I think Paperplanes wants to know where Petsmart gets its beardies from... But yeah, from what I understand, it's some kind of animal mill. That is where basically every pet store animal comes from.
i saw some thing on Oprah or something where they went to this deserted farm where they keep animals in cages and just keep getting them pregnant. like a dog will have 15 litters before they put it down or something like that. im always curious to know where the stores get their animals.
i saw some thing on Oprah or something where they went to this deserted farm where they keep animals in cages and just keep getting them pregnant. like a dog will have 15 litters before they put it down or something like that. im always curious to know where the stores get their animals.
i saw some thing on Oprah or something where they went to this deserted farm where they keep animals in cages and just keep getting them pregnant. like a dog will have 15 litters before they put it down or something like that. im always curious to know where the stores get their animals.
I honestly think theres something weird about my neighborhood. There used to be a petco that had repti carpet, adequate tank size (around 20 gallons for 2 small beardies, not the best but better than 5g) that dusted there crickets and everything. The employees gave good, accurate information about the uv (which they said they didn't/couldn't use and was the reptisun 10.0) and the use of a probe thermometer to check that the temps were around 105. When this petco closed down, I was very sad.
A few weeks later another one opened up even CLOSER to me! Its around 5 minutes walking distance from where I live. They currently dont have any beardies, but they once again used repti carpet, dripped water on their noses for water, had salad, but used a cheap tape (or whatever those cheap sticker-like thermometers are called) thermometer.... When they still had them they looked alert and healthy, but I haven't seen a beardie at that petco for months. Now its water dragons, tortoise, corn snakes, ball pythons, hermies etc...
Rule:Always buy your beradie or animal from a breeder or knowledgable petshop.Who knows what some animals have been through that come into a petshop.Our dogs,cats and my beardie were from breeders.Our birds one we got at a auction in 2008 a budgie a nasty little thing bites you when you try and pat it,and very fat!,and a galah hand reared from the wild.
However, the petshop then sees bearded dragons as a profit maker, therefore buying more of them and raising them in horrible conditions and ending up with more beardies like the one you did rescue.
Some people get lucky and have great success with purchasing from petstores.. My cousin bought his Beardie Moose frm petsmart and hasn't had any problems.. He's as healthy as a moose lol.. I just hate to see them when they are soo tiny.. My only hope is that whoever gets them are very knowledgeable about beardies and aren't just buying them on a whim...
Its one of those things, where u damned if you do and damned if you don't! Yes by purchasing a Beardie from a Pet store you are enhancing thier profit margins, and yeh once the one you bought has gone, another will appear there. But if you do buy from the pet store at least your beardie will be saved and will have a great life. lets face it the people on this site really do care, and strive to provide the best conditions possible for thier pets, if they didn't they would have joined in the first place!
Both of my Beardies came from a Pet store, and so did most of my fish! Most fish get the same ill treatment and people are told the wrong information about them, by the big stores. I unknowingly bought a Red tailed catfish from Pets at Home (prob the uk's version of Petsmart), I went there asking for a cat fish that would grow no bigger than 6 inches, I was thinking a Pictus catfish would be good, I was sold a Redtail that grew to this size in a week, and then ate all my other fish, he is now 3 foot and will grow to around 5.5!... Crazy I tell you, I'm lucky enough to have links to my local zoo who will take him on once he outgrows his huge tank!
They probably will be every time I've gone in one they don't quite know what they sell with the exception of the odd person in there that has a reptile, fish or whichever animal they sell. I went in asking for parts for one of the fluvals, I was after the biomax for the U3 and they just had no idea what I was on about even though they sell the filter in question and the pads, just not the biomax that goes in the middle of it?!?!?!?
Every time we go in there is another set of beardies in a small enclosure whilst another one is empty, they could at least split them over all enclosures to give them extra space to move around and bask etc, saying that I've seen worse shops and the way they treat their animals in this country for example 10 baby turtles in a tiny fish bowl about the size of one of your mixing bowls. It just hurts to look at the enclosures sometimes.
It brings us back to that age old question, do we continue to use these stores and try to educate the peeps that work there, or do we boycot them n refuse to spend another penny there?