Pet Store: A Different View

[cirrustwi]

I just joined the forum and included in one of myposts that I manage a small local pet store. I know fromexperience that not all pet stores are good ones and thatmanybreeders and animal enthusiasts frown on them completely, especially inthe areas of animal care and knowledge. I have seen quite afew things that made me shake my head in disbelief, but I have seensome great things too. In my store I am the "exoticsexpert". Basically when it comes to the typical exotics,there aren't many I haven't kept at one time or another, from furriesto feathers to scales, I've had them all and if I haven't I knowsomeone who does/did. I believe that this is really importantin a good pet store employee. I have employees who all keepcertain animals and when we have a customer who has a question, they goto that person. It helps that we are small and have wonderfulloyal customers whose interests we know and who know ours.

I'm not saying that only small stores are good, in fact, I haveencountered more then my fair share of bad ones. Large chainstores can be wonderful. I know one in my area where themanager and at least 3 of the employees have rabbits and one breeds andshows angoras, so this is a great store to get help withquestions. The key is to find a store where people haveknowledge and are willing to become more knowledgeable about propercare and good products for the animals, themselves and you theconsumer.

The very best thing you can do if you see mistreatment of an animal isto tell the manager of the store about it. Even if they arenot driven out of the best motivation, they should make changes to helpthe store. Sometimes you might have to tell them more thenonce, but if the changes are made and the animal's health/happinessimproves (or if they can sell it easier ) they will thank you for theadvise in the long run.

It might help to know that all pet stores, at least in PA, and I'mfairly certain everywhere in the USA, are policed by the Department ofAgriculture. We have random visits, usually twice a year, butsometimes more if a complaint was made or a problem was found, by the"Dog Man" who checks on our kennel and the "Bird Man" who over seesexotics. If problems are found, we have so much time to fixthem and they WILL come back to check, or we are fined a substantialamount. If it is a blatant problem, we are fined on thespot. And they will shut you down. Problems canalways be reported to them. Unfortunately, most states do nothave regulations governing things like nutrition, generalhappiness....they only regulate cage size/occupant numbers,cleanliness, general health and so on. So it isstill your best bet to talk to the people who work there.

Sorry this is so long, but I hope it gives a little advise and offers some knowledge from inside.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

I find that small, privately ownedpetstores are the best. I've seen a few bad ones though. ButI know that the large chain ones up here are not any good. Some evenstarve their animals so when they are out in those pens they come up topeople (or the glass in the front of their cages).

 

[cirrustwi]

That is so awful. I worked at a chainstore briefly, but didn't like it...I felt they didn't let me use myknowledge. But our animals were well fed (fresh food andwater morning and night.) I'm really happy where I amnow.

I actually prefer small stores also, but I know of a few that arepretty terrible around here. Unfortunately, being in thebusiness, you get to know everyone, so you hear some pretty awful stuffand so maybe I'm not always the most unbiased judge, or maybe it'sbetter for me, I don't know.

 

[showrabbits]

I work at a petstore as well. I think it is agreat petstore. It is part of a chain but I think that that makes itbetter. Yes some of the stores in the chain probably are not as good asours but realy all the chain* means is that we get to use the name, andsome of the resources not that we have to be the same. None of ouranimals are starved and to be honest with you I dont know how thatcould be done without you seeing it on the animals. I know that once Ihad my brother take care of my rabbits. I forgot to tell him thatHasanna one of my english lops will take the J Ben feeder off the cageso she would have to be feed twice or three times daily. Well any way Icame back after two full days and found that Hasanna was looking sunkenin on the sides and no feeder. He feed her the first day but throughmisunderstandinghe thought that I would be back the secondday so poor Hasanna didnt get feed that second day and since she threwher feeder down on the ground she probably only ate about a half cup offood. Not enough for a fourteen pound english lop who is very hiper.That is the only experience I have had with a animal not getting feedfor a day but man I could tell by first look. At the petstore where iwork we do have dogs. The little ones like the yorkies will get verysick if they miss one meal, are stressed to much, or not get enoughfood. They can go into shock and die very fast. We are always on thelook out for it with the youngsters that are small. We usauly do notget them in untill they are older if they are small because it is jsuttoo much stress on them although our puppies seem to injoy themselves.They come to the front glass because they are well socailized. Also allof the puppies have kennel mates that are the same size to play with,plus what people dont see is the full time kennel staff, theyvolunteers, and the employees that play, train and work with thepuppies.

We do use "petters" they are the pens where people can reach in and petwith the animals. We use the petters for rabbits, ferrets, geanie pigs,hamsters and birds. The petters are big enough so that way the animalscan go in the hidouts and the petters are big enough so that way theanimals can get away from the people, although the rabbits use theirhidouts to jump ontop of to beg people to pet them lol. The birds areall hand raised so they go to people freely and our parrots would gocrazy if they couldnt get petted or attention from people so I happento think that th petters are great. We are always checking our animalsand the cages are kept absolutly clean. The animals are always top onour list. If a animal god forbids gets sick we do what ever we have toto make them better. We do not put down any animals and we will doabsolutly what ever it takes to get them better. If that means a tripto the vet that is what we do without hesitation. If we have to letthem rest in the back because for some reason they where not agreeingwith being around all the people we do that without hesistation. Peoplerealy do need to check things out well before they act too quickly notall petstores are bad just like what you were saying.

 

[cirrustwi]

I have a pretty good idea where you work based onyour description of the store and I agree with you that these storesare typically very good (although I've seen some atrocious fishsections ). However if I am correct on where you work, yourstore is probably a franchise, unlike most of the largechains. I agree with you that it would be hard to starve ananimal. I've had plenty of customers tell me if a food dishis empty or water is soiled. I also agree about the yorkies(I have 2) and other small dogs.

The best thing is to keep people informed that there are good, quality stores out there like the ones where we work.

I'm glad to know that there is someone else in this forum that can be an advocate for the good quys, because we do exist!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

You can see it, although most of the rabbit are well fed. But I wont support a pet store like that.

I've been told by many vets what goes on at this one particular petstore, so it is fact. I also know someone that used to work there andsaid the same thing.

 

[cirrustwi]

To be honest with you, I'm not surprised,UNFORTUNATELY. I've seen/heard of some pretty terriblethings. I know lots of people in the business (it seems towork that way) so I certainly have heard the really bad stories andseen a few, though I must say most of the problems I have seen werewith reptiles. At my store, we had a group of rabbits come infrom somewhere (I'm not sure it was before I was management) and theywere in terrible shape. Sadly we lost a few, even with vettreatment. It wasn't actually our fault,morenegligence on the part of the breeder, but I have dealt with/seen/heardof plenty of negligence on the part of the stores. Which is reallyawful.

Hopefully, everyone has found a competent store in their area withknowledgeable people who can help with critters and supplies.I will try to make posts when I hear of a new product to see if anyonehas heard/used it, good or bad, if that's ok?

 

[Abbi]

MyBunnyBoys wrote:

I find that small, privately owned petstores are the best.

I will have to totally agree with you there. There is onecertain one which I go to a lot to get the food from my animalsfrom. It seems a lot cheaper, and they take care of theanimals, because there aren't that many there, unlike large stores,which look after hundreds..

All my animals came from Pet's At Home, which is a huge store here inthe UK. Luckily, I didn't have problems with any, buthowever, my sister got her rabbit from there, which she had problemswith it being too young to leave it's mother, and her having to feed itliquids, and from then, that bunny has visited the vet countless timeswith something being wrong with her. Also with other smallanimals, them developing illnesses, and dying younger that theexpectancy. After that, she went to smaller stores to get herbunnies (they don't have shelters here with Bunnies).

I guess the less animals, the better care, depending how many employees they have.

 

[m.e.]

Rex is my pet store baby (all the other pets wererescues). I got him at a very nice, privately owned store that only hada few animals and took great care of them I know u8myhouseworks at a small pet store too. I've only been there once, but itsounds good. I've had far, far better experiences in the little stores,though some chains (like PetQuarters and PetSmart) really seem to beresponsible and caring.

All the other (chain) pet stores in our area are just awful. Theemployees don't know the first thing about animal care, and reallydon't seem to mind. The turnover rate of the animals at one store,specifically the rabbits, is so astounding I really wonder where thosepoor bunnies go to. Others just outright neglect their animals, andI've seen open sores, scabs, lack of proper food. It's just so sad When possible, I limit my shopping to stores that don't sell animals,or I go online.

 

[cirrustwi]

I love working at a small store. It isso much better then a large store (I've done both). In smallstores we can give all the animals individual care and in fact cleanour sm. animal/reptile/bird cages daily and our dogs and cats get done2 times a day. And we have a vet who visits and sees all newcritters -- they don't leave until he has seen them. I got mySage from my store and he is the greatest bunny! He lovescuddles and just always makes me laugh with his antics...that'sprobably why I brought him home. I rescued Daisy from areptile show where she was going to be sold for snake food.And Basil came from a breeder.

As for the knowledge of employees in a large store, when I worked inone, it was really briefly, but we had to take classes, although I feltsome of the info given in them was poor, so it is somewhatthe fault of those "classes", although we require our employees to havesome general knowledge before we will hire them...it sounds crazy, butthey actually have to take a test and then they get lots of info givento them before they are supposed to dispense advise to customers.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

This is quite interesting! The reason I say thatis I have been to several petstores around here. Of coursePetsmart is by far the cleanest and has the biggest selection of stuff,but not always what I want.

Petco is next. They have taken a lot of bad publicity and Ican't say that they didn't deserve it, but ours isn't toobad. They keep the animals very clean, they are as helpful asthey can be, and I told them the rabbits would do better in Carefreshor something like that than in the pine and cedar shavings...... nowthey are in carefresh The girl who cares for them said shewas told by her boss to change it and she was glad..... she wanted touse carefresh but it was more expensive LOL... They don't carry all Ineed, but it's fun to stop in there to see the animals and get sometoys

Next we have a local petstore that is supposed to be a chain? I don'tknow exactly. This store has a large space, lots of stuff,but I am not impressed with the quality or the cages. I sawat least 10 large baby rats in a 10 gal (tops) fishtank. Theywere piled on each other! I told them to get the rabbits outof the cedar and pine.... they haven't! :XShe has said shewould stock Oxbow, and I went there yesterday for some pellets.....they were out of date! ... I go there now just to checkthings.

Then we have an Exotic's Petstore, complete with their own petalligator, and large snakes! His store is very little,sometimes I find cobwebs on the merchandise, and his cages are ....clean but homemade. I like his store! I find almosteverything I need for my rabbit there and get to play with bunnies,snakes and sugargliders He keeps oxbow in stock so I knowif I need it to go to his store and it's fresh! not outdated!

This last store is what I thought of when I read your post.It's more personal, it's definitely not a cat and dog store.... and aslong as we know what we are doing (and they know we do) my kids and Ipick up the bunnies out of the big glass cages and play with them I think they actually appreciate that we handle the babiesand stuff cause then they get less afraid of people.

We were there today and they had 4 little dutch babies Iheld each one and my kids held a couple. One was veryfriendly and loved my son. It's hard to leave them there, butif we can give them some love and earrubs while they wait for a newhome, we are happy