# MONSTROSITY AT PETCO!!



## arianametz (Apr 4, 2013)

So i was at petco today picking up some pinky mice for lucky and sunshine and is see a "B&W columbian tegu" which was CLEARLY a golden columbian tegu, so i askd to see it just to see how they could have been giving it the proper attention... no. first of all this poor guy was PISSED OFF second his cage MAYBE a ten gallon and hes 4 months old!! so then i asked what they are feeding him crickets and mealworms with a calcium supplement... thats it? no pinky mice or fresh meat or eggs? you have pinky mice i just bought some! then i looked at his humidity and temp gauge humidity is at like 40-50 and temp was at beleive it or not 70 degrees and i know they dont have a basking spot for him its just a lamp that goes straight across the top and no uv lamp... petco should NOT carry tegus.. especially if they are treating them like that... poor thing i wish i could buy it but i really dont have the money


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## Tannaros (Apr 4, 2013)

arianametz said:


> poor thing i wish i could buy it but i really dont have the money



Buying it only reinforces that Petco's idea to keep more in stock.

I would be surprised if essentially any petstore spent the time in giving an animal any sort of diet that strays from what they keep on the premise (crickets, mice).

To be honest most tegus are probably actually kept disturbingly similar to that. Is it right? No. Mostly a display of ignorance or sloth or the like.


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## arianametz (Apr 4, 2013)

i wish i could do something about it.. its animal abuse.


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## Tannaros (Apr 4, 2013)

arianametz said:


> i wish i could do something about it.. its animal abuse.



One very unfortunate thing is that many people only really look at something as animal abuse when it involves dogs or cats - and even then it's difficult to get anyone to do something about it.

Another problem is many organizations that move to prevent animal abuse or make it widely known step way over the line and make themselves more of a public annoyance than an educational force.

Though one thing you can do is offer some insight to the employees working there - occasionally the stores hire people who genuinely care about the animals, but don't have the knowledge, or have incorrect information dictating what they do.


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## Dubya (Apr 4, 2013)

Petco should not carry any animals at all. I have seen Petco here in NY label Columbians as B&W's too. Any reptile bought from Petco should be considered a rescue.


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## HeatherN (Apr 4, 2013)

I've seen animals at petsmart and petco in similar conditions. however, i have also seen well cared for herps at both places with knowledgable staff. the city i currently live in actually has the best animal care staff i have seen in one of those large retail stores. for instance, the guy in charge of the reptiles at my local petco has been breeding ball pythons since before i was born. he actually told me something i didnt know about them the other day! although, this town is full of animal people, because of the local college with a great pre-vet program.

my point is, the managers of each store and the people in charge of the animal care for each category play a large role in the care of the animals there. ive had many more bad experiences at these stores than good, but dont condemn EVERY last store and employee. there are some out there fighting the good fight!


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## dragonmetalhead (Apr 4, 2013)

HeatherN said:


> I've seen animals at petsmart and petco in similar conditions. however, i have also seen well cared for herps at both places with knowledgable staff. the city i currently live in actually has the best animal care staff i have seen in one of those large retail stores. for instance, the guy in charge of the reptiles at my local petco has been breeding ball pythons since before i was born. he actually told me something i didnt know about them the other day! although, this town is full of animal people, because of the local college with a great pre-vet program.
> 
> my point is, the managers of each store and the people in charge of the animal care for each category play a large role in the care of the animals there. ive had many more bad experiences at these stores than good, but dont condemn EVERY last store and employee. there are some out there fighting the good fight!



Thank you. I work at Petco as reptile specialist, and we're not all idiots. I do my best to educate the customers as much as possible. The animals at my store are in good shape and we feed them well, although I must admit I don't agree with all of the corporate policies.


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## Jstew (Apr 4, 2013)

Never blame the employees at the pet stores for corporate decisions. I work at a small local pet shop and if it were up to me our reptile area was be completely redone but unfortunately as an employee at most pet shops we can only give the animals the best care we can with the cards we're dealt. But I do agree it's unfair to house animals in bad conditions for pet shops to make a quick buck.. When did people stop caring about the animals..


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## kim86 (Apr 4, 2013)

I work as the fish and reptile manager at a large pet store in Canada, and I do as much research as I can when getting in reptile species I'm unfamiliar with. We keep our cages super clean and go out of our way to ensure proper diets are met. It's satisfying knowing my store has one of the biggest selections of snakes and lizards, as well as inverts


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## bfb345 (Apr 5, 2013)

I saw a video on youtube were a petco threw away 2 live baby iguanas and luckly a man who regularly goes through there trash and he found them one ended up dying but the other survived and is now hapily living


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## chelvis (Apr 5, 2013)

I have worked at both Petco and Petsmart both times as an animal care specialist. I will tell you that you have no control over what animals you get in and what you can and cannot feed them. There is store use food and sale foods and the two cannot be mixed, its a harsh thing to do. I was not able to ever change the caging that was on display either. 

However over the last few years I have noticed some change in the local petcos and petsmart, one being getting better pet reptiles. I no longer see some of the more fragile and short lived reptiles instead I see a lot more leos, beardies, corns, kings, balls etc. I also see them stocking more and more useable reptile supplies. 

They also will sometimes special order things for people and then people never pick them up, that could be the case with the tegu. Not to mention some suppliers will mislable things all the time and the sotres cannot change it becuase that is what they bought it as. 

I am not defending Petco as a whole, but some stores are much better then others.


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## bfb345 (Apr 5, 2013)

yeah like you said it depends on the store some can do it others cant thats how the business is


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## TeguBuzz (Apr 5, 2013)

My local petco is filled with inbred idiots. I've been to a petco far from my house and they seemed to know what they were doing. The one locally is a true monstrosity, I've seen some crazy things go down there.


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## bfb345 (Apr 5, 2013)

yeah most of the pet stores near me are okay but every now and then i see one that has slipped up and if its bad enough i let them now sometimes they fix it other times they dont


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## psychocircus91 (Apr 5, 2013)

My cousin works for a petsmart and she tells me some stories. The employees have no say in what goes on there. To some it's just a job, but others start working there for their love of animals. A lot of animals arrive sick. In the back where they "quarantine" the animals is worse than what you see. She said there were about eight guinea pigs in a small cage designed for one.


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## Tannaros (Apr 5, 2013)

psychocircus91 said:


> My cousin works for a petsmart and she tells me some stories. The employees have no say in what goes on there. To some it's just a job, but others start working there for their love of animals. A lot of animals arrive sick. In the back where they "quarantine" the animals is worse than what you see. She said there were about eight guinea pigs in a small cage designed for one.



You should see the warehouses where they buy their stock from.


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## HeatherN (Apr 5, 2013)

yeah ive discussed stock with the employees familiar with me at my local petco, and they will often tell me who's stock comes in consistently sketchy and what to avoid. it really pays off to treat employees like the humans they are! i think some stores have more leeway than others. i know a lot of managers in those companies stores that "dont see" their employees bending corporate policies for the good of the animals.

ive also seen small pet stores guilty of equal or worse neglect. it just depends on the people who care for the animals and why they got into the business.


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## BatGirl1 (Apr 5, 2013)

*Re: RE: MONSTROSITY AT PETCO!!*



Dubya said:


> Petco should not carry any animals at all. I have seen Petco here in NY label Columbians as B&W's too. Any reptile bought from Petco should be considered a rescue.



I consider my jungle carpet a rescue. By the way, same petco i got him(her) from had same columbian story...tiny standard tank same as every other beast in row. And yep.dish of tiny mealworms in the cage. :/ actually they didn't know what type it was until i pointed out the nose and markings. (Columbian or argentine). Anyway... i got my carpet cuz was there for months and months, and he kept getting larger and tank was abysmally small and his price kept going down so we got him for 125. (From 275 or...i forget...maybe higher) he's really headshy and bites the crap out of my gloved hand but at least he's going into a nice custom built enclosure and being handled almost daily and he CHOWED 5 hoppers when we got him home. 


In petstore defense, good people do circulate in and out of these places. My bf said when he bought my snake they all said goodbye to him and seemed REALLY happy he was finally going to a good home. They know me and know that i do as much research and preparing possible and have many other reptiles, ( yes i ramble on about my babies in person, not just on TeguTalk ...haha) also one employee is a ball python breeder and many of the workers at other stores have herp and other exotics experience...so not ALL are just in it for the paycheck.


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## Dubya (Apr 5, 2013)

BatGirl1 said:


> Dubya said:
> 
> 
> > Petco should not carry any animals at all. I have seen Petco here in NY label Columbians as B&W's too. Any reptile bought from Petco should be considered a rescue.
> ...





In your defense, you don't ramble (that much) about your babies in person. You are just a proud reptile (and now hedgehog) mom .


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## arianametz (Apr 6, 2013)

Dubya said:


> Petco should not carry any animals at all. I have seen Petco here in NY label Columbians as B&W's too. Any reptile bought from Petco should be considered a rescue.



i agree i feel like i rescued my snake from there she was living with two other pythons in a ten gallon tank..
and that poor poor tegu i want to rescue him so bad but i cant afford it at all


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## BatGirl1 (Apr 6, 2013)

If you wait long enough I'm sure they will end up lowering the price like they did with my carpet python. . . Unfortunately you'll have to 'undo ' whatever the poor care has done once you aquire him. I am dealing with a ravenous beast who attacks my (gloved) hand with ferocity. Haha. I was just today considering not wearing gloves to 'see ' if he(she) will get used to me better without gloves. HOWEVER I'm not entirely on board with getting my hands chewed up by a crazy carpet python... haha. Ugh. I may just have to 'bite the bullet ' and try though. How bad can it 'really ' hurt? (Anyone...?) :/


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## arianametz (Apr 6, 2013)

BatGirl1 said:


> Dubya said:
> 
> 
> > Petco should not carry any animals at all. I have seen Petco here in NY label Columbians as B&W's too. Any reptile bought from Petco should be considered a rescue.
> ...



yeah the one guy who showed me the tegu is like that he relaly cares about the animals and hes trying to work with the tegu but he hasnt done enough research because if he did he wouldnt have ordered one he told me he ordered it because he wanted a tegu of his own but couldnt afford it -.-



BatGirl1 said:


> If you wait long enough I'm sure they will end up lowering the price like they did with my carpet python. . . Unfortunately you'll have to 'undo ' whatever the poor care has done once you aquire him. I am dealing with a ravenous beast who attacks my (gloved) hand with ferocity. Haha. I was just today considering not wearing gloves to 'see ' if he(she) will get used to me better without gloves. HOWEVER I'm not entirely on board with getting my hands chewed up by a crazy carpet python... haha. Ugh. I may just have to 'bite the bullet ' and try though. How bad can it 'really ' hurt? (Anyone...?) :/



i got bit by a corn snake and a python
it feels like.. a piercing i think the initial shock is what hurts the most and itbleeds alot! but that could just be me personally id try to avoid getting bit it does hurt pretty bad


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## Tannaros (Apr 6, 2013)

BatGirl1 said:


> I may just have to 'bite the bullet ' and try though. How bad can it 'really ' hurt? (Anyone...?) :/



I've only ever been bitten once by a 5.5 or 6' coastal carpet. It really didn't hurt - the wound after just bled quite a bit (I believe their teeth have small serrations?). The more painful part was the bruising that came after the initial bite.

The actual painful snake bite I have experienced was from a 9' retic. Must have been having a bad day and decided to wrap and sink its teeth as far as they would go. Again, the initial bite wasn't as painful as the healing process.

I don't deal with any hots as my general clumsiness would certainly spell my death.


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## BatGirl1 (Apr 6, 2013)

Mine I haven't measured yet because it coils around my hand for dear life as soon as i lift it from the cage...haha. i know it isn't 'too ' old. Um...i'd venture to guess maybe 2 ft or... maybe more... ugh. It's really hard to tell yet. Maybe I'll try and get a measurement next time. I try to hold it daily...with gloves though. And it struck REPEATEDLY at the gloves, mouth open. And once grabbed onto the thumb. So... i know i shouldn't be so darn pansy-ish and just face the music, good or bad. And like my bf said, do I want a 7ft snake that I'm afraid to handle? Nope... :/


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## Tannaros (Apr 6, 2013)

BatGirl1 said:


> So... i know i shouldn't be so darn pansy-ish and just face the music, good or bad. And like my bf said, do I want a 7ft snake that I'm afraid to handle? Nope... :/



If you want to measure but it wraps a lot you can always just string them. Run a piece of string down the spine around the coils and you can get a rough estimate without having to man handle it. I would probably just give an eyeball measurement for the head rather than try and put string on their face.

Very true. Usually the anticipation and fear of being bit is much worse than the actual bite. I would suggest if you do immediately envision a bite commencing, try and avoid your wrist and go for your forearm instead. I mean, cause lightning reflexes of bite location placing is totally reasonable. It just works better avoiding your tendons in my experience.


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## BatGirl1 (Apr 6, 2013)

A bit ago i used the "stick method " to handle my jcp. I let him coil and wrap on the makeshift hook, ( a half curtain rod i modified so no sharp edges) . Then i sat with him, gloveless, and let him check out my arm, shirt and hand on his own. He explored without biting or even striking. I was tense, but kept taking deep breaths. Haha. I just have to try to 'pretend ' he didn't attack my gloved hand like he did, and I'm just starting from square one. If I do this daily, his trust will come then so will my confidence I'm sure


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## Mindy5682 (Oct 7, 2013)

To BFB353, hope I got that right, the guy that found the igs in the dumpster promotes himself as the Wichita Falls reptile rescue I live in Wichita falls and he is an evil, sick man! He injects animals with things that will kill humans just to watch them die. On that occasion he had actually been given the ig 3 days before buy petco because it was sick and he daid he wanted to care for it and got into an argument with the manager and threatened to kill her, she tried taking legal action, so he took the ig and placed it in the dumpster. There are quite a few rescues and other individuals trying to get him shut down on fraud and animal cruelty, he claims to have permits and licenses that are fake, to gain donations, grants and unwanted animals, im not agreeing or disagreeing with this petcos actions because ive called out a few animals showing them they weren't being cared for properly or needed medical attention, but am saying in this case this guy made fraudulent accusations, and placed the ig in the dumpster himself, ive personally not seem the video on YouTube ill actually looking it up when I get home, so dont quote me but have been told by multiple ppl, he used very offensive and vulgar language and I was told if u watch at the end he actually throws the ig back into the dumpster and then throws boxes back in to it, the ig, I was told was in a plastic bag with a twist tie on it and inside of a box like they would had gotten worms or other feeders in and he left it in the bag and placed it back into the box actually chunking it back into the dumpster then throwing other boxes back in on top of it!


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