Angry or sad? A bit of both I think.....

Hi All

I just popped to my local aquatics place to buy bloodworm for my remaining axolotl babies. I'd previously sold some of my axy babies to this guy and gave him full care instructions and printed care sheets to give out to customers.

The babies are tiny compared to mine even though I gave him my largest. They're in a setup with fast water flow and they have very swollen little bellies full of mouth sized gravel.

The owner wasn't in the shop today but I'm going back tomorrow to talk to him. This mistreatment isn't down to ignorance as I gave him all the info. I'll never sell him an axolotl again that's for sure.

-I want my babies back

There are very few pet shops who can be trusted to take correct care of amphibians even if given the correct care info.
If the pet shop in question is anything like the ones around here, those care sheets will have been binned as soon as you left the shop.

Angry, sad and livid, Claire.
Threaten them with the RSPCA... in the UK petshops are suipposed to have a license aren't they?

Claire, I'm so sorry. I had many similar experiences. So much so that I've taken to doing "drop bye's" of all the shops I sold too. I offer to drop off more care sheets in case they've "lost" them. I politely ask permission to turn down the water flow. I nicely ask if there are any problems they'd like me to look at. I've even gone so far as to offer to set up the tanks for them. About 1 out of three shops respond well to this and they are now the only ones I do business with. I'm not excusing the shop you sold to, but sometimes a little gentle persistence pays off. It's a tough situation. There are bad pet shops everywhere, but many shop owners are simply overwhelmed with information about all the different animals they have and don't think they have the space to set up what sounds like a very specialized tank. I hope you get your babies back.