Haligren
is behind you.
- Messages
- 1,380
- Location
- Prince George, BC
I've been pretty upset about this for a while. This post is kinda linked to the other rant I made a little while ago about how difficult it can be working at my pet store.
But I am at my wit's end.
Things are looking better in the reptile section where I work. Most days the reptiles all have water now. Many appear to be eating better and looking brighter and more active. But the leopard geckos seem to be having a bit more trouble.
Many of them are very young. We must get them fresh from the egg because some are a little longer than my forefinger. Some are doing okay. They have some fat in their tails and seem to be somewhat active. The best we have right now are two albinos that I've worked hard on fattening up. They're still not at a terribly healthy weight but considering their pencil thin tails from a few weeks ago they're doing very well indeed. They're tails have fattened up a bit and they seem to have the energy to pop me if I try to pick them up too fast or move them from their comfy hides. They're becoming more tame as I handle them and I hope they will go to good homes soon. They're patterns are turning out to be very interesting.
But the smaller ones, kept in a separate tank from the first two I mentioned, are struggling. Many of them are infact albinos and from what I've read this morph seems to be a bit more picky than others. The ones doing better appear to be mostly sunglows like my Tiamat and I believe there's one or two high yellows in there as well. But the most ill-looking ones appear to be mostly albino. They're very, very thin, very weak and sleep alot. I leave meal worms in with them in a calcium bowl (like I do for all our leos) but they don't seem to have the will to hunt any more. I give them crickets no bigger than the space between their eyes caked in calcium and vitamins but I have to hold them and stress them out enough to make them open their mouthes so I can shove a cricket in them. There's a handful of them and it's time consuming to do this. I have a wall full of other reptiles, customers, stock and most days all the other animals in the store to contend with. So many times, I don't have time to force feed a few sickly leos.
Which, I beat myself up about because what makes them so different from humans? If they were children I would be arrested and imprisoned for neglect.
They always have food available to them, as well as a bowl of calcium (which I sometimes mix with a bit of vitamins as well just to ensure they're getting SOMETHING), but they don't appear to be eating at all. It must be stress. They're little geckos in a big world but they exist in a tight, glass box occupied by several other geckos. TOO MANY geckos in fact. We have 12 in a square twenty gallon tank. I've separated the very thin ones from the better fed ones with a cardboard divider in hopes that it might help to relieve the stress of overpopulation. There's still six on either side. Well...five on one side; one of my ever-so-perceptive coworkers must've accidentally placed a rock on top of one the geckos. I came into work yesterday to find a very nicely smooshed baby leopard gecko underneath a rock. I almost burst into tears.
Anyway, I just don't know what to do anymore. I wish I could take them all home and give them as good a home as I have my Tiamat. It hurts so much knowing that I've got a wonderful leo at home who has everything a lizard could want, but the ones at the store seem to have given up on life. It hurts even more reading some people's posts about how horrible pet stores are and I feel like mine is no different no matter how hard I try. Some times I really wish the really sick ones would just up and die so that I wouldn't have to deal with so many of them. I know how horrible that sounds and I'm sorry....My conscience has ridden me so bad about this I keep having bad dreams about being in a pet store surrounded by dead or dying animals and I'm trying to save them all, but I can't....It's pretty much ruined my Christmas.
Short of actually buying them all and taking them home, I don't know what to do any more. I'd gladly separate them all perhaps only having two geckos to a tank, but it's just not possible; all our tanks are filled to capacity. I've talked to my manager about not ordering so many in at one time - not just the leos but others as well. I've had a similar problem with the golden tree frogs. We got in ten and I had to fit them all in a small five gallon tank. Many of them died. Now that we're down to three, they seem to be doing really well.
Anyway, I don't know what to do except to keep trying to get them to eat and hoping that someone will buy them and give them a good home....
But I am at my wit's end.
Things are looking better in the reptile section where I work. Most days the reptiles all have water now. Many appear to be eating better and looking brighter and more active. But the leopard geckos seem to be having a bit more trouble.
Many of them are very young. We must get them fresh from the egg because some are a little longer than my forefinger. Some are doing okay. They have some fat in their tails and seem to be somewhat active. The best we have right now are two albinos that I've worked hard on fattening up. They're still not at a terribly healthy weight but considering their pencil thin tails from a few weeks ago they're doing very well indeed. They're tails have fattened up a bit and they seem to have the energy to pop me if I try to pick them up too fast or move them from their comfy hides. They're becoming more tame as I handle them and I hope they will go to good homes soon. They're patterns are turning out to be very interesting.
But the smaller ones, kept in a separate tank from the first two I mentioned, are struggling. Many of them are infact albinos and from what I've read this morph seems to be a bit more picky than others. The ones doing better appear to be mostly sunglows like my Tiamat and I believe there's one or two high yellows in there as well. But the most ill-looking ones appear to be mostly albino. They're very, very thin, very weak and sleep alot. I leave meal worms in with them in a calcium bowl (like I do for all our leos) but they don't seem to have the will to hunt any more. I give them crickets no bigger than the space between their eyes caked in calcium and vitamins but I have to hold them and stress them out enough to make them open their mouthes so I can shove a cricket in them. There's a handful of them and it's time consuming to do this. I have a wall full of other reptiles, customers, stock and most days all the other animals in the store to contend with. So many times, I don't have time to force feed a few sickly leos.
Which, I beat myself up about because what makes them so different from humans? If they were children I would be arrested and imprisoned for neglect. They always have food available to them, as well as a bowl of calcium (which I sometimes mix with a bit of vitamins as well just to ensure they're getting SOMETHING), but they don't appear to be eating at all. It must be stress. They're little geckos in a big world but they exist in a tight, glass box occupied by several other geckos. TOO MANY geckos in fact. We have 12 in a square twenty gallon tank. I've separated the very thin ones from the better fed ones with a cardboard divider in hopes that it might help to relieve the stress of overpopulation. There's still six on either side. Well...five on one side; one of my ever-so-perceptive coworkers must've accidentally placed a rock on top of one the geckos. I came into work yesterday to find a very nicely smooshed baby leopard gecko underneath a rock. I almost burst into tears.
Anyway, I just don't know what to do anymore. I wish I could take them all home and give them as good a home as I have my Tiamat. It hurts so much knowing that I've got a wonderful leo at home who has everything a lizard could want, but the ones at the store seem to have given up on life. It hurts even more reading some people's posts about how horrible pet stores are and I feel like mine is no different no matter how hard I try. Some times I really wish the really sick ones would just up and die so that I wouldn't have to deal with so many of them. I know how horrible that sounds and I'm sorry....My conscience has ridden me so bad about this I keep having bad dreams about being in a pet store surrounded by dead or dying animals and I'm trying to save them all, but I can't....It's pretty much ruined my Christmas.
Short of actually buying them all and taking them home, I don't know what to do any more. I'd gladly separate them all perhaps only having two geckos to a tank, but it's just not possible; all our tanks are filled to capacity. I've talked to my manager about not ordering so many in at one time - not just the leos but others as well. I've had a similar problem with the golden tree frogs. We got in ten and I had to fit them all in a small five gallon tank. Many of them died. Now that we're down to three, they seem to be doing really well.
Anyway, I don't know what to do except to keep trying to get them to eat and hoping that someone will buy them and give them a good home....
