Generally, German petstores seem to take good care of their animals, but today I saw something near on horrifying...
They have one large veiled chameleon priced at 169€ (No one will buy it) and I'm certain it's female. Not only because it has a smaller crest and no hindleg spurrs, but because it has a very large stomach. Although that's the only thing large about her... the rest is fairly thin and there's a huge "indent" between her tummy and tail. The form is just weird... She has a fairly big terrarium, but it was really dry, no equipment for measuing the humidity or temp and she just looked slightly dehydrated. There was a bowl of water (at least it looked fresh? Despite it not "allowed" to be in there), not much to climb on and she was almost black in colour. I wish I had the money, I would have bought her in a heartbeat, nourished her up some, and likely found her a good home. I wouldn't care if I was funding the store or whatever, the poor chameleon just looked so sadening
As if that wasn't bad enough, they had a similarily large terrarium with young chameleons and I almost cried. They were being sold for 29€, which is VERY affordable, and I wanted to buy them all... They were nothing but skin and bones, sunken eyes, and two of them came to the glass as if to say "save us!" I would have gotten a terrarium and bought each and every one of those 8 babies... but I can't afford it at the moment. Not to mention we've got our hands full and are going away on vacation for a few days soon and don't want to throw a bunch of sick chameleons at the petsitter.
The cages for all the animals there are big, quite roomy compared to what I've seen, but the conditions for the chameleons were horrible. It really makes me feel bad for these animals... I even went to try and talk to someone and they simply replied with: "The man who knows most about reptiles is on holidays this week, and we're doing what he told us. When he gets back, we will ask him about it and run it by him." I don't think the babies will last more than a couple of days tops, and the large female... well it really depends It's really upsetting to see these kinds of conditions.... Luckily I do have a good petstore nearby that only gets in young chameleons, keeps them apart, has a mister, and does everything perfectly (except the small cage size). They move them to bigger ones once they get bigger, and they do have a lot to climb on, so I am really happy with them! (I complimented them on their work, and they seemed pleased. They even turn over tortoises that have fallen on their back and can't get up after a certain amount of time!)
They have one large veiled chameleon priced at 169€ (No one will buy it) and I'm certain it's female. Not only because it has a smaller crest and no hindleg spurrs, but because it has a very large stomach. Although that's the only thing large about her... the rest is fairly thin and there's a huge "indent" between her tummy and tail. The form is just weird... She has a fairly big terrarium, but it was really dry, no equipment for measuing the humidity or temp and she just looked slightly dehydrated. There was a bowl of water (at least it looked fresh? Despite it not "allowed" to be in there), not much to climb on and she was almost black in colour. I wish I had the money, I would have bought her in a heartbeat, nourished her up some, and likely found her a good home. I wouldn't care if I was funding the store or whatever, the poor chameleon just looked so sadening
As if that wasn't bad enough, they had a similarily large terrarium with young chameleons and I almost cried. They were being sold for 29€, which is VERY affordable, and I wanted to buy them all... They were nothing but skin and bones, sunken eyes, and two of them came to the glass as if to say "save us!"
I would have gotten a terrarium and bought each and every one of those 8 babies... but I can't afford it at the moment. Not to mention we've got our hands full and are going away on vacation for a few days soon and don't want to throw a bunch of sick chameleons at the petsitter.The cages for all the animals there are big, quite roomy compared to what I've seen, but the conditions for the chameleons were horrible. It really makes me feel bad for these animals... I even went to try and talk to someone and they simply replied with: "The man who knows most about reptiles is on holidays this week, and we're doing what he told us. When he gets back, we will ask him about it and run it by him." I don't think the babies will last more than a couple of days tops, and the large female... well it really depends
It's really upsetting to see these kinds of conditions.... Luckily I do have a good petstore nearby that only gets in young chameleons, keeps them apart, has a mister, and does everything perfectly (except the small cage size). They move them to bigger ones once they get bigger, and they do have a lot to climb on, so I am really happy with them! (I complimented them on their work, and they seemed pleased. They even turn over tortoises that have fallen on their back and can't get up after a certain amount of time!)
