Pet Shop Advice !!@$@$

[DC1967]

I am just amazed at the bad advice my local pet shop dishes out time and time again. I am new to Axolotl care, but read as much as I possibly can on this site and so glad I found it. I could just scream and throttle someone at this point over my local "Pet Shop". After tomorrow I will never step foot in there again - and I am only going in tomorrow to get money back from them!

I sent my daughter in to get new amonia and nitrate test kits for me (we live out of town and she was going in to do some shopping). Anyway, she comes home and gives me the tests so I opened them up and did the tests.

Both tests came up negative for any traces of nitrate or amonia - which I would be estatic about normally BUT one tank I knew there was no way it could be accurate as its still cycling. (I actually have an amonia test kit, but wanted to test with a different brand to make sure it was okay).

I then decided to look at the box - well it is out of date - not just out of date - OUT OF DATE BY OVER 2 YEARS!!! I commented on this to my daughter and she said - "Oh yeah the lady in the shop said not to worry about the dates because they always work anyway"??? I get on the computer and yep they wont work. So instead of ringing the pet shop I rang the supplier of this product and they were horrified. They were actually very good and are arranging me new kits - but it was not their fault.

I should know better than buying anything at this shop. I refused - even though it broke my heart to leave them - 3 Axies living on PEBBLES in a HOT tank. My daughter went in again today and they were still there and she said they were soooo skinny. I should know better after reading on the pet shop's supplier website that it IS OKAY to house Axies with other fish. I should know better when a couple of months ago I went in to buy an Axie from them to be told - no we dont sell them in winter because you need a HEATER for them!!!

What do you do?

When I rang them the girl was very very short with me on the phone, as the rep had already rang her and told her selling out of dates was not on. Don't know if I will get my money back, only time will tell.

As for the poor baby's in the shop I will make a few phone calls and see if I can get them help.

 

[sugarkandii]

When I bought my axl there was a girl at the counter who told me she had her own and bred them- at the same time I was buying sand substrate, and she told me not to buy sand but to buy gravel- I told her that everyone online suggested fine substrate was best because they can often swallow up substrate while they're eating... She told me gravel was fine, and that if I used sand I'd have way more cleaning up to do...

I'm aware it is less aesthetically pleasing to leave uneaten food on sand versus gravel... but that's why you don't overfeed/clean up after eating regardless. She also apparently bred them, i'm surprised none of hers have asphyxiated themselves on her gravel yet D;

Fish stores hire any kid willing to scoop fish out of a tank, the training is very rarely adequate.

 

[Olivia97]

Unfortunately, you can only do so much before you're banned in every pet shop around town. Keep trying though.

 

[FX1C]

I went to a LFS today that keep their axies on a bare bottomed tank (one of the few I've seen that don't keep them on gravel) so I drove the 40mins to get some tubs of earthworms to tide me over the "silly season" only to be told that earthworms are BAD & they recommended beef heart & shrimp frozen cubes... I asked how they were better & the dudes lame excuse was that the earthworms are only as good as the food they're fed & given the tub is just filled with dirt I may as well just feed them dirt! Really! WTF? I proceeded to ask the fool if he thinks there's a nutritional difference of a human body depending on what they've eaten? No - regardless of how the nutrition is obtained the basic structure of the entity cannot differ that much! Idiots - earthworms eat dirt & if the dirt contains no nutrients the worm will die! Simple!
Oh but they don't keep / sell earthworms at all! They were feeding 2 gorgeous "salamander" (morphed axies?) in a soil only tank & they only feed them crickets I asked if they would enjoy an earthworm & again the guy said no they're bad!

I thank my lucky stars that I found this website & forum - without all your knowledge I wouldn't even have my accidental axie alive to marvel at



<3 >o_o< <3

 

[Olivia97]

I went to a LFS today that keep their axies on a bare bottomed tank (one of the few I've seen that don't keep them on gravel) so I drove the 40mins to get some tubs of earthworms to tide me over the "silly season" only to be told that earthworms are BAD & they recommended beef heart & shrimp frozen cubes... I asked how they were better & the dudes lame excuse was that the earthworms are only as good as the food they're fed & given the tub is just filled with dirt I may as well just feed them dirt! Really! WTF? I proceeded to ask the fool if he thinks there's a nutritional difference of a human body depending on what they've eaten? No - regardless of how the nutrition is obtained the basic structure of the entity cannot differ that much! Idiots - earthworms eat dirt & if the dirt contains no nutrients the worm will die! Simple!
Oh but they don't keep / sell earthworms at all! They were feeding 2 gorgeous "salamander" (morphed axies?) in a soil only tank & they only feed them crickets I asked if they would enjoy an earthworm & again the guy said no they're bad!

I thank my lucky stars that I found this website & forum - without all your knowledge I wouldn't even have my accidental axie alive to marvel at



<3 >o_o< <3

Sad isn't it Nikki, their total disregard for the animal's wellbeing and they are selling them off, not only usually inm bad shape but almost certainly overpriced. Sickening. Also they would be morphed axies (probably not naturally either, axolotls are the only legal salamander in Aus without a permit)

 

[Minniechild]

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...85671-aussies-throw-book-them.html#post344087
All of these stories are freaking me out!!! All these stores REALLY need to be reported :/ Fingers crossed it might get it through their thick heads once and for all that axies (and those lovely people obsessed with them) are NOT to be messed with!
And keep trying- My local pet shop (NOT my local fish shop- they're quite awesome ) was doing really poorly, sent a formal letter through and they've stopped carrying them...Though half their tanks were empty today and being treated with a green multicure, so I'll be watching them VERY carefully over the next few months.

 

[hannahll]

Fish stores hire any kid willing to scoop fish out of a tank, the training is very rarely adequate.

It takes time to know everything! You have to listen and ask a lot of questions before you start to know even a thing or two.. Especially if it's not an animal or fish you're interested in. Kind of how i hate talking about birds.
Trust me. I've been working in a pet shop for two and a half years now and i still have people who come in ranting about this and that and asking questions i obviously will not know. But give us some slack.. sometimes we have to make educated guesses and we're not always right.. it's sad, but it's true.

 

[esn]

It takes time to know everything! You have to listen and ask a lot of questions before you start to know even a thing or two.. Especially if it's not an animal or fish you're interested in. Kind of how i hate talking about birds.
Trust me. I've been working in a pet shop for two and a half years now and i still have people who come in ranting about this and that and asking questions i obviously will not know. But give us some slack.. sometimes we have to make educated guesses and we're not always right.. it's sad, but it's true.

Pet stores should not be making guesses. A guess on care for an animal they know nothing about is not educated, it is endangering an animal. I work at a reptile store. If I do not know the care about an animal we're selling, I do my research and make sure we're caring for it properly. I don't cut myself or my preferred stores any slack - animal lives do not have any slack to give. If someone asks a question that I do not know the answer to, I don't give them a BS answer, I either research it or give them a source to find that information.

Don't guess. If you don't know, just fess up and say that you have no clue. That's better than giving a wrong answer that some idiot customer will take to heart, or harm their animal with.

 

[FX1C]

It takes time to know everything! You have to listen and ask a lot of questions before you start to know even a thing or two.. Especially if it's not an animal or fish you're interested in. Kind of how i hate talking about birds.
Trust me. I've been working in a pet shop for two and a half years now and i still have people who come in ranting about this and that and asking questions i obviously will not know. But give us some slack.. sometimes we have to make educated guesses and we're not always right.. it's sad, but it's true.

Personally I'd rather hear someone admit to not knowing than making an 'educated guess'

Perhaps make a suggestion to your store management that accurate care sheets / prepurchase research sheets should be created FOR EVERY CREATURE OFFERED FOR SALE & readily handed out with every purchase or to those who are researching what pets they are wanting to take on.

In the end providing this kind of information & customer service would be rewarded with customer loyalty & most importantly a greater percentage of happy healthy animals



<3 >o_o< <3

 

[FireStar]

Fish stores hire any kid willing to scoop fish out of a tank, the training is very rarely adequate.

I wish a pet store would hire me. I've applied for several jobs with nothing in reply.
The staff of pet stores I've been/applied for (from my experience) have so-so knowledge on animals and rubbish customer service.

 

[esn]

I wish a pet store would hire me. I've applied for several jobs with nothing in reply.
The staff of pet stores I've been/applied for (from my experience) have so-so knowledge on animals and rubbish customer service.

I applied for a pet store job last year that asked on their resume to name the things that could be changed in the store, or things they could do better. Wrong question to ask. I was a bit too honest. Needless to say, I did not get that job.

I'd advise you to frequent a good mom and pop store if you have any. A place you give good business to is more likely to hire you, especially if you demonstrate that you know what you're doing.

 

[FireStar]

One my pet shop applications was a totally online thing. It was littered with grammar and spelling mistakes. I liked how one of them was like "By ticking this, you saying that you have fill this out truthfully and legally blah blah blah under the rules of Australian law.

One of the questions asked "Tick what you think is most important?
Inventory Stock
Customer Service
Animal Welfare
Sales and Profit
Animal Enrichment"

I ticked Animal Welfare


It just came through, my application had been declined for that job