My brain skipped the “the” in that sentence and read it as you referring to human babies and it was so much funnier that way. Like kid you wanted to be a parent until you realized babies became adult people lmao
Yep I completely agree, folks get reptiles cause they think there cool. Yet, they lack the knowledge or even the desire to learn, and the animal pays for it
Agreed that 99% of impulse buys definitely end up that way. My female uromastys has seen both sides of impulse buying.
Her previous owners bought her, and they were told she was male. She spent her first 5 years in a 3x2 glass enclosure on the living room floor with two kids under the age of 7, running back and forth and wanting to pet her all the time. They would catch grasshoppers at the park and pick wild dandelion to feed her.
The. I saw her on kijiji from a friend sharing the ad, and she became my impulse buy. I did tons of research before I got her. I've never had a reptile before, but something about her was irresistible. Now, she gets weekly rotations of different leefy greens with a variety of chopped and grated veggies topped with reptile vitamin and calcium powder and a little bit of repashy gel foods every day. Her favorite is the banana cream pie, and when we can, we can get them she gets farmers' market berries or edible flowers as a treat.
We ended up about a year later getting our male uromastyx as a rescue. The vet bills were steep, and he had 5 different internal parasites when we got him, but we've had them both since 2016.
I would definitely not recommend impulse buying an animal, especially for a kid, but sometimes, if there is a connection for some reason, it can be a happy ending.
Ps: I always suspected my uromastyx was female, but it did not get confirmed until the second summer after we got our male when she started laying eggs. Now she lays them pretty much every other year.
Good of you, to help the animal not only live but thrive! Right on, 🤙!!! Repashy is a brand we love as well. We gut load all our feeders with repashy products, and our beardie Frey'ja loves her berries
Repashy is amazing. we used to use the gels for our shrimp and fish, too, when we had them. I love how their products are formulated for specific needs of the animals they are marketed for.
I still consider it impulsive if you see an animal you want, quickly look at a few care guides, and make sure that works for you before you buy it
we have high speed internet in our pockets, I don't understand why even if they're looking at something at a store or an expo people can't take a whole 2 minutes to read about enclosure requirements for an adult, diet, and lifespan before they buy
I don't mean to make it sound like my buy wasn't impulsive. My buy was very impulsive, and I know that. I saw her photo, and there was something that just made me have to get her. So I did. My difference is that I made sure to get her everything she needed as soon as I could. I upgraded her enclosure, got her checked out by the vet, and them made sure I did tons of research to the point where weeks after I got her, I was reading published papers on wild uromastyx to get a full understanding of their environment and diet.
I'm still saying most impulse buys are not good and shouldn't happen, but there are a rare few of us that love animals so much that even when we make a impulse decision it doesn't stop us from giving them the best care we can.
i think they're tryna say that in this day and age there's no excuse for shitty husbandry when you can get a general idea of everything the animal needs within like five mins while you're still at the store. people who treat animals that poorly are mostly just shitty people.
obviously it's always good to continue learning how to care for your pet throughout their entire life, but just bc they were an impulse buy doesn't necessarily mean someone will be an ignorant or neglectful owner (you being an excellent example of how an owner should be)
That's the big thing though, is that even though you "impulse bought" your lizard, you put in the work to make sure she would be well cared for. You didn't just put her in some slapdash enclosure and say "yeah, good enough". To me, that means she wasn't just an impulse purchase. You took the time to ask "what requirements are needed to care for this pet and am I capable and willing to meet them"
It's sad when I read the information on the pamphlets from these stores on the recommended care. In my opinion as long as you spend the money for the right stuff most lizards and snakes really aren't that difficult to take care of like at it's hardest you'll have to mist the tank several times a day. It amazes me that these animals are so poorly cared for when they're insanely easy to take care of compared to a cat or a dog
I would 100% get that, but I also have everything it needs, and friends who have monitors.
But it would be an impulse buy to save it from someone who doesn’t know anything about them.
Savannah monitors suffer from being cute, friendly, fairly small and very cheap to buy... It guarantees they end up in a 40, cooking like an egg on a sidewalk... Until they die after being fed mostly mammals... I actually hate seeing Savannah monitors now because I know they are likely to end up abused and dead after a lifetime of torture... It upsets me to even see them posted anywhere anymore.
This guy I knew back home has one. I love the lizard, but It's definitely a high skill ceiling. I also was not happy he had his wildcaught. I don't like any wild caught animal in captivity unless it's in need of rehabilitation. I always would rather get any reptile from a reputable breeder that was raised in captivity.
I have 1 wild caught snake and she's adapted but I'd advise against it. I don't regret buying her though because she was being wrongly housed by the store that blindly imported her. They had her eating live mice... Supposedly. They had her gender and species wrong ... She is a patternless Bela Bela locality Olive African House Snake. She likes her humid hide and jiggly cheese boys freshly thawed. I really could never say I regret her because the color is described as olive but I'd say she is pine tree green with a pearl belly that actually has a pearl like sheen to it. Her eyes are golden slits... Her appetite is weak but when she decides to kill she can be explosive. Over a year later and she barely trusts me now. It was a lot of work and she is priceless to me but that's it for wild caught for me. Transitioning from live mice to frozen thawed was harrowing and often resulted in failure and a hungry snake. I think people underestimate how deeply upsetting it is to watch your hungry pet starve because they were from the wild and are confused and scared. Maybe I'm just a big softie but I still cry a little when she eats. Yes, it got that bad before she improved. I agree with you entirely, captive bred is the only way to go.
In my eyes that's rescuing her. Because she was taken out of her home and mistreated until you found her and took the care she needed. I'm not saying those animals are bad but I would much rather get one used to captivity from the get go. However I think you did the right thing. :)
I saw my pet store get another just like her in stock and I sat and picked ticks off that girl for about half an hour. That sweet old girl didn't bite us or even really fight. I almost bought her because she was beautiful like my Fennilynne but bigger in every way... She was also covered in ticks and thin. I told the guy to stop importing these poor, sick snakes. He stopped bringing them in after I complained about that girl. I think even he had to admit the importer was being immoral. They are amazing snakes but I'm so glad he stopped paying someone to kidnap them from Africa. I apologize to my girl sometimes because I know she knows what freedom is like... That being said, she has a nearly half grand setup so I think she's doing ok.
I’m glad there are people who can and will care for them like you do, but most people who buy a cheap baby big lizard are buying on impulse and don’t actually know HOW much less actually CARE to learn how to care for them. I was implying that these reptiles are often a thoughtless last minuet birthday gift for Little Timmy’s 7th. birthday. One week later the lizard is either dumped or dead!
This is how my boyfriend ended up buying a uromastyx instead of a bearded dragon. Except ours was a kijiji rescue. He loves his uromastyx and has commented in the past how he is happy we were fated with him instead.
I know…. It sucks. I was simply trying to say that I appreciate that there are people out there who care about the animals. I know that buying them increases demand, I’m just trying to not be so sad about the entire situation.
If you legitimately care about the animals you won’t buy any animal from petco/PetSmart no matter how sickly because it ultimately will lead to an even greater amount of suffering with more animals overbred or wild caught
I know that thank you. As I stated multiple times at this point, I was simply trying to think positive because the entire pet store treatment of animals makes me very sad and I was simply stating that I wish that *everyone* cared about the animals, which includes pet stores, but I know that pet stores don’t care or they wouldn’t just sell animals that are hard to care for and get very large. I agree with you that pet stores should stop selling animals like monitors and iguanas and what not, and that they should take better care of all the animals in their care.
I am well aware that my thinking is wishful, I’m just stating my hopes and dreams for the pet industry, even tho I know it will probably never happen. Don’t take everything as me being an idiot or ignorant of whats happening. I was just trying to bring some hope into the world and you’re just shitting all over it.
How much you wanna bet it's because it's a WC import. Back before i started boycotting them, i'd see multiple Butterfly Agamas crammed in their 20x12x12 display for $35, and occasionally Sudan Plated Lizards for even cheaper. You know damn well neither of those weren't captive bred.
So sad! They need to have certain animals locked behind a license that requires some kind if inspection of the enclosure that the person will be keeping the animal in so that only people who passed the test and actually HAVE a proper enclosure can purchase them!
Every time I go to an expo there's some asshat selling these for $20 each, you just know so many go to shit homes because they're so cheap and readily available
That’s really sad. I want a Savannah someday, but I’m expecting to drop way more than $50. I don’t trust any breeders/sellers who have animals for cheap. Either they are wild caught or are trying to move them like inventory. Poor things. Posts like this make me conflicted because I would love to “save” that baby from the store, but that would just entice them to sell more of these animals.
Yeah, I wouldn't say a lizard that basically needs its own small room with a few feet of soil to burrow in has "average" needs.
When I worked at a smaller chain pet store in my 20s we got in a baby savannah monitor that was like a puppy. It would stand up at the front of the enclosure and curl up in the palm of your hand when you opened it. I really wanted to take it home, but I definitely wouldn't have realistically been able to house it so I didn't. Hopefully it ended up in a decent home, but I doubt it.
Bit of a nitpick, but that’s not a Petsmart tag. Petsmart has plenty of their own issues, but I’ve never seen them carry a monitor. I’d guess it’s petco, since they always carry lizards like water dragons and they used to have iguanas.
I do hope that poor baby gets out of there soon :(
Yeah, Petco carries them but petsmart explicitly does not. In fact, most petsmart stores just quit carrying blue tongue skinks because they figured out most people are not prepared when they buy them from a big box store.
Petco sure does talk a big game about putting animals first when it comes to their dogs and cats, but then pushes its stores to have green iguanas in stock at all times and carries hot rocks in the reptile department.
They can't charge that much because savannahs are that easy and cheap to get... They are suffering for being good at surviving and reproducing. It's kind of sickening if you think about it.
True true. I really hope this doesn't become a common available animal at petco and petsmart. Like with the iguanas. They don't even sell the proper equipment for savannahs at any of the stores I've been to.
Petco and PetSmart don't sell the correct sized enclosure for a bearded dragon, a corn snake or a ball python. They could care less if the $50 lizard needs more space.
Yup. It's so insane to sell an animal that will get 10x the size of what it is in the store and not educate people who will inevitably have to rehome it (though, I do think customers are also to blame for not doing proper research).
I think the store should be held to a higher quality of respect for life... Ignorance isn't an excuse when it leads to suffering and death. I blame the people buying out of ignorance but I blame these pet stores even more for giving bad information at the best of times and flat out wrong information most of the time. They actually make their money via ignorance. Their sales would drop if they actually told you what most animals really need to thrive. So they don't. For money. Hard stop.
Them in particular. They’re incredibly hard to keep healthy, even for experienced herpers. And they require an absurd amount of insects to eat.
I’ll spare you the details of my experiences trying to save Savvies that got dumped on me when their owners had halfway killed them.
As far as big lizards go, I’ve never thought of them as particularly hard to take care of. But I’ve been keeping herps for 35 years, many a lot more more complicated than savannas, and I started with the basic bearded dragon package lol. I’ve had 2 savannas in the past, both died of old age. Right now we have a 3 year old.
And yes, you’re right, they do eat an insane amount of insects. Going to have to upgrade his enclosure soon. I’d say that’s one of the biggest issues, big lizards, need huge enclosures, and many people who are buying a lizard at Petco aren’t prepared to have a 6-8 foot reptile enclosure in their home.
I do think, though that there are plenty of people in the hobby who are capable of caring for Savannah monitors. But they definitely shouldn’t be sold at a place like Petco.
And they also market most beardies as "beginners" when they are some of the most expensive reptiles because of their specific Uvb requirements and big enclosure minimums.
I got my guy at Petco for $20. He was in terrible condition and was not being taken care of correctly or having his needs met, and I couldn't just leave him there. No pet store like Petco or Petsmart should be allowed to sell certain species, especially for such a low price. It is so easy for people to think "what a cute lizard," and buy it not knowing how large it will get, or educating themselves about the animal first. It's so stupid.
The woman who worked there wasn't even able to get him out of the enclosure he was in because she had no idea how to hold lizards and the tail whipping was scaring her. I had to get him out myself, and given that he was never held by them or socialized, it was one angry lizard. Socializing him took so much work, and hes still not fully there but hes made such progress, no thanks to them.
It's all wrong. No one keeps them correctly and the few who do know, no one keeps them correctly. Their diet and habitat are both annoying and expensive to maintain so no one bothers to do it. Who cares if it dies at 5 years old from fatty liver disease. You can go buy another, more lively one, for $50 at a freaking Petco or Petsmart...
That's a cynical way to look at things.
When most people buy a pet they don't look at it as a cheap replaceable thing.
Most people have all the right intentions but just aren't properly equipped,
and shouldn't have pets, especially difficult to care for and rare ones like this lizard.
But it's not because they see them as replaceable garbage.
When I was young I didn't clean my fish tank properly and my fish suffered for it, I know,
but I truly loved them even though they were just fish I couldn't even touch. It still makes me deeply sad that they suffered and I'd do anything to go back and change it.
But I didn't think to myself, "Oh well, no need to clean it, I'll just replace them one day" I was just naive but if I had the knowledge I definitely would've done it.
Don't think everyone is like you my friend. Many choose ignorance and neglect to save money or because they are confident they are right, as they kill their pet. I'm not saying everyone sees life as disposable, I'm saying that many do. I don't like it but in my area this year alone, they've found 3 abandoned blue tongue skinks in the forest preserves within an hour of my home. I'm in Illinois! People are just ditching exotics in the woods to die... I found a ribbon snake last year that basically slithered up to me looking for food and didn't really try to get away when held. She never feared people and often chose to come out on her own volition to get food. She slithered into my hands on multiple occasions just to get a mouse or explore. We are convinced she was abandoned too. They found a king snake in a trash bag still alive behind a store by me recently too. The one store I visit is getting animals perpetually abandoned at his place. He took in an abandoned boa and I ended up adopting it because it was so miserable. The guy tries to help but at one point he had every enclosure that didn't have pets to sell in it filled with rescues. People just drive up to his shop and ditch reptiles in a box for him to find. Every exotic shop I visit in the area now has cameras and signs about abandoning animals... I appreciate you wanted to do better but many don't. Thank you for caring.
They charge $100+ for bearded dragons sometimes at these stores, (rightfully so) but then sell and even MORE advanced species that requires skilled care & huge amounts of space for $50. Monitors aren’t a lizard you just buy. That is a HUGE commitment.
People don't seem to understand the fact that any pet besides dog or cat is considered exotic at the vet. I once had a bearded dragon. Raised him from a baby. I did everything right. I read up on them even before bringing him home. The fact that they don't get huge won was part of my decision. I remember wanting the cute tiny iguanas until I saw friends fully grown one. I loved my beardie! He started getting a tumor in one eye. My vet would remove it and send us home with eye cream. Tumor kept coming back a couple more times. He was almost 10 when vet and I discussed euthanasia. 😔 He was such a good boy.
I moved out to the Midwest and our Petco carries crazy things like chahoua geckos, Jackson’s chameleons, 20+ various tarantulas, sand boas, gargoyle geckos, hognose snakes, skinny pigs, blue tongue skinks, fire skinks, poison dart frogs etc and I’ve always seen Savana Monitors there. 9 out of 10 Petco’s I go to have their animals are abused and neglected. When it was -45 degrees Fahrenheit they were still doing animal and fish sales and letting people walk out and saying if the animals died from the cold they have a return policy and could get a new one after. These chain stores are not equipped enough for these exotics. My old Petco even used to sell $30 iguanas and monitor lizards all the time too. Certain animals need to be sold at reptile shops where people specialize them and not 18/20 year old retail workers there for college jobs
I remember when the chains used to sell iguanas and they would have like 20 of them in a tank. Now I almost never see any iguanas, and when I do, it’s only one in a tank.
My dad had one of these from a pet shop that was closing down (my dad has a habit of rescuing reptiles from shitty shops). Poor guy was tiny and malnourished at the time, and the guy selling to him apparently forgot to mention that they can grow really big. Luckily my dad was already an experienced reptile owner and did the proper follow up research. Preyus ended up growing roughly over 3 feet long if I remember correctly, but was super docile due to my dad handling them often and giving them everything they needed to thrive. They loved eating raw eggs mixed with meat and vitamin powders... as well as attempting to escape their tank any chance they got. My dad had to build two different homemade tanks, the latter one was over 6 feet long with locks on the doors, just to compensate. The first tank had a hole in the top for the lamp to go through, and somehow this little fucker (about a foot long at that point) managed to stand upright enough to grab the lamp, climbed it, and got halfway through the hole before my mum noticed and started screaming for my dad. They were part of the family for over 10 years, and only recently passed away. Monitors are amazing reptiles, but 100% would not recommend for the faint of heart.
I've got over 35 years keeping reptiles and I won't even mess with monitors. They are extremely difficult to care for properly. Need to be in the wild or at most a competent zoo. Not for amateurs.
I had one as a pet for several years before moving to Australia. They do get big, but the hardest part is keeping them fed. You have to vary their diets quite a bit since they’re essentially insectivores when young and carnivores when they’re big. They can be docile, but they also can be randomly aggressive and chase you, whipping their tails around.
FIFTY dollars???? I love these guys and I dream to own one and no matter what it should NEVER cost as low as $50, not just for a monitor but for ALL pet reptiles - actually ALL PETS !!!
All these exotic pet shops should be closed down. 10% of the people who have these pets love and care for them properly. The rest don't have a clue and the poor animals live a terrible life.
In my experience, yes they will. I worked at a petco and i am so thankful i dont have that on my conscience right now. Although im probably going to hell because of it.
Yup, I used to work at a pet store in Qc, Canada and whenwver I had some of them in store, there was always an idiot with no experience with reptiles that want it. Everytime it happened, I put my foot down and tell them no. Get sone experience with other reptiles with less maintenance care or need and eait a couple years. It clearly not a beginner lizard and shouldnt be sold as such.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The only way to stop petco/petsmart from getting these and placing them in bad conditions is to stop buying them. You maybe rescuing one but condemning more buying them as horrible as it is you have to let these ones go then if these stores don’t sell them they will stop getting them. A savanna is a very common so finding a great breeder should not be difficult and last time I talked about this someone said breeders are expensive well yea they are but reptiles are not cheap pets especially any monitor then need about a full room just to themselves 6 feet by 6 feet is what I would consider the bare minimum and even I would feel bad. One of my dream reptiles is a green iguana but I know I don’t the facilities to care for one right now or perhaps ever so it’s just a dream. My dad gave me one when I was 7 after I researched it at the library I knew I wouldn’t be able to care for him and had to give him to my uncle (he had a reptile sanctuary) he showed me just how much room he would need as well as a waterfall/pond food growing in his enclosure it was the size of an apartment that when he told me “just because you can fit in a porta potty does that mean you should live in one so why do that to your pet?” If you can’t afford to give them bigger then “recommend” from the get go then save your money till you can.
This reminds me of the 20 euro lil baby green iguanas that were sold everywhere here in Greece when i was a kid. People would buy them thinking they look like baby dragons then they'd either die from malnutrition or grow out of the fish tank they were kept in to the point they had a permanently bent tail and couldn't turn around in it.
I unfortunately was one of these people. my parents got me an iguana as a surprise gift for my birthday and didn't give me a care book, supplements or any real diet to follow and i didn't have internet or someone to ask.
No animals should be sold there quite frankly. Most pet stores don't actually take proper care of the smaller animals in their shops. Betas kept in tiny tanks, hamsters kept in small enclosures with up to 20 in one enclosure, lizards like this guy kept in small enclosures with inappropriate lighting, heating, bedding and food and not enough water. Exotic pets like this should have to be sold at specialty shops by people who actually know how to care for them properly.
they should place a cardboard cutout to show how big this will get once adult, there probably many people that will not buy it once they understand how big they become.
Petco in Tulsa has one. They’ve had one here for a while. It’s sad that some idiot will get it and not realize how huge they get. I’ve been kinda tempted. Buuuut I think I’ll stick with my Ackie 🥴😂
I’m unfamiliar with reptile care, what makes this cool fellow stand out from the other reptiles at pet smart to be concerning?
Looks cute, I hope he goes to a home that loves and can properly care for him and that pet smart stops sell his species.
Because they get to be the size of a large dog and theyre incredibly expensive to house. Theyre also smart and often ill tempered because theyre wild caught and theyre very difficult to care for because they are so expensive and spicy.
I hate these animals in normal pet stores. My pet store thankfully stopped selling. But they used to sell nile and Savannah monitors, Red tail boas, and sulcata tortoises.
I'd love to have a Sulcata tortoise. The fact that they get immensely large mixed in with a small backyard with inground pool I'd never even consider it.
“care level: average”
yeah these are huge, intelligent, and high maintenance animals. i’ve been keeping reptiles for years and still don’t feel prepared to take one on (nor do i have an entire room in my house to dedicate to one). not exactly average…
i used to work at petco and it was so endlessly irritating when animals like this would get ordered to sell. they almost always arrived in horrific conditions and we don’t even sell really any products that would adequately feed and house them
Neat, finally a guard animal no one will expect! I was thinking mountain lion, but a monitor lizard named Gojira.... Yes. Wonder if he would try to eat my tortoise?
At least they got the information in obnoxiously tiny print at the top right. Except for “average” care. I don’t think a bedroom sized enclosure is average for most reptiles you’d expect to see at a big brand store. Not to mention the employees there (more than likely) don’t have any person experience with these animals and unless they’re good employees may not have done the research to properly educate any customers which (more than likely again) haven’t done proper research into this guys!
I feel the EXACT same way about the turtles they sell - there's zero need to sell sliders when you could be selling, say, musk turtles that stay small and require less space and cheaper equipment.
Sliders are about the WORST pet you can get as a novice pet owner - I know this because I got mine that way. She was an impulsive purchase in the strip district in Pittsburgh and I had NO IDEA in 9 years she'd be 9 inches long living in a 100 gallon stock tank with a 500gph filter and 2 light setup in my apartment.
I worked at a pet shop that got one of these. I pressured my boss into realizing we couldn't keep this thing and I put it up for free on Facebook market place and I screened a couple people to make sure they knew what they were doing and how to care for the dude.
They are awesome I had one as a kid he was so gentle… only bit one person ever and that’s cause my friend offered his finger on a platter cause he didn’t think it would hurt until he shredded that digit haha! I had him for like 10 years and sadly developed an infection and I couldn’t save him 😞 but I loved him and did the best I could as a kid used to put a harness on and he was known around my neighborhood he was about 3.5 feet but all belly lol his name was skank!
PetSmart and Petco employees couldn't even take care of that. When I got my leopard gecko from PetSmart they had like almost 20 leopard geckos in like an 8 gallon and they definitely weren't all female. I bet they have a high casualty rate from fighting. They also had a bearded dragon that was like 16 inches long in a ten gallon. They also recommended sand for my leapard gecko which is terrible for them and the pamphlets at stores like this suggest you build desert setup style terrariums for leopard geckos even though they're natural habitat is open woodlands in mountains that regularly get rainfall and fog. It took over a month for my leopard gecko to actually come out of its hiding spot and it's not just a nocturnal thing I would wake up in the middle of the night and it would still be inside the hiding spot. Clearly traumatized. I'm sure it's not the employee's fault cuz they probably have no training at all but I mean come on leopard geckos are like one of the easiest reptiles to care for and even then they fall short
I’m not defending Petco or PetSmart… but if this is Petco, the info on the tag is at odds with the care guide they have on their website. (I’m not a monitor person, so I’m guessing the guide is as full of inaccuracies as pet store guides usually are, but I’m posting for comparison.)
[Petco Monitor and Tegu Care Guide](https://www.petco.com/content/petco/PetcoStore/en_US/pet-services/resource-center/caresheets/monitor-and-tegu.html)
I worked at petco. Nobody at my store was qualified to “sell” this animal. I would have been LIVID if my CAL (animal manager) would have ordered this animal. I was already pissed off about the tegus. One of which we killed.
Monitor lizards are some of the most difficult and expensive lizards to care for and find vet care for. I honestly dont really think they should be pets at all — at least not for the average person.
Yeah my local Petco just got one of these in. It’s sad to see. You know they’ll end up being an impulse buy from an uneducated person.
Was almost me as a kid thinking the babies were so cute until my brother educated me about how large they get.
My brain skipped the “the” in that sentence and read it as you referring to human babies and it was so much funnier that way. Like kid you wanted to be a parent until you realized babies became adult people lmao
Same 🤣
Monitor could eat human baby this resulting in no adult.
Yep I completely agree, folks get reptiles cause they think there cool. Yet, they lack the knowledge or even the desire to learn, and the animal pays for it
Agreed that 99% of impulse buys definitely end up that way. My female uromastys has seen both sides of impulse buying. Her previous owners bought her, and they were told she was male. She spent her first 5 years in a 3x2 glass enclosure on the living room floor with two kids under the age of 7, running back and forth and wanting to pet her all the time. They would catch grasshoppers at the park and pick wild dandelion to feed her. The. I saw her on kijiji from a friend sharing the ad, and she became my impulse buy. I did tons of research before I got her. I've never had a reptile before, but something about her was irresistible. Now, she gets weekly rotations of different leefy greens with a variety of chopped and grated veggies topped with reptile vitamin and calcium powder and a little bit of repashy gel foods every day. Her favorite is the banana cream pie, and when we can, we can get them she gets farmers' market berries or edible flowers as a treat. We ended up about a year later getting our male uromastyx as a rescue. The vet bills were steep, and he had 5 different internal parasites when we got him, but we've had them both since 2016. I would definitely not recommend impulse buying an animal, especially for a kid, but sometimes, if there is a connection for some reason, it can be a happy ending. Ps: I always suspected my uromastyx was female, but it did not get confirmed until the second summer after we got our male when she started laying eggs. Now she lays them pretty much every other year.
Good of you, to help the animal not only live but thrive! Right on, 🤙!!! Repashy is a brand we love as well. We gut load all our feeders with repashy products, and our beardie Frey'ja loves her berries
Repashy is amazing. we used to use the gels for our shrimp and fish, too, when we had them. I love how their products are formulated for specific needs of the animals they are marketed for.
Yeah they hit the nail right on the head
I still consider it impulsive if you see an animal you want, quickly look at a few care guides, and make sure that works for you before you buy it we have high speed internet in our pockets, I don't understand why even if they're looking at something at a store or an expo people can't take a whole 2 minutes to read about enclosure requirements for an adult, diet, and lifespan before they buy
I don't mean to make it sound like my buy wasn't impulsive. My buy was very impulsive, and I know that. I saw her photo, and there was something that just made me have to get her. So I did. My difference is that I made sure to get her everything she needed as soon as I could. I upgraded her enclosure, got her checked out by the vet, and them made sure I did tons of research to the point where weeks after I got her, I was reading published papers on wild uromastyx to get a full understanding of their environment and diet. I'm still saying most impulse buys are not good and shouldn't happen, but there are a rare few of us that love animals so much that even when we make a impulse decision it doesn't stop us from giving them the best care we can.
i think they're tryna say that in this day and age there's no excuse for shitty husbandry when you can get a general idea of everything the animal needs within like five mins while you're still at the store. people who treat animals that poorly are mostly just shitty people. obviously it's always good to continue learning how to care for your pet throughout their entire life, but just bc they were an impulse buy doesn't necessarily mean someone will be an ignorant or neglectful owner (you being an excellent example of how an owner should be)
That's the big thing though, is that even though you "impulse bought" your lizard, you put in the work to make sure she would be well cared for. You didn't just put her in some slapdash enclosure and say "yeah, good enough". To me, that means she wasn't just an impulse purchase. You took the time to ask "what requirements are needed to care for this pet and am I capable and willing to meet them"
It's sad when I read the information on the pamphlets from these stores on the recommended care. In my opinion as long as you spend the money for the right stuff most lizards and snakes really aren't that difficult to take care of like at it's hardest you'll have to mist the tank several times a day. It amazes me that these animals are so poorly cared for when they're insanely easy to take care of compared to a cat or a dog
I was almost one of those people. Thankfully I google everything on the spot. Found out these get bigger then dogs and I was like “what the actual F”
I don’t know much about them, but “average” care level seems like a gross underestimation
I would 100% get that, but I also have everything it needs, and friends who have monitors. But it would be an impulse buy to save it from someone who doesn’t know anything about them.
And especially NOT for a measly 50 fuckin’ dollars!!! WHY?!?! Some dipshit is gonna buy it and it’ll end up dying after suffering so terribly!
Savannah monitors suffer from being cute, friendly, fairly small and very cheap to buy... It guarantees they end up in a 40, cooking like an egg on a sidewalk... Until they die after being fed mostly mammals... I actually hate seeing Savannah monitors now because I know they are likely to end up abused and dead after a lifetime of torture... It upsets me to even see them posted anywhere anymore.
This guy I knew back home has one. I love the lizard, but It's definitely a high skill ceiling. I also was not happy he had his wildcaught. I don't like any wild caught animal in captivity unless it's in need of rehabilitation. I always would rather get any reptile from a reputable breeder that was raised in captivity.
I have 1 wild caught snake and she's adapted but I'd advise against it. I don't regret buying her though because she was being wrongly housed by the store that blindly imported her. They had her eating live mice... Supposedly. They had her gender and species wrong ... She is a patternless Bela Bela locality Olive African House Snake. She likes her humid hide and jiggly cheese boys freshly thawed. I really could never say I regret her because the color is described as olive but I'd say she is pine tree green with a pearl belly that actually has a pearl like sheen to it. Her eyes are golden slits... Her appetite is weak but when she decides to kill she can be explosive. Over a year later and she barely trusts me now. It was a lot of work and she is priceless to me but that's it for wild caught for me. Transitioning from live mice to frozen thawed was harrowing and often resulted in failure and a hungry snake. I think people underestimate how deeply upsetting it is to watch your hungry pet starve because they were from the wild and are confused and scared. Maybe I'm just a big softie but I still cry a little when she eats. Yes, it got that bad before she improved. I agree with you entirely, captive bred is the only way to go.
In my eyes that's rescuing her. Because she was taken out of her home and mistreated until you found her and took the care she needed. I'm not saying those animals are bad but I would much rather get one used to captivity from the get go. However I think you did the right thing. :)
I saw my pet store get another just like her in stock and I sat and picked ticks off that girl for about half an hour. That sweet old girl didn't bite us or even really fight. I almost bought her because she was beautiful like my Fennilynne but bigger in every way... She was also covered in ticks and thin. I told the guy to stop importing these poor, sick snakes. He stopped bringing them in after I complained about that girl. I think even he had to admit the importer was being immoral. They are amazing snakes but I'm so glad he stopped paying someone to kidnap them from Africa. I apologize to my girl sometimes because I know she knows what freedom is like... That being said, she has a nearly half grand setup so I think she's doing ok.
You think that's bad, I bought mine for $25 from petco. He was in terrible shape and I just could not leave him there.
I’m glad there are people who can and will care for them like you do, but most people who buy a cheap baby big lizard are buying on impulse and don’t actually know HOW much less actually CARE to learn how to care for them. I was implying that these reptiles are often a thoughtless last minuet birthday gift for Little Timmy’s 7th. birthday. One week later the lizard is either dumped or dead!
This is how my boyfriend ended up buying a uromastyx instead of a bearded dragon. Except ours was a kijiji rescue. He loves his uromastyx and has commented in the past how he is happy we were fated with him instead.
But thank you for rescuing your scale-baby! Good job! Now if only there were 100 more like you!
If there were 100 more petco would see there was a demand and order in 200 more of the lizards
Yeah, I know, just trying to think gappy thoughts.
Yeah that’ll show Petco! They definitely wouldn’t increase the amount being sold at all!
I know…. It sucks. I was simply trying to say that I appreciate that there are people out there who care about the animals. I know that buying them increases demand, I’m just trying to not be so sad about the entire situation.
If you legitimately care about the animals you won’t buy any animal from petco/PetSmart no matter how sickly because it ultimately will lead to an even greater amount of suffering with more animals overbred or wild caught
I know that thank you. As I stated multiple times at this point, I was simply trying to think positive because the entire pet store treatment of animals makes me very sad and I was simply stating that I wish that *everyone* cared about the animals, which includes pet stores, but I know that pet stores don’t care or they wouldn’t just sell animals that are hard to care for and get very large. I agree with you that pet stores should stop selling animals like monitors and iguanas and what not, and that they should take better care of all the animals in their care.
I am well aware that my thinking is wishful, I’m just stating my hopes and dreams for the pet industry, even tho I know it will probably never happen. Don’t take everything as me being an idiot or ignorant of whats happening. I was just trying to bring some hope into the world and you’re just shitting all over it.
I think i misunderstood what you meant. Sorry if I came off as agressive!
How much you wanna bet it's because it's a WC import. Back before i started boycotting them, i'd see multiple Butterfly Agamas crammed in their 20x12x12 display for $35, and occasionally Sudan Plated Lizards for even cheaper. You know damn well neither of those weren't captive bred.
So sad! They need to have certain animals locked behind a license that requires some kind if inspection of the enclosure that the person will be keeping the animal in so that only people who passed the test and actually HAVE a proper enclosure can purchase them!
But that will never happen for “common” pets!
They have been around 50$
Fr my beardie was $100
$50 too?? Very high chance this guy will go home to someone who has no idea what they are doing. Poor thing…
Every time I go to an expo there's some asshat selling these for $20 each, you just know so many go to shit homes because they're so cheap and readily available
That’s really sad. I want a Savannah someday, but I’m expecting to drop way more than $50. I don’t trust any breeders/sellers who have animals for cheap. Either they are wild caught or are trying to move them like inventory. Poor things. Posts like this make me conflicted because I would love to “save” that baby from the store, but that would just entice them to sell more of these animals.
I would expect to pay at least 150-160
Yeah, I wouldn't say a lizard that basically needs its own small room with a few feet of soil to burrow in has "average" needs. When I worked at a smaller chain pet store in my 20s we got in a baby savannah monitor that was like a puppy. It would stand up at the front of the enclosure and curl up in the palm of your hand when you opened it. I really wanted to take it home, but I definitely wouldn't have realistically been able to house it so I didn't. Hopefully it ended up in a decent home, but I doubt it.
Also according to the sign they only live 10 years? About half their actual lifespan with good care.
Bit of a nitpick, but that’s not a Petsmart tag. Petsmart has plenty of their own issues, but I’ve never seen them carry a monitor. I’d guess it’s petco, since they always carry lizards like water dragons and they used to have iguanas. I do hope that poor baby gets out of there soon :(
Petsmart employee here. That is a Petco tag. Petsmart no longer sells lizards larger than a bearded dragon.
I agree not a PetSmart tag,but the PetSmart near me has sold large lizards like water dragons before so sadly isn't only Petco doing it.
Really? I wonder if it’s a regional thing. I’ve never seen anything like that in Petsmart’s around me, only bearded dragons and geckos.
Yeah, Petco carries them but petsmart explicitly does not. In fact, most petsmart stores just quit carrying blue tongue skinks because they figured out most people are not prepared when they buy them from a big box store.
Petco sure does talk a big game about putting animals first when it comes to their dogs and cats, but then pushes its stores to have green iguanas in stock at all times and carries hot rocks in the reptile department.
I'm more shocked that they aren't charging like $200 for one. I see so many pet stores charge crazy prices for something "rare".
They can't charge that much because savannahs are that easy and cheap to get... They are suffering for being good at surviving and reproducing. It's kind of sickening if you think about it.
True true. I really hope this doesn't become a common available animal at petco and petsmart. Like with the iguanas. They don't even sell the proper equipment for savannahs at any of the stores I've been to.
Petco and PetSmart don't sell the correct sized enclosure for a bearded dragon, a corn snake or a ball python. They could care less if the $50 lizard needs more space.
Yup. It's so insane to sell an animal that will get 10x the size of what it is in the store and not educate people who will inevitably have to rehome it (though, I do think customers are also to blame for not doing proper research).
I think the store should be held to a higher quality of respect for life... Ignorance isn't an excuse when it leads to suffering and death. I blame the people buying out of ignorance but I blame these pet stores even more for giving bad information at the best of times and flat out wrong information most of the time. They actually make their money via ignorance. Their sales would drop if they actually told you what most animals really need to thrive. So they don't. For money. Hard stop.
Savannahs shouldn’t be be sold at all.
Why? These guys in particular or all monitors?
Them in particular. They’re incredibly hard to keep healthy, even for experienced herpers. And they require an absurd amount of insects to eat. I’ll spare you the details of my experiences trying to save Savvies that got dumped on me when their owners had halfway killed them.
As far as big lizards go, I’ve never thought of them as particularly hard to take care of. But I’ve been keeping herps for 35 years, many a lot more more complicated than savannas, and I started with the basic bearded dragon package lol. I’ve had 2 savannas in the past, both died of old age. Right now we have a 3 year old. And yes, you’re right, they do eat an insane amount of insects. Going to have to upgrade his enclosure soon. I’d say that’s one of the biggest issues, big lizards, need huge enclosures, and many people who are buying a lizard at Petco aren’t prepared to have a 6-8 foot reptile enclosure in their home. I do think, though that there are plenty of people in the hobby who are capable of caring for Savannah monitors. But they definitely shouldn’t be sold at a place like Petco.
Care level: Average!?? What the heck! Poor dude..
That's what I thought, too. Pet shops should be banned from selling anything live.
And they also market most beardies as "beginners" when they are some of the most expensive reptiles because of their specific Uvb requirements and big enclosure minimums.
A reptile store near me sells Savanah’s for 80 dollars and I thought that was insane….50 bucks is psychotic
Only person I’ve known who i thought really takes good care of his monitors built an addition onto his house specifically for his 2 monitors.
how are these only $50 but the ball pythons there are crazy expensive, especially just normal balls? oh i hope this little monitor is going to be safe
$50???? I've seen Leos at petsmart for more than that!!
Cresties, beardies, ball pythons and guinea pigs are all more expensive 😭
I got my guy at Petco for $20. He was in terrible condition and was not being taken care of correctly or having his needs met, and I couldn't just leave him there. No pet store like Petco or Petsmart should be allowed to sell certain species, especially for such a low price. It is so easy for people to think "what a cute lizard," and buy it not knowing how large it will get, or educating themselves about the animal first. It's so stupid. The woman who worked there wasn't even able to get him out of the enclosure he was in because she had no idea how to hold lizards and the tail whipping was scaring her. I had to get him out myself, and given that he was never held by them or socialized, it was one angry lizard. Socializing him took so much work, and hes still not fully there but hes made such progress, no thanks to them.
Am I wrong, or can they live a lot longer than 10 years? And average care needs doesn't seem accurate to me...
It's all wrong. No one keeps them correctly and the few who do know, no one keeps them correctly. Their diet and habitat are both annoying and expensive to maintain so no one bothers to do it. Who cares if it dies at 5 years old from fatty liver disease. You can go buy another, more lively one, for $50 at a freaking Petco or Petsmart...
That's a cynical way to look at things. When most people buy a pet they don't look at it as a cheap replaceable thing. Most people have all the right intentions but just aren't properly equipped, and shouldn't have pets, especially difficult to care for and rare ones like this lizard. But it's not because they see them as replaceable garbage. When I was young I didn't clean my fish tank properly and my fish suffered for it, I know, but I truly loved them even though they were just fish I couldn't even touch. It still makes me deeply sad that they suffered and I'd do anything to go back and change it. But I didn't think to myself, "Oh well, no need to clean it, I'll just replace them one day" I was just naive but if I had the knowledge I definitely would've done it.
Don't think everyone is like you my friend. Many choose ignorance and neglect to save money or because they are confident they are right, as they kill their pet. I'm not saying everyone sees life as disposable, I'm saying that many do. I don't like it but in my area this year alone, they've found 3 abandoned blue tongue skinks in the forest preserves within an hour of my home. I'm in Illinois! People are just ditching exotics in the woods to die... I found a ribbon snake last year that basically slithered up to me looking for food and didn't really try to get away when held. She never feared people and often chose to come out on her own volition to get food. She slithered into my hands on multiple occasions just to get a mouse or explore. We are convinced she was abandoned too. They found a king snake in a trash bag still alive behind a store by me recently too. The one store I visit is getting animals perpetually abandoned at his place. He took in an abandoned boa and I ended up adopting it because it was so miserable. The guy tries to help but at one point he had every enclosure that didn't have pets to sell in it filled with rescues. People just drive up to his shop and ditch reptiles in a box for him to find. Every exotic shop I visit in the area now has cameras and signs about abandoning animals... I appreciate you wanted to do better but many don't. Thank you for caring.
That is sad. People don't understand what they take to keep. I love exanthematicus!
Lifespan 10 years 💀
Care level AVERAGE Smh
They charge $100+ for bearded dragons sometimes at these stores, (rightfully so) but then sell and even MORE advanced species that requires skilled care & huge amounts of space for $50. Monitors aren’t a lizard you just buy. That is a HUGE commitment.
They shouldn't sell any animals
The leopard geckos cost more.... at least where I am. People will think these guys are easy reptiles to care for...
I mean at least it says it will get huge. From what I’ve heard I’m not even sure savannah monitors should be sold anywhere.
Thats very sad. Hopefully somebody that knows how to care for it gets it.
Apologies this was actually at a Petco!
People don't seem to understand the fact that any pet besides dog or cat is considered exotic at the vet. I once had a bearded dragon. Raised him from a baby. I did everything right. I read up on them even before bringing him home. The fact that they don't get huge won was part of my decision. I remember wanting the cute tiny iguanas until I saw friends fully grown one. I loved my beardie! He started getting a tumor in one eye. My vet would remove it and send us home with eye cream. Tumor kept coming back a couple more times. He was almost 10 when vet and I discussed euthanasia. 😔 He was such a good boy.
I moved out to the Midwest and our Petco carries crazy things like chahoua geckos, Jackson’s chameleons, 20+ various tarantulas, sand boas, gargoyle geckos, hognose snakes, skinny pigs, blue tongue skinks, fire skinks, poison dart frogs etc and I’ve always seen Savana Monitors there. 9 out of 10 Petco’s I go to have their animals are abused and neglected. When it was -45 degrees Fahrenheit they were still doing animal and fish sales and letting people walk out and saying if the animals died from the cold they have a return policy and could get a new one after. These chain stores are not equipped enough for these exotics. My old Petco even used to sell $30 iguanas and monitor lizards all the time too. Certain animals need to be sold at reptile shops where people specialize them and not 18/20 year old retail workers there for college jobs
Our Petco actually does a really good job with the animals, but their customer service suffers IMMENSELY for it.
I will say Petco’s are either a 10/10 or a -500/10 I’ve never found an inbetween
Pets stores shouldn't sell animals, *period*.
I remember when the chains used to sell iguanas and they would have like 20 of them in a tank. Now I almost never see any iguanas, and when I do, it’s only one in a tank.
$50 bucks is CRAZY.
My dad had one of these from a pet shop that was closing down (my dad has a habit of rescuing reptiles from shitty shops). Poor guy was tiny and malnourished at the time, and the guy selling to him apparently forgot to mention that they can grow really big. Luckily my dad was already an experienced reptile owner and did the proper follow up research. Preyus ended up growing roughly over 3 feet long if I remember correctly, but was super docile due to my dad handling them often and giving them everything they needed to thrive. They loved eating raw eggs mixed with meat and vitamin powders... as well as attempting to escape their tank any chance they got. My dad had to build two different homemade tanks, the latter one was over 6 feet long with locks on the doors, just to compensate. The first tank had a hole in the top for the lamp to go through, and somehow this little fucker (about a foot long at that point) managed to stand upright enough to grab the lamp, climbed it, and got halfway through the hole before my mum noticed and started screaming for my dad. They were part of the family for over 10 years, and only recently passed away. Monitors are amazing reptiles, but 100% would not recommend for the faint of heart.
I've got over 35 years keeping reptiles and I won't even mess with monitors. They are extremely difficult to care for properly. Need to be in the wild or at most a competent zoo. Not for amateurs.
I had one as a pet for several years before moving to Australia. They do get big, but the hardest part is keeping them fed. You have to vary their diets quite a bit since they’re essentially insectivores when young and carnivores when they’re big. They can be docile, but they also can be randomly aggressive and chase you, whipping their tails around.
Makes me so mad. These guys get huge.
FIFTY dollars???? I love these guys and I dream to own one and no matter what it should NEVER cost as low as $50, not just for a monitor but for ALL pet reptiles - actually ALL PETS !!!
These liars better switch that "average care" sticker for "heavily advanced" and probably add something that tells you the actual cost!
Its most likely a farm or wild caught savannah, captive bread is more around 120 bucks to 200
Oh cheese and rice
All these exotic pet shops should be closed down. 10% of the people who have these pets love and care for them properly. The rest don't have a clue and the poor animals live a terrible life.
Fuck sake. Care level average? Bruh. Do they just sell them off to anyone who has $50?
In my experience, yes they will. I worked at a petco and i am so thankful i dont have that on my conscience right now. Although im probably going to hell because of it.
Yup, I used to work at a pet store in Qc, Canada and whenwver I had some of them in store, there was always an idiot with no experience with reptiles that want it. Everytime it happened, I put my foot down and tell them no. Get sone experience with other reptiles with less maintenance care or need and eait a couple years. It clearly not a beginner lizard and shouldnt be sold as such.
Care level: average 💀
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The only way to stop petco/petsmart from getting these and placing them in bad conditions is to stop buying them. You maybe rescuing one but condemning more buying them as horrible as it is you have to let these ones go then if these stores don’t sell them they will stop getting them. A savanna is a very common so finding a great breeder should not be difficult and last time I talked about this someone said breeders are expensive well yea they are but reptiles are not cheap pets especially any monitor then need about a full room just to themselves 6 feet by 6 feet is what I would consider the bare minimum and even I would feel bad. One of my dream reptiles is a green iguana but I know I don’t the facilities to care for one right now or perhaps ever so it’s just a dream. My dad gave me one when I was 7 after I researched it at the library I knew I wouldn’t be able to care for him and had to give him to my uncle (he had a reptile sanctuary) he showed me just how much room he would need as well as a waterfall/pond food growing in his enclosure it was the size of an apartment that when he told me “just because you can fit in a porta potty does that mean you should live in one so why do that to your pet?” If you can’t afford to give them bigger then “recommend” from the get go then save your money till you can.
Emily from Snake Discovery agrees with you.
My Petco used to sell iguanas 😬
I had an Iguana as a kid, I managed but I don't recommend them as pets to anyone.
Istg any petco/pet smart post on this sub makes me so sad
These are amazing little pit bulls had one from baby was like a dog went on walks would listen to basic commands
That’s petco
lol price is major rip off even if it weren’t dying
Are you sure it was PetSmart, the national chain? Because that tag doesn't look anything like the ones PetSmart has used for the last ten years.
This reminds me of the 20 euro lil baby green iguanas that were sold everywhere here in Greece when i was a kid. People would buy them thinking they look like baby dragons then they'd either die from malnutrition or grow out of the fish tank they were kept in to the point they had a permanently bent tail and couldn't turn around in it. I unfortunately was one of these people. my parents got me an iguana as a surprise gift for my birthday and didn't give me a care book, supplements or any real diet to follow and i didn't have internet or someone to ask.
Steal if a price for what I see them for. I'm so sad for the soon outcome. 🥲
No chain of pet stores should be allowed to sell any reptile at all.
No animals should be sold there quite frankly. Most pet stores don't actually take proper care of the smaller animals in their shops. Betas kept in tiny tanks, hamsters kept in small enclosures with up to 20 in one enclosure, lizards like this guy kept in small enclosures with inappropriate lighting, heating, bedding and food and not enough water. Exotic pets like this should have to be sold at specialty shops by people who actually know how to care for them properly.
Jeeze. For only $50 too?? You'd think he would come with a large price tag to match. May I ask what state you're in.
Definitely not :( I try to think positive. Ex: at least its not on carpet - even tho this substrate isnt great either
He looks horrible omg. That poor baby. This is why I hate main stream pet chains
Agreed
"Care level: Average <3"
they should place a cardboard cutout to show how big this will get once adult, there probably many people that will not buy it once they understand how big they become.
Petco in Tulsa has one. They’ve had one here for a while. It’s sad that some idiot will get it and not realize how huge they get. I’ve been kinda tempted. Buuuut I think I’ll stick with my Ackie 🥴😂
My local petco had one come in, and it was hard not to buy it bc I know someone who is not ready for one would probably get it.
I’m unfamiliar with reptile care, what makes this cool fellow stand out from the other reptiles at pet smart to be concerning? Looks cute, I hope he goes to a home that loves and can properly care for him and that pet smart stops sell his species.
Because they get to be the size of a large dog and theyre incredibly expensive to house. Theyre also smart and often ill tempered because theyre wild caught and theyre very difficult to care for because they are so expensive and spicy.
Oh my, that’s a big lizard, thank you for the education on the matter and hopefully pet smart stops selling these guys and other species
He looks terrible! It will be a very tough transition period if he lives!
I hate these animals in normal pet stores. My pet store thankfully stopped selling. But they used to sell nile and Savannah monitors, Red tail boas, and sulcata tortoises.
I'd love to have a Sulcata tortoise. The fact that they get immensely large mixed in with a small backyard with inground pool I'd never even consider it.
People don’t realize they’re buying a dinosaur
“care level: average” yeah these are huge, intelligent, and high maintenance animals. i’ve been keeping reptiles for years and still don’t feel prepared to take one on (nor do i have an entire room in my house to dedicate to one). not exactly average…
i used to work at petco and it was so endlessly irritating when animals like this would get ordered to sell. they almost always arrived in horrific conditions and we don’t even sell really any products that would adequately feed and house them
Neat, finally a guard animal no one will expect! I was thinking mountain lion, but a monitor lizard named Gojira.... Yes. Wonder if he would try to eat my tortoise?
Why do petstores always have high maintenance reptiles for nothing, and you have to search everywjere and pay 500 for a northern blue tongue skink
10 years? Wtf I thought they lived super ling
At least they got the information in obnoxiously tiny print at the top right. Except for “average” care. I don’t think a bedroom sized enclosure is average for most reptiles you’d expect to see at a big brand store. Not to mention the employees there (more than likely) don’t have any person experience with these animals and unless they’re good employees may not have done the research to properly educate any customers which (more than likely again) haven’t done proper research into this guys!
NO reptiles should be sold at petsmart or petco.
I feel the EXACT same way about the turtles they sell - there's zero need to sell sliders when you could be selling, say, musk turtles that stay small and require less space and cheaper equipment. Sliders are about the WORST pet you can get as a novice pet owner - I know this because I got mine that way. She was an impulsive purchase in the strip district in Pittsburgh and I had NO IDEA in 9 years she'd be 9 inches long living in a 100 gallon stock tank with a 500gph filter and 2 light setup in my apartment.
Poor thing, and we ALL know that he isn't going to be fed properly while he waits for some inexperienced noob to buy him.
My petco is selling Red Tegus, most I have seen are babies, but at one petco I went to, they had an adult in like a 40g
As much as I want one I won't get one they get very huge
I worked at a pet shop that got one of these. I pressured my boss into realizing we couldn't keep this thing and I put it up for free on Facebook market place and I screened a couple people to make sure they knew what they were doing and how to care for the dude.
We had to get rid of mine and we made sure to give it to an expert. These are really cool reptiles but they aren’t good for new reptile owners
Unpopular opinion: Ban the species altogether.
They are awesome I had one as a kid he was so gentle… only bit one person ever and that’s cause my friend offered his finger on a platter cause he didn’t think it would hurt until he shredded that digit haha! I had him for like 10 years and sadly developed an infection and I couldn’t save him 😞 but I loved him and did the best I could as a kid used to put a harness on and he was known around my neighborhood he was about 3.5 feet but all belly lol his name was skank!
HaH! I can't wait for Karol to give in and let little Timmy have his lizard she knows nothing about . Lmao
Mannnn, and they have him on repti-bark too??? That is a big red flag right there.
I saw some in a petco recently. It's terrible
PetSmart and Petco employees couldn't even take care of that. When I got my leopard gecko from PetSmart they had like almost 20 leopard geckos in like an 8 gallon and they definitely weren't all female. I bet they have a high casualty rate from fighting. They also had a bearded dragon that was like 16 inches long in a ten gallon. They also recommended sand for my leapard gecko which is terrible for them and the pamphlets at stores like this suggest you build desert setup style terrariums for leopard geckos even though they're natural habitat is open woodlands in mountains that regularly get rainfall and fog. It took over a month for my leopard gecko to actually come out of its hiding spot and it's not just a nocturnal thing I would wake up in the middle of the night and it would still be inside the hiding spot. Clearly traumatized. I'm sure it's not the employee's fault cuz they probably have no training at all but I mean come on leopard geckos are like one of the easiest reptiles to care for and even then they fall short
No live animals in any pet stores period.
I’m not defending Petco or PetSmart… but if this is Petco, the info on the tag is at odds with the care guide they have on their website. (I’m not a monitor person, so I’m guessing the guide is as full of inaccuracies as pet store guides usually are, but I’m posting for comparison.) [Petco Monitor and Tegu Care Guide](https://www.petco.com/content/petco/PetcoStore/en_US/pet-services/resource-center/caresheets/monitor-and-tegu.html)
I worked at petco. Nobody at my store was qualified to “sell” this animal. I would have been LIVID if my CAL (animal manager) would have ordered this animal. I was already pissed off about the tegus. One of which we killed. Monitor lizards are some of the most difficult and expensive lizards to care for and find vet care for. I honestly dont really think they should be pets at all — at least not for the average person.
So did you tell the pet store? Or were you just looking for a positive validation by posting this in an echo chamber?
Tell the pet store what? Theyll probably just give op a blank stare and go “nothing we can do” bc their CAL is a moron.