There are a couple of pet stores in Utah that have received in the last few weeks baby savannah monitors to sell along side bearded dragons, leopard geckos, and ball pythons. A recipe for disaster? YES!!!! Savvys and iguanas should NOT be sold as "run of the mill" or "normal" or "easy going" reptiles to beginners looking for impulse buys at the pet store.
I've tried to follow the progress of the babies through reptile friends. Last night I received these pics of babies to the south of me (about 30 miles south). I took the two pics and combined them into one. That leaf thing in back is actually a baby in a separate tank! :O :( I know.
Junior's death (not even a week old) still haunts me. I know that I did everything possible and then some, but I still wish.....
So this morning I went to check out the babies after I dropped my kids off at school. I almost always pray when I head out on rescues. I pray to know what to do and I pray that I can help the reptile if possible and I pray that I know when to "Break the Grip and walk away" if needed (that's a quote from Napolean Dynamite that I adore.
It is SO easy to go into a pet store with guns blazing and mouth running and make a situation worse. It's SO easy to assume that the pet store employees are ignorant and unmanageable. I struggle to not stomp in and start throwing around hell-fires, big words, threats of social media shaming, etc. That's my inclination when something/someone needs rescue-- go in with your fighting pants on!
I am SO glad that I prayed before I walked in. I took a moment to walk around and find the babies. One was still in his tank, the other was missing. I didn't immediately find an employee so I took a potty break and then asked for help. After that, I asked for the store manager.
The second I saw her, I knew that taking the Honest approach would work best. And it did! Inspiration from on high, for sure. She & I connected immediately. I complimented on her on the niceness of the tanks and the setups (WAY better than my local pet store....grrr). I explained who I was, why I was there, and what I wanted to do. She let me hold the sickest baby and admitted to me her deep concern over him. He's weak and not eating. She tries her best with the limits she has to force feed him and to keep him warmer in a sick tank in back. We watched the feisty other baby hunting crickets and trying to eat her fingers. I'm not worried about him at all.
The sick one:
The not so sick one - who worried me at first because he was in the same position as the pic I got last night, but I saw him running around. He just must like the view from there the best.
The manager is AMAZING! I gave her my phone number and insisted multiple times that she could call me for any reason ever. She will call me if the not so sick one becomes sick and then I can go get him. But after watching him, I saw no need to immediately rescue him.
Lil Buddy Savvy perked up as I carried him out to the van and held him up to the sun:
I let him sit in the sunshine on a warm corn bag while I got his tank ready.
And now he's in his tank where he can actually get hot enough to be happy. I think the pet store tank lacked a basking spot and he just couldn't get warm enough. It took me a few minutes to determine the height of the basking bulb; I finally got it to be 110 degrees in the central spot. When it was 120, he moved away quickly. As he gets healthier and bulks up, I'll increase the basking temp spot again.
He's all settled in and I'll let him sleep for awhile before I try to give him some carnivore Critical Care formula which will be way better than the Reptiboost he had been getting. Reptiboost is OK, but Critical Care is MUCH better. Plus, he'll get daily sunshine time like Junior did.
Some say there is NO such thing as a "Pet Store Rescue." When you get an animal in need, you are rescuing. That's it for me.
