My pet store expirience

[INReptiles]

Okay, so my brother bought a dwarf hamster (at least I think it is a dwarf hamster, that's what the kid at the pet store said but he doesn't exactly know much) and it started losing patches of fur and me, being the only one who actually interacted with it and took care of it, even though it wasn't mine, mysteriously got ringworm around the same time. So my mother, in her infinite wisdom :? , decided that the people at the pet store would know what was wrong with it, I told her to ask someone who actually knew what they were talking about but she wouldn't listen :/

So we get to the pet store, it was run by a man and his son, not a big chain one like petco, and the first place I go is the area with all the reptiles of course, and the first thing I see in there is this tiny green iguana that was about 1 and a half feet long, maybe two feet, and really skinny that he claims is fully grown, yeah okay guy. The only animal in there that looked remotely healthy was a juvenile ball python.

So I go out to the front and my mom is still talking to the guy who was working at the time (who turned out to be the owner) and he didn't have a single clue what he was talking about, imagine that, I didn't really listen much to what he said, but from the snippets I heard he sounded like an *****.

Anyways, so I saw some beardies in the window, one that he claimed to be 3 years old, this thing was so small I couldn't believe anyone would believe it was full grown with no UV lighting in a 20 gallon tank at the most, and for whatever reason, he had two clamp lamps on it, only one of them had a bulb in them. There were also two babies in a 40 gallon, maybe 6 - 7 inches , they looked pretty healthy, one of them was a new addition because when I went in there last there was only 1 baby and the one "adult", both in the 40 gallon, why he didn't have the babies in the 20 and the "adult" in the 40, I will never know. The babies didn't have any UV lighting either, they just had a clamp lamp for heat.

All three of the dragons were suprisingly active though, given the situation they were in, granted almost all of their activity was trying to get away from people, but at least they were active. I asked the guy to get one of the babies so I could hold it and he tried for about 30 seconds then gave up when some guy came in asking for 16 pinkies, the man then directed me to the back and said "We've got some red-bellied piranhas back there" I have no clue why he thought I wanted a piranha, I just want to look at your beardies dude.

I went back and looked at the piranhas to humor him, they didn't interest me at all, fish are the most worthless pet ever in my opinion, you can't hold them, you probably shouldn't touch them at all really, and all they do is swim around and you watch them for about a minute before getting bored.

Anyways, so I finally get the guy to stop ignoring me and he gets the older beardie out and I finally get to hold one, the first time I have actually held one and he was practically about to burst with pride when he told me it was a leatherback, and trust me, it was most definetely not a leatherback, after about 30 seconds he took it from me because I guess I was holding it wrong? I didn't see anything wrong with how I was holding it, he said you're supposed to put it on your shirt and not touch it unless you are picking it up or it is on your shirt.

As I was about to leave thinking this dude is a ******* ******* he tries to sell us another hamster, I just thinking, we have a hamster with some disease that for all we know is contagious, and you think we want to buy another? I just said No, thanks and left.

Sorry for the long post, I am really bored and I needed to vent.

 

[zandi202]

I honestly don't know what to say about that. That is just terrible. I can't even fathom. I think that own blew my mind because I can't even think of the right words to say. Those poor, poor babies. That's just terrible.

 

[Bwalter]

some people don't know a thing about beardies. Makes me so mad. When I told the guy in the pet store beardies are not to be together. He said they were a "breeding pair" . We got into an argument on 2 different times. When I had the money to get them out of there I sent my friend in with the money because he wouldn't have sold them to me. I told my friend, make sure they put them in separate boxes for the ride home. I never went back in there, contacted animal control, wrote up a letter stating what happened the 3 times I went in there , along with pictures of what both beardies looked like, along with a vet report stating what kind of parasites they had, (one was contagious) and nothing was ever done about it. If I had known nothing was done about it I would have made one last trip in there to show him what the female looked like being taken care of the RIGHT way.

 

[INReptiles]

The pet stores only get away with it for two reasons.

1. People think "They are just lizards, it's not like they care" try having no sun your whole life and telling me you don't care.

2. Almost the entire population doesn't actually know how to care for them or what a healthy one should look like (but most people should be able to tell if it is dying) so they just come to believe that is how they are supposed to be housed and that is what they are meant to look and act like, when really this couldn't be farther from the truth.

In other words, "Ignorance is bliss"

 

[Firebonbon]

I wish people couldn't get away with this sort of thing. You'd think there'd be better regulations. Like an inspector would come to make sure the animals were being taken care of properly! But like INReptiles said, they think they are just unfeeling, brainless reptiles. :\

 

[INReptiles]

I think if it was similiar to health regulations in a restaurant it would be a lot better, but like I said, nobody cares. I did a speech on this once in my freshman year of high school and everyone looked at me like I was stupid. What?! Actually care about something other than myself? No thanks, I think I will go back to texting on my iPhone5 while telling my parents that I hate them for buying me whatever I want.

 

[Firebonbon]

I think if it was similiar to health regulations in a restaurant it would be a lot better, but like I said, nobody cares. I did a speech on this once in my freshman year of high school and everyone looked at me like I was stupid. What?! Actually care about something other than myself? No thanks, I think I will go back to texting on my iPhone5 while telling my parents that I hate them for buying me whatever I want.

Ha! You summed up my own freshman class perfectly when I did a speech on recycling. Sometimes I still hear my nickname 'Hippie.' -_-

 

[INReptiles]

I will never understand people, and honestly, don't really care too , I think I will stick with animals.

 

[cappy]

Oh great. I'm a freshman next year. Im going to die at high school. I'm the 'love all animals' kinda gal. But back to the topic most pet stores around my area sound the same. Its very sad how people don't realize that all animals need tlc.

 

[saiyan25]

Is the store on google? Maybe you can share your experience as a review.

 

[INReptiles]

No I didn't find them on google, I hope the smart people will know to not buy from there though. I would have tried to tell him how to take care of them properly but he looked and sounded dense so it would have been a waste of time.

 

[INReptiles]

Just a update, the hamster we got there about a month ago just died today it could have been husbandry issues but I sincerely doubt it was. I believe it died from the skin infection and I will definitely be avoiding that pet store in the future.

 

[ILoveLemmonade]

Just a update, the hamster we got there about a month ago just died today it could have been husbandry issues but I sincerely doubt it was. I believe it died from the skin infection and I will definitely be avoiding that pet store in the future.

I was a bit more concerned about your health! Did the ringworm go away, and did anyone else get sick from the hamster? If so then you may even have a case against the shop.

 

[Feline]

This is the equivalent of a puppy mill, only this is the reptile version of it. I feel very sorry for the animals that are bred and born into this kind environment. People suck. Not all but most. I am not surprised that there is no legislation that regulates the pet trade simply because pets are considered as property, but they are living creatures and deserve to have rights of their own, especially the right to live in a proper environment suitable for their own species.

 

[INReptiles]

I was a bit more concerned about your health! Did the ringworm go away, and did anyone else get sick from the hamster? If so then you may even have a case against the shop.

No I still have it but it is getting better, I was the only one who ever touched it so nobody else got anything. I don't think I would have a case against the shop because I haven't been to the doctor to prove that it is ringworm, but I don't know what else it would be, a random ring just pops up on my face and starts getting bigger and gets smaller when I put anti-fungal cream on it.