Shocked at Petsmart!

[Katie007]

Today, while picking up some things for my Norbert at Petsmart I looked in on their beardies for sale...and I was shocked! They are selling the smallest dragons I've ever seen in a pet store. Are there really no regulations about how young they can sell them? It seems crazy. To me they looked like week old beardies...

Here are a few pics I took while I was there:






And also, when asked how often they're fed, an employee said they only need to be fed "a few crickets every other day"....
makes me so mad!

 

[Katie007]

Especially that smallest one in all three pics. He's so tiny!!

 

[RandyMarsh]

yeah i was at petco and totally went off on the guy in the reptile section because they had 8 or 9 2-3inch babies in a 20 gallon tank on a bunch of calci-sand.

I asked him if he felt good about himself for treating animals so poorly and if he was my employee I'd fire him.

 

[Katie007]

It's sad cause not only are they hurting those babies, but they're selling a potentially sick animal to someone and not informing them of the proper care these animals need. Also, all those beardies at Petsmart were missing toes and tips of tails. If they had been using that calci-sand I would have flipped out! But even just the way they feed those babies is horrible! "a few crickets every other day"?! AND that's how they're telling new owners to care for their new pet... I don't understand why there's no kind of regulations for pet stores. Isn't it basically animal cruelty? I also asked if they get any veggies and I was told that recently they have been forbidden to use any fresh greens in their reptile habitats. :|
(They also use red lights for heat at night...you think they would know/care a little more about the animals)

 

[Katie007]

I'd be interested to here other peoples pet store horror stories too.
(like the time I was in a PetsPlus and saw a DEAD gecko in their enclosure, then went back the following week and it was still there!)

 

[Vianeth]

I got my beardie baby at petsmart. He was TINY. They used the green carpet, but were feeding it the dry red reptile kibble. I bought the beardie having no clue how to take care of them or what to feed/how often/light requirements. The employee told me nothing about UVB, heat source, diet. She only said to use the carpet for babies. Thank god for the internet!!

 

[Slippers]

yeah i was at petco and totally went off on the guy in the reptile section because they had 8 or 9 2-3inch babies in a 20 gallon tank on a bunch of calci-sand.

I asked him if he felt good about himself for treating animals so poorly and if he was my employee I'd fire him.

Same thing at the petco near me.They were so tiny about the size of your pinky and also on sand, the salad looked about 2 days old it was 1/2 brown and 1/2 green and there was about 2 dozen crickets in the cage with the 3 small beardies who obviously wanted nothing to do with the crickets.
If I had the Cash and the Room would have bought all 3 just to get them out of there.

 

[Katie007]

It's always shocking how little most of the chain pet store employees know. They told me meal worms were a great staple feeder when I asked if they ever carry repti or silk worms...AND when I asked if they ever get the reptisun tube bulbs in the employee (who had JUST told me her beardie has MBD) told me to just buy a coil bulb because they "last longer and don't need to be replaced like a tube bulb does"... I feel so bad for her dragons

 

[saleen89559]

It is honestly hilarious how many people work at those stores and don't know anything about the pets at all.

I have noticed that it is a common practice for them to hire someone with little or no experience with only the intent of teaching them to be a "salesman" instead of knowledgeable and informative. I literally had a store manager at Petco tell me that I wasn't allowed to talk to any customers because I didn't work there, even after the customer approached me about it while I happened to be there. I told that manager that its pretty sad that the customers don't trust you guys to give them educated information they desire and have to ask other customers about it. She had no idea what to say to that and walked away with her nose in the air.

 

[aussiefreak101]

You should bring that store up to its district manager. That is against the training. We're trained to feed them crickets twice a day with veggies available through the day. I don't know the size of that enclosure in your pic but ours is only allowed to have 1 beardie in it at a time. Also, not all people have the same training, only those in Pet Care know how the animals are fed where as those on the Product Floor don't. Product people shouldn't be giving advice or information, they should be referring to the Pet Care team who can refer you to the person with the most reptile knowledge. This is at least how it is in our store and how we are trained. Again, it can be hard to correct everyone for the YEARS of information that has been out there on how to raise animals and health concerns that have been discovered from it. It takes time for the information to become common knowledge. All we can do until that time is bring what we witness to higher management.

 

[BeardedDragon6]

I dont want to sound rude or anything.
but pet shops dont give a damn about their animals.
They just deliver them.
and sell them at the most worst condition. Some petshops have very nice healthy animals there.

but not all go to work at petshops because they love animals. :I
they just go there for the money. the more they sell. the more money they get.
They got alot of other animals too and just wont or Dont want to take care of one breed just because its going to die.
I mean they got parrots. bunnies. snakes and probably all that kind of stuff.
So yes.. I know the feeling you have when you go to petshops and to the reptile section..
i always go there. and see half dead beardies and other lizards.
Like last time i went to a petshop there were 2 adult beardies one with a respirotzary infection the other one with swollen eyes.
and one baby. which was very thin.
They all looked at me like. "take me with you. :'c" I would have loved to take them all. but we dont have so much money, space, heating and all that stuff. :<
so yeah. I feel sorry for them. but then again im happy for my chubby happy pancake.

oh and when i was at that petshop and asked them how many times they feed them.
they said that they eat like 5 crickets per week.

5 crickets.. 5 crickets..

.. sorry for the picture but.. that was my face when they said 5 crickets... per week.

 

[szubelak]

I frequent my local petsmart quite often and ALWAYS look at the beardies to check for stress/tail nips/toe nips. There are usually 3 babies in their tank. They always have pellets and greens and I've never seen any nips - there are 2 really knowledgeable reptile people at my store. They are older women and I think have been there for a long time.

At petco once though - I don't remember what kind of reptile it was - it was bigger but I don't think it was an iguana - there was 2 in one enclosure and 1 had a banged up bloody lip. I brought it to the attention of an employee - she said it was from him banging his nose on the glass - not from a fight with the other reptile. (Maybe he's stressed being housed with another reptile - duh - do something about it)

 

[saleen89559]

There have been lots of posts of this nature on here. None of us can do much about it unless we have physical proof of neglect and abuse and report it to the authorities. Then you have the challenge of the authorities even caring too.

 

[Katie007]

You should bring that store up to its district manager. That is against the training. We're trained to feed them crickets twice a day with veggies available through the day. I don't know the size of that enclosure in your pic but ours is only allowed to have 1 beardie in it at a time. Also, not all people have the same training, only those in Pet Care know how the animals are fed where as those on the Product Floor don't. Product people shouldn't be giving advice or information, they should be referring to the Pet Care team who can refer you to the person with the most reptile knowledge. This is at least how it is in our store and how we are trained. Again, it can be hard to correct everyone for the YEARS of information that has been out there on how to raise animals and health concerns that have been discovered from it. It takes time for the information to become common knowledge. All we can do until that time is bring what we witness to higher management.

I actually worked at a PetsMart for a few months during one summer in college. I know that where I worked the managers told they employees to never seem like you don't know an answer. They told us if you're not sure about something, make it up, because they don't want their employees to seem unknowledgeable (and yes, I was a "Pet Care Specialist"). I was once yelled at for telling a costumer I wasn't sure about something...they would rather give out wrong info than no info. They housed WAY too many of all the reptiles together, and if there was fighting or sickness they refused to let it go to the vet (and it was a store with Banfield). I can say from experience working in a chain pet store that management does not care about the animals, and they employees who do are given very little chance to help them. :?
Not saying this is all chain pet stores everywhere... but from what I've seen it must be common.

 

[Katie007]

(and also I forgot to mention...in that PetsMart yesterday, in another reptile enclosure, there was poop ALL over the bottom of the tank and covered in mold...it was disgusting. They should be shut down for that alone.)