Where do you buy your stuff?

[dirty hippie]

I'm sorry, I know this is probably a newbie question and has been asked a million times before - but where do you guys buy your food/bedding/toys for your cavies (and other animals.)

I live in a fairly small town. We have a PetCo, as well a Target and a Walmart that sell a fairly wide variety of pet supplies. I usually buy my [rat] bedding at Target (Aspen!), and my food and toys at PetCo. (Cat food and litter I can get at the grocery store.) I know that this site does not promote buying from petstores that sell animals. But, as much as I don't want to support the milling of small animals, I don't know where else I can buy lab block and pet toys? (Neither of which are available at Target. And I don't shop at WalMart for political reasons.)

I don't have a credit card or a debit card with which I can buy things online. I would consider getting a debit card if someone could point me to a good site with which I could buy small animal food and toys? (I only have rats right now, but I will be getting a pair of cavies in the near future.)

[BabyGrl]

I get my food and hay fromm www.kmshayloft.com Kleenmama take paypal so if you have a bank account you can link that to a paypal account to pay that way. Also I have not bought anything from the site but www.theferretstore.com has many things on there also. Also another site to get hay and food from is www.oxbowhay.com . You would need a credit or debit for that site. Hope that helps.

[homeschoolmama]

I pick up Oxbow pellets and most of our food bowls, water bottles & other "normal" items at a local pet supply store. If you come into Minnesota at all, it's this one - http://www.chuckanddons.com They also carry some of the Super Pet items.

I have ordered some things from http://www.ferretstore.com that I couldn't find locally. They have fast (and several times a year FREE) shipping & I have no complaints. Recently I was comparison shopping though, and found that http://www.critterstore.com has several guinea pig things I was looking at for a little bit cheaper. You might want to check both, if you're looking for something specific. Both of these sites also have plenty of other rodent toys, so you could probably pick stuff up for your rats at the same time & save on shipping!

And for hay, we buy through Kleenmama too. I can't say enough good things about her hay. It really & truly is amazing! If you decide to order through her, I'd recommend trying the bluegrass... my boys will touch nothing else! It is so soft, and smells so fresh & clean! http://www.kmshayloft.com

Hope this helps... and cogratulations on doing all your "homework" before you bring your piggies home! I wish more people would do that

[dirty hippie]

Thanks to both of you! I'm bookmarking all the sites that you guys have suggested. (And oh my, it just makes my day to see large roll-a-nests for only $6. How sad is that?) I'm going to go through all of them - as I'm also looking for a new, slightly smaller rat cage for my ratters, so. (I /know/, a store-bought cage on a CC site? I'm a terrible person.)

homeschoolmama - Thank you for the compliment. Education is very important to me, especially when it comes to animal care. (I am majoring in Wildlife Biology/Conversation Biology, so.) I just feel like I have a responsibility to provide the best care possible for my animals, y'know?
We're only five minutes away from MN, but we hardly ever go there. How sad is that? I looked at the locations for the supply store that you mentioned, and I don't think any of them were in western MN. At least, not in any town that I recognized.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Seems to be a lack of places to shop nowadays. Petco sells animals. Wal-Mart. Target carries clothing items with rabbit fur.

[uabutterfly]

Just a tip...

When I first started using this site I looked all over for oxbow food because I didn't want to pay the shipping charge, but I couldn't find any place that carried it. I happened to go back on the oxbow website the other day and saw that you can type your zipcode in the box in the corner and it will give you a list of all the local places that they supply. Call first, because not all places had piggy stuff. I was able to get Peanut some oxbow pellets without having to pay the huge shipping fee this way and it would work for you because you wouldn't need a credit card.
Many of you have probably already figured this out, but hopefully it helps someone.

~Sarah and Peanut

[aqh88]

I only get things online. Buying pellets and hay in bulk saves a ton of money compared to buying small amounts from the store even if you figure in shipping. Plus all petstores here sell things for at least twice the price as online if not 3 or 4 times as much. All the sites I get stuff from have already been mentioned except amazon.com but that's actually a mix of stores together. The credit card I use gives points towards buying things on amazon and if I get enough points they send me a $25 certificate with a number. Then I can use the money for a guinea pig house or toy.

[Cavyslavesteph]

It sounds like you have gotten a lot of advice on hay and pellets, but as far as toys, you could also try alternative ideas. Go to a dollar store and pick up things like baby toys (plastic keys on a keyring, unpainted, unvarnished wooden blocks, stuffed animals, etc.) They are good cheap toys for pigs and you don't have to shop at a petstore or order online. My boyfriend and I are going to make our own hidey houses out of extra coroplast and plain cardboard. Hope this helps.

[Katie]

I buy all my things from the local feed store. They have good quality Timothy hay for $5.00 a bale, 40# of Cell Sorb for $16 and Buckeye pellets for $15. I make most of my toys, and some we buy from Marcs.

[Ball Lightning]

Mostly I buy form a aquarium store which sells fish and LOTS of other stuff. It's a kind of barn-place with complete chaos that only the employees know to handle. They have dog stuff, cat stuff, rodent stuff, a lot of aquarium things, no cages fortunately, and lots of different brandless food for different kind of animals. The big advantage is that they are CHEAP. I mean, REALLY cheap (easily twice as cheap than regular stores). I bough a nice hidey house and a kitten bed (cuddle cup) there, and I buy my food (which is suprisingly good according to this site's description) and hay.
Unfortunately, the hay is sometimes very yellowish, while at other times the hay smells very spicy, so that if you hold it against your clothes while sealed, you will smell the hay whole day. They have 2 kinds of hay, so I always choose the greenest one (maybe somtimes the hay lays for too long or so, it's not always that bad).

[Percy's Mom]

Ditto on checking other types of stores. Dollar stores are a HUGE favorite around here, and obviously you can get great deals. Percy's mirror came from an auto parts store. Lowe's and Home Depot are always good sources for PVC pipe and drainage pipe that you can use for tunnels for piggies. I look for things that could be toys everywhere I shop.

[redrocketpop]

I buy my Mazuri pellets and grass hay at the local feed co-op. $3.75 for a bale of hay and it's absolutely wonderful and a 25lb. bag of Mazuri is only $12. My boyfriend and I also check out the local oriental market for veggies (huge bunches of cilantro and sometimes cucumbers for .50 ) as well as buying bulk at the grocery. Instead of buying a bag of baby carrots for 2.99, we buy a bunch with tops for .99 and cut them ourselves. That way our piggers get carrots that they love and tops. We're total veggie bargain shoppers.

[Ly&Pigs]

I get hay at the feedstore in bales, I do get my pellets from the petstore here in town but Skirbo's mom is bringing me 3-25lb. bags back from Florida when she goes to visit Skirbo over the holidays so I will be stocked up for about 8 months on pellets. I buy things from dollar stores to use as hidey houses or give them cardboard boxes, soda fridge pack boxes or make my own beds and get mattress pads, sheets and some toys from the thrift store. My girls have pvc pipe tunnels that my dad provided me from pvc pipe he had laying around. I have some bird and cat toys that have come from both the dollar stores and Wal-Mart. For bedding I use fleece which has been purchased at many places. I get Critter Care for the litter pan from Wal-Mart.

I too live in a small town. We have a Wal-Mart, 3 grocery stores, a Dollar General, 2 feestores and 1 mom & pop petstore.

I do get my hamster/gerbil food from PetNotSoSmart in Little Rock when I am down there but I buy 2-3 bags at once but I just found it on Amazon so will probably just order it from there instead now.

[flower power :@]

Hi i'm new to!
I buy my supplys from my stables as they have a feed shop there where i can get my pellets and toys ect.

[Slap Maxwell]

I buy my hay from www.bunnybale.com. It is nice and green and the pigs like the boxed hay a lot. It is very well priced for those of us on the east coast. NEEPs Inc. runs www.ferretstore.com, www.critterstore.com, and www.rabbitcentral.com, all of which carry lots of toys and Oxbow pellets. I find the latter two usually cheaper. FS has free shipping on orders over $35 though. They also all take Paypal (BB does, too). I either buy KM's pellets or Oxbow pellets at my vet's office supply store.

I buy my wood stove pellets (no additives) for the litter box at a local firewood supply. $7 for a 44lb bag.

If you want the best personally I think that KM's hay and Oxbow's pellets are the way to go. Everybody has their preferences for their pigs and their budget.

[cavy-cool-crazy]

I'm in Northern ireland. Here is where I buy everything for my piggies:

Hay - a friend of the family has a farm and he gives me a bale every few months (free).
Dry food - one of two feed stores.
Veggies - supermarket and a special veggie shop.
Toys - I mainly use stuff around the house, like blankets, pillows and toilet paper rolls.

Bedding I don't buy, simply because I use fleece, vetbed and hay. A one of payment and that's them for a few months or years!

[Ball Lightning]

By the way, I buy the veggies on the marketplace every week (yeah, we still got that in our town) because these veggies are far more fresh than the ones from the supermarket in my opinion. I don't want to have dried out cucumbre/peppers or brown lettuce after 3 days...