Joined
·
728 Posts
I thought I'd tell you a bit about my day, and how it's very important to get your animals from GOOD BREEDERS.
This is a long one, but please read it, especially when I stop talking about the fish.
As some of you may know, I work at my local pet shop (not mentioning names). Now, on Fridays we get fish and our small furries (if we've ordered them). Our fish we only get when we're critically low, and the others, well we just get what we need.
First of all, I had to cover for a member of staff who was 2 and a half hours late for a 3 hour shift. I was going to come in and help anyway, while I waited for the fish delivery (I ordered a few fish from the list). The only reason why a second person has to come into the shop to work is to clean out the cages for the new animal arrivals. I did this all in an hour, where it takes the other member of staff 4 hours. The other girl couldn't believe it when I said I was done.
Second of all, the fish came in. 4 big cardboard boxes filled with big bags of fish; gold fish, tropicals, snails. First thing that irritated me-two of the Pictus catfish that I ordered were out of stock. Fair enough they didn't have any in, but I need some more for the two I've already got. Secondly, on the order list, it said 'Siamese flying fox-Medium' so I thought, fantastic, if they're big enough, I'll have those for my fish tank.
Apparently, medium= under 1 cm.
To make this rant a tad shorter, two other of the fish I ordered didn't come in… the aquatic plants weren't put on the order, meaning that we now have 3 very disappointed customers!
Right, this the bit that made me cry the moment I got home. When the animals come in from the order, they come in makeshift boxes- washing up bowls with mesh on top, tatty plastic tubs, anything cheap and worn, they use it.
1) I said on the phone to the breeder 'I'll have 2-3 female gerbils only if they're NOT dove' This is because we already have 2 dove gerbils in the shop. Her husband, doing the delivery, came with a tiny box, with 2 not too healthy gerbils, one dove, the other black. I picked up the dove, and said that I asked for no doves. The black I picked up, and had quite a shock. I showed her to the breeder and gave him such a dirty look. Her right eye was clearly very infected, and was causing the fur around it to fall off. It was extremely inflamed, and I dread to think what they're going to do with her when she got back! (Probably breed with her). He just said 'Oh my, I'm very sorry!!' and carried onto the next animal. These animals looked very old, their coat was very greasy, and they looked frail.
2) I said on the phone to the breeder 'I'll have two female rats, only if they're not black hooded, we already have 2 in the shop and we need more variety'. What did they bring me?? Two black hooded rats, and two agouti hooded rats. And how old were they?? 3 WEEKS OLD! The moment I saw them, I asked the man 'How old are these rats??' he told me their age, and I told him that they're not even fully weaned at that age. In reply, he said the following 'well at 4 weeks old they can impregnate the females, so we have to sell them at 3 weeks'. Did it ever occur to them to separate the males from the litter?? I handled them, and they were so wild, they could've literally be taken from an alley and labelled as a pet rat. No joke, I have never seen such aggressive babies as those. I just said to him that I am not willing to buy such young rats from him, they should be AT LEAST 4-5 weeks old when sold.
3) The mice he showed me were tiny, they couldn't have been older than 4 weeks. One of which bit me so many times when I did the tame/handling test.
He also gave us tiny Russian hamsters and Syrian hamsters, but at that point I had had enough, and I just walked away and let my colleague do the rest.
When he came to me to the till for payment, I asked him how his wife breeds them-does she do it selectively, or does she just put them together. He said she's never bothered with planning breeding or anything, and breeds with anything she has. INCLUDING the aggressive or sick stock we make them take back!
When I get customers interested in buying the animals, I always encourage them to find a good breeder to buy them off of. I was shocked at the day I've had, and to be honest, I've lost most of my remaining faith in humanity. Even my brother was shocked when I told him, and he doesn't really care about things like that.
Guys, I really can't stress enough how important it is to get your pets from a reputable breeder. Even if you feel sorry for the poor thing in the corner, you're just going to support breeders like this. This experience has been a real wakeup call for me about the pet trade. And being on the front line as such, you really do see the nitty gritty. I am now thinking of getting good quality animals and breeding them for the shop myself, anything to stop supporting this other breeder. She doesn't even know most colours or markings! I literally burst into tears when I got home, and I tend to fairly hard to move with things like that.
I hope this has helped.
This is a long one, but please read it, especially when I stop talking about the fish.
As some of you may know, I work at my local pet shop (not mentioning names). Now, on Fridays we get fish and our small furries (if we've ordered them). Our fish we only get when we're critically low, and the others, well we just get what we need.
First of all, I had to cover for a member of staff who was 2 and a half hours late for a 3 hour shift. I was going to come in and help anyway, while I waited for the fish delivery (I ordered a few fish from the list). The only reason why a second person has to come into the shop to work is to clean out the cages for the new animal arrivals. I did this all in an hour, where it takes the other member of staff 4 hours. The other girl couldn't believe it when I said I was done.
Second of all, the fish came in. 4 big cardboard boxes filled with big bags of fish; gold fish, tropicals, snails. First thing that irritated me-two of the Pictus catfish that I ordered were out of stock. Fair enough they didn't have any in, but I need some more for the two I've already got. Secondly, on the order list, it said 'Siamese flying fox-Medium' so I thought, fantastic, if they're big enough, I'll have those for my fish tank.
Apparently, medium= under 1 cm.
To make this rant a tad shorter, two other of the fish I ordered didn't come in… the aquatic plants weren't put on the order, meaning that we now have 3 very disappointed customers!
Right, this the bit that made me cry the moment I got home. When the animals come in from the order, they come in makeshift boxes- washing up bowls with mesh on top, tatty plastic tubs, anything cheap and worn, they use it.
1) I said on the phone to the breeder 'I'll have 2-3 female gerbils only if they're NOT dove' This is because we already have 2 dove gerbils in the shop. Her husband, doing the delivery, came with a tiny box, with 2 not too healthy gerbils, one dove, the other black. I picked up the dove, and said that I asked for no doves. The black I picked up, and had quite a shock. I showed her to the breeder and gave him such a dirty look. Her right eye was clearly very infected, and was causing the fur around it to fall off. It was extremely inflamed, and I dread to think what they're going to do with her when she got back! (Probably breed with her). He just said 'Oh my, I'm very sorry!!' and carried onto the next animal. These animals looked very old, their coat was very greasy, and they looked frail.
2) I said on the phone to the breeder 'I'll have two female rats, only if they're not black hooded, we already have 2 in the shop and we need more variety'. What did they bring me?? Two black hooded rats, and two agouti hooded rats. And how old were they?? 3 WEEKS OLD! The moment I saw them, I asked the man 'How old are these rats??' he told me their age, and I told him that they're not even fully weaned at that age. In reply, he said the following 'well at 4 weeks old they can impregnate the females, so we have to sell them at 3 weeks'. Did it ever occur to them to separate the males from the litter?? I handled them, and they were so wild, they could've literally be taken from an alley and labelled as a pet rat. No joke, I have never seen such aggressive babies as those. I just said to him that I am not willing to buy such young rats from him, they should be AT LEAST 4-5 weeks old when sold.
3) The mice he showed me were tiny, they couldn't have been older than 4 weeks. One of which bit me so many times when I did the tame/handling test.
He also gave us tiny Russian hamsters and Syrian hamsters, but at that point I had had enough, and I just walked away and let my colleague do the rest.
When he came to me to the till for payment, I asked him how his wife breeds them-does she do it selectively, or does she just put them together. He said she's never bothered with planning breeding or anything, and breeds with anything she has. INCLUDING the aggressive or sick stock we make them take back!
When I get customers interested in buying the animals, I always encourage them to find a good breeder to buy them off of. I was shocked at the day I've had, and to be honest, I've lost most of my remaining faith in humanity. Even my brother was shocked when I told him, and he doesn't really care about things like that.
Guys, I really can't stress enough how important it is to get your pets from a reputable breeder. Even if you feel sorry for the poor thing in the corner, you're just going to support breeders like this. This experience has been a real wakeup call for me about the pet trade. And being on the front line as such, you really do see the nitty gritty. I am now thinking of getting good quality animals and breeding them for the shop myself, anything to stop supporting this other breeder. She doesn't even know most colours or markings! I literally burst into tears when I got home, and I tend to fairly hard to move with things like that.
I hope this has helped.
. I just started working with a local pet store and now supply them with mice, rabbits and a few other species soon he breeds all the reptiles and keeps rather good records on the breeders of everything else.I'd love to run my own pet store and supply the animals myself at least then I'd know what kind of care they received and can be confident selling them.
