MilkmanWes
08-08-2004, 07:26 PM
Negative
Saw an ad for them last week and called up to find that they have Tarantulas 'back there in the reptiles section' and decided to take a Sunday Drive over there to see what they looked like.
They have a lot of nice looking birds, hamsters, other small furry items, and a huge nice aquarium section with a very nice range of fish. Finally found the reptile closet in the back and was pretty unimpressed. This was an arrangement of deep shelves (deep enough to put 10 gallon tanks sideways on and have lots of space behind it.
They had Veiled Chameleons on a top shelf (7-8 ft shelf) in the corner with no real light reaching them. There was a Chinese Water dragon that had aparently been dead for several days. A few turtles and snakes to round out the selection and a shelf full of Ts in small to med kritter keepers. Some of them were shoved back far enough I had to stretch to pull them out.
All of them had pinebark substrate and no water dishes. One of them was a "Peruvian Blonde" that someone had taken the lid off of the deli cup he had apparently been shipped in and dropped it in the keeper, old dried up paper towl and all. There were some sponge chunks that were all dried out and several long dead crickets. I decided I would take two of them and give them a better life.
None of the staff even wanted to touch the keepers they were in and all recoiled in horror at them. Gave them some tips on im[roving thier conditions like reading the tarantula book they had on the shelf back there. Was checking things out in the improved light of the front of the store and saw what i thought was a rock in one cage and asked for some forceps or whatever to take it out. Turned out it was feces from what I believe to be a snake and it stank pretty bad. Guessing they just threw the spiders in keepers used for storing or transporting other animals in the past without cleaning them out. Cleaned out the other keeper at home later and found what appeared to be feces from two other different animals under the pinebark.
Going to write them a letter with photocopies of care info from a T book and check on them in another month or so. if they at least want to make a difference I will change this to something more favorable.
Giving this an Negative because even if you don't know how to care for a T (or any other animal) you should at least know not to put them in a cage another animal has already shat in without cleaning it and you should have noticed the dead water dragon before it got so descicated.
Saw an ad for them last week and called up to find that they have Tarantulas 'back there in the reptiles section' and decided to take a Sunday Drive over there to see what they looked like.
They have a lot of nice looking birds, hamsters, other small furry items, and a huge nice aquarium section with a very nice range of fish. Finally found the reptile closet in the back and was pretty unimpressed. This was an arrangement of deep shelves (deep enough to put 10 gallon tanks sideways on and have lots of space behind it.
They had Veiled Chameleons on a top shelf (7-8 ft shelf) in the corner with no real light reaching them. There was a Chinese Water dragon that had aparently been dead for several days. A few turtles and snakes to round out the selection and a shelf full of Ts in small to med kritter keepers. Some of them were shoved back far enough I had to stretch to pull them out.
All of them had pinebark substrate and no water dishes. One of them was a "Peruvian Blonde" that someone had taken the lid off of the deli cup he had apparently been shipped in and dropped it in the keeper, old dried up paper towl and all. There were some sponge chunks that were all dried out and several long dead crickets. I decided I would take two of them and give them a better life.
None of the staff even wanted to touch the keepers they were in and all recoiled in horror at them. Gave them some tips on im[roving thier conditions like reading the tarantula book they had on the shelf back there. Was checking things out in the improved light of the front of the store and saw what i thought was a rock in one cage and asked for some forceps or whatever to take it out. Turned out it was feces from what I believe to be a snake and it stank pretty bad. Guessing they just threw the spiders in keepers used for storing or transporting other animals in the past without cleaning them out. Cleaned out the other keeper at home later and found what appeared to be feces from two other different animals under the pinebark.
Going to write them a letter with photocopies of care info from a T book and check on them in another month or so. if they at least want to make a difference I will change this to something more favorable.
Giving this an Negative because even if you don't know how to care for a T (or any other animal) you should at least know not to put them in a cage another animal has already shat in without cleaning it and you should have noticed the dead water dragon before it got so descicated.