"Cheap Animals" my article. - Page 2

ICULIZARD · 07-07-04, 10:20 PM

Most times Emily, I tell people that no matter what animal they are buying to go directly to a breeder and not a petstore. This is because there's a lot of stores out there that don't have staff like you

It's nice to see someone who gives their customers actual "customer service" and not just try and grab a quick sale. I commend you on that and wish there were more like you. We have a very short list of stores that we will refer our customers to....PCPC, Reptile Wrangler etc. It's always nice to find another!

As for "cheap animals".....our normal dragons get the same care and treatment as our high colour morphs. I wouldn't hesitate to spend as much as necessary on one of our normal breeders just because they are not "worth" as much. To us.....they are all worth every penny they may cost.

ICULIZARD

emilsmee · 07-07-04, 10:47 PM

thanks very much, sometimes i can't get that across to people, even my former staff, one of which said, "lets get burms they're a good sale, plus people will keep coming back for bigger tanks"... as nice as that sounds, most people don't grasp that these snakes get BIG, and they end up in shelters (this is my same reasoning for not selling iguanas to most people). so for the most part, i won't stock them... unless they're albinos, i love them! but i make sure mine are all sexed males (so they don't get as big as the girls), because some people do want big snakes, i just don't recommend them to the majority of people. i guess i just get a feeling what kind of animal is best suited to which person.

Minnow · 07-07-04, 10:48 PM

I feel I must reply to this post. As a single parent my pre-teen son desperately wanted to own a snake. We too went to a pet store looking for a cheap snake. We found one
(a corn snake) and bought it. The poor thing just would not eat. We had done our research and were amazed when she died.
Fortunately we knew somebody who was very knowledgable about snakes and he did a necropsy for us and found that the pet store had sold us a snake with mouth rot. Thankfully it was a reputable pet store and they replaced it with not one but two new and healthy snakes. These snakes grew to be healthy adults and my son's love for reptiles began. He did a project about snakes and won at our local school's science fair.... went on to the provincial level in fact.
Several years passed and he expressed an interest in owning a dog. In my wisdom I told him he had to sell his snakes if he wanted a dog. (his choice of dogs was a registered Doberman Pinscher). We paid dearly for this purebred dog. We took him to obedience school, he was the most sociable dog you could ask for. The whole town we lived in loved him. Unfortunately all the love and good care we gave him could not save him from his heart defect and he died a pre-mature death after only 5 short years.
Around this time my son finished college, obtained a good job, bought a house, adopted a Great Dane. The gal he adopted him from kept coming around to 'see the dog'.........but I knew.....
A short time later the dog had both of the ppl he loved living in the same house! What he didn't realize is that they both loved reptiles ......and VOILA...........SCALES ZOO was established.
So............for those of us who just can't afford the expensive, high end pets, some of us are responsible pet owners even if that first one we buy is a "cheap" one.
For you to turn some of these people away could be doing an injustice to the child the pet was intended for.
For the most part I suggest that people do not purchase pets from pet stores but instead try to get them from reputable breeders. The pet store stock is usually over-priced and not usually that healthy. But Hey........this is just my opinion!

emilsmee · 07-07-04, 11:14 PM

i say if you're making the effort to research and you want the animal for what you've read about it rather than it's price tag, even if its $15, thats still an awesome choice. its the people who come in and just want something that they don't know or care to know about ahead of time. they come in and are just determined to buy something but don't want to spend money or go home and research.
i was mostly appaled at HOW these 'cheap' animals are treated, not at the people who have no money, heck i find the people who love their animals the most are the people with no money(myself included).
i have a kid come into the store that tells me awesome facts i didnt even know about his anole. he's our 'anole expert', lol. he loves it sooo much and his family isnt very wealthy so once in a while i give him free crickets in exchange for a cool new fact. it keeps him reading about reptiles and he commits it to memory. and one week he told me he saved up all his paper money for a big aquarium for his anole (i gave him the 'experts discount' of course, lol). it warmed my heart to see him buy that instead of toys and other kid stuff.
i agree that petstores usually overcharge and the animals aren't that healthy (like one large petstore chain in London, ON... $800 for a sickly looking juvenile frilled dragon... i won't mention any names, lol). but i'm really trying to change that. i've lowered all of the prices in my store and have made a new return policy, a 6 month health guarantee on puppies and kittens, and if any animal is sick it either goes back to the supplier or to the vet (whichever is more suitable). i now only deal with suppliers that have a real 'health' and 'feeding' guarantee instead of just a 'death' guarantee. i just try to think as a consumer because i love these animals too, and as much as i love frilleds if they were $800 each i wouldn't have bought the 4 i have. so i'm trying to be hobbyist-friendly (they happen to know what everything is actually worth, which sucks for most stores)

n e way, i agree with you Minnow, and i wan't pointing fingers at people with no money, just people who have it but don't think animals are worth spending it on (not just for purchase, but for their care as well).

ICULIZARD · 07-08-04, 02:09 AM

What a great story Minnow......I've always heard such great things about "Scales" and it's nice to hear the background! It's late and I may not have got my point across, but Emily explained it very well.

Research is the key to buying any animal, no matter the cost. My point is that all of the "cheap animals" (and I hate using that phase) that are purchased deserve the same amount of care and commitment that the more expensive ones do. If we sell one of our Normal dragons retail at $50 and a high colour morph dragon for $250........does that mean that the $50 animal is any less deserving? We don't think so.

I believe that allowing a child to research a purchase and decide upon a repile can be a wonderful learning experience. It doesn't have to be expensive.........as long as it's healthy and everything it needs is provided. It's sad hearing people say, "I only paid x amount of dollars so why would I take it to the vet and pay all that money to make it better when I can just go buy another one for less".

ICULIZARD

emilsmee · 07-08-04, 07:39 PM

i couldn't have said it better myself ICULIZARD.

btw those dragons your parents delivered today were so awesome that i took one home, the orangest one of the high oranges ( i know, i'm a cherry-picker, lol).
i told my friend rob from canadian feeders today about the awesome dragons, and i was so drugged up on sudafed and antibiotics that i told him i got them from ick-u-lizard... he had a good laugh at my expense, and said it's i-c-u-lizard.
i'm so lame sometimes, lol, esp when i'm sick...*grin*

emilsmee

RepTylE · 07-08-04, 08:03 PM

Emily, I have been in the store many times in the past and kind of drifted away but now I will be in more often now to see all the changes that you are making. Good on you girl.

emilsmee · 07-08-04, 08:22 PM

awesome, we've still got a lot to do and are working with owners who know nothing about animals so it can be somewhat frustrating... everyones been completely suprised with the turn around from the last owner. i've put my blood,sweat, and tears into this place and its completely worth it when i hear things like what you've said... thanks!

emilsmee

Vengeance · 07-08-04, 08:57 PM

Where is your pet store located emilsmee?

emilsmee · 07-08-04, 11:04 PM

Tecumseh, ON... right near Windsor, ON
it's called Green Earth Exotics.

ICULIZARD · 07-09-04, 01:52 AM

Hey Emily! Chris and I were so dissapointed that we couldn't deliver ourselves, we just had too many deliveries to make in completely opposite directions.... I heard that the store was fantastic! I've sent you an e-mail.

Glad to hear you took one home..... I believe the one showing the most colour today that just shed was a male.

Hope your feeling better

Megan
ICULIZARD

Vengeance · 07-09-04, 11:19 AM

Dam, to far to use on a regular basics. Moving to keswick and I need a new place to pickup frozen rats and mice untill I can get my breeding colony up and running.

emilsmee · 07-09-04, 12:16 PM

i can see what i can do about shipping through my supplier... or better yet you can go straight through him if you want. unfortunately he only does mice as far as rodents go, but i could always get some rats together and see if he can send them with a mouse order, he's a good friend (through work and outside of work). he's got awesome prices! hope that helps.

www.canadianfeeders.com

RepTylE · 07-09-04, 06:15 PM

I'll be sure to say hello when I stop in