Sad Scene @ Petsmart

[TurtleG1rl]

This only leads me to wonder what kind of breeders they get their dragons from

my initial question exactly.

I think the only difference between your question and mine is that I went into a local shop not one of the multinational ones everyone has access too. From talking to the guy in the store I got the impression they are local breeders he uses. For multinational companies I wouldn't be surprised although disgusted if it was some sort of puppy mill type thing. Being in the UK I think we are still behind anything the american pet stores are doing to get those animals in stores at least in the non rabbit/gerbil/hamster variety we don't see many dogs or cats for sale in this countries stores.

 

[paperplanes]

oh right ok. my question was yeah, do the big petstore chains have some sort of beardie mills. theres only one local one in my city that i know of, and i live in canada. from what i understand they get them from local breeders, because they havent had any in a while

 

[mellu]

Clearly the good ol' UK has a continued influence here in Newfoundland. Larger animals like cats and dogs in pet stores are very rare, but backyard breeders aren't. As we're an island it's really hard to find a quality animals, usually you have to result to shipping in and that takes longer than anywhere else because of the ferry. Pretty well everything has to be local, or it'd be an arm and leg. Hard to imagine a beardie-mill, though. Those places don't usually take any decent care of their animals, once they're born they're sold, just two step process, so it surprises me that someone would take the time to breed the beardies, incubate the eggs then just throw the animals away for a few bucks, you must be heartless to not have made any emotional investment in the animal's well being.

 

[valcash]

This has been happening for years. I also find it awful. A few years ago many of the big box stores moved to reptile carpet for their Beardies, which was a welcomed change.

 

[apaprikao]

I have a picture I took of a Beardie at my local Petsmart the other day. I'll have to figure out how to get it on here to share. It made me very sad though.

*EDITED TO ADD PICTURE*

 

[sweetiepie9]

I hate going to any pet shop as I just want to grab all the dragons & other reptiles and take them all home, which I can't, having 5 beardies & living in a 1 bedroom apt that is 633 sq ft. So my hubby picks up the worms, supplies we need at the store & I stay home. Two of our dragons were pet shop rescues, both having big injuries. So we got them home, mended them up and Rubio's now almost 3 yrs old. Issy, our little female, died a year ago of a stomach virus. It hit most of our dragons, she was the only 1 that didn't survive. So even though we lost our Issy, we were able to save the 4 others. Now we have a foster beardie, that was also rescued from a pet shop. I hear of so many beardies that die in pet shops because of the bad husbandry and it just makes me see red just like everyone else. But there's not much you can do when breaders don't keep baby dragons long enough to get a good start. When we saw Issy, she was dark grey & huddled at the bottom on the tank she was sharing with other babies. One of the other babies had eaten 1/2 her tail. So we got her for $50 & rushed her home. Rubio was another little sick beardie, he's missing & has short toes on his front & back legs. He was sick for a long time, but finally healed & he's now 21" long and weights 767g! He's our biggest dragon! Imagine! We were stunned when he grew so much after he was healed. He was 24g at 3 mo old when we got him.

The only pet shop we've ever been to that takes better care of their animals than most chain pet shops is PJ Pets in Richmond, BC. We live in New Westminster, BC, close to Vancouver. So we have a few pet shops to deal with, my hubby goes to King Ed's Pet Shop as they're closest. They have good supplies & bugs, but they take terrible care of their beardies & other reptiles. They also have ferrets, rabbits and snakes. I think the snakes get the best care. They won't put UVB over the beardies and some of the babies have died, so I won't go in there. I take care of daily baths and my husb goes to the pet shop. He doesn't like it either, being a reptile keeper by trade, and he gives them hell every once in awhile, but it doesn't do any good. Unfortunately our beardies need their worms and our gecko needs his crickets, and their bugs are clean and of good size & price. We can't get stuff online, as we don't have the storage to keep them. Also whenever we order a bit batch of their, our beardies will go on a hunger strike. :mrgreen:

I don't have an answer except to report bad husbandry to Animal Control. Not sure it does any good, as they're usually full of stranded/abused dogs & cats. We have our name with the local Animal Control to contact us if they find a reptile that needs to be homed. So far we haven't been called, but we keep an empty tank, just in case.

 

[TetheredGryphon]

I'm a brand new bearded dragon owner and I got my baby at PetSmart on the 12th. I did quite a bit of reading before I got him and made sure to have his nice set up ready before I bought him. I made sure to look him over before picking him out to make sure he had all his perfect little toes and legs and his tail was in one piece with no scratches or other injuries. He also seemed to be the most active one on the cage and the lightest in color. He was a bit smaller when I got him. I think he's just reaching about 6 inches now and he has already shed.

He seems to be eating me out of house and home which is good but I try to offer him a variety of veggies and well as crickets. He adjusted pretty quickly but I think he is still making his mind up about me. He will however tolerate it when I hold him and recently started giving me the tongue taste test. He now waits for me around cricket eating time and gives me the eye if I dont hurry up with his food. He's pretty spoiled already and he only seems to want to eat if I'm holding his food which gets really annoying when I want him to eat greens (I have to stand there and hold it steady for several minutes until he is finished tearing off pieces. If you cut it up and stick the tiny pieces in his bowl he will lose interest really quickly). He does catch crickets on his own but he's not the best hunter yet. I think he misses more than he makes it.

I think I got lucky so far with my PetSmart beardie. He seems to be fairly friendly and growing really quickly. If I get another one I'd probably get one from a reptile show the next round. I have my fingers crossed though.

 

[mellu]

^That's great, I wish pet stores would realize that if their beardies were healthy, maybe they would sell for the outrageous prices they charge($169, here for a petstore beardie).

Why are they all so small? Surely it can't be healthy to shove them in a pet store at a few days/weeks old, so why do they do it? Half of them must die and that's a lost profit, so I mean, what gives?

 

[sweetiepie9]

They're small because the breededrs sell them too early. They should be kept for at least 6 weeks, but they're being sold at 3 weeks. That's why they're so small. They also eat alot at this time of life which can be expensive. My husband worked as a reptile caretaker for a year, he kept good care of the baby beardies and I made them salads every am with veggies and greens, all cut up in little pieces and they loved them. Roger would feed them twice in the 2 hours a day he worked. At one point there was a biter amidst the 11 beardies in the 1 tank. So Roger starting bringin the injured beardie babies home and we set up a hospital. We healed 7 babies before Roger found the culprit and put him in his own cage. After that there we no more injuries. They all grew well & were divided up as much as Roger could. Alot of them sold because the juvies (by then) had clear eyes, liked people, and were at their best colouring.

That did teach us what was done in pet shops all the time. It's costs alot to feed babies, so the quicker they're sold, the quicker the breeder can get his $ & get ready to sell the next bunch. I really don't know how to stop it. It's too bad we can't just educate the people in charge that it's cost effective to keep healthy beardies.

Deb

 

[TetheredGryphon]

^That's great, I wish pet stores would realize that if their beardies were healthy, maybe they would sell for the outrageous prices they charge($169, here for a petstore beardie).

Why are they all so small? Surely it can't be healthy to shove them in a pet store at a few days/weeks old, so why do they do it? Half of them must die and that's a lost profit, so I mean, what gives?

I dont know. I guess I got lucky that he is thriving and I only paid about $60 for him (thankfully I didn't pay $169 for a sick one) but I think one of them in the tank seemed pretty stressed out. The guy said he had never seen one so dark in color before. I didn't know why back when I was looking at him but he was REALLY dark with fairly visible stress marks. He didn't look like the healthiest and it sort of concerned me a bit. I haven't been back to that particular store in a while since I found a place closer that I can get crickets from. Its still not too far away and I sort of wonder if his tank mates survived and are doing well.

I've been lucky with him so far but its not a luck I think I'd like to rely on if I ever want another bearded.

Oh and after his first shed with me his color is a bit greenish. I cant seem to get a good picture of it but he almost looks like he is wearing an army uniform or something. Its a bit of light and dark muted greens with some peachy tan spots. No idea if this is normal coloring or not or even if its my imagination.

 

[mellu]

I think today we are taking in a beardie, he is probably 3 weeks old from that pet store with outrageous prices.

Jason tells me not to get my hopes up, he doesn't think he'll make it. We have to try though.

Good thing Mika graduated to her big girl tank today or we couldn't do it. Cross your fingers for this little guy(I've already dubbed him Sgt. Pepper, though Jason might have something to say about that) hopefully he'll get by with a little help from his friends .

 

[Slave2Scarlett]

I think today we are taking in a beardie, he is probably 3 weeks old from that pet store with outrageous prices. A girl bought him from the pet store just to get him out of there a few days ago but she can't keep him, she doesn't even have a tank for him. She is keeping him warm with a lightbulb and a rice sock. He'll be coming to live with us until he(hopefully) grows a little and we can rehome him. Two of our very close friends both love animals and are possible homes but until I know he/she is okay he'll be staying with us, unless the girl finds someone with a tank who can take him before 5 today.

Jason tells me not to get my hopes up, he doesn't think he'll make it. We have to try though.

Good thing Mika graduated to her big girl tank today or we couldn't do it. Cross your fingers for this little guy(I've already dubbed him Sgt. Pepper, though Jason might have something to say about that) hopefully he'll get by with a little help from his friends .

Good luck! I just helped my cousin nurse his beardie back to health.. He had a severe calcium defeciency due to lack of knowledge.. Its hard seeing them so sick and feeling so helpless.. Hope everything turns out ok..

 

[mellu]

Yeah, we have chicken and butternut squash babyfood to give him for the first few days, I'll be mixing calcium powder into it no doubt he has yet to be given any. It's a good thing because my feeder guy isn't getting back to me about pinhead crickets :?. I'm going to stick my shirt in there with him for the night and hopefully he will be settled in once he realizes he'll actually be fed enough and *gasp* loved. I made him a little mattress and pillow so he will have a comfy night once I get him here.

I wish we had a better place for the tank though. Mika's giant tank is on the floor until we can find a shelf big enough to house all of them, the little ten gallon is perpendicular on top of it, right at the foot of our bed and the UV light is giving me a headache(I have migraine and headache problems).