whats the deal with pet stores

millionsofchameleons

millionsofchameleons

New Member
why dont they get it? why dont they ever have chameleons in the proper conditions. i hate going to pet stores now because i aways see chameleons in horrible conditions and when you talk to the managers they act like im crazy. i went to a new pet store today called petland to see what kinda stuff they had and found to adult vield males in a 55 gal. aquarium with water dragons in there as well. i told the manager what i know about taking care of them and found out that they let customers hold them all day long as well. they wont change anything though. then around the corner i found a little fishers chameleon in a 6 in. by 6in and 12in deep glass inclosure. he was digging in the moss they had in there trying to get out. i took pictures with my phone, im going to try to get them on my computer to show all of you.
heres thier info in anyone wants to pay them a visit or call.
4405 Jager Drive Suite D-4
Rio Rancho, NM 87144
(Enchanted Hills Plaza)
Phone 505-771-3760
 
Petland is one of the chains that is also notorious for selling puppy mill puppies (well most puppies in a pet store are...they are just one of the many stores) that are kept in less than ideal conditions. I somehow doubt that the proper care of their "merchandise" is high on their list of "must do's". I won't step a foot into any one of their stores.
 
Today we went to a reptile shop to pick up some fruit flies. They had a female veiled about 5-6 months old in a glass enclosure with one plant about 12" tall including the pot. She was sitting in the dirt of her plant and even from a few feet away she looked gravid to me. I asked to see her and sure enough there are plenty of eggs in there. There was bark substrate and no uvb. I told the owner she is carrying eggs and she needs to lay them now. He told me 1) she is too young and 2)she has not been with a male. I very nicely said it dosen't matter she still has eggs and I can feel them. He blew me off and kept pushing us to buy her. We were very close just so we could save the poor thing but realized she no doubt is another lost cause. Oh yeah, he also told me he knew all about them because he used to breed them. Yeah right. Poor things tail was all kinked up too :(

The shop we stopped at prior had a male with the most messed up burned casque I have ever seen. It was burnt down to the bone...you could see it. And a TERRIBLE case of MBD...he was probably about 6 months too. Makes me sooooo angry!! :mad:
 
Yeah, Petland is horrible. As someone mentioned, they get their puppies from puppy mills and mistreat all the rest of the animals.

At the Cleveland Reptile Show in Feb., I saw the manager of the one in Akron (nearby city) selling all sorts of bearded dragons. I'm sure he brought them from Petland to sell at the Reptile show. Sneaky.
 
I work at Petco and I know exactly what your talking about. Believe it or not we actually look after our reptiles much better than other stores in the area. Since we dont carry mesh reptariums or any other proper housing, i convinced our general manager at our location not to order any chameleons until corporate allows us to carry the correct enclosures which for some stupid reason, hasnt been yet.
 
WoW not suprised to hear that.. but what dose suprise me is somone else from New mexico on this forum :p I have bean wanting to go check this place out, now im not so shure :(, Have u Cheked out Subterranean Jungle? Not a bad Place the owner heather knows her stuff pretty well and has allot of kewl stuff
 
i have been there, i like to look around, it just upset me that the nosy be they has cost 400 bucks. lol. but by far has the best set up for chameleons ive seen in a pet store so far. so your not only in new mexico, your in abq as well? im up in rio rancho.
brandon
 
i saw the same thing with a 12 inch male veiled in petsmart and he was in an 18 by 6 cage with one six inch climbing plant that was fake and he was being fed mealworms but they were not dusted
 
Send it as a text to your email. Save the attachment and then resize it so we can see it.
 
Yup in alb i have male veild coming up on 1 year and also a dwarf jacksons. yeah she normaly only has juv veilds at her place like 4-6 mon . it was bit overpriced but its new mexico and someone payed it :p
 
Atleast those pics are a better living enviroment than what i saw at petco the other day. The tank was about 15 inches wide, all they had was one peice of biovine running from the top right corner, to the bottom left, they had a water bowl, filled to the top that was about 4 inches deep, and atleast 13 inches wide. It took up more than 80 percent of the floor bottom. And they had 5 veileds in there on that single peice of vine.
 
thats not so bad the store by my house actually specializes in breeding herps mostly snakes, but he has veiled for sale and they are in a glass tank with NOTHING

no vine no plants nothing
 
Local Pet Retail Stores are in the business of selling live animals to inexperienced people. They don't intend to keep them on the shelf for more than a couple days so they tend to keep them in tight quarters. I have a feeling these retail stores are owned by people who once meant well and are trying desperately to support themselves.

If you do some research on aquatics/aquariums and go to a Local Fish Store you'd be in disbelief to see what they have in there. Parrotfish, Moorish Idols, Cleaner Wrasse, a whole bunch of stuff that will not survive in your home aquarium. The lack of them in the wild really hurts the reefs, especially seeing they are destined for death. I'd say 90% of tropical fish are wild caught.

The only way to keep such animals off the market is to stop buying them. Retailers are in for the money and when a species is no longer profitable they'll stop buying them. In my opinion "rescuing" an animal from a retail store is just dousing the fire will fuel. I don't blame those who rescue animals from these places as I've done it too...
 
went to petsmart in phoenix the other day to pick up a timer control pad and happened to grab a couple of crickets while i was there just for the hell of it and to add some smaller ones to the pile. Manager was the one who actually got em for me and asked me what i was gonna use em for. told him a panther cham and his expression was kind of joyful but sad. told me that hed like to carry em so people can see em but no way in hell would he do it becuase he doesnt or maybe isnt allowed to house them how they should be. told me to enjoy what i have and didnt think anything about it til i read these posts. Maybe there are some people out there in the big chain of things that at least have some type of common sense so i wouldnt say quit bashing em but just know that there are some out there that realize they cant provide a certain right environment and just say no to carrying them.
 
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