Pet shop horror stories

[Stugy]

Here's a quick one and this is all I remember:
PetSmart
4" long Heterometrus petersii inside 6" long kritter keeper with a wet sponge and a big rock that covered the other 2" of the container. Substrate was wood chips soaked in water, literally soaked. Scorpions aren't turtles people! Bought her as my first scorpion, she lived until Halloween of 2016. Bought her in July of 2016.
R.I.P. Veni the Heterometrus petersii (Purchased)July, 2016 - (Death) October 31, 2016 You will be missed!

 

[Vermis]

Second Mconnachan. There was an exotic pet boom in the UK when I was younger - coming after the TMNT/red-eared slider fad, I think - but I haven't seen much of one since. Recently I've only seen exotics in Pets at Home (which tends to limit itself mostly to beardies and corn snakes) and dedicated reptile shops. Last of the latter I visited only had a few common T species, and didn't stock slings because they were too delicate to ship and look after, with all the rest of the live stock to look about too. YMMV if they just didn't know how to look after them properly, but it seemed like a responsible decision in either case.

LPSs... I'd guess they stopped selling exotics because... they stopped selling. Or proved too difficult to keep in the shop. I'd hazard they creeped some owners and staff too.

Those places...the tarantulas are usually the best kept, everything else is just soooo sad. Full grown beardies in 10 gallon tanks. Snakes with no flooring. 100 anoles in a 5 gallon, dog feces on the floor. The only animals that had a fighting chance were the spiders with a sponge.

The deplorable herp conditions unfortunately don't surprise me. But...

Dog feces on the floor?!

 

[PidderPeets]

There's a LPS by me that I swear I just wanna go in and rescue all their Ts (most of their animals in general actually, but that's a whole different topic). All their bigger tarantulas are in small, no more than 2 gallon (maybe less) tanks, and aside from a tank of slings in deli cups, all the tarantulas are between 3 and 5 inches. All the tanks are set up terrestrially, including the 3.5 - 4 inch A. avic with nothing to even attach a proper web to. Not even a half inch of wood shavings for bedding for everything. Water bowls with nasty looking sponges. All the Ts are very bald, and they all look rather ratty and sickly. And hides for all of them were flat slabs of bark that some of them couldn't even fit under, so they'd be forced to just cower in the corners of the enclosures, fully exposed. The few employees I've talked to about them either didn't know anything about caring for them or didn't even like them (or both), so they avoided them. And based on original housing of the A. avic I actually got for free from a woman who bought it there an unknown amount of time ago, I suspect they'll sell the Ts to just anyone without giving them any education whatsoever (or at least not accurate education). The only one I'd at least hope they'd take more precautions with is the one they specifically labelled as aggressive. I can't remember the scientific name (I can at least say they do give the scientific name with the common), but I believe they had it listed as a Thai tiger rump. I'd hope to god they wouldn't sell an old world to just anyone. There's a scorpion (couldn't tell you the species) there I'm tempted to rescue too, as it's kept basically the same as all the tarantulas. If my boyfriend wouldn't talk me out of it, I'd probably have bought them all by now just to get them out of there.

 

[Ungoliant]

And based on original housing of the A. avic I actually got for free from a woman who bought it there an unknown amount of time ago, I suspect they'll sell the Ts to just anyone without giving them any education whatsoever (or at least not accurate education).

Would you want those people giving people tarantula education? In that case, ignorance might be better than misinformation. (An ignorant person is more likely to seek help than someone who believes he knows what to do.)

 

[gypsy cola]

The deplorable herp conditions unfortunately don't surprise me. But...

Dog feces on the floor?!

Well they swept the feces into another room and that room was closed off with sheet from a bed pinned to walls...
The name of the place was "where's nemo" in spanish fork.

 

[Aaron Evans]

Well where do I start ?

I got my b.boehmei from a shop
Less then an inch sub
It was damp (to the point of cendentastion building up )
I was sold a heat mat
Really small enclosure


I was chatting to him about my boehmei telling him everything I set right and that it had molted and he said 'I guess you know more then me ' had to retain my self from shouting well neee shit Sherlock !! Thinking about doing a robbery and liberating these animals from his grips because he's also has a breaded dragon

 

[SkittleBunny]

The only pet store in my town is a PetSmart, and mine doesn't have tarantulas in stock ever. However they have snakes and lizards and some turtles, small mammals, cats, etc and luckily I haven't seen any mistreatment or unhealthy animals. I know a lot of the staff personally and though they don't get the time to interact with the animals like they'd like, they are all taken care of very well. Luckily the employees at my local PetSmart love animals and actually know what they're doing when it comes to the proper care.

My only problem with my PetSmart is the multiple baby bearded dragons in a tank in the past. But they upgraded the enclosures and keep 5 per tank now and it's not crowded anymore. I wish it sold tarantulas, I know they would care for them until someone (probably me) adopts them lol!

 

[PidderPeets]

Would you want those people giving people tarantula education? In that case, ignorance might be better than misinformation. (An ignorant person is more likely to seek help than someone who believes he knows what to do.)

That's true. But I think a lot of people who don't get proper education would just set up the enclosure the same as the pet store. The woman who gave me the avic had it's enclosure set up the same except for three differences: 1) it was a 10 gal tank instead of a small one, 2) there was a bigger hide for it, although it still wasn't a good one, and 3) there was more crickets than she should've been fed running around the enclosure from the day before's feeding. I think too many people have too much faith in pet stores to know what their doing with animals. So even if she wasn't told the wrong stuff, she just assumed it was set up correctly in the store. She was also convinced the poor T was "friendly" and okay with being grabbed. I also sincerely hope the pet store didn't tell her that.

 

[AshS]

I have to admit that my local pet shop, is actuly very good at keeping their T's.
They have a section if the store dedicated to Reptiles and invertebrates, and the staff which man that section are very experienced and keep Tarantulas themselves. All their T's are kept in appropriatly sized containers and fed at proper intervals. The only gripe I have with them is they are a little overpriced and their beginner T selection isn't great, but I did get my GBB from there. Also they do have the more advanced species in there like the p.metalica but they do warn inexperienced keepers off.

 

[Ghost56]

Went into a pet store called Petland in Knoxville over the weekend that had parakeets and green cheek conures in OPEN displays that you could just reach right in. To top that off, they had a cockatoo and a large parrot in cages with no locks that you could open up. The cockatoo and parrot were both full grown, and could do some serious damage. Since I've had slight experience with birds in the past, I took advantage of the insane situation and held them all minus the parakeets of course. ZERO supervision mind you, not a single employee said a word as I opened up the cockatoo cage and let it step up onto my wrist. The prices were also nuts. $800 for the conures and $4k each for the parrot and cockatoo.

 

[Vermis]

I was sold a heat mat

I dropped the hint that the heat mat was useless

... I've always heated my Ts (and scorpions, and roaches, and mantids, and phasmids...) with heat mats...

 

[cold blood]

he has a GBB in a terrestrial set up and to my understanding these are an aboreral

You are dead wrong...they are terrestrial.

 

[ShrapnelShark]

My fav story i got to experience was at a Local place called Jungle gyms or something like it.(its gone and become a matress store last i checked) Lady tried hard to tell me how Tarantulas needed the sponge to drink cause they just can't drink water normally. I got a super dirty look when i asked where the T's find Sponges in the wild.

Then again this was the same place wanting me to get a Heat Rock for the quite desired/Rare Mexican Rose Leg Tarantula(It was a super grubby looking Rose Hair)

What really gets me was this place claimed you needed giant enclosures for Tarantulas,yet were selling them being kept in Delimeat sized containers. (They also Sold Wasps too for some ungodly reason.)

 

[jaycied]

I live in a smallish town in Idaho, we have a petco and 2 LPS (same company, 2 stores across town from each other for whatever reason) and the LPS is awful. I actually recently found out they are on the ASPCA ban list for neglecting all kinds of animals. I have no idea how or why they are still in business. Local law enforcement has been notified several times but the spirit of the town is that supporting local businesses is good no matter what.

That being said, I did buy my first 3 Ts from pet stores, 2 Avicularia sp Pet Store from the LPS, and an A. genic (?) in one of those petco sling hut awful things. Now I only buy from online breeders or arachnoboards members. The first Avic I got hooked out after his first molt with me and died soon after. The other pet store Ts I have are still doing well so far, it'll be interesting to know if I actually ended up with an A. genic, and not something completely different.

The LPS keeps all of their Avics and rosehairs the same way. In a critter keeper with water gel, crickets (dead and alive) everywhere, and less than an inch of dry sub. It's awful. They also had a P. regalis sling once. I feel bad for the poor kid that picked it up, it was gone the next time I went in.

Petco ironically is the one that keeps their animals the best. I go in there occasionally to look around when I have nothing else to do. One of the employees recognizes me and occasionally gives me animals for free if they order too many. That's how I got my crestie. I do refuse to actually buy from pet stores unless their care looks up to par, which has yet to have occurred.

 

[CWilson1351]

Well I have a two part story involving a common culprit and one that I will not name.
First the common, PetCo. Let's just say I have never seen anything resembling good care for any tarantulas since the company started their tarantula huts. So that is more of a broad spectrum horror story from my experiences in them.

Second I am leaving nameless because I have been back there multiple times and things definitely improved. I was in looking for a possible purchase, noticed some small vials labeled P. vittata. Had to look since they are my favorite species of Poecilotheria. Long story short, I ended up rehousing both slings (at least 3in each) from the vials into 32oz deli cups just to get a look at them. Came flying out like rockets of course. Here is a photo of the same size vial they were cramped up in. Diameter is 1in across since I couldn't get a good photo of that. Monster is a standard 16oz and is just for scale.

 

[Stugy]

Just remembered about this one LPS. They are reptile specialists and apparently just started selling tarantulas and other land inverts in late 2015. Their reptiles seem to be in great shape and the tarantulas too but the last time I went over to check if they had scorpions, there was an enclosure with 6 dead Asian Forest Scorpions with completely dry substrate. I went over and asked the man working there if there were any more scorpions and he said there were Desert Hairy Scorpions and Fattail scorpions. "Fattail scorpions? Like Androctonus australis and such?" I asked. The man said "Oh no no! We don't have any Australian scorpions!". I then told him that Androctonus australis meant "Southern man killer" Androctonus = Man Killer, Australis = southern / south. So I asked him to show me them since the place where the inverts were was inside of a display case so I didn't want to open it and possibly get accused of stealing. The man kindly showed me the Vietnamese centipedes as I was interested in them. They were $35 and he said he'll sell them to me for $30 but I declined as I wasn't ready to purchase anything at the time. He then showed me the Desert Hairy scorpions, which were small ones and they were inside medium sized deli-cups with just a little sand. Then he showed me the "fattail scorpions". They were just bigger Desert Hairy scorpions! I told the nice man that those were obviously Desert Hairy scorpions and I asked him where the "fattails" were collected. He said Arizona and the dealer he got the scorpions from said they were fattail scorpions. In this case, it was the fault of the dealer/collector who misidentified the scorpions as something completely different. I will definitely go back to the store as the staff was very friendly and I feel that they deserve to know more about inverts. I am hoping to begin working there soon as I don't have a job but I just can't do reptiles anymore (I used to love them and now they freak me out for some reason). Oh yeah and I did point out the 6 dead scorpions too. Bleh

 

[Wolfspidurguy]

This thread is for stories about mistreatment of tarantulas in pet shops. What poor treatment have you seen?

Last night, I was at a pet shop in Sherman, Illinois. I won't give the name, but they're a centre, run by a man, who sells fish. Any who, they had a B.Hamorri sling, about an inch dls at most. It was housed in a ten gallon glass enclosure with a giant waterdish. I brought it to the attention of the staff and the only reply was "it was all we had around." I must confess that if I had the sixty dollars, I'd have bought it. It seems someone ordered it and never picked it up.

I'm still kicking myself.

in the local pet store they had a pink toe in a in a small critter keeper and an emperor scorpion in the same condition next to it

 

[kasstro]

I found a 2" a avicularia set up in a breeder box terrestrially with a rock hide, more fit for an adult beardie. I mentioned the requirement for an arboreal set up --- which was clearly a new word for them and upon explanation they swore to me that the avic could be set up terrestrially.

Only pet shop tarantula I have ever purchased or ever will.

Also found another pet shop with a t blondi roughly 7" housed in a kk. There was barely even room for it to turn around.

There's only one lps I'm willing to purchase anything from now. They've got about 30 reptiles/amphibians all housed in exo terras and all of the amphibians have a bioactive set up. They keep their tarantulas and scorpions in deli cups as they don't seem to ever carry adults - not a horror story but I was heartbroken to see that they cleaned out the n chromatus enclosure and all of its webbing was gone. It was extremely impressive and I almost bought it just because of that.

I just wish they would get larger cups so more substrate can be added.

 

[dord]

I got my avic (a juvie for about $25) from the nearest Petco, they swapped between A. avicularia and some scorpion species I can't remember every now and then. There was condensation on the walls with the crappy generic pet store hygrometer reading 80%, a huge dirty sponge that took up the whole water dish, a bright light shining in the enclosure (thankfully they gave it plenty of places to hide in), and at least 2 dozen (not an exaggeration) crickets running around. They had it labeled as an 'advanced' species as well...