Pets At Home - UK

[nangobi]

Just paid a visit to my local Pets atHome- I''ve spoken to someone a couple of times about therabbits being housed with the guinea pigsand I can't havebeen the only onecos I was so pleased to see today thattheguinea pigs have been moved to a different area.

I didask them to move one of the rabbits though (adutch) who was terrorising a lop-eared bun - chasing it and tearing outmouthfuls of fur. There were people watching the chasethinking it was all such a joke to see them running around until Ipointed out that the lop was actually terrified and then they allwaited til a staff member had removed the dutch.

 

[JadeIcing]

A little victory!:bunnydance:

 

[Michaela]

:woohoo

One of the Pets at Home's that I go to has separated the GPs and bunstoo. But not the Coleraine one, you would still see them together theresometimes. Although that is the only thing I could complain about,everything else is really good, huge enclosures, hay, pellets, water,toys....

 

[Shawn]

Not sure if they have been seperated at ourlocal Pets at Home yet, i will have to check next time im there. i gotmy rabbits from Pets a Home, it is a good store.

 

[~Tracey~]

They have the pigs in with the Rabbits here

 

[polly]

They still had them together where i stay when iwas in a couplke of weeks ago, but a good thing they have done is put abunny adoption bit at the back where the birds used to be, each cagenow has a bun with a card giving its name and why it needs adopting andif it has special needs this is brill cause we lost our local sspcashelter as they didn't have enough money to keep them all going.

They have also got a giant flemish in to show how big some buns can getbut i am not really happy as its confined and i would think such a bigbunny would need a lot of space they are also selling it for £150 poorthing doesn't look very happy to me

 

[~Tracey~]

Aww poor thing, i was looking at pics of theGiant flemish on the net and they get huge. Hubby had to build ourhutch for out Frenchie and it took 5 to move it lol

 

[Porpy]

Pets at Home in Ashton still has guinea pigs inwith the rabbits. We bought Tigger from there when we didnt know muchabout having buns and she has chunks missing from her ears from theGP's. Also we called there yesterday to get some hay and they had aHUGE new (for Easter) bunny area. I presume they're going to be sellinglots of Easter buns. They also had a giant bunny... It needed a goodhome but someone wouldnt let me get it. I suppose we've enough to dowith a broken legged grumpy rabbit.

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

I don't like the fact that pet shops sellanimals at all but it worries me that pets at home is now selling giantrabbits. Although I haven't seen them myself apparently they are alsoselling large hutches to house them in but I can still imagine thesebig bunnies being stuck in accommodation that is way to small forthem.:?

 

[Michaela]

Bunnys_rule63 wrote:

I don't like the fact that pet shops sell animals at all butit worries me that pets at home is now selling giant rabbits. AlthoughI haven't seen them myself apparently they are also selling largehutches to house them in but I can still imagine these big bunniesbeing stuck in accommodation that is way to small for them.:?

Me too, poor giant bunnies.:cry1: I haven't seen any here (yet!!)either, but I hear they cost like £150, no impulse buying anyway...

 

[Porpy]

I wasnt impressed by the "large" houses theywere selling. Although to be fair the one at Ashton had a large areaand looked to be well looked after and they'd advertised it as a houserabbit. I still wanted to rescue the poor thing...

 

[rabb1tmad]

Both of my local Pets At Home have separated theguinea pigs from the rabbits now. They have also removed the birdsection and created large pens for the bigger rabbits. I can't believethat they are still allowed to sell animals like this at all but atleast they are making more of an effort with their care.

Everytime I visit the shop I get upset about the rabbits being therebecause there is always a weaker one sitting in the corner lookingmiserable but I can't take them home as I don't have the room. Iwatched a little one being sold the other day and the staff there wereactually very good - they were showing the new owner how to handle therabbit, how to do daily checks, what to look out for, what to feed, etc.

 

[Michaela]

rabb1tmad wrote:

Both of my local Pets At Home have separated the guinea pigsfrom the rabbits now. They have also removed the bird section andcreated large pens for the bigger rabbits. I can't believe that theyare still allowed to sell animals like this at all but at least theyare making more of an effort with their care.

Everytime I visit the shop I get upset about the rabbits being therebecause there is always a weaker one sitting in the corner lookingmiserable but I can't take them home as I don't have the room. Iwatched a little one being sold the other day and the staff there wereactually very good - they were showing the new owner how to handle therabbit, how to do daily checks, what to look out for, what to feed, etc.

My local one got rid of their birds and changed the enclosures into bunny enclosures too, but not big buns...a bit weird.:?

I agree, the staff actually are really good there. I was looking atbuns one day and somebody was buying a hamster nearby. They askedtheassistant all about hamster care etc. and she was reallygood, knew what she was talking about. Then she said she's better withadvising about bunny care because she's got eight at home herself.

 

[Porpy]

One time we were there we over heard a member ofstaff telling a kid and parents to go home and think about it and ifthey wanted to go ahead with a bunny to come back and get thehutch/cage set up first before buying the bun. I though that was quitegood!

 

[Maureen Las]

Guinea pigs and rabbits should not be housedtogether. It isn't that they do not get along but often the guinea pigcan be injured accidentally by a bigger rabbit.
Guinea pigs (needing so much vitamin C) do not eat the same food as rabbits except possibly many of the same greens.

There is one particular illness (I believe Coccidia) which can becarried by rabbits without symptoms but transmitted to guinea pigs whobecome very ill.
I recently needed to separate a guinea pig and lop bunny who were caged together.
The rabbit had a huge bald spot on his posterior which I thought couldbe mange, ringworm or over zealous grooming from the pig.
This story has a happy endings as the pig went to a guinea pig rescueand was bonded with another pig and our little lop also went to a homewith another bunny who he loved immediately.

The bald spot on the bunny was caused by overzealous grooming from thepig and probably could have caused problems down the road if leftun-checked.
I would not personally say that it is "terrible " to house a pig andrabbit together but you would need to know their personalities andhealth history be fore you did it and a lot of room for both would berequired. It is taking a chance to do it

 

[Shawn]

I'm going to pets at home today. See if we have any big rabbits in yet. I will report back my findings lol

Somebody mentioned that they cant believe that they are allowed to sellbig rabbits as easy as that. But at least with them being sold for somuch money. People should know how to care for them if they arespending 150 pounds on them.

After all they are a great breed and people should be encouraged to ownand breed these great animals, providing they know how to look afterthem and have the time for them.


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Shawn

 

[Shawn]

I went to pets at home and bought sandy andsnowy some new toys. The birds had gone and therewas somebaby rabbits for 129 pounds, they called them "Giant LopearedRabbits."

The staff seemed fine to me, and the rabbits looked healthy two. Apleasurable experience, as usual. Oh and the guinnie pigs were indifferent cages

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Shawn