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Why are Petco and Petsmart supposed to be so bad?
I've bought (or I was there when a family member bought) a total of one hamster (Petco) and three mice (Petsmart). Both times the employees were nice, knew what they were doing (the Petsmart person especially; she told us about each mouse, didn't pick them up by their tails when she put them in the box, and made sure not to let us put them in a too-small cage. The Petco person was also good, but didn't know specific animals as well.
My hamster tamed easily and was healthy; the mice were friendly (not tame, but friendly) in the store but are still in new-cage shock right now since we just got them today, and seem perfectly healthy so far.
I've seen so many terrible reviews about both of them- are my pet stores just different?
Also, unrelated question, any ideas for climbing toys (preferably home-made) for mice?
Petco sells feeder mice, not pet mice. That's why there are about fifty in one cage, and why we got ours from Petsmart instead. They also very rarely have anything other than albino mice.
I know the breeders are probably terrible- I've heard bad things about the stores themselves. My attitude towards this is that I'm not planning to breed the animal, I'll have to buy all of my supplies from the store anyway (so what's $20 once for an animal?), there are no shelters that have rodents near me, and these animals don't deserve to be kept from a loving home just because of where they come from.
I think that what suppliers do is horrible, and I in no way support this, but nor do I regret the purchase of my wonderful hamster, and I don't think we'll regret the mice. The shelter animals deserve a second chance; but don't the pet store animals deserve a first?
I haven't bought any larger animals from either store, but definitely any dogs or cats that I got would be from a shelter or a breeder. With rodents, it IS possible for the pet stores to provide a healthy life for them, and from what I've seen, Petco and Petsmart both manage this. Things can always be improved, but I've never seen what I'd call abuse, except possibly the Petco mouse cages. (That's just terrible. Again; a mouse is something that I'd get at Petsmart instead if at all possible. Petco intends their mice as feeder animals, and treat them as such.)
3 Answers
- Anonymous8 years ago
They say not to go to the retailers because the animals are treated cruelly in the shipping process.. Also, you don't know where your animal is coming from whether it be a healthy line or a sickly, disease burdened line. So as far as abuse goes I'm pretty sure it's just the middle men who treat the animals unkind not Petsmart or Petco! I took a chance and bought my chinchilla at petsmart two years ago and he's as healthy as he can be! Bright eyes and happy!
If you really want to see what I mean about the middle men who ship these animals to the retailers YouTube Petsmart / Petco animal abuse. However, I do warn it's disturbing and heart breaking. But it'll show you exactly what I stated above!
Source(s): Read about the animals at these stores / Did research for my own good / shop there all the time - 8 years ago
My mom is a vet and she has always liked choice pet supply BUT they don't have much rodent supplies (I have gerbils, used to have hamsters) so I went to petco because they are huge!!! My mom went in with me (I'm a broke child lol) and she loved it!! She used to swear to god that she would never shop there, now she goes all the time (even without me)!!! They have all the same foods (dog, cat, fish, rodent) and a bunch of toys!! (We have a lot of pets teehee!) I wouldn't buy a dog or cat from them, but rodents, birds, reptiles definitely!! They have huge sections for all (general kinds) of pets, huge selections, and great prices!! Surprisingly, they are both actually really good stores!! (I just said petco, but I started at petsmart, just petco is closer to my house!!)
Source(s): Mom is a vet and I have a lot of pets - Anonymous8 years ago
Well, the petco near me rodent section is a mess dirty unclean cages and wayyy to many mice in one tank but their reptile selection and upkeep is awesome. the petsmart near me has a not-so-good reptile section and a pretty good rodent section. so it all depends. I got two guinea pigs one from each, the pig i got from petco was aggressive and unhandleable while the one from petsmart was sweet and easy. the only difference was petco had 2 guineas in a 10 gallon tank! petsmart has theres in a 40 gallon at least. like i said it depends but i shop at both.
Source(s): I own many pets.
