Pet store visit this weekend

[mrvoodoo]

I decided to visit Critter Co. in Bossier City, LA this past weekend - looking to see if they would have full screen terrariums since Petco and Petsmart don't have any. Then I noticed they had a huge -- amazing selection of animals. I started my experience by noticing a very adorable striped possum from Australia and then followed that up with a look at a frilled lizard. I was browsing through the rest of the lizards and noticing how well they all looked - until I came to their lone chameleon ... a Jackson.

The cage wasn't very bad, much better than the pet store cages I've seen before - top, and both sides were screen and the front and back were glass. The worst thing though is the cage was about 16x16x20, had a fake plant and a fake vine (not bad) with no moisture at all. The guy was really dry. His eyes were pretty swollen, his skin was horrible, and I felt really bad for him. I nearly wanted to buy him to get him out of there, but figured that wouldn't have been the best idea - supporting the store and then taking over the care of a poor health chameleon which likely won't survive another few weeks. I feel bad for the guy.

I love how they treated the rest of their creatures though and mentioned to one of the workers there they needed to keep some humidity on that guy and lower the temps (temps were 98 on the guage)

 

[kinyonga]

Did you talk to them about the situation?
Sometimes pet stores will listen.

 

[mrvoodoo]

yeah I talked to one of the guys there. I think if they had been more informed about chameleons - they would have been doing a much better job - they seemed to really care for the majority of animals they had

 

[HmC]

i was at a pet store the other day and was so upset with how poor of a condition the chameleons were that i got mad at the person showing us. i know he probably didnt know any better but i told him to get me a spray bottle with water and i ended up misting the chameleons myself!! so then i decided to go home and take out all the anger on an email i sent to the corporate office!! (which probably didnt do much but i felt better) I would seriously consider that animal cruelty!! ...but these pet stores need to hire some people that know about all sorts of reptiles.

 

[mrvoodoo]

I agree - if you're going to sell an animal - research care for the animal so that you can care for it while it's in your posession and then explain to the customer what it is they need to do to take care of the animal.