Petco Chameleon Rant

[Kerrek]

So I needed a bowl for a dart frog enclosure today and stopped in my local Petco. My wife noticed one of their end cages had a drip system set up and wondered oh great what do they have now. Go over and they have a small Veiled setup with what looked like a coco bark substrate and no basking site and this dripper set up. The temp was 82 and the humidity was 25%. I tried talking to an employee but got blown off. The best part was the fact they have new signs everywhere saying Petco Where the Animals Come First. Its what I said to the guy as he walked away. Man I hate it when they set animals up like crap and then act like its no big deal.


How not to set up a drip system

Pic of the little guy

 

[carol5208]

Thanks for the heads up cause I am sure you are talking about the Petco on 441. I never try to look at any of their tanks because I do not want to see the poor chameleons being abused. It makes me very sad. Do you ever go to Wild Cargo? I went to get some crickets the other day and they have a large male Veild in there. He was just sitting on the cage floor in the mulch and the basking light, well he could get no where near it to warm up as there was nothing below it. I tried to tell the guy and he said they had him about a month and he was doing fine. ugh!

 

[winterbones]

This makes me so SO mad!! I'm glad chameleons aren't really sold in pet stores in Scotland, and the few I have seen have been in the correct set-ups.
Pets At Home are the "big brand for the UK, and they are pretty bad though. A friend of mines works there and apparently they don't like you being a "know-it-all" and basically expect you to wipe all knowledge of animals you previously have and go by what they teach you (which 9/10 times is wrong), they do it to increase sales (make animals seem less hard work than they are, buy the products that are in their store).

I was incredibly angry when a worker in my local store told me that one store sells chameleons and that they are in tanks and have heat pads etc. They sell flexariums on their website, however they also list chameleons under the tanks as well

Many of their chinchillas and degus have bumblefeet due to poor set-up and their rats and gerbils almost always have respiratory problems due to being housed with wood shavings. One thing they've done right recently however is urge people to buy rabbits in pairs and offer free neutering. They still sell incredibly small "hutches" however at discounted prices.

So yeah basically, big brand companies = evil.

 

[parisaurusrex]

I had told them before at my local petco that the substrate they were using was dangerous and incorrect for a majority of their lizards. The response was basically that its not up to them how they take care of the animals, the company requires they use what they use in order to sell the product. Those "Animals come first" signs should be replaced with "money comes first, we don't actually know or care to know what we're doing."

 

[little leaf]

you guys need to start calling your local humane society - it is ILLEGAL - to not provide correct and proper housing for ANY animal - their ignorance is NO excuse- the h/s gets enough calls on them, and petco gets sick of the investigations, something will change - I just turned in the Petco ( filled an animal abuse charge with Wood Co. last week) in Bowling Green - and I have asked my friends to do the same every time they see something wrong- we need to start turning in the PETCO 's - EVERYONE needs to start calling - not just one of us here, or there - EVERYONE - I do not keep my mouth shut - call on them

 

[gar732]

That's actually not as bad as my local petsmart. Here was the scene there.


At one point they had an employee that knew what they were doing and had a veiled in the back (so he wouldn't get stressed from all the people) in a screen cage with proper lights. That person must not work their anymore. One person suggested posting these pics on their Facebook page, they might care about it then. I'd do it but I don't have a Facebook page.

 

[SaintJimmy]

Neither of those pics are as bad as MY local petsmart...

Baby chameleon housed in like maybe a 3-5 gallon tank. No basking light, only uvb. There was one branch, a fake vine, and coco substrate...

 

[qdude46]

I've seen the same for a veiled and a Jackson in pets smarts. The other day when I went to petco to get crickets and the manager was finishing up the enclosure just the same size as the end enclosure poster by the OP with a huge water bowl and dead mealworms. There were three total Veileds in there and two were close together making one flare up. My friend and I want to post cares sheets on everything tank. Btw petco, Corn snakes don't eat crickets!

 

[Deevo]

Man my local Big Als has a poor juvenile male thats so skinny and stressed in a tiny plexi-glass cage with only a basking light

 

[Saldarya]

Although I am inclined to agree with all that you all have to say about the care of these animals in the bog box stores, the fact is, you are STILL shopping there!!!!

Just because you are not buying the chameleons themselves, you ARE supporting the stores.

If you truly want to impact them, STOP shopping there for vines, bowls, crickets, etc......

Do you all realize that only 4% of the sales of any given Petsmart or PetCo is live animals of any kind. That means 96% of their gross sales come from dry goods.

The truth is, their goal is not to sell live animals. They only sell them to sell the dry goods that go with them at the initial sell as well as ongoing. Items like CRICKETS are where the profit margin is.

I have held off saying anything through all of these threads but the fact is, the very fact that you walk in the store to purchase anything, is directly harming your goal of trying to get them to stop these behaviors.

Just something to think about.

 

[qdude46]

I have thought about that but sadly I don't really have a choice for crickets anywhere else, I don't think all of petco and petsmart is bad, just their animal care.

 

[TCMontium]

I think that the Turkish petcos (petshop i think?) are the worst chameleon keepers. Common Chameleon is a native species in Turkey (in Southern forests). People catching them and trying to sell chams between 250₺-2000₺ (close to 130$-1100$)! Petcos in Turkey selling Common Chameleons sometimes too but thats illegal actually… Wc Common Chameleons usually don't eat and drink. Petcos doesn't even use spot bulbs for cham, they just put the cham in a empty aquarium and waiting for selling it… So bad…

I'm a student and if my English is bad, i'm sorry.

 

[Big Gulp]

Petco/Petsmart is terrible.

My local Petsmart insists on having a heat lamp on their crested geckos. The thermometer reads 95. I yell at them all the time to no avail. To those who aren't familiar with cresteds, you never want the temp to get above 80.

 

[CarlC]

Just as Bobby said you are buying from there so that is supporting them. At the end of the day they look at the bottom line. They are looking to grab that buyer who says "Wow" look at that, I've got to have it mom and dad. The big box stores aren't paying much more then $50 for that veild. If they buy 2 or 3 a month and 2 end up dieing they still come out ahead at the price they sell them for.

Supporting the mom and pop pet shops will usually get you the same thing you could buy there. You might a pay a bit more but your not supporting inhumane behavior. Even better is buying from this sites sponsors. Most of the sponsors here are just little guys trying to bring us the best stuff offered.

Carl

 

[Decadancin]

I am inclined to say that with every purchase the buyer should always do research! (of course my own "impulse" buy of a chameleon and then the almost immediate research after was probably not a great example ) but sadly the purchase of a "cute" or "adorable" animal for the kids is often all that happens. Pet stores are somewhat limited in space, but I still can't stand walking by the fish tanks that are mislabeled as community or schooling and you see something that in two months will destroy everything. Its something I've seen for years, and the truth is they expect a large number of people to fail when they start out with new pets. (They offer to do free water testing, and then tell you the ammonia levels are too high and blame you!)
The unfortunate part when it comes to chameleons is that they just don't seem to carry the right products for them. If they had a better selection any of the employees could be taught the "basics" and there would be a lot less dead chameleons.

(As a side note, I was originally directed to this forum by one of the employees at a PetSmart and even with all he knew about chams, the same silly setup of a tiny tank and moss and a water dish and three veiled chams on a plastic vine.)

 

[ApocalypseUK]

And you think this is all bad, the garden centre near my work sells reptiles and its quite big. I went there often before I even brought my little guy because they were selling a Yemen chameleon only a baby I would say about 2 or 3 months old and I like examining him and was debating whether or not to purchase him. I later came back to this shop with a lot more knowledge and realised how disgraceful everything was for example:

They had bark for the flooring.
exo terra waterfall that had green type slime on the waterfall.
the uvb light in the tank just hanging there.
the cage was not in very good condition.
a red light above his cage
the chameleon looked ill anyways
his poo was discoloured and urine was dark yellow/orange
he was sleeping during the day
the crickets you could see where trying to bite him
and even worse I said to some hello was wondering if you could help me I'm interested in the yemen chameleon you have but wanted more information on the lighting whats the best provided lighting I can give them and with what the reply I got was:
"Yes you can get that red bulb there and that cup dome it sits in and a tube light inside it,
I said what specific lights are they though and what temperatures is best?
"he replied the temps have to be high but not to high and the lights are the reptile lights we have that are sold downstairs they will all work very well for him"

I was like **** this im leaving before I get angry because I knew full well he didn't have a clue, I returned 1 week later to see the condition of the chameleon again aimed with even more knowledge and even have my own now. Anyways I returned to see the condition of him with my girlfriend and guess what they didnt have him anymore and his cage was empty and everything taken out of it....

I returned there to see his condition because I was going to ask to see the manager and tell him straight whats wrong and what needs doing cuz Im tired of seeing his condition and if nothing was going to get sorted I was going to report them.. anyways thats my story I left and haven't returned since.

gets me angry though!

 

[little leaf]

I do not shop at that store - I agree with you all, I only went there because I got 3 phone calls on the little cham - I will not buy ANYTHING from those stores, now, I will say , the Petsmart in Perrysburg, they take GREAT care of their chams, I do support them - and as some have said, they may not have a choice , and have to go to get feeders - but for those- we have many sponsors who sell feeders too - you may pay shipping, but the cost per bug is was better - the p/s by us, they sell their crix for I think it is now $.13 each I get 1,000 for $12 at the shows - and use Great Lakes, and Coastal Silkworm for my wormy needs

 

[TreeTopChameleons]

Another day, the exact same story. Petco and all other big chains stores are still open because the majority of people would rather pay less for products. You want to put an end to them, stop buying from them, stop visiting their stores, stop talking about them online. You know the saying, "there's no such thing as bad publicity"?

A complete boycott of the major pet chains is what is needed. These rants that appear weekly have grown a bit tiresome.

Yes, PetcoPetcetera/Petmart sucks, that's why so many of us on these forums do not shop there.

 

[DanSB]

I wrote a letter to Petco on their corporate website and received a call from the district manager a few days later explaining what they did to correct the problems.

Some things wont change, ie substrate, water bowls (for show), but they can at least change the dripper placement, and correct temps and humidity.

The substrate hate is misplaced. Coco fiber isn't as bad as y'all are making it out to be. The biggest downside is that its expensive to replace as often as required to maintain a sanitary enclosure.

Attacking large stores with quibbles that experienced breeders would disagree with wont do any good. Focus on tangible realities such as real water availability, temperature, humidity, tank size, and tankmates, along with obvious signs of illness.

 

[Poptartjake]

I wrote a letter to Petco on their corporate website and received a call from the district manager a few days later explaining what they did to correct the problems.

Some things wont change, ie substrate, water bowls (for show), but they can at least change the dripper placement, and correct temps and humidity.

The substrate hate is misplaced. Coco fiber isn't as bad as y'all are making it out to be. The biggest downside is that its expensive to replace as often as required to maintain a sanitary enclosure.

Attacking large stores with quibbles that experienced breeders would disagree with wont do any good. Focus on tangible realities such as real water availability, temperature, humidity, tank size, and tankmates, along with obvious signs of illness.

As much as I want to say "Let's all attack the big corporations," like everyone else, I am going to have to agree with Dan. A lot of things won't change and reporting the stores for animal abuse isn't going to do a lot in most cases since the animals aren't actually being abused and in a court of law would MOST LIKELY be seen as fair-good health animals by a vet. That's assuming they aren't living in a 5-6 gallon tank with a single static temp, no humidity, and hardly enough room to turn around like the Veiled at my local Petsmart.

Now, that's not to say that you can't make a stink about it when you see a poor setup, but I know two different employee's of pet stores, one is a manager of Petco (Who keeps both Veiled and Jax personally) and another is the live animal expert at a local pet/garden store. The one that manages the Petco personally owns Cham's just as we all do and cares for them like they're his babies (even if I disagree with some of his care), so I know if he could change the current setup that their "Retail" Chams are in, he would. The girl that runs the live animal department at one of my local chain pet stores currently has a ~2-3 year old male Veiled that is in a large, glass Exo-Terra tank w/ substrate and etc, but that is because it's all she is given to use. I know she is knowledgeable on Chams because she is currently nursing a young Jax female back to health (She's really healthy now in comparison to when she first got her in).

So, we all want to help right? Well, stores like Petco and Petsmart are going to be A LOT harder to bring about change in but local pet stores are somewhere I think we could influence. The one I mentioned has roughly 5-8 stores throughout my state and the 3 I have been to all sell Chams, but one of which actually uses SCREENED CAGES! And not just some 18"x18"x18", they currently have a ~1 year old female Veiled in a 30"x18"x18" or so, which means that the company isn't against this sort of thing. My idea is to offer to donate 18"x18"x36" cages for use in their Cham setups as long as they don't resell them. I would assume that if they agreed to this that they would also be providing the "guts" on the cage because I can't spend 100-200$ a month on donated Cham supplies, but a $40 cage once a month or so isn't much and would be a great thing to see, in my opinion.

If anyone is interested in what I have purposed, feel free to private message me or just post here in response. If I get enough feedback I'll look into contacting the owner or someone higher up @ the company about this.