New Arrival

ElliotJasChief · Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 2:39 am Post subject: New Arrival

This is actually old news, I've just been too busy to write sorry.

My wife loves chief, but she's a little scared of him still. Her conclusion was that we needed to get a baby tegu so she could raise it from a baby just the way she wanted. Naturally I didn't complain.

So last Friday our little baby red tegu (preliminarily named cinnamon) arrived at 10:30 in the morning. He's a real sweet heart and voraciously feeding. I wish that was the end of the story

Fact is, he came out of the box and went straight to the vet. Cinnamon is about 15" long, and came to us severly malnourished and dehydrated. He has only about half his toes left. His right hand is almost usless, as its missing not only the nails but pretty much all its digits in thier entireity. One of his rear toes actually fell off in my hand when I removed him from his shipping box. BTW he came from Las Vegas, and I'm in Phoenix, so obviously very little if any of this damage was incurred in shipping. His tail is severly kinked in several places and according to the vet, probably infected. Addtionally, his lower jaw is a tad crooked, MBD mabye.

He's on a few medications now, and with daily mineral-oil rub downs, I've managed to (gently of course) work SEVERAL layers of dead skin off Cinnamon's remaining toes and tail. I'd love to be giving him daily soaks as well, but I've got to keep him dry to avoid any further infection to his broken off toes.

The Prognosis is good, Cinnamon is eating great as I said, and after only a week his hip bones aren't protruding nearly as much, and his little stomach is staying nice and plump

. He's also very calm and handleable for a youngster his age (From what we've seen so far at least, we're trying to limit our interactions since he's stressed out enough already). He's healing very well and we look forward to many happy years with him. We're actually greatful that he ended up with us, where we're sure he'll get all the special attention he needs (and deserves).

We ordered him from Exotic Pets in Las Vegas, and I guess would discourage anyone from doing business with them. Now I don't blame them entirely for the condition of this poor animal, after all, I answeared a first day ad. Perhaps this tegu had only been in their care for a few days (of course they probably should have made an effort bring him up to health before put him up for sale, at least that's what most reputable dealers I know do). What really bugs me is that I did interogate them about the animals condition and was told he was 'missing a couple toes.'

I called them after I returned from the vet, and I asked that they refund my vet bill. They told me to box him up and send him back for a full refund, and they could not be responsible for the vet bill since I did that of my own free will (exactly what I expected them to say). I'm sorry but when an animal is actually bleeding all over me (broken off toe), the last thing on my mind is putting it back in a box to be shipped across state lines AGAIN. They did offer to refund the cost of his medications (that was a week ago, the money is not back in my account...I'm not holding my breath). Now I understand thier position on the matter, however I'm a business man myself and I also understand the importance of customer satisfaction. Apparently my views are not shared by this establishment. I haven't gotten my satisfaction, and we've been dealt with rather rudely and callously on the phone once we started complaining.

My wife and I are upset with our experience, but as I said, we're glad we can offer a loving home to a reptile in need.

I'll be posting some pics of the cute little bugger as well as chief and our other pets soon, I think I'll finally have enough time for a proper photo shoot tomorrow.

Thanks for reading my long-winded rant

EA7770 · Valued Member Joined: May 01, 2005 Posts: 91 Location: USA

If they understood the term "customer satisfaction", they wouldn't have sold an animal in that condition to begin with. Sad to say but there's far too many in the herp business like them. Sorry to hear that your buying experience wasn't so great. But glad to hear that you're willing to put the time and effort (not to mention money) into getting him healthy and back up to speed. Good luck with your efforts.

Rick · Posted: Sat May 28, 2005 10:36 pm Post subject:

After reading this post I think we should have a forum to post reviews of places we have seen selling tegus or places we have personally bought tegus from.

With our members rising nearly daily, it's possible a forum for such discussion would help point members to places who take better care of not only their animals, but their customers.

Let us know how it goes with Cinnamon. I am sure that we are all glad that the tegu is now is caring hands.

Rick
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Sisco Reptiles - Proud Breeder of the Tamest & Most Social Tegus. See www.SiscoReptiles.com

ForkedTongue · Member Joined: Apr 12, 2005 Posts: 65

Rick,

I couldn't agree more. There are forums like this on other websites. It would be nice to have one predominately for tegus. This would be the perfect site to do so.

Aaron

Brisamen · Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 4:41 am Post subject:

God...and with this action an animal lover is stuck between a rock and a hard place..
You want them to give you the proper handling your in title to but you DONT want to get this pets live in japardy(did I write that right?) and send it back..
So they dont have to give you anything and you get "stuck" with a sick animal.
Luckely for cinnamon your a real animal lover and didnt send him back. And hes given a lovin home to grow old in.
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1.0.0 T.rufescens
0.1.0 T.merianae
1.0.0 Testudo horsfieldii
1.0.0 Stenodactylus sthenodactylus
0.0.1 Ceratophrys ornata
0.0.1 Geocholone elegans
0.0.1 Python regius
2.0.0 Mustela Putorius Furo
0.1.0 Bouvier des flandres

MO · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject:

I totally,(that's my California coming out) totally agree with the review of breeders forum!

As someone looking to purchase a Tegu and who has never had one before it's a litte scary out there! The more popular an animal becomes the more "breeders" start coming out of the woodwork. Look what happened to Iguanas!

Because of Iguana's popularity and the high demand for them pet stores sell them cheap! But they get them from "breeders" who are only looking for a buck and sell them to people who have no idea what it takes to raise a happy and healthy Iguana. Iguanas are beautiful reptiles but their reputaions right now are horrible! Why? bBecause the ones we see are adults that end up in shelters and resuce organizations across the country that have endured years of abuse and neglect! I'd be pissed off too!

But let me jump right off my little soap box and just agree that a breeder review forum would be great. Isn't that the point of the tegu forum anyway? To help the newbies like me raise and maintain happy and healthy Tegus? It all starts in the egg.......who has the best eggs?