# What do pet stores do with old hedgehogs?



## Brittany (Sep 15, 2013)

I was just thinking about how in my local pet stores, ive NEVER seen an old hedgehog. They are always babies. Im sure there has to be times where one hasnt sold, and got a bit older, right?

Do they sell people old hogs and claim their young? I would assume if they die after about a year, it would get out that their business is bad and nobody would buy hogs from them anymore. 


Do they get rid of it because it wont bring them profit? I would think if theyre not selling, its just "draining money" on food and whatnot.  If this is common, are there rescue groups that help old hogs?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

When I worked at a pet store, if we'd had an animal for quite a long time & it was getting older, we usually reduced the price a little first, to see if anyone would take it. I don't recall us ever sending an animal back or anything like that - one of my managers once told me (when we got in a very small, sick baby ferret) that if we sent him back, they'd kill him right away.  We were able to get him into the vet & got wet food, etc. and we were able to get him turned around, thankfully. We had a rabbit that came in for Easter season with two others (I was SO unhappy that we were specifically getting them for Easter too, ugh), and no one bought him. We had him for months, he got big, and became pretty cage-aggressive to anyone besides the employee who constantly fed him treats. We marked him way down, had a customer pay so that we could give him to a good home for free (she wanted to help him, but couldn't actually take him), and he ended up getting a home with a relative of the store manager.

At a pet store near me, they had two female hedgehogs housed together, and they didn't get sold for MONTHS - at least 6 months. One was shy & huffier, the other was more outgoing. I kept a close eye on them until they finally sold. And because it took so long to sell those girls, that pet store hasn't bothered to get hedgehogs again (thankfully).


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## Beloved Doll (Nov 21, 2013)

I worked at a pet store for 9 years and we sold hedgehogs. How we handled the age of the critters was the same across the board. We first would reduce the price to try and generate more interest and make it more appealing against the youngin's. Nearly all the animals would find homes eventually. The only one we had longer than a year were salt water fish and large birds (****atoos, macaws, african grey parrots, etc). The longest time frame we had a hedgehog was 8 months. Funny story on that, actually.

This was the pet store I worked at. I can't speak for others as I don't have experience with them. 

I do know that some places (usually the big chain stores are the ones who do this) will "rotate" the pet with other locations or just send them back to the breeder for the breeder to place the critter. The reason they do that are a couple of things. One, if the pet isn't selling, then it's costing the company money and in order to stay in business, they will switch out to find a pet that will sell. Another reason being that if customers see pets are "changing," they'll be more likely to act on making a purchase, thinking that if they don't someone else will snatch up the pet.


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## Heavenly Hedgehogs (Mar 19, 2010)

The person at the pet store near me said they just send them back to the breeder to get younger ones if they don't sell.


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