Local Petco not selling chins anymore!

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Brittney

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 23, 2009
Messages
826
Location
Phoenix, AZ
I went to go get dog food today and I always looks and see if they have any chinchillas. They haven't had any since I rescued Dylan, but they had the cage set up with "coming soon" signs in the cage like they were getting a shipment in. I went back today and the cage is completely empty. I asked when they would be getting more in and they said that they weren't making money on them, so they just quit ordering them.. I guess this is a win!
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It is and it isn't. The Petco out here took good care of their chins, provided decent bedding, feed, dust, etc. I suggested hay and maybe a wood house, and they gave it. I had no problem with them. What worries me is if large companies that have guidelines and oversight on their animals don't carry them anymore, who will monitor the people who will carry them?
 
That is true, but this store didn't take very good care of them. I had suggested things to them and they didn't provide it. My rescue from there was on deaths door when I got him. But I get what you are saying.
 
The one in Denver is still selling them. And they don't take good care of them. Poor baby.
 
They no longer have chinnies at the Petco near me, but you can order them if you pay upfront. They have the "chinchilla starter package" right up front, with that ever- popular big ball o' death, and that horrible tiny cage. :cry3:
 
They have chins at my petsmart, but they seem to be well looked after, strangely get some interesting colourings in there, and also notice that they sell, in pairs, frequently. So cute! I like the fact they have rules on some of the animals at ours though, like degus, you are not allowed to buy one, they will only sell 2. They have an offer on the chins so buying 2 is cheaper in the long run than just getting one.
 
Dylan was in super rough shape, it was really bad. I'm glad that they aren't going to have them anymore! Most of the Petcos around here are not very good with their chinchillas and I really, really hope that they stop selling them in all the Petco stores around AZ. It will mean less rescues to have to pick up. It seems like every week I have at least two chins show up out of the blue and, frankly, I am getting a pretty tired and overworked because of it. When a new chin comes in I don't seem to be as joyful about it as I used to be...
 
I hesitated to bring this up because we cannot let it go down the road to non-neutral comments, but keep in mind folks - ranchers have to have an outlet for offspring that they can't use. They do it one of 3 ways - wholesaling to pet stores, research, or pelting. They are going to sell those offspring one way or another, or the older chins, or the unusables. Clapping because they aren't in pet stores anymore is great, but you forget to think of the alternatives.

At least in pet stores they get a chance.
 
It's just those petstores...They don't take care of the chins. They let them get filthy, they don't give them anything to chew on, etc etc. It's better if they go to a petstore that gives a ****. But, in this case their comment just proves what their intentions were - they weren't making money off the chins so they got rid of them. (Of course, if the chins weren't chewed all to **** and weren't dripping with diarrhea, then MAYBE they would actually sell better?)

I got four chins in the last week from people, who didn't want them anymore. At the ranchers they are fed and cared for, at the very least. With some of what I have seen recently I can't say the same for the pet people...but that's just the exhaustion talking, maybe. My brain was going to say something about quality vs quantity...I just lost my train of thought. What were we talking about? Can I have the pancakes? :p
 
At the ranchers they are fed and cared for, at the very least.

You're missing the point Susan. They won't STAY at the ranchers. Ranchers need to open cages, cull, and sell. They ARE going to sell them to wholesale, into research (which is not pleasant), or they are going to be pelted. Not all pet stores are great, I got that. But not all pet stores are horrible. Some take decent to very good care of their animals.

As far as where they end up? I take the same risk selling a chin to a person walking into my home as a pet store does selling to John Q. Public walking into the store. People come here and talk a line, or talk a line to me via email or pm, but in the end I don't live at their house. I can't MAKE them care for a chin the way I want them to. I can't drive all over the country doing spot checks to see if the animals are in good shape. Any time you sell an animal to anybody, it's a crapshoot. You just have to hope that the person isn't lying to you and that you are putting your animals into a good situation. Ranchers aren't going to do that. They have thousands of animals a year to move - they are going to sell them where they can get paid. It's part of being in the business of ranching. They aren't going to hold onto 1000s of chins because they get queasy at the thought of selling them to a pet store. Again, wholesale to pet stores, research, or pelting - that's the bottom line.
 
I would rather see pet stores sell chins rather than BYBs, at least the care is out in the open for the public to see rather than behind closed doors. The worst rescues we have saw were from BYBs that gave up, not from Joe Public.
 
I know. It's okay. All I can do is my best, just like everyone else when finding homes for chins. It is a crapshoot, but it's a little less of one for those of us that are selling directly to the new owner because we can help out a little more with education and with trying to sift out the bad owners.

I knew what you meant. The ranchers need to sell the chins or they will be pelted. It's always been that way. For the time that they are with the ranchers they will be cared for even if that does mean being pelted. I don't know what to think about the researchers because I avoid anything having to do with that.

In the end, I just can't care about what ranchers do. All I can do is try my best to help out with the chins here that need me. And, when that means I get kicked out of a petstore for saying that their chins need better ventilation or hay, well, it's a little defeating. The energy that I have left at this point can't be spent worrying about petstores...I really did stop caring a long time ago.

I just wish that they'd stop calling me about supplying them with chinchillas - someone in Utah called me last week wanting any of the chins that I have available. Are the ranchers having a hard time wholesaling them lately?
 
Tunes I agree with you. However some people only think about what they see and never think about the rest.

Which to a extent we have to be that way to live in the world today
 
They sell them at Pet Supplies where I live in NE Ohio. That's where I bought my first one, and second one. They were both babies and are beautiful and have great personalities. What stinks about buying them there is they have no pedigrees, and they couldn't even tell me how old they were, just that they were very young. (Gee, really??) They keep 1 at a time and they live in a glass display tank with no air holes.
The Petsmart a half hour away from me has 3. They are larger and the same 3 have been there for the past 2 months (or longer!) They will let you hold them, but they're so untame, it's nearly impossible! They do take good care of them, though. They're well ventilated and clean.
I wish I could rescue every one I see in a pet store, but I have realized I just can't!
 
They were both babies and are beautiful and have great personalities. What stinks about buying them there is they have no pedigrees, and they couldn't even tell me how old they were, just that they were very young.

There is no way they could possibly give you their ages, and of course no pedigrees, because they come from a wholesaler. A wholesaler doesn't jot down anything about the chin he/she is picking up. They pick it up, put it in a carrier, take it back to their place, and stick it in a cage awaiting shipment. If they pick up 100s of chins on a run, they won't even have a clue who they got them from by the time they get home.

Also, even if they did buy direct from a breeder, they aren't going to give you any information that would point you to that breeder. If they did, you would buy direct from the breeder, rather than the pet store, and their bottom line is to make money.
 
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