Silliest T advice you've ever heard at a pet store

[Nitibus]

not that its not fun to rip on pet stores and stuff (most of them diserve it) but you guys have such a problom with it then why dont you get a part time job at one?

just grabing the tarantulas they have and splitting to never go back there again dosent solve much of a problom... talking to interested employees and asking if they want to learn a thing or two is probrably a better route

Excellent comment ! Here here !

 

[Brian S]

About a year or so ago I went into a Petco in Kansas City to buy some mice for my snakes. The man getting my mice was telling me all sorts of new things about tarantulas. He was telling me that the "Giant Birdeater" had to be fed fetal pigs. I acted really amazed with his brilliance. I asked him how big does this "Giant Birdeater" get? He informed me that he has seen them get up 24 inches!! I then asked him how many beers he had when he was doing the measurements......must have been quite a few

 

[Cirith Ungol]

About a year or so ago I went into a Petco in Kansas City to buy some mice for my snakes. The man getting my mice was telling me all sorts of new things about tarantulas. He was telling me that the "Giant Birdeater" had to be fed fetal pigs. I acted really amazed with his brilliance. I asked him how big does this "Giant Birdeater" get? He informed me that he has seen them get up 24 inches!! I then asked him how many beers he had when he was doing the measurements......must have been quite a few

Great one!

 

[Scorpendra]

while not advice per se, it's still a bucket of horsecrap:

this store keeps Ts on woodchips with no hide, massive waterdishes and a light shining on the 24/7. kept coming back telling them it was wrong, but this guy said "a professional breeder told us to keep them like this". i gave up after that.

i plan on getting a part time job at the local shop eventually.

 

[LeilaNami]

not that its not fun to rip on pet stores and stuff (most of them diserve it) but you guys have such a problom with it then why dont you get a part time job at one?

just grabing the tarantulas they have and splitting to never go back there again dosent solve much of a problom... talking to interested employees and asking if they want to learn a thing or two is probrably a better route

I work there. I still can't change their care policy. In fact, I get yelled at if I try.

 

[ZooRex]

Man this is a great thread.
Just want to say that there is at least one more petstore thats smart when it comes to T's. Since I started working there I've revampt the standard T housing, taking a way all the sponges and bark and added hide spots. I've also enjoyed sharing advice and telling people to check out this site.

Anyway, even though this is a T thread, this story is just to stupid not to share.

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

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

Can you believe this?!! ~ Rex

 

[mandolin101]

I went to a pet shop once the day after my sister had puchased a T there, and asked an employee if she knew what gender the tarantula that was sold yesterday was. She replied, promtly and confidently, "Stripe-knee"...

I agree that something should be done to help educate pet stores. I have made suggestions at my local pet store before that were ignored, but, as had been stated, the store cant really be expected to change their policy based on a suggestion that is not backed by anything concrete. For that reason, I intend to compile a packet of concise and simplistic information on the basic care of T's and present it to the store owner. Hopefully, that will make some kind of difference.

 

[Moltar]

Kingrex, nice job getting those guys on the right page. I've been talking with my local pet shop about T's and helping them fill in the blanks. They're not to bad on the care side of things. They're using bark chips which sucks but they do have arboreal/terrestrial setups for appropriate species, water dishes (no sponges) and hides. So it could be worse. They're dealing with a breeder in Philly (don't know who) that is getting them some nice, healthy T's so i'm really trying to encourage the invert thing there.

I did supply them with a decent caresheet on OBT's cuz this one girl thought they were cute and cuddly. Maybe she can tell me how cuddly it is when she gets bitten and her hand feels like it's being soaked in liquid magma for a couple days...

 

[Drachenjager]

theres a pet store where i go quite often, they kept thier Ts displayed in 12X12X12 exoterras, i asked why they did that and they said they used to keep them on display in a KK on eco earth but someone called in on them and some agency i forgot who came in and made them use calci sand and the exoteras for them and said they could only have 1/2 " of the sand....I told him that was wrong . he knew it was but said "what can i do" i told him to house them properly and keep the T keepers guide handy , and i could get him some good care sheets. HE is moving his store to a larger place and next weekend i am probably going to help him set up his herps and inverts. so there is hope ...too bad the enforcement people are complete idiots

 

[Greyhalo]

I got a good one. I was talking to a guy at the Petland near me who at first I thought might actually know something about inverts or atleast the Ts he had on hand (I dont know what I was thinking). Anyways I was looking at a Ephebopus murinus that was a pretty decent size, sub-adult, which I was semi interested in. I asked the guy if he knew if the E. murinus was male or female to which he replies "oh its a female, we make sure we only get females in from our supplier." Now that might not sound all that strange if you didnt know the majority of the other t's that they had were mostly very small slings/juvies which would be very difficult, if possible, to even sex. So I then asked "so the rest of these are all females too huh?" To which he replies "yeah, of course". Liar I say! Liar! I didnt call him out on it, just said thanks and left. They over charge everything anyways.

This is the same store that still wants $80 bucks for a 5" c. crawshayi missing two legs and looks like death is soon to come knocking. I attempted to see if they would just give it to me for free but they said the could give me "a great deal of $80 bucks, orignally $175!"

 

[SpiderZone2]

I have found that most of the people in the pet stores have no idea with what they are dealing with. This goes for other reptiles too. I have never bought a T from anything around here because they charge way too much for them. They know nothing about them. My husband bought a Gecko from one of the stores closest to us and they told us is was a male. It was way under fed and that is one reason why we had gotten it. Plus the price for that one was so under what we would have paid for it at a swap. It turns out it was a female!! Man good money for us paid out for that one. And they didn't even have the right kind of gecko it was. It was a double good deal we had gotten. This was about 2 years ago. She is now at breeding stage and is doing well. Plus it is not always the store's fault. It could happen to be who ever is unloading such pets does not give them the proper info either. I have also found that out to be true. But as pet store people I would think they would want to be more informed in what they are selling. I guess that is what I wish would be done, but as we often see, it is not. Most of the people would not know a L. parahybana from a rosea to a GBB. Just the way it is.

 

[Masurai]

Here's one for you. I walk up to the T Tanks, and see one that only has 6 legs, i asked the guy what happened to the other two legs, guy says " what do you mean, Tarantulas only have 6 legs"

 

[mandolin101]

Here's one for you. I walk up to the T Tanks, and see one that only has 6 legs, i asked the guy what happened to the other two legs, guy says " what do you mean, Tarantulas only have 6 legs"

LOL!!!!! Thats great! He should get some points for playing it off like that.

 

[Masurai]

LOL!!!!! Thats great! He should get some points for playing it off like that.

The most messed up thing about it was that in a tank right next to that T was an "freak" tarantula that had eight legs, oddest thing uh lol

 

[GailC]

I had a guy tell me the 7+ inch T. blondi was a "just hatched" baby and it would double in size.

 

[Masurai]

I had a guy tell me the 7+ inch T. blondi was a "just hatched" baby and it would double in size.

that's messed up

 

[GailC]

Yeah it was but at least they had it labled half way right, Goliath bird eater. Usually they mix up their T's and I have to go in and re label every thing.

I keep hoping they will get another sub adult A. genic in mis marked as A. seemanni for $20, still kicking myself for missing that deal.

 

[Scorpendra]

ah, i'm still waiting to see an M. balfouri being sold as a G. rosea

 

[Scorpendra]

This is the same store that still wants $80 bucks for a 5" c. crawshayi missing two legs and looks like death is soon to come knocking. I attempted to see if they would just give it to me for free but they said the could give me "a great deal of $80 bucks, orignally $175!"

the store i posted about before, one of their Ts was a 1" bald crawshayi for $80. needless to say, it died off quickly.

 

[Masurai]

I walked into the pet store today and saw a T. blondi marked as a G. Rosea. They only wanted $30 for it, damn me for being broke lol