Finally at my wits end with local pet store...

[MommytoSobe]

This is long, Im sorry...
We have a local store that is HUGE. When we first moved here we thought they were the best! They seemed to know their stuff and had so much of everything... We first discovered they were sub-par when we asked a lady what a certain fish was in the salt water area and she was reading the labels on the tank and obviously guessed as to what it was, and then tried to sell it to us. Uh, no thanks...
Then I started realizing they were trying to rip me off when I was buying crix. I know what 300 crix look like, I've been buying them every week for the past 3 months. So when they tried to give me 100, I obviously knew it. Then I started paying closer attention to the beardies in the reptile room, and saw how little they were. They had a tank of about 20 ( probably about the size of a 30 gal breeder) and then the tank next to it had about 10 juvies. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was missing toes and big chunks of tail. Really? Im guessing these are the ones they removed because of injury and they put them back out. Every other week or so they'd have some adults for sale, in crappy tanks. Dirty sand, a red lamp, 2 to a 20 gal tank, etc.
Last week I went in and one of the employees had a pretty citrus girl and I was talking to him about her. He breeds her apparently, thats cool and all. But what got me was that she was FILTHY. I mean she would be beautiful if she wasn't practically brown because she was so dirty. He told me he had just fed her a pinky. Well then why isn't she under a basking lamp and is instead sitting on your shoulder? Oh and then he proceeds to handle her very roughly to show me how he tests her to make sure she isn't grumpy so his neice and nephew can play with her. Now by playing roughly I mean he turned her on her back and covers her face up (while upside down) and moves her head back and forth. Now he says she doesn't care one bit. Thats funny cause the way she was squirming around made it look like she really did care to me! He said he does that to his snake too... oh jeez.
And the last thing that really upset me was that yesterday I was in there and there was a little beardie in a big tank by himself. He was probably about 3 inches long (tip of the nose to the tip of his tail) and his head was probably as big as the nail of my pinky finger... Im going back tomorrow to see if he's still there, if he is Im gonna snap a picture of him. He was so sad looking, sitting there with his eyes closed. And all the other geckos that looked to be half dead. Half of them didn't even look like they were breathing.
So yes. Animal Jungle in Va Beach is not the place to go. These are just problems Ive found with the reptiles. Don't even get me started on the water for the chinchillas having mold ( I used to have a chinchilla) ... ugh! Stupid store!

End rant.

 

[CrystalReptile]

Ugg.....it sickens me. A few days ago at my pet store, I saw 3 juvies, and then a TINY BABY all in the same tiny cage.....that poor poor little baby will not last the month...

 

[junebug82]

 

[bogha69]

Wish i could slap each employee in there to be very honest. Also wish i had enough room and money to give all of those little guys a home, even temporarily so i know they can get attention, nutrition, a BATH, and some love to feel a little better, and find a BETTER home. Ya, you can't save them all, but I can atleast try my damn hardest! As far as the breeder flipping the poor girl/guy over (Backside down) Thats stupid, they CAN'T BREATHE!! Her wiggling is to try and get flipped over so SHE CAN! If your going to breed Beardies, or anything, he should atleast know that much! Ya i don't know as much as some of you, but i know quite a bit as is, and some things i think are ok, but still double check! That store/breeder makes me disgusted!

 

[beardieluv]

I haven't been there since I bought Charlie 2 months ago. I can't believe I used to look at all the lizards thinking how awesome and stuff they were and how cool a certain thing they did was, only to learn they were in horrible condition and not being taken care of correctly. Go to Pet Paradise on Kellam Road. Their crickets are 25 for 99 cents. Just don't go in the reptile room of course, they aren't much better than Animal Jungle. You and I should just go to all the pet stores around here, steal all the beardies, and start a rehab center

 

[superbiker]

I posted earlier in defence of the pet stores but I should have added that these superstores or pet supermarkets are no more than a factory line, buying in buld and if it doesnt sell then so what ''its disposable'' we have one near us called Pet Mania and it really sickens me to see some of the living conditions of any of the creatures there. Should all be shut down, pets are not like groceries and shouldnt be stacked high and priced low just to shift them for profit.
Mike

 

[rammsteinfreaky]

i sometimes pop into a shop called pets at home i went in the other day to get some crickets which were not great won't be buying them again, and i'm sure one of the displays did not have a uv in it, i thought what a joke. :evil:

 

[BrownEyes187]

I was just in a chain pet store and saw most of the usual complaints read about here by other concerned patrons. What i cant get my head around is what are they going to say to a customer when they ask "why does that lizard there have feet pointing in the opposite direction their supposed to??"

Im not kidding. I saw several beardies with completely deformed legs and feet that look like they were stuck on backwards. Absolutely dispicable.

I wrote the company an email with a link to his site. I can only hope it does some good.

Honestly, friends...With so many animals in such terrible living conditions...I really feel the pet industry should be "put down". We here are very few and far between people that care enough about our animals to read up and educate ourselves about their proper care...I can imagine the horrors and agony most exotic pets live... Its heartbreaking.

 

[fuzz]

Had the same issue with a pet store that I used to use (USE TOO!). The baby dragons were with large dragons alot missing toes,legs,tails.The tanks were dirty havent been cleaned in a while no kind of liner or substright. The food was to big large crickets for babys, meal worms that have turned to beatles. No type of greens what so ever. Even my son was mad they were like this.And Im not even going get into what the snakes looked like. So try to do what was right an tell them the crickets were to big a some differnt housing would be nice. They just said that they didnt eat greens tell they were older and it didnt matter what size of crickets they would be fine.Well the more I thought about that night I needed to do something so I called aminal control to see if there was anyone I could call.Where I live the animal control is with the sheriff deptment.Few min went by and got a call from the sheriff they were going to send a undercover officer by to check it out.Well they were appaled from the filth,roches running around flys they also found dead reptiles in the cages. Then they sent a couple officers to go through the whole place. They gave them 2 weeks to clean it up an have vet records for all the sick ones. They have cleaned up alot less reptiles an everyone in there own tanks and most of the snake were gone.The sheriff also will send a undercover by twice a month to keep them in check.