VeiledOwner87
New Member
not realy, just further in depth. i guess in depth is more meaningfull than just a short answer debate. oh well though, i got my beliefs out lol, i hope you guys can cope with what i said.
Petsmart
- Thread starter Phoenixguy77
- Start date
EVERYTHING starts at just one. Just one puppy from the puppy mill, just one chameleon from a crappy pet store. If you buy one, and I buy one, and my friend buys one ... You get the picture -- it's just not one anymore. Petsmart opened a store in our city. I went in to check it out and they had a teeny little veiled in one of their glass boxes. Poor thing was cooking in there. Various people I know talked to them about husbandry, but that fell on deaf ears. The poor thing died there. I don't know if they have another one, because I refuse to go back for anything. I spend A LOT of money at petstores. So do my friends. Petsmart doesn't get any of it. It all starts with one.
VeiledOwner87
New Member
i understand that, i forgot to mention or clear this in my last post on here, but as much as "WE" stay away and dont support it, does not mean in anyway that this will stop the pet stores from recieving them and selling them. many of us on here all agree that this is bullcrap, and pet stores suck at taking care of their chameleons, but the reality is, and i believe this with all of my heart, pet stores and franchises like petsmart and petco will NEVER stop selling them, crappy mom and pop stores will NEVER stop selling them. if we dont go in and support it, thats fine. theres only how many members on this forum that know the dirt behind it all. and there are how many hundreds of thousands of other people that are blind and will go out and buy one, not knowing the true condition of the animal. we treat these animals as puppets and its very sad, thats why i stated half of me hates the trade, hates chameleons being sold. but as a chameleon lover the other half will take them in, and through the experience and knowledge we gain from this place, will give them a better home than they could of ever imagined.
Metric
New Member
Don't buy it PLEASE.
I work at a PetSmart and I go out of my way to make sure any chameleon we have gets the best care possible, I even bring in my own supplements and gut load crickets up to my standards and not the stores. I even come in on my days off to do extra mistings and make sure meal worms aren't being fed. Of course there is only so much I can do.
We have actually stopped ordering Chameleons because of the amount of care they require and how little profit the store makes on them, I mean it did take me conveying this to the managers but they got the point after one of our veilds become very Ill. I nursed him back to health, and even got him adopted out to a great owner.
Total cost to the store including vet bills (not to mention it taking a spot of a reptile that COULD have sold): About $500+
Profit: $-500
If Pet stores keep going through profit losses like this, they will be less inclined to continue carrying those species of reptiles.
The best you can do is voice your opinion with the manager, to be honest a chameleon at 6-8 inches should be in the bigger habitats just in terms of policy and procedure, of course i can't post the details on here, but you get the idea. I do work at a Canadian Petsmart so things may be different if your referring to an American one.
Things i've achieved by just voicing my opinion in a professional manner at Petsmart: We now gutload with fresh veggies apposed to fish flakes, The chameleons are housed with bark bedding, which is now covered up with reptile carpeting so they can't eat the bark, and we now use a D3 free calcium powder rather then using Calcium with D3 at every feeding.
Just voice your opinion professionally with more logic and less emotional motivation, and maybe get some friends to come in at different times to voice the same opinions or get some sort of petition started, or make friends with one of the employee's and have them voice their opinion to their manager.
Of course, this all depends on if your talking about PetSmart or PetsMart.
I work at a PetSmart and I go out of my way to make sure any chameleon we have gets the best care possible, I even bring in my own supplements and gut load crickets up to my standards and not the stores. I even come in on my days off to do extra mistings and make sure meal worms aren't being fed. Of course there is only so much I can do.
We have actually stopped ordering Chameleons because of the amount of care they require and how little profit the store makes on them, I mean it did take me conveying this to the managers but they got the point after one of our veilds become very Ill. I nursed him back to health, and even got him adopted out to a great owner.
Total cost to the store including vet bills (not to mention it taking a spot of a reptile that COULD have sold): About $500+
Profit: $-500
If Pet stores keep going through profit losses like this, they will be less inclined to continue carrying those species of reptiles.
The best you can do is voice your opinion with the manager, to be honest a chameleon at 6-8 inches should be in the bigger habitats just in terms of policy and procedure, of course i can't post the details on here, but you get the idea. I do work at a Canadian Petsmart so things may be different if your referring to an American one.
Things i've achieved by just voicing my opinion in a professional manner at Petsmart: We now gutload with fresh veggies apposed to fish flakes, The chameleons are housed with bark bedding, which is now covered up with reptile carpeting so they can't eat the bark, and we now use a D3 free calcium powder rather then using Calcium with D3 at every feeding.
Just voice your opinion professionally with more logic and less emotional motivation, and maybe get some friends to come in at different times to voice the same opinions or get some sort of petition started, or make friends with one of the employee's and have them voice their opinion to their manager.
Of course, this all depends on if your talking about PetSmart or PetsMart.
VeiledOwner87
New Member
very well said.
AReptile
New Member
I have actually found that the large pet store chains like petco/petland petsmart in my area dont sell chameleons any more because they are hard to take care of compared to say a bearded dragon. They have easier species to take care of such as beardies/leopard geckos and anoles. That and what metric said about losing profit. I actually asked the manager of the petland where i buy most of my crickets from and he said normally they do not get chameleons because of their care difficulty but i did see one in there a few months ago. It was a decent size and was in a tank smaller than the one i originally had my baby veiled in, which is ridiculous. Thankfully it was only there for a week or so and i havent seen one since. 4-5 years ago I used to see chameleons at a pet store a bit closer to me, but they stopped selling them too. They used to have multiple chameleon species in the same tank.... Since then though new management has taken over and ive yet to see one there now as well. I don't believe pet store animals are always bad, you just have to pay attention to the signs that show an animal is unhealthy.
Oh and for the topic poster, my last pet store bought animal passed away and i got a new one last week. I brought this one to the vet for a checkup and the total came out to $169 and that was with them still taking money off. Can you afford that for this animal?
Oh and for the topic poster, my last pet store bought animal passed away and i got a new one last week. I brought this one to the vet for a checkup and the total came out to $169 and that was with them still taking money off. Can you afford that for this animal?
Carlton
Chameleon Enthusiast
Actually, a bit of a discussion re-direct here...
To me the bigger issue with the OP's question was not the fact that a cham was found for sale in a pet shop, but that he was considering buying it to "rescue" it from poor care.
Sure, in many places a pet shop is the only realistic way to find a cham to purchase. Not all pet shops are bad. I've gotten one or two of my chams from really good shops and they were perfectly healthy. If I find a poorly treated one in a shop I do everything I can to help the shop improve their treatment...by force of reporting if necessary. Anything short of handing over money. Money/profit is the unintentional reward for stocking an animal for which you cannot provide humane proper care (or educate a buyer to give it a decent life).
The problem I see is really the idea that a customer feels so sorry for a mistreated animal that they rush to give the abuser money in exchange for its life. THAT is wrong! Now if the animal was to be truely rescued it would be given away free.
To me the bigger issue with the OP's question was not the fact that a cham was found for sale in a pet shop, but that he was considering buying it to "rescue" it from poor care.
Sure, in many places a pet shop is the only realistic way to find a cham to purchase. Not all pet shops are bad. I've gotten one or two of my chams from really good shops and they were perfectly healthy. If I find a poorly treated one in a shop I do everything I can to help the shop improve their treatment...by force of reporting if necessary. Anything short of handing over money. Money/profit is the unintentional reward for stocking an animal for which you cannot provide humane proper care (or educate a buyer to give it a decent life).
The problem I see is really the idea that a customer feels so sorry for a mistreated animal that they rush to give the abuser money in exchange for its life. THAT is wrong! Now if the animal was to be truely rescued it would be given away free.
Phoenixguy77
New Member
wow I had no idea this was going to start such a debate. Thank you all for your valuable input and it will take some time to respond to each of you.
Phoenixguy77
New Member
Thank you for your dedication and your thoughts. I love the thought of getting something organized to get things changed. I sometimes forget that I am not active duty in the Marines anymore, and colorful words dont get your too far in the civilian world. Perhaps buying the poor girl is not the way to go about this, and getting something done to change the store is.
ataraxia
Avid Member
i say go for it!! im all about a rescue. yes buying from a breeder the cham is usually better off .......but.......that cham from a breeder is also being taken care of atm. protesting this one cham will not make a difference whether or not a HUGE chain store like pet smart ever gets another cham in. if you have the money and have the means to care for this cham i say do it. it aint this poor chams fault he didnt come from a reputable breeder.
Phoenixguy77
New Member
Yes, they will be. Plus, it will give you extra time to prepare for a chameleon.If you aren't too far into Phoenix, perhaps I could pick one up for you if you have things set up already.
Even at 50% off, I doubt it is comparative to the cost -- especially not the quality of the chameleons you can get here.
Unfortunately I doubt the store will stop at just one chameleon. If you had a similar situation, would you keep buying the chameleons?
I think I will be waiting to get one at the show in Nov. and try to come down and just have a walk about at the one in tucson. Maybe ill see ya around at one of them. Me and a friend of mine thats heavy into the turtle forum plan on going with a group to the one in the November.
