# Hybrids at petco



## jdooley195 (Oct 19, 2009)

Finally happened...the Petco in Bend, Oregon has hybrid tincs. 

Looked like and Alanis with green instead of yellow, and really ugly yellow-green legs and belly with a lot of spots. Looks yellow in pic, but its stripes are green.


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## epiphytes etc. (Nov 22, 2010)

What do they have it labeled as, and do they have just the one?


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## jdooley195 (Oct 19, 2009)

There's two of them in there...labels say 

"tinctorius 59.99" 

and 

"tinctorius azureus 69.99,"

though I did not see any azureus in there. Sad day.


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## Dev30ils (May 1, 2012)

You should consider writing an email to the corporate office at Petco. Generally they seem to care about the animals from a rescue/conservation perspective. Make them aware why the hobby is against hybrids 

The small animals/ reptile managers in the stores usually make the animal purchases for the stores. If they're buying from a questionable source the corporate office may shut it down.

Just some ideas.


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

Dev30ils said:


> You should consider writing an email to the corporate office at Petco. Generally they seem to care about the animals from a rescue/conservation perspective. Make them aware why the hobby is against hybrids
> 
> The small animals/ reptile managers in the stores usually make the animal purchases for the stores. If they're buying from a questionable source the corporate office may shut it down.
> 
> Just some ideas.


I could be wrong, but I believe they order their dart frogs through California Zoological Supply. Cal Zoo used to have a pretty good reputation, but now I do not have as much faith in them. They now purchase some of their stock from other breeders so that they can keep up with demand. To me, this means any dart frogs from Petco are possible hybrids and may even come from DFW. 

I highly doubt that Petco would drop Cal Zoo as one of their suppliers, but they may decide to stop ordering dart frogs if you voice your concerns like Matt said.

John


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## JJuchems (Feb 16, 2004)

Before jumping to hybrid, it would be nice to see a better quality picture. As a hobby we need to be careful of jumping to conclusions, this can be taken as slander. 

PetCo uses a mixture of regional and national vendors, it varies by location. The last Cal Zoo price list I saw from early in the month of December only had Matecho and Yellow Galacs. I am not going to post their other suppliers but most of the dart frogs have been coming from a national supplier they use.


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## jdooley195 (Oct 19, 2009)

Unless there is a 'Powder Green' I have yet to hear of...it's a hybrid.

Also, the fact that it's just labeled as tinctorius vs. tinctorius "something" would point that direction as well.

I'll get a better picture though.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

One thing to consider is, do you think they can even keep the frogs alive for a good amount of time? The frogs are probably being fed adult crickets or something...


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

hypostatic said:


> One thing to consider is, do you think they can even keep the frogs alive for a good amount of time? The frogs are probably being fed adult crickets or something...


I think if the employees have half a brain, the frogs will live long enough to be sold. I've seen Mantella species sit in stores for well over a year and the tincs at my local petco are being fed melanogaster fruit flies (and their smallest crickets). Realistically, dart frogs are more resilient than we give them credit for and while they might not be as bullet proof as a pixie frogs and other common "beginner" amphibians, they are certainly capable of surviving pet store conditions.

This frog may just be a regular locality tinc, but since it has no background information it is probably best to avoid giving it a locality and just keep it an unknown. 

John


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Ehhh, it's not really whether the employees have both halves of their brains or not, it's more about how well informed and what management tells them to do.

First of all, the employees HAVE to take care of the animals the way management tells them to. From what I've seen in petco stores, all frogs are kept pretty much the same: wet soil/substrate, water dish, maybe some furniture, and pretty big crickets. And from the picture that looks like the case for this frog. If you didn't know better, you'd assume that darts should be kept the same as red-bellied toads or pixies. And if you're told that's what you have to do (as an employee), that's what you HAVE to do.

I don't know, darts can be pretty resilient, but even on DB, where people are afraid of posting their failures due to negative scrutiny, you'll encounter threads where frogs were kept a little too warm, or wet, or not fed the correct supplements, or on the wrong substrate, which eventually led to the demise of a frog. I would be surprised if this won't be the case here.


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## dravenxavier (Mar 12, 2008)

A few things. I'll preface this by saying that I manage the companion animal departments (reptile, aquatics, small animal and bird) for one of the bigger stores here in NJ, just so no one thinks I'm just speculating. I will also mention that here in NJ, we are very limited in what the company will allow us to carry, and darts are one of the things we are not able to get at the moment, so my information may be slightly dated. First, the darts are not coming from California Zoological as far as I can tell. Nor are they coming from Gourmet Rodent, our two primary suppliers. I will try to see if I can find out the vendor, but seeing as I cannot order them anyway, I may not be able to find out.

Second, the management thing is partly true, but some stores do have some wiggle room. Certainly how "wet" the soil is kept is not something that is explicitly pointed out. However, if concerns are raised (legitimate ones, not speculative ones, PLEASE), feel free to contact the corporate office. Any sort of customer communication, good or bad, is taken very seriously and forwarded to the store. If you have a suggestion for a large supplier of reptiles that can provide locality tincs, then forwarding that information may be helpful to them as well.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

hypostatic said:


> One thing to consider is, do you think they can even keep the frogs alive for a good amount of time? The frogs are probably being fed adult crickets or something...


They do sell fruit flies 

I saw some powder blues recently or they might have powder greys. I went there every other day with fruit flies and supplements and fed them until they got their own fruit flies in. They had them in the back in their quarantine room. 
I was there a lot checking on them. I didn't want them to die.
One of them wound up dying and the other eventually got sold. 
They came in as assorted tincs. 

Before that they got in some Mantellas and they all died.


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