Petco and chams

[Jsanfig]

Hello guys, this threat is somewhat old but, as you all know, there is always a new victim to the Petco (where the pets SHOULDN'T go lol) experience.

Here's my experience:

Im from Bronx, NY, new to chams keeping, so one day I walked in looking for fish supplies and I fell into a compulsive purchase of a baby veiled Cham in their stablishment. The enclosure was glass, exposed to everyone walking by, next to the dusty birds. The dripper was inside the cage, dirt substrate, and almost no plants, except for a couple fake vines and leaves. When I got there the chams looked very healthy, and of course they told me they just got them which made sense given the "good looking" aura the babies had. So I got one, got all the supplies and set them up. Again, inexperienced.

I learn quickly, so I nailed the environment pretty fast and it was looking nice, temps and humidity, gut loaded prey and everything was fine. After a week the poor little guy started showing me the ugly symptoms of a URI, and I took him back for a vet check as I was entitled due my "insurance". I got him back some days later and they told me he was treated. Of course my baby got sick again, and I took him back again. They said a couple of days later that the "vet" said he was totally fine and healthy, even the first time I took him in. That isn't true and sounds like negligence to me. I don't know if they really do the effort to take sick animals to the proper vet or if they just take them in to the back area for whatever inconsiderate amounts of days and then return the poor little animal claiming it's ok now.

Now I have an empty cage, and I am pimping it to make it a much better habitat for my future Cham that I'll get from either FLchams or LLLreptiles online. The leson here is this:

These little jewel-like creatures are fragile and ver sensitive. Every single piece of advise recommended in this amazing forum IS TRUE and SHOULD BE FOLLOWED THOROUGHLY if you want to do this the right way and probably just once. What's the right way? Start right from the beginning and get a healthy animal from a breeder that you can talk to, not just from a fancy store that seems to be making it easy for you when all they want is a swipe from your card. Breeders, of course, want money for their efforts and their quality animals offered, but the difference here is they do it for the PASSION of doing it right, not just popping babies out of a breeding couple and sending them to these slaughter houses, I mean, these chain stores like Petco, Petsmart, petland and such... really, that's what they are.

One time, I brought a bunch of silvertip tetras from my aquarium because they turned too aggressive towards others so I naively donated them to a petsmart. Instead of quarantine them, the girl just grabbed the bag and tossed them into one empty tank, ready to sell them... just like that. So that tells a lot in regards to the origins of the animals they sell.

I thank this forum for compiling such an amazing amount of experience keeping these beauties. Next time I'll get it right.

 

[Panthro413]

I have to agree with everyone, My local petco had some Panther Chams on reptile Rally for only $75 each and I passed on them. They arnt raised properly and they are super shy hiding behind any and everything. Instead I waited 2 months for my baby to be delivered from Chameleon Paradise and I couldnt be happier. I rather raise a healthy, happy, friendly baby then take a chance with a Petco Cham, especially when you dont even know if its a blue or red bar, local, what the sire looks like etc.. Iv spent just a little over $1000 all together for my cham and setup. But it has all been worth it.

 

[VeiledMathis]

Hello guys, this threat is somewhat old but, as you all know, there is always a new victim to the Petco (where the pets SHOULDN'T go lol) experience.

Here's my experience:

Im from Bronx, NY, new to chams keeping, so one day I walked in looking for fish supplies and I fell into a compulsive purchase of a baby veiled Cham in their stablishment. The enclosure was glass, exposed to everyone walking by, next to the dusty birds. The dripper was inside the cage, dirt substrate, and almost no plants, except for a couple fake vines and leaves. When I got there the chams looked very healthy, and of course they told me they just got them which made sense given the "good looking" aura the babies had. So I got one, got all the supplies and set them up. Again, inexperienced.

I learn quickly, so I nailed the environment pretty fast and it was looking nice, temps and humidity, gut loaded prey and everything was fine. After a week the poor little guy started showing me the ugly symptoms of a URI, and I took him back for a vet check as I was entitled due my "insurance". I got him back some days later and they told me he was treated. Of course my baby got sick again, and I took him back again. They said a couple of days later that the "vet" said he was totally fine and healthy, even the first time I took him in. That isn't true and sounds like negligence to me. I don't know if they really do the effort to take sick animals to the proper vet or if they just take them in to the back area for whatever inconsiderate amounts of days and then return the poor little animal claiming it's ok now.

Now I have an empty cage, and I am pimping it to make it a much better habitat for my future Cham that I'll get from either FLchams or LLLreptiles online. The leson here is this:

These little jewel-like creatures are fragile and ver sensitive. Every single piece of advise recommended in this amazing forum IS TRUE and SHOULD BE FOLLOWED THOROUGHLY if you want to do this the right way and probably just once. What's the right way? Start right from the beginning and get a healthy animal from a breeder that you can talk to, not just from a fancy store that seems to be making it easy for you when all they want is a swipe from your card. Breeders, of course, want money for their efforts and their quality animals offered, but the difference here is they do it for the PASSION of doing it right, not just popping babies out of a breeding couple and sending them to these slaughter houses, I mean, these chain stores like Petco, Petsmart, petland and such... really, that's what they are.

One time, I brought a bunch of silvertip tetras from my aquarium because they turned too aggressive towards others so I naively donated them to a petsmart. Instead of quarantine them, the girl just grabbed the bag and tossed them into one empty tank, ready to sell them... just like that. So that tells a lot in regards to the origins of the animals they sell.

I thank this forum for compiling such an amazing amount of experience keeping these beauties. Next time I'll get it right.

Ordered from LLLREPTILE many times, all of my Veileds have always been healthy and still living with zero problems!

 

[Graves923]

Now I have an empty cage, and I am pimping it to make it a much better habitat for my future Cham that I'll get from either FLchams or LLLreptiles online.

I bought my veiled from FLChams. Absolutely would recommend them. The breeder is always ready to answer any questions about any of his chameleons.

 

[TheAmazingGerby]

I had gone to Petco about 2 weeks ago for emergency food for my leopard gecko. As always, I look at their chams. There was a panther for $400, a Jackson for $180, and a Veiled for $50. There was also a sign on the Veiled's 'enclosure' if you could even call it that. It read "Sorry I am not currently for sale, I am under medical watch." Something along those lines. Once I saw the baby Veiled, I wanted to slap someone. The poor thing was very severely dehydrated and starved. It was practically dead. Of course, there was no one on the floor for me to yell at and express how disappointed I was with their care and treatment of the poor baby.

Yesterday I went back because my mother needed food for her tree frog. There were no other Veileds, but the one that was there was gone. I wasn't surprised, but also the Jackson's was gone as well. The Panther was starting to show signs of dehydration. One of its eyes was starting to look caved-in. They had finally switched their bearded dragons and leopard geckos off of sand and onto reptile carpet. They still only sell baby beardies, but they had stopped selling HATCHLING leopard geckos. I kid you not the leopard geckos they were selling were pretty much right out of the egg. And I've heard that in 2019, I believe, that Petco will stop selling wild caught animals. But my Petco has been recently selling a lot of weird and different skinks? Like quite a few that I've never heard of. They had a leopard gecko labeled as an orange bellied skink for $10. I wonder if they would have sold it to me for that price and told me the care of that skink...

 

[nino]

Okay, so I know that this is rather frowned upon by everyone on this forum, but I'm buying my first cham from Petco. I visit there regularly to buy crickets for my tree frog, so I check up on the chams. Never once did they seem unhealthy to me. They were always moving around, not closing their eyes, they were eating. I'm not saying that they had a proper set up or anything, but at my local Petco all the chams they have had seemed to be rather healthy.

The one thing that made me mad about the chams was that I had my phone out and one of the employees assumed that I was taking a picture, so she told me that they don't allow pictures. I get a flash of the camera is bad for any animal really, but she said no pictures at all. Is that because they don't want people to see the horrible cage set ups and such and don't want PETA coming after them, or what? I'm genuinely curious.

Wish me luck. Lol

I just have a really intense love for chameleons and want to love them all and give them all a chance at a good life.

 

[nino]

Hi funny bc I get my feeders from a petco in Danbury Conn and two weeks ago they got three in last week I went in one was very sick looking. I got the worker told him he said they knew I offered to take him bc I knew to them it's no big deal if one does t make it today I went back only one left I asked they lost two of them. The dripper was empty and they don't seem to spray mist them. It's sad there not gold fish. Good luck if u buy one from petco.