Wierd I was tempted to post on Pet store tortoises - more

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Posted by tortugas on April 27, 2003 at 00:23:01:

In Reply to: Pet store tortoises posted by Passport on April 26, 2003 at 16:20:33:

I was thinking about writing today, and your post motivated me, as I had two experiences in the last week. Ok the first was when I went into a reptile store in Riverside, CA (email me for the name if interested), the store had 7 or 8 Greek Tortoises in the 4 - 5 inch, range. I asked the guy if I could take a look, as I am in the market to add additional females to the herd. He pulled out the cage, and to make a long story short, two of the tortoise were blowing bubbles, and there eyes were half shut - in other words very bad colds. I explained to the guy, who was either the manager or the owner, that the turtles were very sick and should be separated from the others - he didn't look at the tortoises or anything, and said ok - well I was tempted to rip him a new one, but decided to call back and try to speak to the owner - no luck as yet.

The next was today when I went to get a hair cut, and as there is a pet store next door, I went in. To make this short, they had a forest hingeback, labeled as a greek, with a substraight of pine shaving - dry as can be. The "clerk" said the supplier said it was a greek, and believe him. I told him I have had turtles/tortoises for over 20 years, and that the supplier didn't know his you know what from a whole in the ground. I offered to show him a pic. in a book - they didn't even have any turtle/tortoise book.

What a bunch of idiots, I just cant believe the lack of caring about these animals - well that felt better, thanks for the post.

See ya,

Bill
:While we are on pet peeves I have to mention mine. I stopped in at at one my LFS and saw that they had two approx. 7" redfoot torts for sale. I was horrified to see that they were on sand, and that they had no water, and that the temperature was hot, hot, hot. They were keeping them like they keep their Sulcata babies. I hunted up three different employees and told them that the redfoot needed more humidity and should always have a water bowl available for soaking. They wouldn't even acknowledge my comments with much more than a "A Huh". Obviously irritated with me for being critical of their setup. Anyone who buys them will not be given the correct method of keeping them because they will try to copy the store setup. I felt sorry for the pityful torts. There was no hide for either of them and they were each tucked in at different corners of the tank. I left upset and thoroughly disgusted with such ignorant attitudes.

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