Petition for petsmart and pet co!!!

[keschete]

Just let me know what I can do. My complaining at the local Petco has seemed to improve things a bit. They took out the sand and put reptile carpet and the replaced the meal worms with crickets.

They are still getting newly hatched beardies, but they are usually at least alert now...before they would almost look dead.

I don't even go to Petsmart, because they are the worst offender here. I order all my feeders online so the only thing I buy at petco is dog food and cat litter.

 

[keschete]

*sorry*

 

[DragonMomSandy]

Yes, we need to include all reptiles! Remember, they only carry the basic species, because they are cheaper cost to the store and higher profit (exotics cost to much). And remember, we're not trying to stop them from selling reptiles, we're trying to educate them. We want them to adopt better husbandry practices, update caresheets to more current, correct info, train their employees in the new husbandry and teach them the correct info to be giving to potential new owners. And YES, we need to petition BOTH companies. We can send each company the standard requirements for husbandry of each species, current and up to date care sheets for each species they normally carry and the petition to EACH company requesting these changes, as well as the ASPCA, USARK, and local/state humane societies. If we only confront one of them, the other will step back and be relieved that they are not under attack. Granted, they will change a little seeing the other confronted however, probably not enough. If we approach both companies, each will be scrambling to make changes before the other, Remember, each company has a public IMAGE to uphold, each claims to have the best interest of your pets at heart, and neither one wants to look horrible or uncaring in the public eye, it affects their sales, and they will do whatever it takes to protect the bottom line! And as far as one being worse than the other, they are both equally terrible. You will notice the trend of their older stores being far worse than the newer, as they don't want to put too much money into re-vamping the older ones. Each of these companies have the same, basic, out of date caresheets, husbandry practices and training methods. I really think we need to go after both, letting them know that they both need to make the changes and that we are all fed up with them.

 

[midwestreptiles]

If we can come up with a clear statement to the petition like you said to educate them etc,.. not just shut them down.. And we can make it clear enough and good enough i think you make a good point as far as both companies having a public image to uphold that they should both take action right away! But i do somewhat disagree that petsmart is even close to as bad as petco. At least they have proper enclosures( in all the ones ive been) each cage has proper substrate for the animal living in it and individual lighting vs some dumb blower motor pushing hot air???
And in 99% of my cases (and i have been to petsmarts in almost every state) the person shared the same info as i did in a few different species. It all depends on who they hire some people are just better educated when they start working at these places. I dont know they both suck and they both need to change they're ways.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

I actually worked at a petsmart for six months a few years ago. I helped open a brand new store as an assistant mgr. The new stores, yes, they are a little better set up, however, they will skimp anywhere they can. I trained at an older store and that store was truly terrible. As far as their training, they give each new employee a small care guide hand book. There are pages and pages for dogs and cats. Multiple pages for birds and fish, and only a page or two for reptiles and small furries, very limited info. Their profit revolves around dog and cat products and the reptiles and small furries are just a small portion. I have been in many petcos as well and each and everyone of them falls short of what is needed for these animals. I truly think if you provide the petition with the appropriate info to educate them, we can stand a really good chance of making a difference. And look at it this way: Whats the worst that can happen if we approach both companies? The worst is they could brush us off and continue as they have. I do think however, that involving well known, responsible agencies like the ASPCA and USARK will make a huge difference in getting the response we are all hoping for.

 

[FalkorsSlave]

Of course, I'm in. Especially after my experience yesterday when I had to explain to the well meaning but poorly educated employee about bulbs. Ugh.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Thank you for helping us take part in this big change! We need more people!

 

[Zeke]

I must say, while you guys have my full support, my local petsmat is nowhere near that horrible. They give bad info, and of course try to skimp on the beardies' feedings which is bad enough. As far as enclosures go i have never seen more than two beardies in the cage, repticarpet substrate, right lighting and temps. All the reptiles seem alert and at least basically cared for. Doesnt mean it's right, but maybe its not all of the stores as crappy. Hard to say really. Either way, Ill start working on a letter soon enough.

 

[Backlash]

As i mentioned before, i just started working for petsmart, in hopes that i can try and give the correct care for some of the animals there. I tried telling the manager in charge of the animals about the beardies, but she justified it all by saying she has two and home and does the same thing for them and everything is fine for them. What i have noticed is that all they have to measure temps is one stick on thermometer. Nothing is measuring the basking spot, and i am pretty sure it is waaaaay under the correct temperature. Also at night they try and tell me to mist them because the humidity is always 0%. Once again i try and tell them that the stick on hydrometers are inacurite. I also tried to tell them that it is nearly impossible to have 0% humidity, a normal dry day in our area is around 40%, so i can only imagine what it is in that small little cage, thats next to the tanks that get soaked with water every day and night.

i wish i was the one that opened the department in the morning, that way i could make sure the little guys got enough to eat, but since i am working at night i cant chance putting in food and them not eating it. They are so little and the last thing they need is to be chomped on by crickets while they are sleeping.

Another thing came to mind, For all the breeders out there, how long do you keep the babies before selling them. I swear that these little guys are no more than a week old when they get shipped in and that has to be unhealthy.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

I am not a breeder yet, but Lance is and he will tell you that babies should NOT be sold before they are at least 6 to 8 inches long (6 to 7 weeks). Babies any smaller are too fragile and require much more attention and care to get them to that 6 or 8 inches. And, when I was at petsmart, a few days before we opened the store we received the reptiles and there were 5 beardies shipped in, all of them barely 5 inches long and shoved in a viv less that 1 foot by 1 foot. I bought one of them the 2nd day the store was open, one of the other babies died within 2 weeks there, one other(besides mine) looked relatively healthy but small, the other two were tiny. One of those tiny beardies, I found out many months later, had died about 2 months after the customer had purchased it. The one I brought home was my first dragon and I quickly found out how lacking the care sheets were! My boy was almost 22 inches as an adult and a healthy animal, but I did an awfully lot of research on my own to correct the bad info that I had been taught while working in that place.

 

[midwestreptiles]

Generally its 6-7 inches in length or 6 weeks old whichever comes last. Not first. So if your beardie is 6 inches but not 6 weeks you would still want to wait

 

[vickson420]

Thats what is so sad.I can tell a beardies age pretty quickly when they are babies and I can tell you in my store these babies dont come even close to that.In general they are 2-3 weeks old at best.Remember petco for instance gets the lots of beardies(from sandfire ranch)that are not quite up to their standard to be sold for individual sale.They dont want to waste any effort,time or money into these guys so basically as soon as they can they ship them off and I was once told by a Petco rep that it didnt matter because financially speaking the company just writes them off on their taxes so for them live or die its a win win situation.

 

[DragonMomSandy]

From my understanding, Petco and petsmart get their reptiles from Sunpets, a wholesaler that supplies over 1/2 of the big chain stores, including petco and petsmart. I didn't think that Bob from Sandfire would be selling small babies to either of the chains. I'll ask a friend of mine who is pretty connected and find out for sure. I'd be really disapointed to find out that they were coming from sandfire, They were always a really good breeder and that would be sad if they risk their reputation like that.

This makes me think of another point that we need to stress with this petition: These companies need to stop buying baby dragons, baby reptiles of any type, that are too small, too young and too fragile.

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Sandy, yes I don't sell any babies until at the least 7 weeks! Their are loads of breeders that sell them at 2 and 3 weeks old! This is how they make any kind of profit! Just makes me sick! It is one thing for them to defend their selves in the wild however when kept captive their are lots of other issues that have to be delt with! As to what Vicky said yes I also understand that they get a lot of their babies from sandfire ranch! These breeders just abuse their females all year long! They never give them rest! I also believe this is where you loose a lot of babies and also get a lot of sicklings from! I just wish breeders would take a hint! We have loads of breeders on here and I do believe they give their females a break! I know I switch off females every year! This way they get a break and their health back up! It is just my beliefs and my way to produce the best looking and healthy babies available out their today!

 

[vickson420]

Absolutely Lance I couldnt agree more!
Dragonmom I understand it is hard to believe but yes many of the babies are indeed from sandfire's excess stock.This is one of the many reasons why I would never buy from any larger breeder because of this practice.It isnt just them I dont want people to think I am singling them out but I honestly believe that because of all of this mass producing of beardies our animals are becoming the weaker for it and I wont play any part in it.