HELP! Neglected Jackson at local petstore!

[kmc80]

I was in my local petsmart in westlake village and noticed that they had a female Jackson for sale. She was in a little pexiglass box and was completely brown except her head still had some green. She was laying down with her eyes closed in the middle of the afternoon. She's obviously very sick and they're trying to sell her for $125! I talked to one of the girls there and she said she's always telling her managers that the Jackson's not in proper conditions but they dont listen.
If I had the exta money/space I'd take care of it but unfortunately I dont. What can I do?? Any suggestions??

 

[juju]

only thing you can do and what i have done is talk to the owner if they dont wanna hear you then just leave it be i know it sucks to see them like that but if u were to buy it all it would do is give them more money to buy more.

 

[Elizadolots]

Walk away. Send a letter to the store manager with a copy going to corporate explaining the horrible thing they did and why that means you will never shop there again (can you do that? Not shop at PetSmart? That would be a really hard boycott for me, but if you can pull it off, do it).

 

[jaredg87]

I was in my local petsmart in westlake village and noticed that they had a female Jackson for sale. She was in a little pexiglass box and was completely brown except her head still had some green. She was laying down with her eyes closed in the middle of the afternoon. She's obviously very sick and they're trying to sell her for $125! I talked to one of the girls there and she said she's always telling her managers that the Jackson's not in proper conditions but they dont listen.
If I had the exta money/space I'd take care of it but unfortunately I dont. What can I do?? Any suggestions??

same thing happen at a petco where i live in mcallen texas. I went in one day and they had a beautiful male veiled his color was outstanding.
I went back 2 weeks later and he was all brown laying on the bottom. I was in shock. They wanted 300$! for him. I told the employee he needed medical attention asap and he got mad at me! Said chameleons change colors to blend to his environment, i wanted to slap him. corporate pet stores have no clue how to handles chams. There employees are getting paid minimum and only know......nothing

 

[Swayne8998]

same thing happen at a petco where i live in mcallen texas. I went in one day and they had a beautiful male veiled his color was outstanding.
I went back 2 weeks later and he was all brown laying on the bottom. I was in shock. They wanted 300$! for him. I told the employee he needed medical attention asap and he got mad at me! Said chameleons change colors to blend to his environment, i wanted to slap him. corporate pet stores have no clue how to handles chams. There employees are getting paid minimum and only know......nothing

I know, this type of thing disgusts me. Unfortunately, it happens with all chain pet stores. The absolute WORST chain here in Colorado is called "Scales 'N Tales." I walked in a few weeks ago and there was no humidity whatsoever, the chams were in glass tanks, there were dead crickets in water bowls (why were they in there anyway?), sleeping animals... it sucked. Their female Jackson's was sleeping on a vine with a pile of feces under her. Dead food in the water bowl. There were two plastic plants flung on the ground in the cage, with one vine. They didn't even have hygrometers or thermometers.

 

[pssh]

Leave it there and contact the managers and complain to them in a professional manner. Explain your concern and how it will likely die. Do not buy it. I suggest not even buying from the store as doing so just supports what they do to the animals.

To the post about water bowls: There may be a law that requires water to be provided in such form. People who dont know about chameleons may think they are mistreating the animals by not providing water bowls as well (so it might be easier to just provide a pointledd water bowl than listen to customers get upset about it all day.)

 

[Swayne8998]

Leave it there and contact the managers and complain to them in a professional manner. Explain your concern and how it will likely die. Do not buy it. I suggest not even buying from the store as doing so just supports what they do to the animals.

To the post about water bowls: There may be a law that requires water to be provided in such form. People who dont know about chameleons may think they are mistreating the animals by not providing water bowls as well (so it might be easier to just provide a pointledd water bowl than listen to customers get upset about it all day.)

But my point is that's the only source. It is clear they don't mist the cages, the cham's eyes are sunken and like I said there is no humidity.

 

[pssh]

I was explaining why the water bowls may have been there.

 

[Elizadolots]

I was explaining why the water bowls may have been there.

I remember we had a member who was a Petco employee explain that there was a Petco policy to always have a water bowl even for animals that would never drink from one. He said he thought it was because there are always uniformed people who will complain that there's not a water bowl....but he also said his store always misted the chameleons. There's obviously a HUGE variance at the big box stores, which is a shame. They are in a position to model proper care and they don't make that a requirement for every store.

 

[kmc80]

I'll definitely try contacting the manager and writing a letter. It makes me sick leaving her there but I guess there's not much else I can do

 

[Swayne8998]

I was explaining why the water bowls may have been there.

Exactly, I understand

 

[Elizadolots]

I'll definitely try contacting the manager and writing a letter. It makes me sick leaving her there but I guess there's not much else I can do

You can offer to take her for free. I know you have space issues, but you could still make it work, right? She says.....knowing how evil she is being.

But really, that's the only thing you could do other than finding someone else who could take her for free.

No one should pay them for that chameleon.

 

[Tanya77]

Honestly.... That's where I got my Jackson but in Indiana and did so because he looked so unhappy and he too was almost completely black, he was not brown nor green. You could tell that he was stressed! I felt horrible for him and told my husband I wanted him! Please let me have him! Bought him for 130 dollars. Oh heck! I didn't even know anything about Jacksons Chameleons until I came to this forum and you all have helped Me in ways you don't know! I've had spike for about two weeks now. I wish I could help, if I was there I def would go there and get her!!

Petsmart has no business having those kind of animals!!!!

Tanya

 

[chameleoman]

if i had a dime for every thread about a petco, petsmart, or pet stores sick cham i would be a billion air

 

[Elizadolots]

if i had a dime for every thread about a petco, petsmart, or pet stores sick cham i would be a billion air

Part of that is because Petco and Petsmart are--for some reason--exempt from the "no bashing of stores" rule that this board adheres to. All threads about other stores are squashed.

Another part of that is because Petco and Petsmart are SO big that, statistically, they have the most chameleons out there being bought.

I've seen very bad things at "local" stores, including well respected reptile specialists. Once I informed a store clerk that the female panther they had in a 36 inch tall cage with 3 other panthers was gravid and needed to be moved to a laying bin...and, really, trust me, this was a well respected store. The clerk had no idea (ME: "um...well, you can actually see the eggs right THERE!").

Had I posted that story about that store, it would have been deleted.

The store, btw, no longer exists, it was bought by a board sponsor. I'd like to say that the board sponsor would never do such a thing, but they are the ones who sold me a female fisher's to be "a girlfriend" for my male fisher's and said it was just fine for me to keep them together in the same cage(ultimate bad newbie move)....but if I said who they are, this post would be deleted.

So, the big box stores have issues, yes...but the general condemnation and hatred is, to my mind, completely unwarranted.

 

[Tanya77]

if i had a dime for every thread about a petco, petsmart, or pet stores sick cham i would be a billion air

No kidding, I hate shopping at petstores and having to ask where something is, the girl today tried to sell me Calcium with D3. When I strictly told her no, when I was getting my jackson they recommended things to me that was not right, I spent 100's of dollars on random stuff I had no business giving my cammy, I didn't know any better, until I came here and basically was told to toss it, and people here told me exactly what to buy, he's doing great now.. One saved... That's a very good thing..

 

[mirrinias]

I'm so sorry...I work for a petsmart, and I too have complained about the care of the chameleons with little response from the managers. I was even told "you can't have a bleeding heart for everything!"

That being said..I know you feel bad, but please don't buy him. Don't give them money for a sick animal. The only way they might change is to lose revenue from animals that are improperly cared for.

 

[showjet95]

This is an issue that is happening way too much in way too many locations. I went into a local Petsmart a couple weeks ago and they had 2 full grown male jacksons in the same tiny glass tank with fake vines and bark chips on the ground and a water bowl. I asked to speak to the store manager and was told they were in a meeting and I could come back later. I didnt have time to come back because I was in the middle of a work day, so I told the employees my concern and how to care for them and they seemed like they couldnt care less. I did go back the following week and low and behold they were still together in the same tiny glass tank with the water bowl. I spoke with a manager and they thanked me for my advice and that was basically all. They were also asking $125 each for them. One had his eyes closed. Im sure they either died or are still in the same sad situation. It seriously pisses me off.

 

[shineru]

Smh sounds like my little christ story , i left the first time i saw him and then i came back for dogs food when i saw him againg i said to myself i just gotta do it. & trust me yes yes i got all this talk from everyone here about how bad of a choice i did, but trust me little christ is having a blast in his new cage and habitat. his the best addition to my family, but in all well it did realy ended up good with chris story n the petstore.. but no comments.. on that but please, even if u do find a way to get him. you need to study about them real good, i personaly spend a good 2week's or more buying and returning stuff. i know it not right to see them there, and i also know it's not right to support them but if you can ever find a way .. maybe you can make thing right, thanks for at least carring. i know it feels messed up to watch something so intresting die behined a small glass tank, but i guees this is the type of world we live on now in days


good luck with everything
i know how hard of a choice you gotta make, i know i picked my.
& trust me i made sure i'll never regreat it, sometime is better to do it than letting it hunt you at night Best of luck

 

[flypdoink]

Same here!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my fiancé and I were picking up some new crickets for our veiled Thomas. He had already told me the pet store got some juveniles, so naturally I was very excited to see them.

However, once we got to the terrarium, I got the scare of a lifetime! There were two very small chameleons, who one of the salespeople told us were 6 months old. Yet, Thomas was very small when we got him at six months and a reptile specialist told us he was either underfed or at most four months old. The same things seems to have happened again with the new juveniles. Aside from that, I was shocked to see that one of the juveniles was so brown he seriously looked purple/pink or lavender. The other one was bright green and looked better (you can see in the photo).

Now, I am new at chameleons (we've had Thomas for about a month and a half), but this doesn't look normal to me. Does it to you?

I'm afraid to even say anything to the salespeople or owner, because they seem to feel they know everything about chameleons (I think two of them took a small course in chameleon health and keeping, the other people just take them out forcefully whenever they like). One of them got mad when I came back the day after picking up Thomas because he had forgotten to provide us with UVB or basking lights. I was ready to just buy the little guy and get him to a vet, but my fiancé wouldn't let me. What should I do?