I went to the Petco by my house last night to get some basking supplies & ambled on over to take a look at the RES's they have in the store. There was a lovely little 4" female RES, cute as could be & very alert swimming in a nice clean bare-bottom tank. Then there was another tank with a male in it that looked like it didn't belong in this store. There was gravel in the bottom, & the male's front & back nails had been trimmed. Also he had some strange thing going on with the top jaw of his mouth, almost like what happens to tortoises if the jaw grows to much (it fans out rather than growing straight down). There was about 1 to 1.5 inches of water there over the gravel of this 15 gal tank & a small sign on it that said that this little 4" guy was 11 yrs old!!!! I stared at him for at least 15 minutes, trying to go thru all the scenarios in my mind of what could have happened to his top jaw, why his nails had been cut, and what had happened to his tail (he apparently lost 1/2 of it at some point....it was healed, but obviously not grown back since they can't grow the appendage back).
I finally asked the one guy who worked there, and he told me that this little turt had been brought in by someone who couldn't take care of him anymore. Apparently he was in even worse shape several days ago when the previous owner brought the turt into the store: his back nails were so long they had curled around, making it literally impossible for the turtle to swim properly since the nails were all tangled in one another (not allowing the webbing to spread out). His front claws were also impossibly long, and his jaw needed to be trimmed since the sides had grown out to the side so much he could barely eat. Petco actually took this turt to the vet who took care of his nails & jaw, and despite the physical deformities, the turtle was actually fairly healthy (no fungus or RI). He had apparently been raised on Reptomin (10 sticks/day) for his whole life.
I was just in complete shock/awe about how badly his nails deformed. I guess that's just what happens when they are in very shallow water. they need to swim in order for this not to happen. So now he is in good hands....the guy who worked at the store told me he is a reptile fanatic & has an RES, several snakes, and lizards & has had reptiles for many yrs. He also mentioned that he is the one that people have to talk to if they want to adopt a reptile from the store because he tells them everything they need to buy in order to take proper care of the reptile. He said he doesn't hold back in telling the right info & many people decide not to buy because of the initial start up cost of the set up. But, as he pointed out, once the basics are there & the reptile is healthy, then the maintenance cost is very low.
I'm just glad to hear that there are people like him who can help make a difference in reptiles' lives.
