Help........found new baby dragon dead this morning

wacmac · 03-25-04, 10:15 AM

Hello
we have a 2 yr old male yellow morph dragon and a female sandifre dragon who we got 4 weeks ago and is about 5 months old. She was purchased at **** in toronto and when we got her she refused to eat any thing but crickets ..no greens no veggies........i talked to them about this and they said it is okay. today i woke up and she was in her cage dead. she was fine last night when we went to bed and today she had a swollen belly and mouth gapping open.......she was not running around alot lately and his in her own cage and has proper lights and heat lamps,,,,,,I was wondering if anyone knows why thins would have happened...because i wil be calling the place we got her this mornning to speek about getting another lizard as this was my daughters long sought after birthday gift and she is devistated right now.. any help or thoughts would be much appreciated
thanks

AHLizards · 03-25-04, 12:34 PM

Sounds like it was sick from the begining. Vegitation helps them digest, so greens are actually in my opinion very manditory..... Swolen belly sounds like worms, but since all beardies are captive bred its hard to say that happend.. If you have a bit of money to spare I would take the body to a vet and have a necropsy done to find out what caused it. Beardies are very prone to coccidia which is usually noticed when blood is present in stool. Mouth gaping can also be a resperatory infection, but with proper heat its easy to rule that out too.. Sorry for your loss

wacmac · 03-25-04, 12:38 PM

thanks for your reply,.........i called the place we got it and they want to do a autopys on her tomorrow.........and they offered me a whole 20% off another one.......but will not replace it even though they argee it was sick from day 1 and i told them that something was not right the whole time..........i think we are going to look around since we just moved here and see if there are any breaders out here

thanks again for the info

Drew S · 03-25-04, 12:43 PM

So, let me get this straight...

You only got them 4 weeks ago, called them about your concerns about them during this 4 weeks, and all they offered you was 20% off a new one?

I think I would tell them where to take their 20% and find a breeder nearby.

I would definately not give them any more of my business.

marisa · 03-25-04, 12:46 PM

Agreed. I would tell them "Since you only offered me 20% something you OWE me, I will make sure to offer YOU 80% bad word of mouth from now on, thanks for nothing"

Since you have kept communicating problems from day one, and if indeed it was a problem from day one they should do more.

Sorry for your loss.
Marisa

AHLizards · 03-25-04, 01:16 PM

Check out the classifieds here. Don't give them anymore money. I bet you, you can purchase a beardie alot cheaper here than 20% off one there... out of curiousity what did it cost you?

yager_ps · 03-25-04, 01:33 PM

Are you able to say where you got her from? I know I don't want to do buisness with a place like that!

AHLizards · 03-25-04, 01:40 PM

He can PM you the name of the business (correct me if iam wrong dont want to cause trouble!)

Betty Miskie · 03-25-04, 01:47 PM

So sorry to hear about your dragon. I purchased a fat tail gecko from PCPC in the fall and the little one didn't do so well and died three weeks later. I not only got all my money back from Grant but also a discount on another gecko. I would state my case to the other store and maybe suggest that bad publicity is not a very good way to do business. I thought I had read that the store in question wasn't too bad, I know that I would not shop there now. I buy most of my supplies from Grant because he treats me very decently!
Betty
P.S. When I first read this post it stated the name of the business and now it doesn't. If the facts are as such, why shouldn't we be able to post the good and bad about stores?

pikachu · 03-25-04, 01:50 PM

a couple of things with baby beardies...
1. what substrate was it on? impactions happen so quickly and if not treated is deadly
2. how hot was the basking spot?was there room to get away from it?
if properly hydrated, beardies can take the heat(with the aid of eating greens and occasional soaking in a water pan) i have found baby beardies can succumb to overheating simply from dehydration.
the heat lamps on a dead body make the gases from decomposition expand quicker, creating a bloated look.
or, as mentioned above worms are another factor. stools will usually tell a lot.
a sick beardie has super stinky poops,sometimes partially undigested etc...
sorry to hear the petstore was so ignorant to your situation.
no sick animal should be sold to a customer, under any circumstances.
hope the autopsy proves in your favor. good luck

wacmac · 03-25-04, 01:59 PM

phoenix was $140 + 15% tax ( ontario) the other thing i mentioned to them in the begining and just remembered was she was digging ( like my other female did when she was about to lay eggs) from day 1 in a corner of her cage........i told them since we spend an average of $120 a week on foodand suplies there and drive the 1.5 hrs to get there we would be looking elsewhere for things as well as a new baby dragon for our daughter......as well as telling my neighbours ( whom we have gotten into reptiles too) no longer to go there.,the ones i have talked to today and mentioned this to have supported us totaly and could not beleive that this has happened

thanks to all for your thoughts and oppions on this......take care
..

DragnDrop · 03-25-04, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Betty Miskie

P.S. When I first read this post it stated the name of the business and now it doesn't. If the facts are as such, why shouldn't we be able to post the good and bad about stores?

I removed the store name from the original post. Negative feedback with store name has been known to cause legal headaches on many forums. Even if the poster has given all the correct info, the store(s) in question could start legal action of some sort. For anyone who wants to spread the word about a bad deal, there's the Board of Inquiry. There's one for reptile dealings for us Canadians at Canadian BOI and also the U.S. version at The Original Board of Inquiry

wacmac · 03-25-04, 04:58 PM

sorry i did not even realize i put the name in there...........
didnt mean to

Pixie · 03-25-04, 08:23 PM

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. I can just start to imagine how frustrated you are with those who sold you the animal in question. It is an insult to be offered 20% off a replacement animal, there are just looking to make another sale and obviously don't care about providing good customer service.

I sincerely hope that you will post about this on the Canada B.O.I. Things of this nature need to be reported in order to protect ourselves as consumers. That's exactly what it was set up for.

If you choose not to post I would appreciate it if you could PM me with the info of the business.

Pixie

ICULIZARD · 03-25-04, 09:07 PM

Sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience.....there are a lot of stores out there that don't seem to grasp the concept of bad publicity (even without that, it's too bad they don't understand simple customer service).

We've had very few problems with our dragons, but when we have; we replace them.....not offer you a lousy 20% discount. That is a joke. (That is of course that our advice has been followed on husbandry and that the enclosure is suitable).

There are lots of good breeders and stores out there.....don't be discouraged. As mentioned before, Port Credit Pet Center is a great place and they know how to take care of their customers. Grant is always a pleasure to deal with....give your business to good stores like this instead! You are not too far away from their store either.

Hope your next experience with a dragon is a better one.

ICULIZARD