they are bigger and are more expensive to keep because you cant have 10-20 in a proper cage its just more convenient for them to sell them younger.daveferns1":j0np3qct said:jazyman":j0np3qct said:I will. I feel bad for those beardies who are brought into homes like that. I wouldn’t have a problem if I was actually doing something wrong and they were helping me to care for him. I hate that they don’t know what they are doing, and they tell customers to care for them the way that they have been. When I got my beardie, he was throwing up and had diarrhea from their care. Since then, he’s been very healthy. Not sure what all they did there. Never looks like they have appropriate lighting, water, or heat. I know for sure they don’t get the right food. I wish something could be done about this. It’s not just the PetSmart near me, but pretty much all of them.
I know its unfortunate, I wish more people did their research or that pet stores were better regulated on reptiles. The sad thing is that bearded dragons are just so easy to breed and babies have just completely flooded the pet market, adding the fact that these little guys are cute and people just walk into a store and buy one without the slightest thought what a reptile might require. Baby beardies have just ended up as a cash grab for chain pet stores, Ive also noticed that most chain pet stores dont have many adults or juveniles probably because their babies dont survive that long.
yes it is much better when the employees have their own reptiles and know what they are doing, like my local petsense and pet supplies plus.ComicBookMama":nurqfi4o said:It's definitely unfortunate that most pet store employees don't have any experience with reptile pets outside of the basic training the store provides, which is, as Tracie noted, driven by the bottom line - move 'em out of the store as quickly as possible, make as much money on them as possible (which makes me wonder why they don't advise more feedings of a respectable amount; they'd make more money on crickets that way). The company won't change unless we, the consumers, demand that they change.
BUT - if you go to a store where the employees have pet reptiles of their own, like my local Petco does, you will often get different and better advice. I'm in and out of Petco several times a week buying 100 crickets at a go for Figment, the stomach on legs, and I've never been told that I'm feeding him too much - in fact, I've been asked why I don't order in bulk online instead of coming in to the store all the time!
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