Hahahah that is funny! One of my elementry school teachers had 2 iguanas, I thought she was the coolest.....until she got arrested for cocaine possesion! :eek:...oh well!

& when we go visit my Grandmother in St.Thomas we're literaly running away from them (because they're free roam) & they have the nastiest attitudes, always whipping their tails at people!

Omg! Walmart sells fishes too!! What don't they sell now-a-days!

i agree 110% iguanas should not be pets. I don't know why they stank unless they wear shedding or you did not like the dirt smell of the bedding.

yes, the poor fish trying to swim around all the other little dead fish when i was a girl the fish used to make me cry im so glad that most walmarts have deduced the fish sections

Before I knew about pet stores, I did have some of these pet store pets. I had gerbils when I was younger, $5 each from a pet store. They were sisters... apparently. But then I woke up one morning to 9 babies. Apparently they were brother and sister :eek: and I couldn't care for 11 gerbils so I gave 10 of them back to the pet store and they paid me $1.50 each. I was 10 years old and didn't really know any better.

In college, my brother and I decided to buy some newts from Walmart, not knowing much about them other than they can be put in a fishtank and they eat bloodworms. Well, one of them went crazy and started eating the other! I found him clamped down on one of the other's legs as he was trying to get away! I don't know if they are normally like that or what... but I'm sure they needed more special care than we knew. :(

A few years later I also bought a hamster from a pet store, and he was SO MEAN. I could not pick him up because he would bite. To clean his cage, I had to put it in a cardboard box and have him run out of the bottom of the cage and into the box. He could not be handled at all. He was well fed and well exercised (always on his wheel and in a little ball rolling around the house!) but I think he was nuts. He would crawl along the top of the cage and drop on his head to the bottom of the cage or into his food dish. He burrowed into a little "home" filled with that nesting stuff, and he died in there :(

Then I found YT and learned all about how these animals are bred for pet stores and I know I will only get animals now from a good breeder or a rescue. Our SPCA often has rabbits, guinea pigs, etc. so hopefully that deters some people from buying from a pet store :(

Don't forget about the birds the pet stores sell.:(

I was just thinking about this yesterday when I made the mistake of going into the petstore in one of the malls. Seeing all of the kitties, puppies, and bunnies in such a state made my heart break. I walked out of there feeling so disgusted and sad for those poor babies. I truly wish there was a way to put all of these places out of business. :(

never being allowed to have a bird i always wondered how bad it was for them i wondered how many birds should be in a cage that size and what not.

do you know enough about birds to educate us(or at least me) a little bit?

@ Linz06....yea I had 2 hamsters from the pet store too. There's 3 different kinds of hamsters that was at that petstore. There was the blue dwarf hamsters (theyre tiny & LOOOVE to nip and bite...UGH, terrible little creatures!)...I never bought those. There was the "teddy bear" hamsters, they're bigger & well mannered. & I don't remember the 3rd. Lol.

But I bought 2 of the teddy bear hamsters. One broke out of his cage & ran away. Why he broke out of his 2 story mansion cage (equipped with a wheel) is beyond me... :( I even gave him a lil Barbie doll blanket that he used to snuggle under. I looked for him for DAYS...still no trace of him til this day.

& the other one my sister killed.....by accident!...its a long story & I don't want to re-live that terrible day again....lol.

@Earthangel.....don't even get me started on how the birds are kept!....5 in a cage....bird crap everywhere! & the cockatoo's scream & curse ( clearly imitating the worker's behavior )...its really sad.