Fed up!

[kogia]

I'm officially boycotting Petsmart. Today I went to one of their stores to pick up turtle and chinchilla food only to find both the turtle AND chins kept in deplorable conditions! (Chins had NO pelleted food available or hay, just SHREDDED CARROTS!! ARRGGHHH!!)

What is even worse was that no one CARED to listen to me when I asked to speak to a manager. No one knows what they are doing, and yet, keep jacking up their prices for food (currently $16 for 5lbs of oxbow... i KID you not) and STILL treat their animals like crap!

Its a huge eye opener- my boyfriend (who lives in MI) has a locally owned pet shop which is OUTSTANDING. The chins are kept in the best conditions possible! Plus, all their animals LOOK healthy, and BEHAVE normally.

Now, my question is, where are all the other well-run, educated pet supply stores in America? There has to be more then one... (does anyone know of a good one in Rochester NY?)




whew. \rant.

 

[AZChins]

Now, my question is, where are all the other well-run, educated pet supply stores in America? There has to be more then one...

If there are, they probably don't sell animals. Petsmart supposedly started out understanding that there are a lot of homeless animals needing assistance and that selling pets isn't the best idea. Well, apparently that only means selling dogs and cats...and maybe rabbits. They see chins as being their $100 rat for sale ($160, $200, sometimes more?)

I haven't shopped there in probably eight years, haven't set foot in one. It hasn't hurt me one bit. It gave me a chance to find better places to buy food and support the LOCAL economy more by buying from a place that is locally owned and not a chain store. My dogs have much better, fresher food...and all my other pets are fine with toys from different places. Not to mention that I get more respect and better customer service from places that REALLY need my business. You don't get that from teenagers and people, who have no stake at all in the success of a business.

 

[chinsNdobermans]

The best pet stores I see are the ones that don't sell much more than fish.
Many refuse to listen - I tried to tell a woman once that her male was mating her female and she might want to separate them and she said "Oh, male chinchillas can't reproduce until they're two." I asked her if that was the case then why did I just have a litter born from a male who was only a little more than a year old. She didn't have a response for that. But, she also wouldn't separate the chins.

 

[3CsMommy]

There's a tiny pet store in this town that's actually not too bad. Not great, but far better than the big chain stores when it comes to how she keeps her chins. At least these guys had a Chin Spin and roomy cage as well as pellet food, hay, and plenty of water. I've been in owner homes that didn't do that well, sad to say. There's another store called That Pet Place in Lancaster, PA that does pretty well too, though in the last 3 years they've started using plastic in their cages (Martin's cages). I don't know if they've taken it out or not, but I did give a manager some info packets on proper chin nutrition and care with some suggestions for improvement, so there's hope they might.

 

[Mystic]

To be honest, the petsmart near me actually takes pretty decent care of their animals including the chinchillas. The chins always have hay and pellets avaliable whenever I go there. They also have a wooden house and a couple wooden shelves. Sometimes they have one of those large plastic spinner wheels but they are better taken care of than some of the other petsmarts I have been to.

 

[Sierra]

I agree with Mystic. When I went into my Petsmart in MI to buy my FN cage. They had one male chin there and he had a wooden house and tons of hay inside and outside along with a layer of shavings and had a bowl full of pellets which made me happy to see. They always have a stock of chinchilla supplies even though I don't buy any of it except for lava bites.

 

[Rebecca]

I buy feed and hay from Petfood Express, which does not sell animals. They do sell Kaytee and other poor quality brands, but always seem to try and get people to buy healthier brands. As for buying Oxbow, I know there is a user here who sells it for a good deal, but I can't remember who.

 

[JennyBug]

It really depends on the store. The PetSmart near me listened when I made suggestions, and the next time I was in the store (about a month later) they were still following them. Still, we don't usually go to PetSmart because we prefer to support our local business (plus, our local store sells 10 lbs of Oxbow for around $14, so you can't beat that!)

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

I am glad that my Petsmart does not sell chins, but I am glad that the animals they do sell, are very well taken care of. I usually go right as they are opening up and they are always doing cages and feeding when I am there. I asked them one day why they stopped selling chins, and they said that when the store came under new management, he did not think anyone knew enough about them to support selling chinchillas to unsuspecting customers who did not know enough about them. I had to applaud him for that decision.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

Petsmart here tends to take decent care of their animals. However, poor breeding practices can be seen in some of their animals. Especially their rats. They tend to have URI's. I would never buy a pet from a pet store. I would much rather go to a breeder-for any type of pet. I was actually thinking about getting a guinea pig and am currently researching breeders in my area.

 

[fanofdmb84]

It really seems to depend on who's running the store. Around here it seems the smaller pet stores are worse than the bigger ones. I actually prefer Petsmart over most of the other places in town because their prices are lower. We have a few tiny stores, but one in particular is very overcrowded and dirty, and I've heard several complaints about it.

Unfortunately all you can do is try to educate people and hope for the best.

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

You would think that a pet store that sells exotics AND has a vet clinic attached to it, would gee..umm..employ an EXOTICS vet..I have never gotten why they do not do this.:err:

 

[shubbles]

I see the same chins in the same cage every time i go there. I don't work there, but i wouldn't think that chinchillas are their main product. Also they most likely don't care!

 

[Ash]

There's a tiny pet store in this town that's actually not too bad. Not great, but far better than the big chain stores when it comes to how she keeps her chins. At least these guys had a Chin Spin and roomy cage as well as pellet food, hay, and plenty of water. I've been in owner homes that didn't do that well, sad to say. There's another store called That Pet Place in Lancaster, PA that does pretty well too, though in the last 3 years they've started using plastic in their cages (Martin's cages). I don't know if they've taken it out or not, but I did give a manager some info packets on proper chin nutrition and care with some suggestions for improvement, so there's hope they might.

TPP still uses plastic. I've think their care has started to degrade rather than improve, as they feed junk Kaytee food, but their care is still better than some other places I've seen and the chins normally look fairly content. Chi-Chi (the store chinchilla) is usually out and more active when there are people in the Small Pets room, too, so she's not stressed in the least.

 

[chinsNdobermans]

There's a tiny pet store in this town that's actually not too bad. Not great, but far better than the big chain stores when it comes to how she keeps her chins. At least these guys had a Chin Spin and roomy cage as well as pellet food, hay, and plenty of water. I've been in owner homes that didn't do that well, sad to say. There's another store called That Pet Place in Lancaster, PA that does pretty well too, though in the last 3 years they've started using plastic in their cages (Martin's cages). I don't know if they've taken it out or not, but I did give a manager some info packets on proper chin nutrition and care with some suggestions for improvement, so there's hope they might.

Becky, are you talking about Remember Us?
I didn't know if they carried chins or not.