i went to petsmart this gets me pissed

Chamguy89

Chamguy89

New Member
i went to petsmart and they had this baby female chameleon age was about three months. She was perched in the back of the 1x1x1 tank, NOT a VIVARIUM!!!... eyes sunken in, lime green looked really sick.. i started a big scene got the manager and said if you guys arent going to care for him give him to me for free. im new to baby veileds and i know how to keep mine. i diagnosed him a problem and i was right, because a veiled breeder was at the scene and looked at her and said " shes not going to make it through the night!"
the dummy employee said "HE" was fine because the chameleon was "GREEN" first off, just because if a chameleon id green doesnt mean its not sick, second of all they turn lime green when asleep. Third of all the chameleon is not a "HE" it is a "SHE". PetsMart is cruel, and they hire whoever without any knowelege of reptiles. this pissed me off so bad.. errrRR sorry for the language..:mad:
 
That always makes me mad too. That is so sad. Thankfully, my petsmart is great, not perfect, but damn near close compared to these other petsmarts I have hear of on the forums. The Petco in my area, however, had the exact same thing. Baby veiled, female posted as a male. She looked awful. Her pattern was stressed. She had sunken eyes and barely moved at all. I held her, talked to her, told the guy "You have a little girl here." and he said "no it's a male" I said "okay, where are the spurs?" he said "They're just too small to see yet"

I was pissed, but my Pascal died that same day, so I wasn't composed enough to start a scene or take her in...:(

I know what you mean. It is horrible. But, as tragic as it is, if she passes in the night, she won't be suffering anymore:(breaks my heart every time...
 
Yea thats stupid. the funny thing was the veiled was $99.99 but was 30% off and was like $69.99. they know that she was sick so they tried to sell her. shaking my head:(
 
i know..but what can we do?.. i reported the kid to the manager because the employee was like ill take care of him later he was so carelessx(
 
Well, we are kinda screwed in that respect. If we buy the cham, one will be saved but, they will keep selling, basic supply and demand. But not buying them, one cham may die, but then many will be saved...
 
yea you are tottally right... i have the money to buy another one but i have to save money for a car.. but i see yur point i was so tempted to tranfer from my saving to my checkings so fast..but i didnt
 
There are two veiled chams at a Petco near me. They are in a 1x1x1 cage together and are roughly about 4-6 mo's old. The female is def older than the male. I was going to purchase the little male a month ago for my first cham. First I educated myself on them so I could get all set up before bringing him home. Well after being educated, I realized the chance I was taking in bringing home a sick cham. Just before making my final decision on weather or not to get him, I stopped in to check him out and he looked horrible. Dark, sunken eyes and the humidity in the tank was 0. They had dirty water in a dish. I called the gal over who was in charge of them and told her I was planning on getting this guy, but was concerned about his living conditions. I pointed out everything I had learned and what they were doing wrong. Well she tried to tell me a bunch of b.s. She also thought the little guy was a girl and said you couldn't tell at that age. Anyway, point being, they have no business having chameleons or other reptiles for that matter that they are not equipped to take care of. They are still there - just stopped by yesterday. Both were dark and sad. Humidity was 20% - still no dripping water. I have yet to write my letter to them, but I plan on it.
 
you need to write a letter and i will to i would like to protest with pick it sighns but i dont have any one to do this. im sorry you seen that.. its sickening to see those conditions..
 
Ill start it off with this if I had a dime for every time this story was told I would sadly be a billionare but its just better to leave her there if they see chams are selling theyll want to bring in more. Since im only 14 I cant argue with these guys but trust me if I was 20+ I would do more than argue I would fist fight with one of those punks trying to make it a big story on the news but some members here may call that immature, call it what you will but thats how I feel about these stories. And some of your guys letters may do nothing at all, you see its the stores policy. They have to keep that animal its the conditions the main CEO makes no matter what they cant change anything even if they wanted too. If you wanna try something that has a low percentage of working send a appropriate email to the CEO. I say appropriate so they dont think your some crackhead animal lover
 
Sadly a couple weeks ago the sweetest looking Jackson was in these same conditions at my local petsmart. I had dreams about the poor thing : ( I need to go back and check on him. I think about him all the time : (
 
Contact animal control. That is the whole purpose of them, they look after the welfare of animals. Even if its a chain store, it doesn't matter. Call them, file a complaint. Take pictures. They will investigate.
 
I have had the same experience with a pet store and offered to show their employees how to properly care for their chameleons and they took me up on the offer, you might try that first just to get a better re pore with them. It worked out a lot better and saved the chameleons. Just be careful in saying you will just take the chameleon because they will most like think you are just being a jerk or a scammer. Im not saying you were just be cautious and be polite and you would be amazed at what they are willing to let you do. In the end they were happy enough that I got free Crickets and supplies for just coming in and doing checkups on new ones. The main thing is the manager wants you as a customer and is always wanting to look good in the public's eyes, and wants to be able to tell future buys they have a " Skilled Chameleons Keeper " that checks them out. Good Luck
 
Ha I work at PetSmart. I just thought I would throw out there that it all depends on the employees. Employees can make a whole corporation look bad. That's why different places vary so much in service and quality.

An example of this is I went to McDonalds one time in ND and there employees were jumping over the counters and goofing off; I ended up with food poisoning but that only happened when I went to that specific one.

Also I know, from my store at least, that we sell based off demand. So if we have an animal forever we don't order another one because we don't want to hold it for too long in smaller cages/tanks which isn't fair to the animal. Most of the animals are sold over a few weeks however. Chameleons, water dragons and toads people aren't as interested in unfortunately. :(

I'm a little confused by the reference to a "tank" though? Are you saying like a tank, tank, or like those reptile boxes?
 
dacrazycanadian said:
Ha I work at PetSmart. I just thought I would throw out there that it all depends on the employees. Employees can make a whole corporation look bad. That's why different places vary so much in service and quality.

An example of this is I went to McDonalds one time in ND and there employees were jumping over the counters and goofing off; I ended up with food poisoning but that only happened when I went to that specific one.

Also I know, from my store at least, that we sell based off demand. So if we have an animal forever we don't order another one because we don't want to hold it for too long in smaller cages/tanks which isn't fair to the animal. Most of the animals are sold over a few weeks however. Chameleons, water dragons and toads people aren't as interested in unfortunately. :(

I'm a little confused by the reference to a "tank" though? Are you saying like a tank, tank, or like those reptile boxes?
Click to expand...

I used to work at Petco, and at first defended them on these forums. However, the fact is that the animals are stock and they don't give optimal care to them. When the store policies for a reptile are complete opposite to the well-known husbandry (standing water, glass tanks, substrate, screen blocking uvb, low humidity, no dripper) You tend to begin getting agitated, even with your own store.

Actually why I quit very recently, and filed a report with animal control. Got tired of seeing Iggys with skin conditions no one cared about.
 
Yeah it pisses me off that they keep all reptiles in those tiny glass enclosures. I saw a sick jackson last time I was in petsmart. His poop was orange:confused: I hope he goes to a good home. It sickens me that there aren't some kind of restrictions on sellers of exotic reptiles with no knowledge of the creatures. I know not everyone has reptile suppliers close to them, but that's what the internet is for. I feel like we as a group should do something for these guys. I applaud what you did standing up to the manager. I wish more people would do such things. I wish I would've said something about that sick jackson but I was embarrassing my wife so she made me leave. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING!!!!
 
bluewuta said:
I have had the same experience with a pet store and offered to show their employees how to properly care for their chameleons and they took me up on the offer, you might try that first just to get a better re pore with them. It worked out a lot better and saved the chameleons. Just be careful in saying you will just take the chameleon because they will most like think you are just being a jerk or a scammer. Im not saying you were just be cautious and be polite and you would be amazed at what they are willing to let you do. In the end they were happy enough that I got free Crickets and supplies for just coming in and doing checkups on new ones. The main thing is the manager wants you as a customer and is always wanting to look good in the public's eyes, and wants to be able to tell future buys they have a " Skilled Chameleons Keeper " that checks them out. Good Luck
Click to expand...

I gave my local PetSmart's department manager my cell number to call if she had questions or concerns about her chams. She is often getting in Jacksons and Veiled's that are not sex'd properly and in poor health from breeders. Unfortunately there isn't much she can do about the caging situation at her site, but she listens and takes proper steps for husbandry within the bounds of her position. Couple examples, she had a tiny female veiled that stopped eating and was becoming dehydrated. She is now having her employees properly misting and getting the right care. Even took her off the viewing floor and into an individual screen enclosure. It took a month to get this little girl back on her feet, but she is eating like a horse now last I saw.
The one's that I have seen at my local store are on the right track. It may just be a lack of resources from their corporate level issuing training and proper tools for their employees.
 
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