This bothers me...

[blueappal]

I'm not going to mention the name of this store... I'm not even sure that it matters. Anyways, maybe someone who works or has worked in a petstore can answer this...

How can this even be a temporary setup?

The blizzard on the right doesn't have a hide. I don't get how a professional business can have such a terrible arrangement for their geckos. I really like this place and the people, too... so don't get me wrong. I see it in other stores too.

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[reps4life]

I'm not going to mention the name of this store... I'm not even sure that it matters. Anyways, maybe someone who works or has worked in a petstore can answer this...

How can this even be a temporary setup?

The blizzard on the right doesn't have a hide. I don't get how a professional business can have such a terrible arrangement for their geckos. I really like this place and the people, too... so don't get me wrong. I see it in other stores too.

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It's so common. That is why I stopped going to petstores. I would walk in excited and walk out sad.

 

[Desdemona]

The store where I got my first (before I knew anything about them. Had a bunch of little guys in a small tank with the "hide's" open end facing the store so they were never truly hiding. They also used a light to give them a outside basking heat spot but no heated hide. Probably why my girl I got from them is by far my most skettish and she's been with me for almost a year. I don't handle her at all.

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[M_surinamensis]

Anyways, maybe someone who works or has worked in a petstore can answer this...

How can this even be a temporary setup?

The blizzard on the right doesn't have a hide. I don't get how a professional business can have such a terrible arrangement for their geckos.

About the best reason you might encounter is that visibility is necessary to generate sales; consumers don't buy what they can't see. As with many retail pet shop practices, the idea is to temporarily accept less than ideal conditions (stocking densities, presentation, space and enclosure factors) which can contribute to stress and balance them against the expertise of the employees in recognizing and responding to health concerns in a timely manner. In other words, a few days with a less than ideal hide after being brought out of quarantine prior to being sold is a manageable stress factor. Not ideal, but species like leos aren't usually there that long.

If it is a considered choice, made by a person competent enough to judge all options from a position of informed experience, then it's a calculated risk. That's the idea anyway.

In practice I suspect it isn't always so well reasoned or safe. I'm not commenting one way or the other about that specific store, don't know which one it is or who runs the place. P-touch stickers on the glass and that brand of enclosure are good clues, but not definite answers.

Probably why my girl I got from them is by far my most skettish

Nah. They don't retain things like that too well, pattern recognition is very slow to develop and always centered around a concrete association with an existing instinctive dictate. The reasons for any given observed behavior are going to be a lot more immediate, manifestations of specific stimuli and conditions.

What is kind of likely is that you, as a human being with a brain that subconsciously connects abstracts and manufactures patterns, probably approach her in a subtly different way, provoking a unique response. She was skittish, you expect her to be skittish, you move differently, handle her differently and she continues to behave in a skittish manner as a result.

 

[Desdemona]

It is interesting to get that as a reply surinamensis since I have given that same line to someone else in another thread. It is possible of course, humans do a lot of things subconsciously. She will actually crab at me (I don't even know what they call the gecko sounds, how sad is that, not hissing) if I pick her up where as my other skittish geckos only get flighty and try to run. The only time I pick them all up, as a rule, is to clean cages since I know most don't want cuddles (or whatever). The one exception is my enigma girl because she is by no means your normal gecko and she rather likes out time (I just transport her to said out time, no cuddles there either). She has option to let me pick her up by walking on my hand or not.

The nervous girl did get some special treatment when she went on a hunger strike after I first got her... ie tong feeding her right outside her hide of choice. She responded well in that she started eating again and I laid off after a week (she was young then). The other geckos have not had this, but none of my other geckos have gone on a hunger strike, even after shipping. Just her.

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[gecko4245]

I'm not going to mention the name of this store... I'm not even sure that it matters. Anyways, maybe someone who works or has worked in a petstore can answer this...

How can this even be a temporary setup?

The blizzard on the right doesn't have a hide. I don't get how a professional business can have such a terrible arrangement for their geckos. I really like this place and the people, too... so don't get me wrong. I see it in other stores too.

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I don't like it either but it's a buisness. when you think about it half the people take them home, put them in a plastic container(like if their old sweater, they treat them like they are human and keep taking them out thinking the gecko wants to be there friend, stress them out:main_huh:

 

[Russellm0704]

Plastic containers a lot of the time give them more floor space, and if heated correctly work just as well or better. My 32 qt tubs give way more space than the standard 10 gallon tank. Tubs can give a lot more space than tanks sometimes

 

[artes]

@gecko4245
I think geckos do sometimes enjoy the trip out of their home. I also have one gecko, Junia, who obviously and absolutely loves my husband. Every time he comes home, she comes to the front of the tank to see him, and she likes to take naps in his lap. And before you say something about food, he doesn't feed them - I do.

However, I also have geckos that I think would rather be shot than be handled. So, it does depend on gecko, imo. I do think the ones that want to be your friend and who want attention are in the minority.

As to the pet store photo, that's not nearly as bad of a set up as some I've seen. Unfortunately, you do have to make sure the lizard is seen, or people won't buy it. Its the sad fact of pet store buying/selling.

 

[gecko4245]

@gecko4245
I think geckos do sometimes enjoy the trip out of their home. I also have one gecko, Junia, who obviously and absolutely loves my husband. Every time he comes home, she comes to the front of the tank to see him, and she likes to take naps in his lap. And before you say something about food, he doesn't feed them - I do.

However, I also have geckos that I think would rather be shot than be handled. So, it does depend on gecko, imo. I do think the ones that want to be your friend and who want attention are in the minority.

As to the pet store photo, that's not nearly as bad of a set up as some I've seen. Unfortunately, you do have to make sure the lizard is seen, or people won't buy it. Its the sad fact of pet store buying/selling.

No, I would not have said anything I 'm sure u know the difference of which ones like being handled and which ones don't. I meant, for example I was at a supermarket and this kid had his gecko on his shoulder. In the cold section at that where the frozen stuff was. I myself a human was cold and had a coat on so the gecko must of been frozen.

 

[artes]

Ugh. I can't believe a kid would do that... ok, I can. I actually had to take a bearded dragon to the supermarket once, and he was in a container wrapped up in my shirt. I also sang lullabies to him while walking through the aisles to help keep him calm. To this day, if he has trouble sleeping, I can sing a lullaby and he'll nod off.

Of course, all the other shoppers thought I was fing nuts, but no one asked them.

 

[stager]

One of the local chains near me has many geckos zero hides, thats why I will never buy my food or supplies from there again.

 

[animeavatar]

the petstore near me has hides but someone switched them to sand( previously on carpet). I believe that it is calci-sand.

 

[Klogue1]

I'm going to try not to rant, but let's just say a local chain pet store currently has a pink-toed tarantula in their Russian tortoise enclosure. To clarify, I mean the tarantula was in a 5 gallon plastic cage, which was inside the tortoises 20 gallon tank. I'll leave it at that before I go overboard.

 

[artes]

At least the spider wasn't loose in the tank?

 

[Klogue1]

True... It just bothers me that they couldn't have waited for one of their display cases to open up. Idk, maybe I'm just overreacting? but I would think the spider might stress the tortoise.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

That's just dumb on their part. The spider container can easily sit on top of any display tank without being inside it with another animal.

 

[animeavatar]

I know another place where they put their leos in a tank that I believe is a 5 gallon, I'm short so I can't look in it but I doubt they have heating or hides. They suck at reptiles( especially lizards)

 

[M_surinamensis]

I would think the spider might stress the tortoise.

Why would you think that?

That's just dumb on their part. The spider container can easily sit on top of any display tank without being inside it with another animal.

Maybe chained to a shelf. Just sitting? Stolen.

 

[artes]

I agree with M_suri about the spider. Really, a spider with a tortoise is not that big of a deal. The tortoise is probably like "whatever, as long as he doesn't eat my greens" and the spider is like "whatever, as long as he doesn't eat my crickets". Mutual apathy! Yay!

 

[Klogue1]

Mm, you're right. Its probably because I have a little problem with nitpicking sometimes. ;P I like things to be set a certain way haha...