# Pet stores. please read!



## cinnicotsucre (Dec 21, 2012)

Hi guys! So I know that most of you reading this will probably already know this, but this is for the people who don't. Pet stores are not nice places run by nice people who know everything there is to know about animals and love them to pieces. Privately owned ones, sure, and I don't want to give a bad rep to those because I have seen some great ones. But the big chain pet stores...they are disgusting. The puppies in those tiny little cages all lying in their own excrement. It is horrible and inhumane. I only really started thinking about this when/after I started doing TONES of research on hedgehogs, and knew pretty much everything about their requirements in their cage and their food and space requirements and all, every thing hedgehog owners do, and need to know. I went to the PJ'S PETS store on my street to look for some of that blue buffalo food for my hedgie. this was about a week before I got him. I was looking around and there wasn't any food, so I just peeked in at the animals. I noticed that there was a hedgehog! I would have bought him then and there, but I had already put a baby on hold from a breeder, and my mother would murder me. This hedgehog was full grown. In his cage, there was an igloo, a water bottle, and a food bowl. I asked one of the workers what kind of bedding and food the hedgie had (pretending like I was going to buy him), and the guy said, 'we use a mix of cedar and pine bedding, and we feed him hedgehog food." I said thank you and left. I was really mad. 1st of all, you CAN NOT use cedar bedding for hedgehogs! 2nd, there was no wheel!!!!!!!!3rd, you should NOT feed a hedgehog hedgehog food, and 4th, the cage was about 1.5x1 feet. The guy also said that the hedgehog was about ten weeks old. I had been to the breeder to give her my deposit on the baby, an I had seen what a ten week old hedgehog looks like. I had seen what a full grown hedgehog looks like, and this hedgehog was over one year. As it would anyone who loves animals, this made me so mad! Ever since then, I have noticed more and more how cruel pet shops are to animals. It sickens me to know that animals are treated in this way. I think that every one should research an animal you know they have at a pet store, and go to the pet store to see if it meets the requirements of the animals. We should really raise awareness about these poor little animals! no one really notices, but if you know what an animal needs, you will see that those needs are not being met. thank you for reading this.


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## SpiritWolves1 (Apr 5, 2012)

I agree. But you see I'm a sucker and caved and made my parents drive me back to the pet store I bought Dallas from. I bought him and he's amazing, he was on pine, had mites, and was eating ferret food and drinking from... There actually wasn't any. He was so scared, I actually went up and asked about him the second time I was there, and I asked if I could see him, they led me through a door, he was in a fishtank sort of cage, no ventilation because there was cages going up too, and I picked him up out of the bedding and he peeked out at me and that was it. He had a cut on his leg and was so scared ( he had only been there one night and hadn't eaten much) he was skinny and it was horrible. 

The worst part was, when I was back there... There was a tank full of dead animals, mice rats etc but I was appalled. They didn't sell snakes so they weren't snake food.


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## PirateHedgie (Oct 28, 2012)

I agree - but i used to work at a petsmart in high school and yes with no guidance they housed reptiles and small animals on the wrong bedding/substrate. we had guinea pigs with scurvy, skinks dropping dead left and right and frogs getting sick and dying, aggressive iguanas... you name it. I got switched from register to that part of the store "aquatics" i think it was called because its all grouped in. ( this was over 10 YEARS ago mind you) i immediately went to work moving iguanas into new cages breaking up alphas from submissive lizards and putting sand skinks on the right substrate. if i didn't know i found out and made them follow their own care sheets. Any time i let the manager know they did something about it - they might not care as much as us (being animal lovers) but from a profit perspective they want to sell an animal and they cant sell it if its sick and it they do sell it sick and have to replace it that's money out of their pocket. I even made them take a frog to the vet one time. lol So yeah if you are a little pushy in the right kind of way they will clean up their act - and all it takes is ONE employee to care. I was that one employee and it got contagious and then when others saw it wasn't much work to do it the RIGHT way - they did it to and we had a whole store of healthy animals. minus the ones we got in sick from shipments... which was ALOT! the places they order animals from is usually half the problem. We got a bird with a broken wing once too... it was horrible!! Also made them take that one to the vet  to this day that is the only parakeet i have ever had sit on my finger and be friendly lol 

so yeah Half the time its not that they as a coorporation DONT know - its that they dont train their employees or no one takes the time to care to find out, they just do what is told to them which is usually guessed or bad info. 

I would try and tell an employee in a nice non condescending way obviously and then ask if you can speak with an manager. I have had them listen before.  :mrgreen:


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## jnuss12 (Dec 29, 2012)

We got our hedgehog from a pet store a week ago come to find out he has mites! I feel bad for his three buddys that were left since there's no doubt they have them also


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## snowcolt17 (Dec 29, 2012)

99% of people that work there dont know what theya re talking about...


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## Nathiriel (Nov 30, 2012)

The guys that run our local, and only Petshop, seem to mean well but when they brought in the Hedgies they had them in the cheapest bedding, without a wheel, on cheap food and not even an igloo to snuggle in, they had four of them all in the same cage and the poor things where huddled together for warmth. I know one of the owners has his own Hedgie at home and it breaks his heart to see them like that but the owner won't let them spend more on what he calls 'temporary housing'. I've been sorely tempted to offer to make fleece liners and bags for them for free just cos I hate seeing them like that, they must be freezing cold.

I got my little guy from this pet shop and I'm glad I could give him a great home, but i can't help but worry about the homes the other little guys have gone to, the pet shop owner gave me all the wrong bedding and not the best advice, didn't have a clue about his age or parentage and didn't even know what Wobbly Hedgehog was. It's only through lots of research that I've made the set up i've got for him now and I still feel like I could do more, but I worry that the other Hedgies are being treated like prickly hamsters by owners who couldn't be bothered to learn.


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## PrincessK (Oct 25, 2012)

I got Harper at a Pet Store, unfortunately. I was going to make the trip up to Manning for one (like 7 hour drive haha) but she is taking a break from breeding and I only recently found out about the breeder south of me in Calgary. 

The people at the store were terrible. She was in a fish tank which was really dirty. She was in a group of 3- the other two had sold the previous day so she was lucky to only be there 2 days, and I'm grateful that she is so healthy, loving, and friendly.

They tried to get me to buy a metal wheel with gaps that was much too small, the wrong bedding, and on and on. They didn't even have all the things she needed. They forced me to buy there what they considered to be "the absolute minimum" poor bedding, a ceramic dish that is STILL too big for her (let alone at 5 weeks old),the cage, their junky cat food, and a ball that she never plays with. 

I ended up having to go to 4 more pet stores to piece together everything she needed that day- lesson learned: get it before. There aren't any stores here that really carry "hedgehog" things- No one else sells them, so anytime I want something it's a hunt and creative looking.


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## momIImany (Oct 14, 2012)

I got mine at a "back-woods" pet store or bait shop. I had asked if he knew of any breeders and he said he could get anything. To give him some time. I figured about 6 months or so. It turned out to be one week! Thank God she is OK and not pregnant. I had to guess her age though.

I bought all my stuff online except the sterilite container from Walmart until the cubes shipped. The only local things I got were the fleece, dishes, and coraplast - if you call driving 1 hour local.


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## ciaramatthews (Oct 24, 2011)

I was on Kijij which is a site to buy used items off of, and generally people sell pretty cool things on there and I've gotten a lot of ideas for my hedgie because of what I find. I even bought my hedgie Winston off a breeder on there. I put in a search under animal accessories for hedgehogs and a pet store popped up approximately half an hour from where I live. Their add was, buy a hedgehog today and you get everything it needs for $200! 

The items were:

The smallest cage possible
A wired wheel
Shavings
Hedgehog food

I emailed the owner of this store, explaining that his customers would rely on the information he gave them and that the cage was too small, the wheel was dangerous send them to petsmart and forget about your business so they can at least by the flying saucer wheel, the shavings he was selling cause so many different illnesses when you can just buy a nice big fleece blanket to line the cage and re use it, and that hedgehog food is like the movie super size me hedgehog style, and that he was selling all of this as "everything you need" yet where was the heat source? the lighting? Point blank pet stores are horrible places, but if you see them abusing an animal like that, say something. This man deleted the add right away and I told him I would visit the store if I had to. Maybe doing that changed one hedgies life? But it was worth it.


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