Left my local pet shop VERY IRRITATED TODAY.

[DaisyDragon123]

If you feel that strongly then get them. But before you do ask yourself the following:

1. Are you prepared to be the permanent owner if you can't successfully rehome them? Do you have the space for all of the enclosures?

2. Do you have the finances should they need vet care now or while in your care? Money for feeding and proper habits?

3. Are you prepared to follow quarantine procedures to protect your resident dragon? Separate bathing containers, washing hands between handling of dragons, changing clothes between handling quarantined dragons and resident dragon.

4. Will you have the time to devote to each of them.

Just a few things to.consider.

 

[BG23]

You have some really good points there and no I probably wouldn't have the time for all that I have a full time job and there would be no problem financially but time wise I wouldn't be able to I just hate seeing animals treated that way that's all because it's not their fault and those owners should have a lot more respect for them than they do.

 

[saulANDcharlie]

If they're on yelp you can leave a bad review, most stores respond and change things if you do this.

I don't like seeing animals in pet stores, I've never seen the animals properly cared for(with the exception of some kittens). I mean look at how they keep betta, in those tiny sad cups, and then they sell itty bitty tanks to put them in, which should only be used while cleaning a real tank.

Most pet stores are grossly misinformed about what species need what....
I swear someday I'll figure out how to start a pet store that cares for it's animals properly! Finches would be in flight cages, fish would have the space they need, reptiles would have proper lighting and substraight and so on and so forth, oh and I'd work with local rescues too.

 

[DaisyDragon123]

I know you talked to the employee but have you actually talked to the owner to see if he or she is making an honest mistake with the husbandry? Bad information on reptile housing, etc., just seems to keep recirculating. Maybe the owner is just going on bad information received.

 

[syoung27]

When I bought my beardie from Petsmart about 5 or 6 months ago, he probably wouldn't be alive today if I didn't do all my own research. Everytime I went into any of the stores, every bit of information given to me was essentially wrong, especially regarding substrate.
I witnessed an employee also tell a customer to switch their beardie over to just meal worms when he has come in for supers and they were out of stock. I corrected the employee explaining the contents and risks with meal worms, but of course neither listened since I was just anot her customer.
I've also seen full size reptiles of all sorts in less than 20g enclosures, with crix crawling all around and on them. Very depressing going to a big box pet store sometimes.

I noticed somebody wrote about the $89.99 being steep...I live in Ottawa, Ontario....Canada(for the geographically weak) and my guy was I believe $65. This was a sale, 40% I think. They are usually over $100 and the "fancy" beardies soar up to $130.

Now that I've read this thread I'm going to the Petsmart stores near me to look tomorrow. I always check the lizards out but never noticed the lighting because they are such small enclosures.
Eff that I'll start a petition on change.org or wherever if need be. Under new laws it must technically be animal cruelty if they aren't providing proper care for them.
I've noticed they're terrible with pretty much anything but dogs or cats. I don't even like supporting them, I refuse to buy whatever I need for my beardie from them anymore because there's a nice gent I found with a lizard shop and great prices. Unfortunately I still have to shop at petstupid for my husky.

 

[Kelsiekiller]

When I had my first beardie along time ago I was never told about needed a UVB and well he lived on for quite some time with only a heating bulb. My newest beardie, got him back in November, He has a UVB as I was finally told about needing one, they seem to have no differences in behavior? Im not saying they can live perfectly fine without it, just wondering why there is no difference I guess

 

[BG23]

Well what are you using for a basking bulb and what's your enclosure setup like, there are a lot of other factors that could have something wrong such as temps, diet, and a number of diff things and Yea I'm sure a beardie can go on and live for awhile without uvb but it's using calcium from it's own bones everyday as time goes on and the animal doesn't know that it's just what has to happen because of no uvb and it's pretty much torture. Overall beardies are really chill animals they are gonna bask eat and sleep that's what they do but I garuntee there is a difference just in the looks as in healthy or not healthy so maybe there's something else not right in the enclosure that's causing problems, can you take a pic and explain what you are using maybe we can help.

 

[DaisyDragon123]

When I had my first beardie along time ago I was never told about needed a UVB and well he lived on for quite some time with only a heating bulb. My newest beardie, got him back in November, He has a UVB as I was finally told about needing one, they seem to have no differences in behavior? Im not saying they can live perfectly fine without it, just wondering why there is no difference I guess

You just lucked up. You will never know if not having the UVB for your first dragon shortened his lifespan.

 

[BG23]

[http://www.opposingviews.com/i/soc...good for this girl to stand up for this ****.

 

[Aaaadrienne]

Hello everyone I was disgusted today from what I saw at my local pet shop in Michigan so I have to share and vent a little bit. So I went to my pet shop today to pick up some hornworms for my beardie and I decided to loom at the new babies that they just got inn and what I saw was 3 babies in a tank together with just a basking bulb and that's it. So I ask the kid that was in the reptile area why they don't have a uvb/uva bulb in the tank in which he went on to try to tell me that the bulb that's on there is a uvb which clearly was not. I'm more saddened and worried about the little guys because this is a huge part of their lives that they need, as I went to pay for my worms I said something to the lady about it and she said she had no clue and that I had to talk to the kid that was back there then another guy came out from the back when he heard how frustrated I was about the situation and he totally agreed with everything I was saying so he told me that he's gonna look into it soon as possible. Still worried I acted like I was looking around for other stuff to see if they would even address the issue since there we're zero people in the store and nothing they acted as if it we're no big deal, I went back to the area where the cage was and read the setup details papers they have sitting there and sure enough it said all you need is a basking bulb now I could understand if they we're using or talking about MVB bul BMW s but they never mentioned one thing about uvb/uva. What do you think about this and what more could I do to help them I have a 1 1/2 year old female at home and I almost want to buy the 3 babies so at least I know that they are cared for the right way, problem is I cannot afford the fork out 270 bucks to buy them or I would. So frustrating to me and I feel helpless.

Hi this is exactly the same as my local pet shop they had a basking bulb but half of them wernt even turned on! the temperate in the hot side of their tank was 80F! No UV bulbs at all.All of the beardys were black bearded and un alert. me and my boyfriend couldnt stop thinking about it when we came home so my boyfriend rang the shop and pretended to be someone official saying the beardys do not have the right habits etc.. the next day we went in there to check and they all had perfect set ups

 

[Cuterpillar]

I work at PetSmart and I am frustrated with our reptile department every day. It sucks. We use red lights at night and only basking bulbs during the day. There's 3 of us that are fighting with management right now to get another fixture in there for a UVB light. We have had 2 vets say something and our manager still won't do it because UVB bulbs are not included in the stores budget. We have too many young bearded dragons in a tiny cage. We even have a tortoise in a tiny one! He can hardly move around.

And the pet care department is a joke. Another girl and I are the only ones that know the correct information. She does fish and reptiles, I am birds and mammals. With my new beardie, I can help her out now. We have so many "pet care" employees that know nothing about the animals they're selling or helping people on. Every time we hire a new person, the other girl and I try our best to train the new people on basic stuff. We are overwhelmed on busy days of trying to get the correct information out there. I absolutely despise selling animals to people I know won't take care of them correctly or say "we'll I am just not going to buy that, it's too expensive".

But, at least for the east coast, our reptile supplier was shut down. We will not be receiving anymore for about a year or more. The same thing happened with our small animals and birds. The corporation is deciding if they want to continue selling animals or not.