Sad state of axies in pet shop

I dont post very often and i've never had any problems with pet/aquatic shops until today..... (apologies in advance for the following rant and also to anyone who's read this on another forum but i needed to rant and i need as much help and advice as i can get for this little guy)

I had gone to an aquatic shop for some live weed & some bloodworms. Its school hols so i'd got my daughter with me and we'd gone to a shop i've never been to before but had heard was good for fish & reptiles.

Anyway, i couldnt resist looking round at fish etc while in a new place and was initially pleasantly surprised to see a tank with 4 quite small axies in it as in my area theyre not something you often see for sale. When i looked closer though i wasnt so happy, i'm no expert and the only experience i have is of my own 2 adult axies but what i saw upset and annoyed me.

These were small axies, all under about 10cm. They were in a tank filled to the top with water, with a deep layer of small brightly coloured gravel, no plants, no hides, nothing apart from water and gravel. All 4 looked bloated and as the leucistic was so pale we could clearly see plenty of coloured stones inside the poor thing, on top of that the smallest one in the tank also had all 4 limbs basically missing and was just swimming around waving his little stumps. It was so desperately sad to see them like that.

I'm not usually one for confronting people and really didnt want to cause a scene, the fish all looked fine i'm just guessing they didnt have much knowledge of axies - a clue to that was on the tank where they had written... 'axelotyls' (ok so its only spelling but if they'd just googled they might have found out not only how to spell axolotl but also some basic care for them)

I tried to be chatty and friendly to a member of staff and then pointed out that i was concerned that the leucistic especially didnt look very happy and looked like it had eaten stones but that was just met with a shrug, when i mentioned the 4 missing limbs on the smallest axie i was told bluntly 'they'll grow back'.

I'd love to name and shame the shop here but i guess that not ethical but i hope its ok to say its NOT part of any chain and it is in east anglia, uk.

I wish i could have removed them all but i simply dont have that much spare room or empty tanks, but both me and my daughter fell in love with the tiny legless one so he came home with us although i still feel bad for leaving the others behind.

I got the impression that the shop was glad to see the back of us as after taking my money i didnt even get a 'thankyou'.

I had a small empty 18inch tank which i have quickly set up as a nursery to hopefully help him develop and grow (he currently measures 7cm). So far since we brought him home earlier today, he has 'got rid' of 3 pieces of gravel which is good and he has fed happily on live brine shrimp.

We have called him Stumpy as it seems appropriate and hopefully we can give him a good shot at a decent life now. This is the first small/imperfect axie i've had so any help and advice would be very gratefully received please!

Thanks - rant over!

The tank i've set up as nursery - any help and advice would be great please


Stumpy, at just 7cm fits neatly into the food bowl


The reason he's called stumpy - hopefully it wont take too long for him to recover from his sad start

truffs, giving stumpty a new home is the best start to a good, healthy, happy life....well done. Is there a RSPCA that handles animal mistreatment in your area?. good luck with everything and please post some photos of your new friend.
lea

Hi, give stumpy my best wishes!

As for the pet-shop, if you could give me their details (by PM), I'd gladly print out and send them the information given in this link; Axolotls - Requirements & Water Conditions in Captivity if that seems appropriate in this situation (authors credited).

I find that when visiting an online pet-shop, first I look at the care sheets they provide....that is generally a 'yardstick' by which to go by.

Secondly, shops seem to take more notice of 'snail mail' that's specifically addressed to the manager.

Personally, given that this has caused you a certain amount of stress, let alone the axies in the shop, I would look for the local RSPCA officer in the phone book

All the best, keep us posted on Stumpy btw

I know how you feel. I rescued a small, young Golden awhile back. I'll spare you the horrible details, but she didn't make it. All the best to Stumpy!

It's terrible that these shops do this isn't it?

I go to a local pet store for some supplies, and their set up seems better than what you saw, but it still isn't great.

They have a small tank, a strong filter current, no hides, glaring light, and they had tossed in a comet goldfish as a feeder, that must have been 2-3 times bigger than the little blokes head. He looked quite distressed, swimming side to side and bashing the tank.

I wished i could take him, but he was half the size of my guys, so would no doubt get bullied, and i have no other tank options.

At least he wasnt injured, and at night he would get some dark time

Another shop in my town will sell axies, but dont stock them. They told me "It is not really a good environment for them here, so we can sell you one, but we order them in from the breeder as needed so the animals are happier and in better condition" - thats what you want to hear.

Bren


Bren

I think this is the reason the RSPCA are here, and if I was you and saw an axie in that condition I would call them.

I work at a hardware store in my town, which also has a pet section from which I bought my fella last week. After reading up on them, I realised that while they weren't taking bad care of them, there were a few things they could do better, and the lovely lady who runs the pet section listened with open ears and made all the changes I reccommended.

Something I saw yesterday made me really sad though. A lady brought in a beautiful golden albino girl that her daughter had bought then left with her mother when she moved town. Her mother had neglected it for about a week and a half, not feeding it, not cleaning its tank (no filter) and she gave it to us to re-sell. I'm so glad we took it. She told us that she'd been deliberately not feeding it or looking after it so it would die. I really didn't have the words to respond. I was completely flabbergasted.

I wish I had a bigger tank, because I'd take it home in a second. It's absolutely gorgeous. But on top of that I'm pretty sure it's a girl, and my axie is a boy, and I don't have the resources time or knowledge to care for baby axies.

Hopefully she regains her strength and health and some nice family takes her.

Awww how cute is stumpy he is awsome and hes young so with a bit of luck his legs will grow back.It's good when people rescue them but the pet shops will keep doing it if we keep buying them.so that's bad. .

hendrixtheaxie said:

Awww how cute is stumpy he is awsome and hes young so with a bit of luck his legs will grow back.It's good when people rescue them but the pet shops will keep doing it if we keep buying them.so that's bad. .

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I know exactly what you mean, i was in two minds whether to buy him and give the shop money for his suffering but between me and my daughter we were hooked by his cute, if slightly sad, little face.

I have already contacted the shop with an idea of basic care and hope that will help them to improve things but i will go back to see if they've changed anything and if not i will contact the rspca. Part of me wants to just call them now but another part of me wants to give the shop a chance to make things better. Incidentally, when i go back i'll not take my daughter as if things are the same i stand more chance of walking away if i'm alone more than with her beside me - kid power is very strong!!

So far so good for Stumpy - he's eaten well today and is nice and active. No more gravel has come out of him so hopefully that problem's sorted :happy:

I actually had seen almost the same thing in my local pet store. Young wildtype axolotls, most of them missing legs. Small (and sharp) black gravel. All the axolotls shared the tank with other salamanders and guppies. (Don't guppies like WARM water?) Anyway... all of them had imperfect tails and some of them were missing gills. Bitten off by their tank mates (or maybe the guppies?)

So I rescued one. It feels so bad to know that there are still axies suffering in the pet store.... And I wish there was something I could do to stop the cruelty over there. All the other animals looked perfect. They don't know much about axolotls. One guy over there said that he 'really knows the sex of those axies'. They're were just too small. How could he even see it?

But for every axolotl that's getting sold over there a few will get back in their place and suffer like the others. We don't have anything like a RSPCA over here in Holland. There is such thing as a 'pet ambulance' who also take care of injured birds in your backyard and stuff. But I guess most of them don't even KNOW what an axolotl is.


But the little axie I 'saved' is doing great now. The first few days he was pooping (or regurgitating) gravel. I was afraid that he had internal injuries after I saw how sharp the little stones were. The first two days I even thought that he wouldn't make it.
He was missing his left front leg and his right back leg and they were busy growing back. He had two short limbs... So walking was a bit.... hard.
The first day he wasn't really interested in food. He also looked thin and somehow... 'sad'. He was also a bit scared.

I can post a picture of how he looked the day I bought him:

Sad axie



The tail. (All axies had tails like this)


Top view of the axie and the little stones. (And his small left limb)
The gills are bigger now


The stones he pooped/regurgitated... Sharp little things.


And this picture is made a few days (I guess a week) after.
Look how the tail is healing:

Unfortunately many pet shops treat certain types of animals as commodities... or disposable pets.

Mac is right, they see them as dollar signs, not living creatures in need of proper care.

Sad but true. Luckily this little axolotl (and Stumpy) are saved.

Where abouts in Australia are you guys?

Just wanter to say, Truffs, you're a saint.
I'm sure stubby is overjoyed to be part of your home and he/she is very lucky.

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes.

Sadly i have to say that little Stumpy didnt make it

He seemed to be doing really well, he was getting more active and was passing the gravel that he'd ingested at the petshop but sadly i guess his little body just couldnt cope anymore.

I reported the petshop to the RSPCA, not because i want to cause them any problems but because i hate to think of any future axies in their care suffering in the same way that stumpy and his tank mates were. They may not be cute and cuddly pets but they deserve to be given a good healthy life.

x

I'm so sorry to hear that. i'd write them a strongly worded letter aswell.

I'd like to storm down there myself and shove some sharp stones down the managers throat... but we can't all have what we want x)

truffs
im sorry to hear about stumpy. you did your best.
lea

Sorry to hear about Stumpy
You did your best....

Truffs said:

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes.

Sadly i have to say that little Stumpy didnt make it

He seemed to be doing really well, he was getting more active and was passing the gravel that he'd ingested at the petshop but sadly i guess his little body just couldnt cope anymore.

I reported the petshop to the RSPCA, not because i want to cause them any problems but because i hate to think of any future axies in their care suffering in the same way that stumpy and his tank mates were. They may not be cute and cuddly pets but they deserve to be given a good healthy life.

x

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I'm sorry to hear about Stumpy. You did everything you could and he had a load of happy last days with you.

About the petshops, most petshops with axies don't know anything about them (or any other aquatic animals actually) and it's a real shame. I'm glad you reported them. They deserve good treatment too!