Petsmart?

[Swayne8998]

They do not educate their employees on proper care so the employees give out the wrong info, sells the wrong lighting, etc to the customer. Often, when the chameleon falls ill and they stumble upon this forum we find that the petstore was negligent with their information.

Exactly. When I asked if they had any calcium without D3, they asked what I needed it for. I said my veiled and they said "um... are you sure?" and offered me the Fluker's with D3 supplement... yeesh. An employee also said I should get a glass enclosure. But I do get crickets from there

 

[Swayne8998]

I don't know if this chain exists anywhere else besides Colorado but...

Scales and Tales. Worst care for any animal I've ever seen. There is no humidity at all for any animal. Their female Jackson's was sleeping and below it was a load of uncleaned feces. There were dead crickets in water bowls. Smelled like crap. Kids running around and bumping into cages... disgusted me.

 

[Swayne8998]

I shop at our local PetSmart all the time. The people are really nice. They have tons of items in stock. Mostly their prices are fairly low. I love their fish aquariums and the way they work with the local SPCA to rehome strays, etc.
Then they cram all the lizards, frogs, snakes, birds, etc. into these super small spaces and do minimal, even careless care of those poor creatures. They price them so that they can turn them around (sell) them quickly but that doesn't always happen. So they become like orphans in early 1800's, cast away and left to fend for themselves.
I bought our first chameleon over a year ago from a PetSmart. She was housed in a 10"x10"x10" terrarium with a bowl of water and a plastic aquarium plant. They didn't know how old she was, where she'd come from, or even that she was female! She lived 3 (three!!!) months and suddenly dropped dead. It never grew very large, or had much color, but was the most loving lizard I'd ever seen. Even my wife got attached to her, then POOF! she was gone.
The problem with any pet store like them is that they limit space and care and try to "mass merchandise" them as if they were bags of feed. No fault of the employees, rather the merchandising mentality of the top dogs.
So, whenever I can, I try to learn something new about chameleons and then share it with the workers. Mostly they seem to appreciate it. Usually they haven't time to initiate anything I share with them.
On the flip side, whenever I walk into their store, they know what I need and nearly run to help me. A lady met me at the door a couple of days ago and said "Crickets today? How many?" and motioned for someone to go help me.

Haha no way! That's exactly what they do at my store! Every employee knows us there. We walk in: "How many crickets today?" or "I'll get the mealworms." Friendly people, but uneducated. They even sell sand that they discourage xD

 

[pssh]

Fine points. Jumping off of that, a big problem I see is often they do not know they do not know. To give an example with plants- I cannot being to tell you how many times I have been in a plant nursery, mentioned something to an employee about a plant which perhaps contradicts something they have said (for example, one lady told me that our climate was terrible for growing most plants to which I replied- "Actually, we live in a great climate for a wide range of plants since our winters are very mild") and gotten the reply "Look, I have been working in the nursery trade for 10 years..." (that was the above mentioned ladies response). This was such a case. I was correct, many would corroborate my point. I have the proof at my house. I grow some of the most difficult plants to grow out there. I am not trying to gloat or anything the point here (and I want to say, I do respect this person very much and fully acknowledge that she has me completely beat on cactii and succulents!) is that because she has been doing this so long and has worked successfully under her paradigm for so long, she has bought into it. It has become part of her experience. This made it hard for her to consider that maybe she was wrong. (Dont get me started on Venus Flytraps either... oh boy...)

I think this happens with a lot of petstore people. They build a certain paradigm for how these animals need to be cared for based on their short term in-store interactions with them, perhaps reading some literature, knowing the store products and getting some feedback from customers. The problem here is it seems that if your store carries say 30 animals (a conservative estimate of course) it is very difficult to get real indepth experience with all 30. So they pass along information which might be rooted in well meaning intentions but has not been challanged and refined in the almighty fire and forge of experience.

Just my $0.02

I know what you mean. I was at a pet store that is generally very good with their reptiles and chameleons. I was considering purchasing their male veiled but asked about a few claws being missing. What response did I get? The worker said, "They don't have claws, they stick to the mesh with their sticky toes like a gecko." My face almost fell off my head when I heard that! I mean, they hold the chameleons from time to time to check out their health! How can you not notice the claws!?