First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Brian and my girlfriend and I just purchased a Bearded Dragon yesterday. I did lots of research before my purchase so I knew what I was getting myself into and knew what to buy, but I had not read any warnings about purchasing one from a chain pet store. I naively assumed that these would be of better quality than a local pet store so I traveled to 2 different petsmarts to find one. All I can say is just WOW, at the breathtaking stupidity of the employees that were supposedly "experts".
First, we had to wait for the reptile "expert" to be done with break to help us. Then, after informing her I want A bearded dragon, she proceeds to take two out and hand them to me. I responded with, sorry I don't know if you heard me but I only would like one and I would like to pick it myself just to make sure it looked ok. She got upset with me and proceeded to tell me that I should be getting two because they love living together and just one will get lonely, not to mention she seemed annoyed I wanted to pick out one for myself. After reading on numerous websites that they are solitary animals and its only really practical to keep 2 females together plus the large tank I would need to house 2 I said no thank you. Then when asking about what should be in the cage, I cited everything I believed I would need such as a tank, uvb light, basking light, reptile carpet, light timer, etc....and she said well sounds like you don't need help so just holler if I had any questions. It was getting late so I asked if I could have some small crickets and of course they were out of them. She said, "Well don't worry they were just fed (and at this point she starts using her fingers to count the days of the week), monday or tuesday so they should be fine until tomorrow (this would be 2-3 days without being fed!), so I drove like a lunatic to another petsmart to get crickets.
It was here that possibly caused the impetus for this post. Here, right before they closed, I asked a young man for some small crickets to feed my new dragon. He asked, "Like how many do you want, 10-15?" I said, "Well no, I have read that a juvenile can eat 20-50+ small crickets a day so can I have 50" (I was planning on ordering at least 500 that night online, I just wanted something to hold me over). He then proceeded to laugh at me, look at me like I was a small stupid child and tell me, "Um you got some wrong information, trust me they eat 6-8 tops every few days. If you feed them more, the crickets will eat there way out of the lizards stomach and kill it". At this point I am biting my tongue and trying not to scream at him. Anyways, I apologize for the rant, I just cant believe the shear stupidity I encountered from "experts" whom I knew more than after doing a few hours of research. I guess I learned my lesson!
First, we had to wait for the reptile "expert" to be done with break to help us. Then, after informing her I want A bearded dragon, she proceeds to take two out and hand them to me. I responded with, sorry I don't know if you heard me but I only would like one and I would like to pick it myself just to make sure it looked ok. She got upset with me and proceeded to tell me that I should be getting two because they love living together and just one will get lonely, not to mention she seemed annoyed I wanted to pick out one for myself. After reading on numerous websites that they are solitary animals and its only really practical to keep 2 females together plus the large tank I would need to house 2 I said no thank you. Then when asking about what should be in the cage, I cited everything I believed I would need such as a tank, uvb light, basking light, reptile carpet, light timer, etc....and she said well sounds like you don't need help so just holler if I had any questions. It was getting late so I asked if I could have some small crickets and of course they were out of them. She said, "Well don't worry they were just fed (and at this point she starts using her fingers to count the days of the week), monday or tuesday so they should be fine until tomorrow (this would be 2-3 days without being fed!), so I drove like a lunatic to another petsmart to get crickets.
It was here that possibly caused the impetus for this post. Here, right before they closed, I asked a young man for some small crickets to feed my new dragon. He asked, "Like how many do you want, 10-15?" I said, "Well no, I have read that a juvenile can eat 20-50+ small crickets a day so can I have 50" (I was planning on ordering at least 500 that night online, I just wanted something to hold me over). He then proceeded to laugh at me, look at me like I was a small stupid child and tell me, "Um you got some wrong information, trust me they eat 6-8 tops every few days. If you feed them more, the crickets will eat there way out of the lizards stomach and kill it". At this point I am biting my tongue and trying not to scream at him. Anyways, I apologize for the rant, I just cant believe the shear stupidity I encountered from "experts" whom I knew more than after doing a few hours of research. I guess I learned my lesson!