Petsmart Beardie?

[mommy2spike]

Mine is petstore bought and hes doing great.Just dont know how old he is and it drives me nuts!! take time and check around. GL on your beardie hunt!!! it is a great thing to say you own a beardie!

 

[cvontres]

LLL Reptiles have Beardies with nipped tails sorta on clearance. Do you think those would be as healthy/ friendly as one without minor tail nips?
Thanks, M

 

[Rhino8085]

Yes they are both of mine have or had a nip. Its actaully pretty comon i think

 

[cvontres]

Okay. That's what I figured. Thanks, M

 

[mommy2spike]

mine has a nip and hes healty!

 

[sweetpea1981]

my baby has a nip he's from pet supplies plus and my bigger guy has at least 2-3 inches gone from his tail he's from a small local pet store, I love them both, Stubs (the one with 2-3 inches gone, hence the name) he has character with the tail nip which is why we got him and I don't regret it at all and Baby is great too, both are very happy well adjusted beardies!

 

[Tonja]

Geico is from petco and hes done great. Have had him now 8 months and hes almost 400 grams if not right at it. He's been babied since I have had him and only a couple of times has he been treated for parasites due to crickets that were kept in not so clean bins from the petstore. Hes thriving, eating well and is growing by leaps and bounds. Emily came from Petsmart 6 months ago and is over 100 grams now, eats well and never a problem with her. I think its personal preference as to where you get your beardie. Both of mine came running to the front of the cage, looked bright eyed, both arm waved at me and I was sold BUT I also held them and looked them over for any problems like missing toes, tail nips, irregular breathing, droopy watery eyes. Both appeared healthy and active but most of all alert. I also had both places put them in a tank and drop in crickets to see them eat and they went after them and ate them. Thats how I chose my Geico and Emily as I wanted them as healthy as possible before I got them.

 

[paulsmom06]

I work for PetSmart in the fish/reptile area. The employees at *most* PetSmart stores are college kids off the streets with no more knowledge of animals than the cashier up front. My store does not train us regarding animal care. Any knowledge we have has come from our own personal research outside of work. Some people, like myself, have found wonderful resources (like this website) to pass along to perspective Beardie parents.

The corporate offices of PetSmart (and I'm assuming Petco too) are all about the dollar. The animal usually comes last. Corporate sets our policy's in place and we must follow them. This leads to most animals in our care getting the bare minimum.

For example, the beardies at my store are housed under a year old reptiglo 5.0 UVB tube. We must feed dry pellets and a few crickets daily. Their basking bulb is only 25 watts and the dial thermometer reads 80 although we all know those aren't accurate.

And there is not a thing I can do about this stuff because of corporate.

The point of all this is I encourage my perspective Beardie parents to look into Beardie breeders and rescues. My Marley pants is a PetSmart dragon. I actually bought him from my store. He was returned because he was 'too small' (he was maybe 2 weeks old- of course he was small!)

Every time somebody buys a dragon from my store, we are able to order more. It's a cycle. More dragons have to sit in those undesirable conditions. I love my Marley. He's the best thing that's ever happened. But in buying him, two more dragons had to come sit in that god awful tank. If people would stop buying dragons from chain stores, chain stores would no longer have to order hundreds and hundreds to sit and suffer.

 

[JulieGeek]

I'm a first time Beardie parent and Smaug came from PetSmart. I would not actively discourage you from getting a Beardie from a pet store, but I would--based on my own experience--recommend getting your set-up in place FIRST. I know it's hard to wait 'cause you want some of the Beardie lovin', but set yourself--and your dragon--up for success.

This forum has great advice on what a good set-up looks like and, unfortunately for the newbie, it bears little resemblance to the BD "kits" on the market. As an example, I bought the Zilla kit and less than two months later the only things still in use are the tank itself, the water bowl, and one of the reflectors. None of the lights, not the carpet, not the food, not the gauges, not even the top. UPS was a daily visitor to my house for about a week and a half while I remedied the situation.

Second is to be on the lookout for problems. Five weeks after Smaug came home, he was at the vet with MBD, a skin problem, and a broken tail (as a result of the MBD). Have a vet identified ahead of time.

Third, know where you're going to get your dragon's food from. I ended up driving all over town trying to find the right size crickets, worms that weren't already dead, etc. If you're not able to drive yourself, really plan ahead.

My 2 cents (expensively gained...)

Smaug's Mom

 

[Travis1102]

I almost bought a beardie at PetSmart, but ended up deciding to go with a breeder. I ordered Pete from Cheryl at BeardedDragons.co in September (he hatched in July, so he was 2 months old). He's now 7 months old, almost 19 inches long and weighs 450 grams. I took him for his first vet visit today and he had coccidia which is apparently common, but otherwise have had no problems with him.

I chose going with an online breeder vs local petstores for the same reasons people here have posted. I didn't know the babies histories, the petstores all seemed to do 'something' wrong whether it was sand, meal worms or offering bad advice. I figured if I was making the commitment of spending THAT much money on everything else, why not go ahead and spend a little more for a dragon backed by a guarantee and coming from someone with a good reputation online. I will also admit, I liked being able to pick out a dragon with bright colors. Today at the vet, EVERYONE was commenting about how pretty he was and he is just starting a shed cycle, so he's actually a little dull looking.

 

[Junebug]

I went into my Local Petco last weekend, while getting food for my snake. Everytime I go in to buy dog or snake food, I always visit the beardie cage. I've seen the same "Orange" Beardie in there for awhile (over a month), but the clerk was saying that all of them had arrived at the same time, she was unable to tell me when they arrived or how old they may have been. She told me that they were old enough to come to the store, whatever that means. :? When I asked why 3 of them were really small (about 4 Inches, compared to the 6-8 inches the other three were) her reply was that some were different sizes, but that they all were the same age. I don't have a beardie, but have my tank just about complete for it(finishing it Friday Evening) and on Saturday I'm going to a Reptile show to talk with the breeders there, hopefully I will be able to find someone who is more schooled on Beardies, and what they are offering, pet wise. I am not agaisnt buying from the local Petco, but I have no idea of knowing how old these little ones are, and that, to me, is pretty important while trying to get a proper feeding schedule together. Not to mention that I would like to know when to celebrate the beardie's Birthday(as I do with both dogs and my snake ) Besides the lack of knowlegde, the cage is always well kept, the beardies always greet visitors, and the beardies themselves look healty, with no nips, or pieces of the tail missing! I did want to check out what petsmart has, beardie wise, as well as the conditon of the habitats, but from reading this board, I've came to the conclusion that the workers aren't educated with the animals they handle, they just are there to sell them, nothing more. While I was there talking with the sales rep about these awesome pets, another worker, who actually has experience, personal, of course, with these, was able to give me some extra pointers on it, which made it more clear to me that the pet store workers aren't educated, unless they educated themselves. But even she was unable to tell me the age of these, or when they had arrived, or even at which age they are normally shipped to store for selling :?

 

[zandi202]

I ended up guesstimating my beardies age by their length with this http://www.dachiubeardeddragons.com/dragoncare/growthcharts.html

I guess it depends on how much it bugs you about figuring out their birthdays. Both of mine are from Petco, a normal and a leatherback and they are so full of personality. I noticed that the Petsmart I go to has particularly small beardies.

When I get my third beardie I'm planning on going through a breeder, but only because I am looking for a particular morph. I think as long as you do your research prior it won't matter where you get your beardie.

 

[GingerBeachy]

Hi everyone. I'm new to bearded dragon ownership and this board, but wanted to add to this discussion, hope you all don't mind

We purchased a beardie from our local PetSmart on Feb 1st 2013. He was and still is active and alert. My husband had owned Egyptian Uromastyxs prior, but we felt that a beardie would be a good fit for me, a reptile newbie, and our two girls. We are extremely lucky that 3 of the 4 ladies working in the reptile area of our PetSmart are all owners of several types of reptiles, including beardies, and they are all quite knowledgeable. I know that is not the case in all of the retail pet store chains and that is really a disservice to the animals and the customers.

Dragon, as my daughter insisted on calling him, was quite tiny when we brought "him" home 1 month ago. We did as instructed, feeding 4-6 crickets the first day, but I wasn't sure that was right. Luckily to the research I did and all the great advice I have found on these boards, we let "him" eat as many crickets as wanted 2-3 times a day. We now order crickets in bulk as Dragon loves to eat as many as 70 crickets a day some days. Poor thing must have been starving at PetSmart!

I month later, he is shedding for the second time and is 10 inches from head to tail end - I feel like he grows every second! He has at least doubled in size since we brought him home (unfortunately I did not measure him when he first came home). I was told that they (PetSmart) do not know the exact age of the beardies when they come in, but they are "about 3-4 months old". I tend to disagree after researching age/size approximates, since if I go according to that, A) my beardie was younger than that when purchased or B) he was underfed and under size at purchase.

Good luck on your purchase and as others have mentioned, once you bring home your dragon you will be totally infatuated and completely in love with it!

 

[beardieparents7780]

No matter where you buy your beardie from I think its best to see them first! Me and my wife bought our current 2 beardies from petco. I usually wouldnt buy from petsmart or petco they dont have proper lighting and temps for them and their substrates are usually bad. This time we stopped by to get some dog food and walked by the reptile section and saw 2 that really caught our eye They were healthy and full of personality but I havd to say the manager knew more then most of the petco's Ive been to. So my opinion is shop around and look for one with a personality that fits you and second take a good look at him/her and make sure they are healthy and active.

 

[Ranchero]

We got ours from petsmart. Out of all 5 in the tank she was the one that avoided you while all the others layed there. I picked her and she is doing great! Has alot of oranges in her coloring