PetSmart : Brown Skin

[karebear41486]

It does totally depend on the people working in those types of stores, but only to a certain extent. I, personally, worked with a GREAT crew at petsmart, some of the most educated people about animals and reptiles that I know...but it's such a shame because you just can't compete with corporate! We were allowed a stipend of around $40 a month in vet costs...yet we were forced to take dead animals to the vet at LEAST weekly to have them incinerated, which cost like $20 per visit. How does that add up? They would send us these new "care sheets" that we were supposed to reference as we re-modeled the reptile cages, but EVERYTHING would be wrong, they have no idea what they are doing. Corporate people just sit up there and think of ways that they can make tons of money while still keeping the animals alive. It was terrible. BUT, three of us walked out and quite one day without notice...because we couldn't take it anymore. So, we screwed them back in the end, for all of the animals that they made suffer. There's me on my soapbox for the day

 

[karebear41486]

Oh wow!! I just read the reply about the drip cup someone made getting thrown away by co-workers...that happened to me too! We got a LARGE jackson in and so i made him a drip cup out of a styrofoam cup, since that was all we had, and my manager threw it away and said we couldn't have it there because it wasn't part of the "policies and procedures" and if someone from corporate came in we would get in trouble for doing things that have not been "approved by corporate" Um...excuse me?? How has housing chameleons in aquariums with substrate and improper lighting gotten approved by corporate?? He ended up dying...along with almost EVERY other chameleon we ever had in the store, long term. The only one that is still alive is the one that i took home with me...

 

[casidonacid]

My momma says i should work there, and get the animals to better health.

The one looked dead, really dark black coloured, and laying on his stick, with his arms just laying down

ya I work at petsmart now and instead of them drinking from a bowl with air stone in it they now get proper care and get misted 4 times a day. but ya it does kinda help to educate people on reptiles because a lot of people just do not know about the work in proper care for a reptile.

 

[JackAttack]

not mentioning any names, but we recently saw 10 veileds......yes 10.....all at least 4 months old, living together in a tank. they were all light tan in color, regardless of the sex of them, and all looked super skinny .............. we bought our panther from there, and he still spends his time climbing upiside down on the ceiling because in his tank at the store, that was the only screen he had...............we saved a life im sure of it!

 

[chameleon guy]

sometimes when I see chams at pets'mart one day then maybe four days later they Aren't there anymore, i wonder if someone saved them or that they didn't make it.

 

[chameleon guy]

They are usually babies, that never got to get older.

 

[Grizz]

i got my cham from petsmart because i didn't want to see him die. the female that was with him died 1 week after i got him. he was in bad shape. anyway about a month ago i was in petsmart and the lady asked me how he was doing. i told her the story of his recovery, she was evidently moved. i was in there last week and they had taken the sick jacksons and followed my lead. they put him in a screen cage,(kind of small,but still a +) no substraite, no water bowl and they put in a dripper and cheezy habimister. his condition improved greatly in just a week. i tried to get them to use Reptaid, but they dont sell it so i don,t think they will. they need to give them fecal floats also. but i don't see that happening. I guess that is the responsibilty of the customer. all in all i will not buy from them again, not even to save a little critter. i try to stay away from the reptile tanks. my next will be from small time breeder. probably off this site.

 

[blackbetty]

that sounds very noble hope you can meet your goal.

Thank you. We are both reptile/amphibian lovers as well as fish (saltwater).. we know how hard it is to impulsively buy a pet and then what? You dont know what should house it or you are given wrong info. Not saying we Know EVERYTHING but i figure 10-20yrs give me a good time frame to study up and get it right.

 

[NewOwner]

1 cham out of the 3 at petsmart passed away. R.I.P

I asked about him, they said an unknown death..

 

[Docility]

Oh wow!! I just read the reply about the drip cup someone made getting thrown away by co-workers...that happened to me too! We got a LARGE jackson in and so i made him a drip cup out of a styrofoam cup, since that was all we had, and my manager threw it away and said we couldn't have it there because it wasn't part of the "policies and procedures" and if someone from corporate came in we would get in trouble for doing things that have not been "approved by corporate" Um...excuse me?? How has housing chameleons in aquariums with substrate and improper lighting gotten approved by corporate?? He ended up dying...along with almost EVERY other chameleon we ever had in the store, long term. The only one that is still alive is the one that i took home with me...

yeah they told me the dripping cup looked cheesy, and i said well what looks worse a dripping cup, or a dead animal? they still throw the cups away all the time

 

[ScaredyCatAsh]

My boyfriend owns a pet store and its only fish & reptiles. I take care of the reptiles he does the fish. We both work are butts off making sure everything has the correct husbandry and food and cage set up. Im so weird about how the animals are kept and knowing all that i do i try my beest to keep things correct and not be like petco and petsmart where everything looks out of whack.

 

[haldsey and jamie]

I was at the mall a few weeks ago and they had a sale sign on their veiled chameleons. When I looked for it in the cage, I saw that it was in the very far corner of the cage behind a rock. It was actually LAYING down on its stomach and its eyes were closed. I have never seen or heard of a veiled actually laying down. The only way I could tell that it was still alive is because its eyes were still moving around even though they were closed. It was so sad that they just put him on sale instead of taking the time to correct their mistakes.

 

[blackbetty]

Well, came across three different stores with chameleons. One in Nashville (Aquatic) has a Sambava.. Great setup, healthy looking. Yay!
Emerald Bay, which I LOVE, had 2. One jacksons adult..eh, it looked out..and one ambibilobe..It was like.. almost completely white with some yellow and it was asleep. It was young, Id guess about 4-5 months.. Tiny tanks with barely any vines and no lighting except the natural coming through the window.. And a veiled at Petsmart yesterday..I took a peek and it was brown, sunken eyes, and dehydrated casque.. It breaks my heart..even my husband who doesnt know much about Chams could tell they were all (minus AC) in bad off shape.

 

[Malicious]

This brings the Petsmart/Petco/chainstore post count up to 9243!

Why do you guys still shop there?

FFS, next time you feel the need to go into anyone of those stores, smack yourselves in the face with a bag of hot nickels!!

Bottom line.....

They are a business, not a Reptile Sancuary. They are there to make money, and nothing more. Corperate knows as much about animal science as they do about rocket science, and they don't teach you anything concerning chameleon husbandry in business school. The kid who works there is thinking more about where and who is going to buy him beer when he gets off work, then about a dripper cup. At 16 and $6 an hour, can you blame the guy?

Sorry to be the "Negative Nancy" and to bring you all to reality, but save your sanity and shop elsewhere or online.


-Jay

 

[blackbetty]

Its the only place I can find Large Breed dog food that isnt fillers..and online would cost me an arm and leg for a 40# bag twice a month...
I also buy our frozen fish food and mice for my daughters cornsnake there..

Thats it..
no other option as we dont have endless funds to spend on shipping costs..

And jay, where might one get a bag of HOT nickels?

 

[djfunkshowkid]

Yeah, I was at a local pet store recently, and they had a 4mo old Veiled, and it was sitting their with it's mouth open. He was pretty green, but his mouth was just open....they didnt have a thermometer in there, so I mentioned to the manager that it was too hot. She just said, "Oh really? How my chameleons do you have?" I told her that I have 3 (which I only have 1, with two on the way)...and asked why did she ask. She said "Ohh, cuz lots of people just don't know what they are talking about." I told her that I know what im talking about...and left it at that. So the next day I visited the store again cuz I was bored. I looked at his cage again, and there was a thermometer in there...and I noticed the light was changed...and now it read a comfortable 86*.

YAYYY ONE LESS CHAMELEON BEING ABUSED IN THE WORLD!!!

 

[Pure]

Its the only place I can find Large Breed dog food that isnt fillers..and online would cost me an arm and leg for a 40# bag twice a month...
I also buy our frozen fish food and mice for my daughters cornsnake there..

Thats it..
no other option as we dont have endless funds to spend on shipping costs..

And jay, where might one get a bag of HOT nickels?

What kind of frozen foods do you usually buy? I know I can find cheap online sources for you. I would start here http://www.aquabid.com/ . I know of other vendors that I can dig up. It just depends on what you are looking for.