Victims to pet shops

[Alfientoby]

We all know from experience that pet shop pets are not always treated well at stores. They are mass breed and are often kept in majorly small cages. Share here the pets which are no longer with us purchased from a pet store.

Take a moment to think about all the pets looking at you behind glass. Think of the fish, rats, mice, turtles, reptiles,hamsters, rabbits and of course guinea pigs.
Why not visit your local pet shop and ask a simple question like "have you cuddled these pets, ever?"

Pet shops claim to hold their pets daily and treat them if their health is bad. 87% of the time pet shops leave illets to die refusing them of life saving treatment.

Think, what can I do? Can I change lives?

 

[Alfientoby]

Toffee apple

My first ever pet. A Syrian hamster. Th cage was ready and I'd been doing all the reasurch. I was doing everything right.

Pets at home keep nine Syrian hamsters (which they claim should be kept alone) in a 12 inch tank with no wheel or toys. They hamsters hadn't been held before and were very nibbly and wriggly. They told us nothing about owning a hamster but made my dad sign to say they had explained everything. Luckily we had been doing our reasurch!

They then gave us a dark box with tiny air holes in the side. We had a 15 minute trip home. Within 5 minutes toffee apple had chewed through the box and we had to hold him alm the way home. When we got home we put the chewed box and him into his cage . We didn't hold him but still noticed his bum was rather large. We decided that if it was still large in two days time we would take home to the vets.

All that night we were kept awake by his painful squealing. It was horrible. We decided the very next day we would take him straight to the vets. The next morning when I went to put him in a new light plastic box for the vets, it was too late. Toffee apple had died from wet tail overnight.


We took a photo of him before we buried him and showed it to pets at home. They said he had been perfectly healthy when he had left and it must have come on overnight.

We got our next hamster (Chinese dwarf Penny) from a breeder. She is one year old and still going....

 

[Beautifulmess]

I've had four guinea pigs from pets at home, my very first when I was 18. Africa and Leo and two of those I have now (Kenya and Cally).

Firstly they are very similar, Kenya and Africa were/are the dominants, both tri-coloured, both healthy and had no problems. Africa lived until 3.5yrs then died of liver failure. Kenya is obviously still here and as I said, has never had a health problem.

Cally and Leo however, different colours but same markings, both had fungal infections and loss of hair, both got inner ear infections and acted a bit special. Leo died at the age of 2.5. Cally is 2.5 and is going through behavioural changes atm.

I've mixed reviews, as you can see I've had animals that have been in bad condition and animals that have been fine. I adopted 2 guinea pigs from rescues and they died a lot quicker than my pet store bought animals but I agree with the first post still.

 

[Sarah-sore]

I have 2 different pet store stories, I'll post links to them below.
Pj Pets;
http://www.pjspet.com/_pjs/index.php
Once when I went, an old schoolmate of mine that also happened to be an employee there had a baby guinea pig in her arms and she was cuddling with him. She was talking to him, petting him, feeding him ,ect
I would say this pet store looked after their pets, rather okay.
Oh and this store, unlike the other actually has hiddys for their pets. But They did have about 5 gp's shoved into one small glass tank though. The gp's also had very little hay.
Palmac pets;
http://www.paulmacs.com/index.htm
Horrible is what I would call these guys. Dead fish in tanks, cats in small cages, hamsters in waaayy to small of cages, no hiddys or needed accessories(?) for any of the animals other than the fish(which they where selling, because it was plants.) Guinea pigs looked scared out of their minds! Guinea pigs had no hay at all. Hamsters were clearly over weight and over feed. Employees did not seem to care for the sick and poorly pets. I went once and than a month later and the same guinea pig was still there. I came back the next day and I was going to buy him but he was gone. I hate coming to this pet store and I only go when I HAVE to.
As of right now none of m pets are from a pet store.
My dogs are from backyard breeders
My hamsters are from m friend after she had a Suprise litter lol
Guinea pigs are rescued
And pot belly pigs are rescued.

 

[gingersusie]

my local pet shop is wonderful
they are a community led pet shop & train disadvantaged youngsters in animal care
the pets are always out being cuddled & groomed etc
i had my guinea pigs from there & wouldn't hesitate to do so again
my ginger pig was taken out into special schools in the community to be used as a therapy pet
i had her when she was 6 months old & they paired her up with a friend for me before i picked them both up
i think some local pet shops are excellent & really care about their animals
in this pet shop they have degu's , mice , guinea pigs , budgies , fish , gerbils & hamsters , cockateils & rabbits
here is the link
http://www.yourpetswarehouse.com/information/

they are also very cheap for supplies , i had a very large cage for £50 & my hay is only 2.99 a bag
they have everything you need for all pets

 

[Alfientoby]

That's good!
As it is only a community one then it won't be so mass breed! Sadly I only have pets at home in my area.

 

[Abby&Piggies]

My partner bought me two guinea pigs from Pets at Home last week knowing how much i wanted one. I knew of the bad reviews of P@h because id done my research, but he didnt know of these as he doesnt have pets and as p@h is the only pet shop in our area he didnt think anything of it.

I've now had two gp's for just over a week, they seem to be fine to me however the man at the pet shop said "oh they'll be nervous and shy cause theyve never been handled" bearing in mind they're 8 weeks old! When he asked if the ones he was interested in were male or female, the man just said "i havent a clue", and to top it off he asked for the forms to be signed and didnt explain anything about caring for the piggies, no food recommendations etc, bathing, nail clipping. he just breezed over the points on the card he had to to be able to sign it off. Fortunately my partner knew id done lots of research online about gp care and so bought them in the hope to make them happy as he felt sorry for them never being cuddled and knew id hug them for England!

x)

 

[karonus]

I have stopped using my local P@H and now use a local pet shop in Dudley. They do have piggies and rabbits, they keep them seperate in the shop in what I would describe as 2ft by 4/5ft outside hutches, so they have plenty of room to hide. It includes the shops own pet piggy. I have been in their and the staff are very good at handling them.

Also, since using them they have ordered in Burgess products for me which they now stock regularly and they have also started stocking readigrass from my recommendations (which they intend to use with their own pets and livestock).

Only a tiny pet shop but willing to listen and their piggies always seem very fit and they dont have them all year round.

Indeed our own Cosmos came from there and she is such a character.

 

[Guinea pig slave]

I actually reported a pet shop recently to our local council who jumped onto them within 12 hours of my report
Goes to show that if you raise a concern, it is not always overlooked. I had great feedback and actually spoke to the head of animal welfare services and the officer involved who did the inspection.
I could never turn a blind eye to things and although I avoid shops that sell livestock (I want to take them all home 8...) would do it again for the animals if I thought they were being mistreated etc.