# Get info 1st Please!!!!!!



## Redfl83 (Aug 9, 2008)

Is it just me or is there an alarming rate of newbies buying reps then asking for info ArGGGGGghhhhhhhh WTF 
Ive been a rep owner for a good 15 yr & just joined this forum as i pinch my friends computer when i visit as im always looking for new ideas etc
But nearly everyday its people saying i have bought these so excited then asking oh yeah so what do i do now
I know people do impulse buys but if they have no rep experience surely it can only be harmful & half of them end up being put to a rescue home or end up poorly
Everytime i decide i want to try a new lizard etc i always read up for ages & ask for advice from other owners even if i saw the animal & hadn't the eqipment ready i would get it kept for me until i was ready
Read 1 yesterday & the person seemed to think it was soo cool to have reps then proceeded to ask what to do next How are they caring for them at the minute if they don't know how too?

Right rant over Would be interested to see what others think: victory:


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## discodazz (Apr 7, 2007)

got to agree with you there. i always try to do as much research as possible before buying a new rep. i usually miss out on good deals because i would rather get the info 1st. 
sadly it also means that too many shops are selling to people without checking their knowledge first.


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## tomsdragons (Dec 23, 2007)

discodazz said:


> sadly it also means that too many shops are selling to people without checking their knowledge first.


thats the problem, greedy shops!
To many young wanna be steve irwins, and to many people breeding to make some pointless quick money to buy a new computer game, its wrong, and silly.


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## Papscrunt (Jul 25, 2008)

Yip i agree its terrible how much reps end up unwanted!
I would love a few more lizards but at the minute i'm just reading up on a few things before i decide what to get.
When i was in for my crickets the other day to a shop i don't like but it has the best live food Well actually its the prat behind the counter i dislike lol
He would sell anythng to any1 without a care in the world & gets away with it all the time I saw him almost convince a woman & young kid about 7 to get a bosc & i had to say something so i said to the woman wow you must have a big viv for that once its fully grown & she looked horrified not knowing how large it actually got So i proceeded to tell her with the man looking non too happy she decided not to bother & said she would have a little read up online as she did want to get her son something I told her to start with a gecko or similar 
Needless to say i'm not sure how much i cost the guy that day but i was proud at least he has a reason to glower at me now & not just cause he wants too
:lol2:


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## emma_fyfe (Jan 8, 2006)

yep i agree, but its no point bitching on here as it'll only scare these people off. At least theyre coming on and asking for help now,even if it is late, instead of carrying on not knowing how to look after them. People make mistakes, and impulse buy etc, and hopefully they wont do it again. If you make threads like this(ive seen quite a few in the past) then its not helping, as the owners wont bother coming on, and its the animals that will end up suffering


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## the-tick (Nov 27, 2006)

is it that time of the year for another one of these threads...

at least people come here to ask questions and hopefully get good answers and not the usual flaming for not doing research


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## Prettyjoby (Aug 11, 2008)

I agree ..
I would tend to find out about animals before getting them. I have quite a bit of snake knowledge these days which means as I have spare stats and tubs and stuff its generally not a difficult process.

No newb should really just go out and buy a snake without knowing what they are getting themselves into.

However, the point of this forum is to help and advise people like that, and be of benifit to their animals whether people agree with them or not.

Giving them a dressing down will not help the animal and I believe friendly and informative is much more helpful and better in the long run.


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## boidae (Jul 14, 2008)

all good retailers and quality breeders will ask a customer before selling if they know about the specie, or will say the basic husbandry during purchase, some shops even give out care sheets with every purchase.

no one should come from a pet store or descent breeder with no basic idea on how to keep the animal/s alive and healthy.

you do not have to research before you buy, staff are supposed to be trained to guide you and answer any questions needed. unknowledgable people enable add on sales!

just ask the questions on purchase.

*although it benifits both the animal and new owner to research before hand.*

if advice isnt given during purchase, then that's obviously why they need answers from the forum/internet.


better they asked than not asked.



when i go into reptile shops, i go for maybe just food, but sometimes come out with something ive not owned or not known anything about previously. sometimes i buy things i didnt even know existed.


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## LeeH (Jan 26, 2005)

i agree too some should research before getting anything 
but on other hand i bet it scares new people asking anything on most sites without stupid remarks or just to make them look stupid as it seems easy to them(beggars belief that all started where they are) but tbh if mistakes were never made theyd be none of the progression there is now..how many animals died before people started formulating diets,powders etc and the silly remarks don't help them just makes them less willing to ask and thats only way you learn asking questions and doing it. common sense is only common after the incident has happened (the new people haven't probably seen the hazards like the most experienced have as you only learn not to do it from own mistakes and others unfortunately) only thing that annoys me is importance of thermostats ALL basic starter kits should have one imo no excuse really as not really expensive in comparison to purchasing animals


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## Redfl83 (Aug 9, 2008)

the-tick said:


> is it that time of the year for another one of these threads...
> 
> at least people come here to ask questions and hopefully get good answers and not the usual flaming for not doing research


 
Okay okay chill i was left a message about 2 iggs being sent to my friends house in scotland from an owner who didn't Know how big they got
So i was angry & fed up with it I know its best to ask questions & i don't want to scare anybody god forbid if it stopped someone finding out care info
But for example there is someone asking what to do with 50 odd chams Now thats scary when they are not sure what to do & are going to be bringing up that amount of babies
I will end this now as i don't want to offend any1 i guess i will just have to keep it to myself
: victory:


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

I am split on this one.

What if a breeder or a pet shop give BAD advice..

I had to help a lady last month that was told by a reptile pet shop to have the basking bulb on ALL night and day

And to feed the baby 2 crickets a day

so she would not have known this was wrong.

I dont get angry at that sort of issue what annoys me are keepers who wont listen to basics even after they start threads .. and argue their way is right even when experienced keepers give excellent factual rasons why they need to make changes for the wellbeing of the animal.

I appreciate we all may vary our husbandry slightly but there are still some fundamental basic rules to keep our reps healthy and cared for ..

whther that be correct temps.. humidity , UV or stats for all heating appliances.

Id prefer newbies asked what seemed ridiculous questions that an animal suffer... however it is obviously prefarable to research first


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## discodazz (Apr 7, 2007)

thats the main point. it is preferable to do research first. theres nothing stopping newbies asking on here before they buy.
most reptiles available in shops have been kept by others already so theres no real need to learn from mistakes when theres enough care sheets and info available beforehand.
thankfully most of the rep shops round me wouldnt sell to people that they thought couldnt give proper care but there are a few.


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## jesuslovestheladies (Apr 30, 2008)

tomsdragons said:


> thats the problem, greedy shops!
> To many young wanna be steve irwins, and to many people breeding to make some pointless quick money to buy a new computer game, its wrong, and silly.


when you go into a shop and buy a pc game does the clerk ask you if you know what your doing? its not the shops responsibility, as is the point of the thread, its the responisbility of the customer to do all the research first. if the customers asks the shop keeper, fair game. but shop keepers shouldnt be expected to deliver on site lectures in animal husbandary as thats putting all the responsibility on pet shop owners and not the customers them selves who should be doing pre-research as standard.


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## sahunk (Apr 1, 2007)

totally agree! anyone of almost any age could look after reps if they just looked up on them! Im only 13, and started keeping reps when i was 11 and boy did i research! when i got them, it was nice a easy and no complications! Even before i got mine i was giving out advice to soime people who had done just this! glad you brought up the subject!


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## Torres13 (Aug 30, 2007)

emma_fyfe said:


> yep i agree, but its no point bitching on here as it'll only scare these people off. At least theyre coming on and asking for help now,even if it is late, instead of carrying on not knowing how to look after them. People make mistakes, and impulse buy etc, and hopefully they wont do it again. If you make threads like this(ive seen quite a few in the past) then its not helping, as the owners wont bother coming on, and its the animals that will end up suffering


I agree with Emma here.
It does get annoying and tiresome answering the same questions when research should have been done. But at least they have the sense to ask when they want help. Its better that they ask and we give the help and then next time they will do research first. The other option is not asking and having the said animal/reptile suffer


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## discodazz (Apr 7, 2007)

jesuslovestheladies said:


> when you go into a shop and buy a pc game does the clerk ask you if you know what your doing? its not the shops responsibility, as is the point of the thread, its the responisbility of the customer to do all the research first. if the customers asks the shop keeper, fair game. but shop keepers shouldnt be expected to deliver on site lectures in animal husbandary as thats putting all the responsibility on pet shop owners and not the customers them selves who should be doing pre-research as standard.


the difference is a pc game or a toaster or whatever wont die in your care due to lack of knowledge. im not saying that its all the shopkeepers fault but would you sell something that youve bred to someone that cant provide for the animal.


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## emma_fyfe (Jan 8, 2006)

id never sell any animal to anyone who i know does not know about how to care for the animal. I also wouldnt come on here moaning about these kinds of people, as its only the animals who suffer. 

basically, if you dont like them asking questions, then dont read or reply to their threads. theres plenty of other people who have the time, patience and knowledge to help them in a mature way.


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## dracco (May 17, 2008)

I always do reseatch but its alo good to ask advice from people who have kept the reps as sometime you get conflicting advice when you research so getting peoples personal experience can be good


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

sparkle said:


> I am split on this one.
> 
> What if a breeder or a pet shop give BAD advice..
> 
> ...


 
agree with you there, people piss and moan about people not doing research. if you went into a pet shop to buy some food for your goldfish and saw a leopard gecko, thought it looked cute and asked how hard they were to look after you'd take the pet shops advice for it.

how much reseach do you actually need to do to buy a rep?
if you were going to post a basic care guide for a leo or beardie i bet you could do it in under 20 lines on here.



what grinds my goat is when people own pets that they can't even spell the name of; jerbils, hampsters, bearded dragens etc etc


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## TnJ (Sep 25, 2008)

Sometimes the wanna - be newbies read too much information and get confused, so it then becomes easier to ask a question that may have been asked loads before and see the answers you are given from that.

Before we got our first two snakes, I did loads of research, trailing the web for information and reading books and asking people i knew for advice. But in the end alot of the information i had was conflicting, so I came in here and asked questions that had been asked before and got replies and took it from there. 

Over one year on and my snakes are doing great and i'm glad i suffered the embarrassment of repeating a question.


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## jesuslovestheladies (Apr 30, 2008)

discodazz said:


> the difference is a pc game or a toaster or whatever wont die in your care due to lack of knowledge. im not saying that its all the shopkeepers fault but would you sell something that youve bred to someone that cant provide for the animal.


yes but in theory thats then putting 70% of the responsibility for the animals wel fare on the shop keepers, if the customer does no pre-research and goes only off the word of the shop keeper then the shop keeper is held liable for anything (within reason) that goes wrong.

ive been into shops were ive posed as a casual first time keeper and asked can white lipped tree frogs be kept with red eyes, i know they cant, but if i was new to the hobby then i would have believed what i had been told.

and as for the honest shops who give out advice as best as they can, they cant always dictate whos a responsible keeper and whos not. i know some pretty scruffy people who by first impressions i thought were plonkers and didnt know what they were doing. turns out their quite the professionals... its like the person who manages the educational department were i study at uni, looks like a hobo but knows alot more than i first thought.

in theory a pet shop is like any other, the only differnce being that they sell live stock. granted if the shop is asked for husbandry advice, they should provide it honestly, but theres so many differnt species available now a days and the hobby is so new that information provided by shops cant always be accurate.

as is the way with 'hobbies' the practice is were you really learn, but with it being a hobby that involves living animals the stakes are alot higher, to simply expect pet shops to provide all the information and then proceed to make accurate judgments of customers based off of first impressions is unfair.


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## fatratsandcheesekk (May 18, 2008)

i saw an absolutly georgious corn and fell in love immediatly but i then came home came across this site asked a few questions and read a few care sheets and then went back the next day qand brought him but i am glad about here as the shop mentioned nothing about matstats and you did here so i brought one thats the best piece of mind thing ever invented

thabnks to everyone here and stoping impulse buys is good as i could also have a boa bearded dragons chams


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## animal addict (Jun 1, 2008)

I have to agree with sparkle - you can get bad advise also from breeders/shops etc and although most people have the internet some people still dont and you can end up thinking you did do things right for blah amount of time then find out its been wrong!! This site is good for info/adice/support and I also agree that people need to take on board constructive criticism for the animals welfare if need be!!


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## boidae (Jul 14, 2008)

animal addict said:


> I have to agree with sparkle - you can get bad advise also from breeders/shops etc and although most people have the internet some people still dont and you can end up thinking you did do things right for blah amount of time then find out its been wrong!! This site is good for info/adice/support and I also agree that people need to take on board constructive criticism for the animals welfare if need be!!


 
you can report a shop for giving out wrong advice.


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## tashaprincess (Sep 18, 2008)

before i got my geckos i read everything i could find online about them but its different to finding this forum and having other people give you advice! and all new people are going to have problems if its your first lizard, the silly small stuff is going to worry you sick because its all new! and i read all posts related to leos so if i have a problem chances are someone already has! and a LOT of stuff i have found out on here wasnt on any other sites! i agree if people go into this knowing nothing then its just unfair to the rep but a lot of newbies (like me!) have tried and read a lot of stuff (seriously ask my boyfriend he hates me now cos al i talk about is the geckos!) but just need some advice from experienced people!! 
also the pet shop i got my first gecko told me to use calcium sand so i ignore them now, when i asked if they had a young female same age as mine the girl i spoke to didnt know if 2 females could be housed together!


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