It absolutely astounds me that people go out and purchase reptiles without knowing the first damn thing about how to care,feed, cage, light, not knowing the proper temp requirements, cage decor, or any other damn thing about them. I only hope they expire quickly, instead of agonizing through long painful deaths!!! Please do all the research possible before buying these animals, get the proper equipment, and hopefully they'll live long happy lives :idea:
and one thing to add.. get the equip BEFORE you get the animal.. dont bring it all home and set it up and expect it to be ok.. you may end up with a herpsicle or a tosted reptile
Amen to that - hard to believe that people don't have any concept of the needs of their pets, yet usually are very acutely and selfishly aware of their own needs. My son wants to breed and sell leopard geckos (and we have some nice looking ones), and he made the decision that he would not sell to any of his friends unless he was sure that they had all of the proper equipment (my son even made a deal with the local pet store for cage packages if they were needed) and the leopard gecko book. I applaud my son for such sensitivity, and wish others could adopt such an attitude. This is a call for others to help educate prospective pet owners.
every time i walk into a pet store i find myself helping someone who is having trouble.. with improper care.. the worst is the pet stores that tell u the rong info.. im my area there a pet store that states if you buy a herp you must prove you have knowedge of them and have the proper things to house them in.. if not you must purchase it ( not nessessarly from them) as well as a book... and i asked why a book.. they said cause theres alot of false info out on the net.. and you might as well get the published stuff... theyll even put an animal on hold for you no money down until you get the stuff.. i wish ALL were like that
Leo Fan, I really want to commend your son for his efforts. Not many kids have that kind of foresight. They seem to be more impressed with impressing their friends with the reptile they've acquired, not caring about the poor animals needs. I think thats fantastic keep up the great work. I applaud his efforts, we need alot more people like that
I can not understand why people will buy a pet without knowing anything about it!!!!!! i read everything i can find on anykind of pet i consider buying. I'll even re-read the stuff. With my bp i read SO many different caresheets and re-read 2 of them 3 times over to make sure i got all the info down.... And i also want to commen your son too Leo Fan!
The Petsmart by me actually refused to sell a guy some fish until he brought in a water sample of his tank. It was pretty funny to see him arguing with the sales girl. I think he was more trying to act tough for his girlfriend. I was very happy to see at least 1 responsible person there. Although, I highly doubt they do a similar thing for the reptiles, or that everyone that works there does it. But at least it's better than nothing. My girlfriend and co-workers made fun of me for all the research I was doing on leos. I wanted to know everything before I got mine. It was tough with all the conflicting info on the web, but the really important stuff tends to be universal.
im new to snakes, but not reptiles. my sister has a few lizards, my mother has two, i have been lerking on these forums reading every thing i could about snakes and figureing out what i want....finally setaled on a ball python, wanted a JCP but couldn't find one local.....i purchased my cage set up and snake at the same time but left her at the petco untill i had cleaned, setup and up to temp...(about 3 hours) then i returned to the store and picked her up along with 4 frozen fuzzy mice. (for feeding her 3 days after i put her in her cage. she seems to being doing fine, my temps are between 85 and 90 on the hot side and 75 78 on the cool side (day) and 79 80 on the hot side and 73-76 on the cool at night. she has two hides a large basking branch and a tree (plant she hangs out in right in the middle of the cage.) and a big water bowl. i keep her humidity at 50 to 60%. which i did have a problem with the first day. but adding a little cypres mulch and misting lightly in the morning has fixed that problem. now if i can get her to use the hides. she seems to hang out in the tree or in the corner under the basking branch.....why am i listing all this here.... i did my research i made my plan and every thing went smoothly. except for a slight humidity problem (was too low first night) ie i knew what i was geting into, i didn't torcher my new pet by bringing her home with out a proper home wating for her and i set her up with every thing she needed and more
i went into a pet store that i used to work at the other day. while i was there i was asked to help catch a particularly feisty iguana. when i caught it and boxed it up i went looking for the new owner and found him walking around with a 10 gallon tank. now you can only imagine this poor iggy that was about 24 inches long in a 20 inch tank. i told the guy that he needed a much bigger inclosure but he told me that its okay because this tank is just for him to sleep in and that he has a big apartment for him to run around in. now you can only imagine my frustration as i told him everthing he needed and all he said was that i dont know what im talking about because he raised in iguana when he was younger and it died of old age, when i asked him how old the iggy was he said 5 YEARS OLD! now at this piont i couldnt take it any more i just copied his name and address from the papers he signed to buy the iggy and called the A.S.P.C.A police, since he lives in the bronx and as of jan 1st their illegal.
Yeah, he obviously didn't know enough to look up enough information to know what "old age" was, let enough how to properly house one. Kudos for the efforts. :cry:
I work in a reptile shop in England. My friend who owns it has kept and bred reptiles for 15 years and we pride ourselves on not just looking after the animals in the shop but really caring for them. And it annoys me when people come in asking about animals and it doesn't matter what you tell them, you know as soon as they have walked out of the door they haven't listened to a word you have said. The only thing we can do is refuse to sell them an animal. However there is another place locally that isn't quite as scrupulous and we know they will just go there and buy their animal. It's sad but you can guarantee that in 6 months they come back saying their gecko or animal is ill and the other shop won't help them. So we spend most of our time telling them what they should have done was ....blah blah. And then taking these animals home to bring them back to health. So we do try......
That kills me, I'm just like many of you and am giving information anytime I go into a pet store. Sometimes, i end up tellling the employees how to care for the reptiles! It drives me crazy.
Sometimes it's not that easy to get all the info required before purchasing your reptile. I was in the pet shop just looking around when I spotted a tank full of baby brazilian boas for sale and I just couldn't resist. I know the shop has a very high turn over when it comes to their animals and I was told the brazilian's are very rare in this country. As soon as I got him home though I did as much research as possible into the best way to care for him, and to this day I am still always reading caresheets, asking for advice and keeping a close eye on his temps/humidity levels. I know that I should have found all this out first and that a brazilian is not a starter snake but it just wasn't really an option in my situation and I fell in love.
