PETCO IS HAVING A BEARDED DRAGON AWARENESS???

[BadCon]

Just got back from my local petco. It was decently busy, and there was a few other animals there...however the guy said that yesterday was jam packed. My boy Oscar took home the beauty contest, though it wasn't like there was super stiff competition of anything. Nobody ended up buying anything, and I never really got a chance to hand out any care sheets. The people who had animals there were plenty knowledgeable on their own, and the reptile specialist was actually really cool. We were talking about the current trends in breeding, and how we didn't necessarily agree with them. He really got a kick out of Oscar, and was impressed with his size.

Overall, not a bad way to kill an hour...though I'm still hungover from my buddies wedding on Sat, so I look like crap and smell like cigars...

 

[Sashee]

So glad all you had fun! Missed it d/t a Bible convention, but nothing much really goes on at my store since we're kind out of the way, so I'm sure nothing even really happened. Hopefully the baby i want is still there cuz I really want Yoshi to have this little dude as a baby sibling once I get the money.

 

[cmh3988]

I bring Pablo with me occasionally (his outings have been cut back since he crapped on me while i was driving) and plan on taking him next weekend. I don't really care to stay for the whole thing but will go and get my usual feeders and he can tow along. If I do see anyone about to purchase I'll throw the website name at them. What really hacks me off is the 20L "Bearded Dragon Kit" they are selling at $50 dollars off.
20 gallon (long) terrarium 30"x 12"x 12" (76x30x30cm) with sliding screen top.
12" Terrarium Hood
ReptiSun® 5.0 Compact Florescent
Dual Mini Deep Dome™ Lamp Fixture
Repti Basking Spot Lamp (100 w)
Nocturnal Infrared Heat Lamp
Vita-Sand Outback Orange (10lb.)
Strip Thermometer
Water/Food Dish Combo Pack (med.)
Bearded Dragon Food (sample)
Care Book: Guide to Bearded Dragons
ReptiCalcium (sample)
ReptiVite® (sample)r

What a total rip off. It literally has about one thing thats actually useable on that list. I will let people know how dumb it would be to purchase. They'd literally have to change everything for proper care, and buy a new tank within 6 months. I just don't see the point. I'm not one to bombard people with care sheets, etc bc I do feel that an individual should do proper research before purchasing an animal (and by research I don't mean Petco day). But if someone asks, or happens to be around about to waste a lot of money, I will pipe in and share my thoughts.
FOR ANYONE LOOKING TO PURCHASE ANY REPTILE FROM PETCO
They also have another coupon on their website for next weekend for 50% off any one reptile. I am in no way encouraging you go to buy one, but if you have fallen in love with one it'd be a great chance to get it at a decent cost.

This is exactly what happened to me last Sunday. Bought the 'kit' mentioned above, listened to the bad advice of the sales person. I got home, found some good BD forums and started replacing everything I'd bought (including the cal sand and mealworms). One week later and beardie is doing great with the wonderful advice I've gotten. SO glad that there's an internet with knowledgeable beardie owners willing to share. This is my first reptile and I love the little guy (or girl) and would hate to have followed Petco advice this past week.

 

[sweetiepie9]

I can only say thank you cmh3988 for looking up good BD caresheets & getting the right equipment for your baby. It's great to hear that someone is listening to advice put together by people who have had beardes for years. I've been a member her since 2006 and have always gotten the best of advice & made friends, too. I love this site. And if was great of bambichik39 to list the package. What a ripoff!

We have 5 dragons & 3 of our dragons have been healed because of advice from people on this forum. I haven't even tried going to other sites, as all I need for my dragons is right here. If any of you who have written on this site are able to get a few people good advice on how to raise their dragons & honestly what dragons need.

I wanted to thank everyone who commented on this thread. I'm hoping that one year dragons will be well treated and able to live happily. Besides, even bearded dragon needs a great slave!
Deb

 

[ZeusAlmighty]

Well put ^^^

 

[Spiketheleucistic]

Yeah i went and was actually impressed with the knowledge of people there. i will say this, the one lady told a customer that she could get another one and they would be okay together in a 40 gallon tank as long as they didnt get 2 males. Do your research people :study:

 

[herpgirl2510]

I live near a petco in Danvers they happen to be great. They have several people who work their who are really into reptiles. They are quite knowledgeable and the animals look really great. I know this is not the norm because unfortunately they are a large corporation. I never buy my reptiles there but I was in there and got my new baby beardie Yoda there he is so fat and healthy. I need to fix m computer so I can post pics. The cages are always spotless I see them misting the appropriate cages and there are always fresh veggies in the tanks for the animals that eat them.

 

[Spiketheleucistic]

Yeah but sometimes at mine the veggies are bigger than the beardies head and chest

 

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Yeah but sometimes at mine the veggies are bigger than the beardies head and chest

Same.
I saw this one maybe 3-4" babie down a piece of red cabbage at least 3X the size of his head! though I didn't approve, I showed Scout that baby eating and told him to be like that baby and eat your salad!
It was funny though when one of the babies at the glass saw the other 5-7 bearded dragons a lot bigger than themselves and started armwaving. Riza will do that to Scout sometimes when he's bobbing at her.

 

[Fwillie900]

don't judge all petcos, because i work at one in the reptile department . that's why i took the job ,because of all the bad advice they were giving people. i try to make a difference

 

[Fwillie900]

I live near a petco in Danvers they happen to be great. They have several people who work their who are really into reptiles. They are quite knowledgeable and the animals look really great. I know this is not the norm because unfortunately they are a large corporation. I never buy my reptiles there but I was in there and got my new baby beardie Yoda there he is so fat and healthy. I need to fix m computer so I can post pics. The cages are always spotless I see them misting the appropriate cages and there are always fresh veggies in the tanks for the animals that eat them.

thanks for the positive response before i started there the tank were dirty and they fed romaine and mealworms

 

[fluffpuffgerbil]

Yeah, the beardies aren't /awful/ there, but they're nothing like the petsmart beardies.(most beautiful baby beardies ever seen at a petstore!) The humidity at Petco is about 70% if I remember correctly and they looked almost like they were feeding that gross bagged salad(not sure) and the heat was only at 80* I think.

Petsmart has: 30% humiditiy +/-(a little low...), and I think over 100* basking spot.
I didn't see a salad in there, but the beardies I saw had all stress-free creamy white tummys and beautiful sandy colouring. One reminded me so much of Scout, I wanted to take it home with me. It looked like a mini Scout.

Petco's beardies all had stress-tummy, though they were all still adorable.
I'm really happy now though that Petco changed the substrate from sand to repti-carpet.

Though the next reptile I get will be at an expo. Hopefully that reptile will have no legs and flick it's tounge out at everything and eat whole rats.

 

[Fuzzyviper]

Our local Petco has AWFUL beardies. I went in a couple weeks ago for feeder mice, in my Petsmart uniform and everything. :lol: Little bit of a tangent but I only go to the local Petco because I can't get live feeders at work and my snake is a terribly picky eater. I'd throw away one to two frozen mice for every one he ate and I realized that he was technically murdering twice as many mice this way as opposed to one live feeder. Anyway, I waited on one of the people to get the keys for the mice cage and the reptiles were close by so I went in for a peek. There were TONS of tiny, tiny beardies in one cage with sand and lots of poop everywhere. Their basking light was off and they had the night basking light on, which was obvious since we have the same night basking light at my store. I don't know whether the cage was getting too hot because it was a heat wave and they had turned it off? It's been horribly hot in my area (SW PA) so we've even had problems with keeping the goldfish and chinchillas cool where I work. There were probably close to 10 babies in that tank though and it was dark but they looked very dark and stressed, even in the dim light. Poor little things.

 

[saleen89559]

I went to my local store for the beardie gathering and took spike with me. He was a hit because no one believed a lizard could be so calm and loving when held. I was disappointed with the petco advice though because one of their staff sold a lady a pair of emerald swifts and sold her a desert uvb, 150 watt heat emitter and a heat rock for tropical lizards to be in a 20 gallon tank. I told the lady they were selling her the wrong stuff and the petco employee actually yelled at me. I told him he was gonna kill those swifts with that light and heat emitter then he promptly shut up.

They don't have bad service but petco does need to take more time educating their employees.