My local PetSmart

[Uri]

So I live in a small town called Elkhart and my local PetSmart recently added a veiled chameleon to their stock and I looked in there and honestly it was horrifying what I saw. There were crickets far too big for it the little guy looked about a couple weeks old still at fruit fly stage. What’s worse other than the obvious wrong lighting, fake plants, and lack of even the cheap temperature measuring devices, is they had a water bowl which obviously every store has one right but that’s fine since most add them to avoid legal actions with people that don’t know how these guys drink as long as they have drippers it’s fine right and get regular mistings. Well they didn’t have drippers. Luckily the Cham was housed alone in the sad excuse of a cage. I go to my local petco that’s a town over for my crested geckos food and they have veiled as well but they give them regular mistings and although they do have water bowls they also provide a dripper and slightly better food items that an employee says she brings from her own reptiles bugs. So although they aren’t in great conditions they are doing better and it’s nice to see an employee cares. Then I go to a PetSmart slightly farther where I shopped for a surprisingly hard to find dog. The guy there not only took the time to house them all separately at the expense of space for the more hardy reptiles not that they had many but he also provided his own small drippers for them and brings his own pressurized misting bottle as well as his own temp gun and probe. That’s some real dedication to the animals. Of course that doesn’t change where they come from but I think it’s nice some store employees care. It’s sad that my local store cares very little about them or just isn’t educated by the company on the care of the animals. I know it’s hard to get all the information and most people that work at pet stores are animals lovers but still if you’re gonna be placed in charge of live animal care or apply for that position you should be taught the needs of all the animals. Sorry I had to get that little rant out of my system.

 

[RyanBRZ]

I try to not look at the chameleons when I go into petsmart/petco for this reason but I end up looking anyway, it's depressing. Sadly, there's a good chance many of them go to a home where they will not get the proper care either.

You're right about the water bowl thing. I asked a local pet store owner about the setup he had for a chameleon he had and he said he has it just to not hear crap from customers that the cham has no water.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

So I live in a small town called Elkhart and my local PetSmart recently added a veiled chameleon to their stock and I looked in there and honestly it was horrifying what I saw. There were crickets far too big for it the little guy looked about a couple weeks old still at fruit fly stage. What’s worse other than the obvious wrong lighting, fake plants, and lack of even the cheap temperature measuring devices, is they had a water bowl which obviously every store has one right but that’s fine since most add them to avoid legal actions with people that don’t know how these guys drink as long as they have drippers it’s fine right and get regular mistings. Well they didn’t have drippers. Luckily the Cham was housed alone in the sad excuse of a cage. I go to my local petco that’s a town over for my crested geckos food and they have veiled as well but they give them regular mistings and although they do have water bowls they also provide a dripper and slightly better food items that an employee says she brings from her own reptiles bugs. So although they aren’t in great conditions they are doing better and it’s nice to see an employee cares. Then I go to a PetSmart slightly farther where I shopped for a surprisingly hard to find dog. The guy there not only took the time to house them all separately at the expense of space for the more hardy reptiles not that they had many but he also provided his own small drippers for them and brings his own pressurized misting bottle as well as his own temp gun and probe. That’s some real dedication to the animals. Of course that doesn’t change where they come from but I think it’s nice some store employees care. It’s sad that my local store cares very little about them or just isn’t educated by the company on the care of the animals. I know it’s hard to get all the information and most people that work at pet stores are animals lovers but still if you’re gonna be placed in charge of live animal care or apply for that position you should be taught the needs of all the animals. Sorry I had to get that little rant out of my system.

Little bit old but at my petsmart there’s a lady and her bf who work there an when I went to buy yoshi there they were so happy that a clueless person wasn’t buying it. It was just the girl on shift and the next day I go to get crickets and a guy comes to me (employee) and says hey did you just buy a Cham and I said yea. And he said he was excited to meet me and that his gf told him about me and was happy that someone wasn’t clueless about chams and said that he was tired of people bringing there sick chams that are barley alive in to him and letting him take care of them. This just made me so happy and thought I’d share. There are some employees that care but petsmart shouldn’t be sellii in my chams. I know I shouldn’t of bought there but I was clueless bout breeders at the time.

 

[ElliotG]

My petsmart seems to be somewhat knowledgeable. They only order one chameleon and house it alone. They seem to mist it often when I asked about the care on it.

My petco is a different story. They have a baby female housed (who had sunken eyes and dark colors) with juvie-Subadult chameleons. (4-5 in a cage together too.) I try not to look but I do. Pretty sad to see. I went ahead and complained about it, we’ll see if they decided to remove it and take of it.

Really hard because you want to save the animal but also not feed the cycle. In the end, whether you save the animal or not it’ll be replaced by another one. Harsh cycle. Wish reptiles were viewed the same as Cats/dogs. If a cat was kept in horrible conditions it would cause outrage, I don’t know why it’s not the exact same with reptiles. Even with smaller mammals, they get treated pretty trashy too.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

My petsmart seems to be somewhat knowledgeable. They only order one chameleon and house it alone. They seem to mist it often when I asked about the care on it.

My petco is a different story. They have a baby female housed (who had sunken eyes and dark colors) with juvie-Subadult chameleons. (4-5 in a cage together too.) I try not to look but I do. Pretty sad to see. I went ahead and complained about it, we’ll see if they decided to remove it and take of it.

Really hard because you want to save the animal but also not feed the cycle. In the end, whether you save the animal or not it’ll be replaced by another one. Harsh cycle. Wish reptiles were viewed the same as Cats/dogs. If a cat was kept in horrible conditions it would cause outrage, I don’t know why it’s not the exact same with reptiles. Even with smaller mammals, they get treated pretty trashy too.

Yea agree

 

[Pearl Fields]

It's sad. Which is why I have not been there in a year. I feel too terrible for the poor chameleons, or all the animals really. It sticks with me for days!!! So pretty soon we stopped supporting that buisness altogether.

 

[ElliotG]

It's sad. Which is why I have not been there in a year. I feel too terrible for the poor chameleons, or all the animals really. It sticks with me for days!!! So pretty soon we stopped supporting that buisness altogether.

A reptile shop will be opening near me soon. I’m excited to go there when it does instead of the big chain stores.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

A reptile shop will be opening near me soon. I’m excited to go there when it does instead of the big chain stores.

Ahhhhh I wish I had a reptile sotre

 

[ElliotG]

Ahhhhh I wish I had a reptile sotre

Maybe a good opportunity to open one yourself (;

 

[Mountain Dragon]

Maybe a good opportunity to open one yourself (;

I wish I’m 13 maybe in the future tho bc I love reptiles and I want a job to do with them

 

[ElliotG]

I wish I’m 13 maybe in the future tho bc I love reptiles and I want a job to do with them

I’m 17 so I feel ya . Something to look into to if you really want to have a career with reptiles.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

I’m 17 so I feel ya . Something to look into to if you really want to have a career with reptiles.

Yea thanks