I wouldn't return her either...these people didn't have enough interest in her to care for her properly in the first place, so I certainly wouldn't trust them to care for her now...I'd be so afraid she'd end up again like she was when you got her...or worse, dead.

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~Juliane~

Alright, so general concensus says to not give back the lizard, but now it seems as if they don't want her back, not for a while atleast. Now they are doing something that I have advised them against, but I don't see me having any bearing on the situation. They asked me to keep ahold of her indefinitely while they purchase a new smaller cage, smaller lighting system and all of the fixings because they want to use her current cage to house a bearded dragon baby that they saw at a petstore and decided that they have to have. I told them that they need to research their purchase first, and they said they have, but I don't think well enough, i'm pretty sure that this is an impulse buy that is going to get brought to my doorstep in terrible conditions. I asked what they were going to use as substrate and they said they are just going to leave the sand in there (the same sand that has been with this sick lizard since June.) I need to convince them that they aren't ready for another lizard, they have a beautiful leopard gecko, but they are very simple to keep, and although Bearded Dragons are recommended as first herps, i don't think they are responsible enough to stick to its dietary requirements, I've had my friend on more than one occassion ask to feed strange things to my dragon because he was eyeing them, things like pepperoni or cheeze-its....HOW DO I CONVINCE THEM WITHOUT OFFENDING THEM THAT THEY CANNOT GET ANOTHER LIZARD!?

ON A lighter more positive note, the little lizard has really bounced back. She is eating well, pooping well and has tons of energy, i've also seen her drink from her water dish again so I don't think shes having any trouble. Hopefully she'll get nice and fat so I can get her out of my house and get another skink (c'mon I deserve a treat for bringing this poor thing back from the brink)

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"If you're not falling, you're not trying." - Sonni Trotter

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

Hello,

If they are planning on not cleaning that cage out, I wouldn't be subtle at all and I wouldn't worry about hurting their feelings.

What type of UV lighting do they have? How old is this baby dragon? (Sand has the potential to kill the baby dragon when he ingests some as he eats.)

Long story short, they don't need another reptile!

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Wow he looks 200% better!
You have done well and deserve a big HerpCenter pat on the back!
IMO offending THEM would be the least of my concerns. I would give them a verbal kick to the seat of their pants!!!!! Seeing as to how they are too lazy and irresponsible to even empty the sand out of the tank that they had a sick animal in I don't have much hope for anything else that they aquire!
Considering what sort of shape they allowed this little collared to get into before even seeking help I seriously doubt if they will do much better by the Bearded Dragon.
I would have been very explicit as to exactly WHERE they could put their pepperoni or cheeze-its!

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Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

How about reporting them to the authorities!!!! They would be NO friends of mine!

Steve

Authorities, thats funny Steve...If it isn't cute and fuzzy then nothing is going to be done about it, trust me i've tried before. A while back I tried to get something done about a terrible petstore that was treating its lizards and birds terribly, nothing has been done, i'm still calling every week, and still nothing is being done.
Offending them isn't going to do anything, they'll just get p*ssed off and rush out and buy it to spite me. Then when it is knocking on deaths door they wont call me to come to the rescue they'll just let it suffer and die. If they are really dumb enough to go buy another animal I'd atleast like to have them have me as a resource to turn to if something, their fault or not, comes up and they have questions. I feel kinda responsible because they saw my herps and fell in love and decided they wanted to keep lizards too.
I really don't think they give a rats behind about he collared lizard though, I've come to find out that the reason that she was brought to me is that they were upset about spending $30 on it and not having it do well, and they are still trying to blame the guy they got her from. Although she came to them with mites, she was healthy looking over all...after I painstakingly removed every single mite from it with a cotton swab, which is not easy to do on a wiggly 2 inch lizard. Plus the fact that I was doing it outside (didn't want to chance getting anything in my house) added to my stress because I really didn't want to lose it. I don't think they are deserving of another reptile, but I need to make them realize that, yelling isn't the way to go with them, it'll just make them more stubborn. I think that there should be a test you have to take before you can buy any animal....that way it would be ensured that people did their research...It's not like I can pass out their picture at petstores and ask them not to sell to them, nobody would listen to that, since most petstore workers have an IQ to match their shoe size.
Any non-violent suggestions are welcome...i'm at a loss for what to do.

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"If you're not falling, you're not trying." - Sonni Trotter

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos