Pet shop horror stories

Grimmdreadly

Arachnopeon
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Mar 13, 2017
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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.
 

Nixphat

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Oct 8, 2016
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It's hard to go to pet stores and look for me now, because all I want to do is save every last tarantula (and cat, lizard, frog, and now scorpion) that I see... but buying them only supports the pet stores getting more of them :shifty:
 

Grimmdreadly

Arachnopeon
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Mar 13, 2017
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It's hard to go to pet stores and look for me now, because all I want to do is save every last tarantula (and cat, lizard, frog, and now scorpion) that I see... but buying them only supports the pet stores getting more of them :shifty:
That's the truth
 

Timc

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Feb 13, 2017
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My "favorite" LPS (as in, the only one that I will give my money to as all the rest I won't even go in) used to gorge feed the tarantulas they had. Weekly. I got so depressed looking at the poor guys and gals sitting in the corner while 10 or 12 crickets ran wild I took one of the associates aside and told her that they need one cricket a week at the very most. Her initial response was "But you buy a dozen crickets every week":meh: after explaining the reason for that is that I had a dozen spiders at the time and I often have left over crickets the light bulb went on and they've since stopped doing it.
 

Hellblazer

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May 13, 2016
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There's a store near me that always has a few over priced tarantulas kept in horrible conditions. Curiosity gets the best of me once in awhile and I'll go in and look. The last time I looked, they had a P. regalis sling marked $80. It was in a kritter keeper with nothing but about 1/2" of substrate and a dish with a dirty sponge in it. :banghead:
 

Nightstalker47

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Jul 2, 2016
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Pet stores are the worst, just recently saw a WC T.stirmi for sale and they had it in a tiny kritter keeper with less then an inch of dry sub, and no water dish. Next to it was an H.gigas sling that was housed in a deli cup the same way, less then an inch of dry sub no water dish and no potential for it to burrow.

When I told the staff that they were keeping them wrong, and suggested they rehouse and supply hides, moist sub and a water dish this was the answer I got. "I'm not allowed to do that, the spiders need to be visible or no one will buy them" on top of it, they had the stirmi for sale at 199$ and the gigas was something like 79$, absolutely ludacris price for a half dead T that some poor soul will purchase and probably have kt die on them.
 

Devin B

Arachnobaron
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Sep 30, 2016
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The pet shop near me gave me terrible advice when I first became interested in tarantulas. They told me that if you got a sling it could be trained to enjoy being handled. Also there were usually 8-10 dead crickets and 4-8 live ones in every tarantula enclosure.
 

Moakmeister

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Oct 6, 2016
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My "favorite" LPS (as in, the only one that I will give my money to as all the rest I won't even go in) used to gorge feed the tarantulas they had. Weekly. I got so depressed looking at the poor guys and gals sitting in the corner while 10 or 12 crickets ran wild I took one of the associates aside and told her that they need one cricket a week at the very most. Her initial response was "But you buy a dozen crickets every week":meh: after explaining the reason for that is that I had a dozen spiders at the time and I often have left over crickets the light bulb went on and they've since stopped doing it.
LOL so it's not really them being bad, they were trying to learn from you XD that's pretty cute, honestly. So innocent.
 

nicodimus22

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I've actually never seen a local pet store that carries tarantulas. That's probably for the best, as I would get mad at all the stupid things they were doing and telling customers.
 

darkness975

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As bad as it is for Tarantulas, I fear it is even worse for Land Hermit Crabs. What is an even bigger crime is that hermit crabs cannot breed in captivity, so every single one (and there are millions) that die every year at the hands of ill informed keepers is a direct loss from Nature.
 

Venom1080

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in my area theres only a couples stores that carry a few tarantulas. theyre like 5/10 setups, the spiders can live in there but theyre not ideal. sponge, hide, a inch or two of dry substrate, plenty of crickets running around, etc. etc. not too bad compared to some places out there in the states.
ive only ever seen A avic, G porteri, B vagans, T stirmi.
 

Rittdk01

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Oct 4, 2016
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U mainly see rosehairs and pink toes where i live. I have yet to see an avic that wasn't housed in a terrestrial setup at pet shops. I've seen mites and flys in dirty tanks, and of course, the Petco huts. Honestly, I'll bet some collector/hoarders on this site have some husbandry practices that would make you cringe.
 

The Grym Reaper

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Arboreal species in terrestrial setups (the only one they even had in an arboreal setup was a P. metallica sling), a SAF GBB in a deli cup that was barely bigger than her, burrowers with no room to burrow.

Pretty standard stuff.
 

cold blood

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Arboreal species in terrestrial setups (the only one they even had in an arboreal setup was a P. metallica sling)
Funny thing though is that aside from avics and their cousins...most other arboreals will do just fine housed terrestrially.
 

GreyPsyche

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Jun 19, 2016
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Only two pet shops I've ever been that had a T weee both mom and pop shops. One seemed to know what he was talkIng but he didn't actually have any Ts in at the time. The other had a G rosea, in a ten gallon tank, one small hide, wood chip sub and on top that there was a bright light hung up on top her cage and the hide was (I think) heated because a chord left the cage from inside the hide and the cage was slightly open. No T in sight. ;)
 

JJC

Arachnopeon
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Jul 5, 2016
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I don't see many locally but a recurring theme seems to be almost no substrate. Or, even better, the ever useful indoor/outdoor carpet mats.
I think most pet shops got their T keeping training by watching Home Alone...
 

cold blood

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Only two pet shops I've ever been that had a T weee both mom and pop shops. One seemed to know what he was talkIng but he didn't actually have any Ts in at the time. The other had a G rosea, in a ten gallon tank, one small hide, wood chip sub and on top that there was a bright light hung up on top her cage and the hide was (I think) heated because a chord left the cage from inside the hide and the cage was slightly open. No T in sight. ;)
It probably dried up and withered down to nothing under that lamp...:(
 
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