Reason #85432 not to but pets from pet stores:

tarandrew

Arachnosquire
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Me: Hey, do you guys carry Green Iguanas?

Girl on the phone: "lol, aren't ALL Iguanas, like, green?"

Me: *click.*
 
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Mushroom Spore

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The vast, vast, VAST majority of iguanas in the pet trade are green, yes. Given the whole host of horrors perpetrated by chain pet stores (up to and including fatal animal cruelty and neglect)...I don't think some random pet store nobody not knowing about iguana colors even comes close.
 

tarandrew

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The vast, vast, VAST majority of iguanas in the pet trade are green, yes. Given the whole host of horrors perpetrated by chain pet stores (up to and including fatal animal cruelty and neglect)...I don't think some random pet store nobody not knowing about iguana colors even comes close.
I'm not saying that's the biggest threat to the animals. It was more her tone of voice that displayed her ignorance. Almost in an "Isn't there only one type of iguana" sort of way.
 

J_dUbz88

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ill add my own story to this thread, when i first started out in the scorp/T's hobby i purchased a H. spinifer at a small pet store, got it home did some research and found out it was just a P. imperator :wall: if educated i prolly could have discovered that in the store, happily i am far more educated now.
 

arachnocat

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Sometimes their ignorance can work to your advantage. I got a good deal at a pet store last weekend. They just got a shipment of pixie frogs and pacmans. I told the employee I wanted to buy the two pixies but he didn't know the difference between the two and thought they were all the same frogs. I showed him which was which but he kept calling them all pacmans. So I got them for the price of a pacman (which was about half price). Maybe that was a bit dishonest of me :eek:
Oh well :}
 

tarandrew

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Sometimes their ignorance can work to your advantage. I got a good deal at a pet store last weekend. They just got a shipment of pixie frogs and pacmans. I told the employee I wanted to buy the two pixies but he didn't know the difference between the two and thought they were all the same frogs. I showed him which was which but he kept calling them all pacmans. So I got them for the price of a pacman (which was about half price). Maybe that was a bit dishonest of me :eek:
Oh well :}
Dishonest or not, you could have saved the frogs from a potentially harmful environment:)

Plus, everyone likes a good deal and I would definitely do the same.;)
 

ZooRex

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Dude, gotta say I'm lovin the title...and thats a pretty bad story
I've got my own iguana nightmare from about a year ago when I worked at a nice little one of pet store, which soon after closed:( :

A lady walks in the store one day and asks if iguanas need water. I say of coarse and start to talk about there habitat in the wild and needs in captivity. She was quite taken back at this, for she had boughten an iguana for her son at a local PetWorld. (I've long nick named this store as "the company of death" for it is known to sell half dead animals and give out terrible cold-blooded advice.) The lady continued to say that the person their told her that "iguanas don't need any water of any kind because they absorb all their moisture through their food." Her iguana then dies obviosly because of dehidration for it hadn't had any water for 3 weeks. She had no idea why this happenend cause she thought she was doing everything right. I then steered her in the directoion of Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care Website (http://www.anapsid.org/) for this could answer any questions i coulden't.

I then called PetWorld and asked simple inocent questions about iguanas, the guy thought that "they're from Australia er no wait uh... maybe middle america?" and that "they need no water what so ever."

Can you believe this?!! ~ Rex
 

tarandrew

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:evil:
Dude, gotta say I'm lovin the title...and thats a pretty bad story
I've got my own iguana nightmare from about a year ago when I worked at a nice little one of pet store, which soon after closed:( :

A lady walks in the store one day and asks if iguanas need water. I say of coarse and start to talk about there habitat in the wild and needs in captivity. She was quite taken back at this, for she had boughten an iguana for her son at a local PetWorld. (I've long nick named this store as "the company of death" for it is known to sell half dead animals and give out terrible cold-blooded advice.) The lady continued to say that the person their told her that "iguanas don't need any water of any kind because they absorb all their moisture through their food." Her iguana then dies obviosly because of dehidration for it hadn't had any water for 3 weeks. She had no idea why this happenend cause she thought she was doing everything right. I then steered her in the directoion of Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care Website (http://www.anapsid.org/) for this could answer any questions i coulden't.

I then called PetWorld and asked simple inocent questions about iguanas, the guy thought that "they're from Australia er no wait uh... maybe middle america?" and that "they need no water what so ever."

Can you believe this?!! ~ Rex
That's horrible!:eek:
You should have asked him if he needed water to live, and then deprive him of it. He would have lasted 3 days:evil: .
 

Philth

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On the other hand, that ignorance may result in something like this
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/show...light=huntsman
I read via syndicate's recent post.
Hey Jeff, The funny thing was the spider was labeled "chinese huntsman" when I asked if they had any other info regarding where it came from , they told me "Asia", {D

I tend to understand the petstore empolyee's side though. You cant know everything. The store I use to work for had many good reviews on this site, although I always figured theres some hamster enthusiest message board where I got trashed.

Later, Tom
 

hairmetalspider

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I just buried FOUR baby iguanas I got from Petworld. Three of them were mine and one was laying dead in the cage when I got there, and I took him home to bury as they were going to toss him in the garbage.

It was sad, I did shed some tears. I miss my little guys. From what Ive heard, other people have had theirs die as well, and it is rumored that the WHOLE batch had worms.

The only good thing I got out of this was a really cheap Jackson Chameleon because I went in, stated my case, showed the facts, and had them kissing my butt. This is not the first time I've had to give them basic care information- I personally took the time to FEED THEIR G.ROSEAS...because most of them were on their last leg from starvation and no water. Literally had them open the cupboard and I, a customer, fed all their tarantulas.
 

ArachnoYak

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Why?

Why is it that every horror story I hear about mistreated animals comes from stores that use the word "pet" as part of their name. That should be a red flag for potential shoppers.
 
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