Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[penfold]

hi again thanks for the nice comments glad to hear the worst is a dirty floor and probably dirty glass every care is taken with the animals which takes up my day and don't always have time to sweep which is cool with me as i enjoy spending my day with animals if there is anything you wish to say feel free to do it on here or by personal email as we have nothing to hide as we know are animals are generally healthy and if not get the best treatment we can nice to meet you all .terry

[Peter Parrot]

Hello Terry, and welcome to the forum.

As you have said that you are willing to discuss things further, I will say what I thought on visiting the shop.

I have visited this shop on three occasions, each time with a friend local to the shop whilst visiting him. It was back in the Summer. It is a mixed pet shop with a lot fitted in. There is not only a reptile section, but a sizeable bird area as well as an area for small mammals, rabbits etc.

I don`t think that the complaint by the thread starter concerning the shop`s reptile section was too harsh. I also , however was impressed with "Penfold`s" mature and rational response. My opinion as I remember was that I didn`t see anything there that amounted to cruelty or neglect. I do however remember clearly a certain level of overcrowding and species mixing that I was not comfortable with. There were a few examples of species of lizard mixed together that I did not approve of, but what sticks in my mind most clearly is the three tortoise enclosures situated immediately below the sales counter. One had Herman`s tortoises (Testudo hermanni) mixed with Indian starred (Geochelone elegans), the second again had T. hermanni mixed with redfoot tortoises (Geochelone carbonaria), and the third had more T. hermanni mixed together with African leopard tortoises (Geochelone pardalis) . Apart from the fact that these species come from very different parts of the globe, they also require different diets, temperatures and humidity and were all also very overcrowded.

I appreciate that space is at a premium in such establishments , but I did think that improvements needed to be made in this regard. I remember vividly not being impressed by this and also commenting to my friend about it. I don`t think that the place should be shut down or is committing an offence of outright cruelty. I am however of the opinion that the management needs to rethink a few of their housing and quarantining policies. Quite simply in my opinion the place is too crammed full and not spacious enough. Too much livestock in not enough enclosures basically. The feeling that I picked up was that with the high risk of cross infection in the place, I did not and would not feel comfortable about buying livestock from there, even though one or two things did catch my eye. I know that others have bought livestock from there in the past, without any problems at all, but after bitter experiences from the past of similar places the risk was too high for me to feel confident in doing so.
I too however, do not like generalised sweeping statements such as "They dont look after their animals properly." Reasons should be given for such statements as it is all encompassing and can be very misleading.

I don`t think the place should be boycotted or shut down, far from it. I do however think it should definately be reorganised or simply scaled down (no pun intended) as quite a few of the stock vivariums were in my opinion, overcrowded. I have seen far worse reptile retailers, but I have also seen better organised ones also. I did not consider it to be any dirtier than a busy shop floor would be expected to be that time of day and year. That is my opinion on the condition of the shop on the three occasions that I visited back in the Summer.

Please do not consider this post as an attack on you personally Terry, but rather constructive criticism. Admittedly also, I cannot remember the last time that I did buy from any retailer. I tend to prefer to buy or swap from/with private breeders. As such however, I assure you that I am not being biased against your shop, just trying to paint a true picture of what I found on my visits to the shop.

Regards, Peter
_________________
YSBRYDOLI POBL, GWELLA LLEOEDD
INSPIRING PEOPLE, IMPROVING PLACES
www.btcv.org
Visit our website - Gwelwch ein Gwefan
www.btcvcymru.org
Llinell Gymorth / Helpline: 08702 40 48 41

[penfold]

hi there if you ever pop in again and see something you dont like ill happily discuss with you there is generally a good reason ie; the hermanns tortoise with the red foots started to have a go at all other hermanns he was kept with and as you say not enough spare cages to keep him on his own the problem being that as he grew he became a bully which you cannot predict when he was younger he has now been sold on his own and is very happy i believe .and the red foots we have had for about two years so we were happy they are healthy animals with no infections so very low risk hope that explains a bit talk again soon bye bye

[Tuatura]

this is my first time writing on here, i would just like to say that i have shopped in vanishing world regularly for about 4 years now and have bought many animals from there. every animal has been in perfect condition. to say that they are not kept properly is wrong. to start with everything that needs U.V. lights has them which is more than i can say for a lot of shops i have visited. there are also visible thermostats and thermometers so you can clearly see everything is kept at the appropriate temperatures. also everything has fresh clean water and food. i have never seen ill animals and almost every animal has a care sheet next to the tank. i too have shops closer to me but choose to travel further.

[Peter Parrot]

[penfold]

hi ya no offence has been taken and all issues have been taken in and improvements will be made sorry I'm just not a big typer

[Peter Parrot]

No worries. It`s not the best way to communicate, there is no tone of voice to listen to and no facial expressions either, just lifeless print.

Regards,

Peter
_________________
YSBRYDOLI POBL, GWELLA LLEOEDD
INSPIRING PEOPLE, IMPROVING PLACES
www.btcv.org
Visit our website - Gwelwch ein Gwefan
www.btcvcymru.org
Llinell Gymorth / Helpline: 08702 40 48 41

[gargoyle]

I went there a few days ago with a friend. I'm not completely unhappy with this shop, however I feel overcrowding is a problem. I also felt that at the time of my visit the enclosures of some reps were rather dirty looking - i.e poo in the corners ( mainly snakes I have a problem with this as we all know they don't go everyday), dead crix that never looks nice, and a rather large carpet python kept with a smaller python in quite a small enclosure. I understand that space is at a premium, but would love to see less animals in nicer enclosures and not quite so many hatchlings jammed in.