Why Don't People Know How To Do Research? *bit of a rant*

[Jazi]

I think that sometimes in our effort to be family friendly and accomodating, we hold back from telling people like it really is. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to type, "Listen to what I'm saying, you little window licker, before you kill your pet!"

The same restraint keeps me from asking how they plan to kill the next one when they show back up on the boards with a new animal.

One of my first Air Force supervisors told me that he could always fix dumb with the proper application of training, but that stupid was terminal and could never be fixed... Took me a long time to figure out that he was right.

Oddly enough, my former Navy manager at my job says the same thing about our customers, though he's referring to people who are idiots with gadgets.

All of the above people have all put "I don't want to feel like a bad pet owner please help me I really love my animal" or "I'm a good owner I swear"... and sometimes I just want to tell them no, they're not and just leave it at that. But of course that's inciting drama and I'd get smacked with a warn for it.

It's truly frustrating when you try the flies-with-honey method over the vinegar, you phrase the advise as nicely as you can, and you're met with "well how much is that going to cost me because I don't feel like spending that much" or "well my uncle's brother's dog's son-in-law said that corn snakes eat crickets so I'll believe them more than someone on the internet" GAH. This is why I refuse to work in a pet store, because while they need people who are more educated on the animals, I don't think the corporation would enjoy me beating customers over the head and calling them nitwits for refusing to get more than a kricket keeper to put a mouse in or insisting that they'll feed their BP a mealworm and everything will be fine.

[luvmyballs]

People basically suck( everyone here excluded) how many times have you seen people self destruct . They know they need help but refuse to take it. It's like cutting off your nose to spite your face. The best we can do is make suggestions and hope they listen. Like on of my favorite quotes from a movie ( you need a license to catch a fish but any bu$& rea#&*? As@#&%? can be a father) same for pets.

[ballbuster]

Euthanize the people IMO

[Raptor]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's because there's so much conflicting information. One site says feeding live is okay. Another says feeding live is a horrible thing and that only good owners feed f/t. One will say that paper towels are fine, another will say aspen is the only thing to use. So on and so forth.

I remember when my family first got into goats and we were trying to figure out what green stuff would be best to feed a sick goat. So, we went to google (like so many of you are claiming). We pulled up two websites. One said that oak leaves were good for goats, but poison sumac was bad. The other website said the exact opposite. Both websites had conflicting information. Finally, we gave up. Turns out that neither plant harms goats and in fact, they love to munch on the plants.

Point is, there's hundreds of breeders with their own website. Each one will have a slightly different method, some will be radically different. With this in mind, how is a person supposed to know what is "right"?

[Dracoluna]

Personally, I feel it's because many people think of pets as objects and not living beings. When faced with the 'maintenance' or 'repair' costs, they figure it's easier to just junk the animal and begin again. On some level, they realize that it is a living creature, start feeling bad, and hop online to be able to tell themselves that they made the effort. In my opinion, if you're going to get/breed an animal, you are responsible for that animal and every one you produce for the animal's lifetime. Granted, this means that if any kittens (used to breed and show cats) that I sold suddenly end up in a shelter somewhere, that I will find a way to bring them to my house until a new home can be found. Luckily, I've never had to worry about my snakes with this issue but the same holds true to them. We live in a throwaway society where animals are viewed the same as a new tech toy. People can get the animal and then there are hundreds of companies out there to accessorize your new toy. This hasn't helped the mentality that animals are living, breathing creatures that have needs and if people own them, they are responsible for those needs.

As for the conflicting advice online, I've found that if you spend enough time, dig deep enough, and use some common sense (official websites and scientific trials are better than asking a question of 5 billion people on yahoo), you can get some pretty sound advice. If all else fails, emails work wonders. Don't get me wrong, I love the forums, but if I want an in-depth answer, I will contact someone I know is having success with the species in question and ask. The worst that happens is they don't respond. Most of the time they do though and I have to trust that person in the end.

After that nice rant, I think it all boils down to common sense. Many people don't have it which is why the ones that do get so frustrated.

[Jazi]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's because there's so much conflicting information. One site says feeding live is okay. Another says feeding live is a horrible thing and that only good owners feed f/t. One will say that paper towels are fine, another will say aspen is the only thing to use. So on and so forth.

I remember when my family first got into goats and we were trying to figure out what green stuff would be best to feed a sick goat. So, we went to google (like so many of you are claiming). We pulled up two websites. One said that oak leaves were good for goats, but poison sumac was bad. The other website said the exact opposite. Both websites had conflicting information. Finally, we gave up. Turns out that neither plant harms goats and in fact, they love to munch on the plants.

Point is, there's hundreds of breeders with their own website. Each one will have a slightly different method, some will be radically different. With this in mind, how is a person supposed to know what is "right"?

When faced with that dilemma, I have found a good solution is to look at all the places you've researched and make sure they've all been professionally written and see what gets repeated most often. I know I saw swings of 85-95F for the hot spot and 60-90 for the cool when I was looking into temperatures, but the majority of sites said 88-90, no warmer than 95, and that's what I stuck with. If there are just wildly different answers, I'll find someone who seems knowledgeable (like for instance, a very widely renowned breeder such as BHB, LLL, etc) and ask them if my proposed set-up is okay. I might even take a peek around a forum to see what people who commonly keep these pets have to say about this or that and take their advice with a grain of salt

[Juliemay13]

I think that sometimes in our effort to be family friendly and accomodating, we hold back from telling people like it really is. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to type, "Listen to what I'm saying, you little window licker, before you kill your pet!"

The same restraint keeps me from asking how they plan to kill the next one when they show back up on the boards with a new animal.

One of my first Air Force supervisors told me that he could always fix dumb with the proper application of training, but that stupid was terminal and could never be fixed... Took me a long time to figure out that he was right.

HAHA!! Omg, I'm sorry-not to hijack the thread but I had to mention this since you said window licker...haha. My chinese water dragon had rubbed his nose pretty raw in the store before I got him. Sadly it's permanent but he's fine-my husband though has named him window licker because of it...hahaha...I'm still laughing about the visual I got when I saw your comment

[CherryPython]

Some people are honestly beyond help. They ask for advice:
- they take the advice the wrong way
- you're telling them they're a bad owner
- they only want the sympathetic "oh I'm sure you're doing everything right, don't worry" answer

The list goes on. I really don't know why people bother to take into their hands a life they know sweet F.A about, and then aren't willing to make the effort to rectify things when it goes wrong due to their stupidity and they won't accept help purely because they get their knickers in a twist as soon as someone insinuates it could be their fault.

[Slim]

With this in mind, how is a person supposed to know what is "right"?

Gut instinct, rational disernment, and common sense. Generally things that do not look right, are not right....generally.

[Aes_Sidhe]

I think... sometimes... people will just do Stupid think... Desire to have something sometimes overpower common sense....

You guys have no Idea how much I wanna have lizard... but reading all Advices..
I know that with my living space NYC law and managable size my choices are limited to Beardie.. and Even if know a lot about they good nature.. even if they have cool morphs.. 70$ monthly food cost is way too much for me...
I lookk towards small monitors like Ackie or Timor... But with my limited space cagin will be imposible... But sometimes desire to have amimal (Especially when You looking on that little bugger on reptile show) is VERY VERY tempting....