What I noticed at Petsmart.... - Page 2

**Ly&Pigs** · #21 11-29-06, 10:01 pm

I'd also like to know what kind of crap pellets people are buying from PetStupid and PetNotSoSmart and other crappy pet stores that sell animals? You rarely find a petstore that sells animals that has a good quality brand of pellets such as Oxbow and I've never seen Mazuri in either of the PetStupid or PetNotSoSmart stores in Little Rock. PNSS pushes their own brand of pellets which is Nutriphase and they are very bad quality pellets.

Try locating feed stores or co-ops in your area. Even big cities should have feed stores.

**Susan9608** · #22 11-29-06, 10:06 pm

Wal-mart also pays their employees very poorly and offers them *very* expensive medical insurance coverage plans. When employees complain about the high cost of insurance, Wal-mart's HR department hands out forms to help employees qualify for Medicaid. I don't even have the words to describe how wrong that is.

**Lyndsay** · #23 11-29-06, 10:10 pm

Maybe because of my age I'm not aware of it happening like that here. Very intresting though. I don't even know about the benefits I have at work after being there for almost a year and a half, never mind Wal Marts.

**Jennicat** · #24 11-30-06, 05:45 am

Yes, Walmart does hire quite a few women. I worked there as a summer job, Lyndsay. And my Walmart was full of women who had spent years trying to climb up the managerial ladder, and were getting nowhere. When the store is almost 80/20, as you described, and most of the managerial positions are men, even if they have to bring them in from other stores, though we have trained people, that's a bit fishy.

jthocker · #25 11-30-06, 06:59 am

The Petsmart I go to sells Mazuri. It also is the only place that i have seen aspen.

exsNohs · #26 11-30-06, 10:25 am

Quote:

You always have a choice. You can choose to go out of your way to a place that does not sell animals, you can choose to pay extra for shipping and buy online, or, as radical and extremist as it may seem, you can choose NOT to have pets if you absolutely must buy their supplies from a place that contributes to overpopulation and cruelty.

Some people might have very demanding and time consumming jobs at the moment and cant just go out of their way for things sometimes. Some people, also, might be on a tight budget and cant excatly afford the extra shipping costs or extra gas money to drive to a much farther store. And just because that might be so, doesnt mean whoever has the pets doesnt love them anymore than anyone else loves theirs. Theyre not just gonna get rid of their pets as soon as times get tough.. theyre gonna do what they HAVE to do to feed them and take care of them the best they can for the time being.

**fairysari** · #27 11-30-06, 10:40 am

Love doesn't keep tummies full and pay for vet visits. Proper diet and care help keep your animals healthy. If you can't afford to care for your pets, it doesn't matter how much you love them, you shouldn't have them.

I'm not saying shopping at Petsmart makes you a bad pet owner outright. But if you decided to feed cheap pellets with cancer-causing ingredients, instead of spending a few extra dollars on a high-quality food, then you are not providing the best care for your pet. And I believe that this site advocates not just adequate care, but the best possible care. Besides, those few extra dollars you saved on pellets every week will not seem so important in a few years when you are paying huge vet bills for an illness that could have been avoided....

**Wheek Weak** · #28 11-30-06, 11:05 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by exsNohs

Some people might have very demanding and time consumming jobs at the moment and cant just go out of their way for things sometimes. Some people, also, might be on a tight budget and cant excatly afford the extra shipping costs or extra gas money to drive to a much farther store. And just because that might be so, doesnt mean whoever has the pets doesnt love them anymore than anyone else loves theirs. Theyre not just gonna get rid of their pets as soon as times get tough.. theyre gonna do what they HAVE to do to feed them and take care of them the best they can for the time being.

I'm sorry to shoot down your theory, but we have only one car right now, we have only one job right now, and we are on a very tight budget. We also live in a rural area, so shopping for supplies is not very convenient.

We have 5 guinea pigs and NEVER have to step foot into a pet store for ANY supplies, whatsoever. In fact, after we quit buying supplies at the pet stores, we were able to find better quality supplies at lower prices! You have to take the time to do your homework and consolidate trips. When you do that (and I speak from personal experience), you actually save time and money while getting better, healthier things for your pigs.

exsNohs · #29 11-30-06, 12:06 pm

Well, I am also a new guinea pig owner and have never heard of the food from those stores having "cancer causing ingredients". I'd love to know what those ingredients are though. If i saw what they were then I obviously wouldn't give it to my pets. Buying from those places, i never thought they'd sell things that were bad for the animals.

**zambonigirl** · #30 11-30-06, 12:42 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennicat

Yes, Walmart does hire quite a few women. I worked there as a summer job, Lyndsay. And my Walmart was full of women who had spent years trying to climb up the managerial ladder, and were getting nowhere. When the store is almost 80/20, as you described, and most of the managerial positions are men, even if they have to bring them in from other stores, though we have trained people, that's a bit fishy.

They are also anti-union, which could help the workers get better pay and benefits, and if the employees were to even try to strike, they would all be fired and new ones would be brought in. It's just a very sad situation. (cit: Will Labor Take the Wal-Mart Challenge?)

In fact, Walmart feels that it doesn't need a union! (cit: Wal-Mart Facts - Get the facts and latest news about Wal-Mart from Wal-Mart.)

So, anyway, all of what's been said so far (particularly the high foreign buying from countries that employ children), and the union business, is why I do not shop at Walmart.

As for food being too expensive online? Again, I got mine for $1.00 a pound online. In the pet store, I believe that you pay somewhere around $3.00 a pound (not 100% sure on that, but it seemed like 64oz was 14.99? So, that's almost $4.00 a pound!) Yes, it's a much larger investment initially, but you're saving money in the long run. You're also getting much healthier, fresher food. I can't tell you how well the pigs reacted to the Oxbow hay over the Kaytee hay that I was giving them initially. The Kaytee hay was cut into very short hunks, smelled a little stale, and looked a very odd shade of green. The oxbow is bright, vibrant green, smells wonderful, and is full of nice, long strands that the boys just love to play with, make little nests out of, and, of course, eat.

It would be a wonderful world if pet stores only sold products that were healthy and "good" for animals, but they're businesses. They sell products that will make money, bottom line. They have salt licks and vitamin drops for the water, small, cramped cages, spinning wheels and exercise balls, all for guinea pigs, and all items that have been known to cause harm. They also sell food that have seeds, a known choking hazard for pigs, because it sells and people don't know any better.

jthocker · #31 11-30-06, 01:08 pm

OK, lets get something straight about the budgets. I dont want to say anything bad about anyone here but it sounds like your pigs live better lives then you. Have you stopped to think what is in a Big Mac, or a bag of cheeze-its. That stuff is alot worse then what you are feeding your pigs. We try to do our best and trust me, I have alot of right to do what i want and complain about what I feel nessacary. Yes, about now I am going to pull out the career card. I am in the United Stares Navy, and it is so hard to find time to go out of the way to a place that "might" have something, when I can go to Petsmart on my way home to my wife and daughter, do the best i can there with what they have (which my pigs love), then go home and spend quality time with everyone.

**Percy's Mom** · #32 11-30-06, 01:11 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by exsNohs

Well, I am also a new guinea pig owner and have never heard of the food from those stores having "cancer causing ingredients". I'd love to know what those ingredients are though. If i saw what they were then I obviously wouldn't give it to my pets. Buying from those places, i never thought they'd sell things that were bad for the animals.

They sell whatever will make the most money and is cheapest to keep in stock. And contrary to popular belief, most of the people who work in pet stores know little or nothing about animals or the products they sell for them.

The cancer causing preservative is called ethoxyquin. All Kaytee foods and most of their treats contain it as do some other brands. Most of the other foods have so many chemicals in them, I'd hardly call them food, or they have a ton of fat, salt, extra calcium, animal byproducts, dairy products, ash, and limestone in them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jthocker

Have you stopped to think what is in a Big Mac, or a bag of cheeze-its. That stuff is alot worse then what you are feeding your pigs.

And YOU have the ability to choose what you're eating. Your pigs do not. They only get what you give them. As far as the "career card" goes, that's a horribly lame excuse. Everyone that has a career, military or not, is extremely busy and doesn't have the time to make extra trips. That's what the phone and email are for. You can take five minutes to make a quick phone call to other places or send an email to Wee Companions, a rescue that you have already been given the name of, to see if they have or can get the supplies you need, and you do this BEFORE you need them, so you don't have to waste any time driving somewhere that might not have what you're looking for.

**standuprookie** · #33 11-30-06, 01:27 pm

So just because you eat a lot of crap you should feed crap to you pets to. Oxbow has a store locator you can use or you could pick up a phone and call the store before you go.

**momof2pigs** · #34 11-30-06, 01:40 pm

Quote:

I'm not saying shopping at Petsmart makes you a bad pet owner outright.
But if you decided to feed cheap pellets with cancer-causing
ingredients, instead of spending a few extra dollars on a high-quality food, then
you are not providing the best care for your pet. And I believe that
this site advocates not just adequate care, but the best possible care.
Besides, those few extra dollars you saved on pellets every week will
not seem so important in a few years when you are paying huge vet bills
for an illness that could have been avoided....

First, I would like to see actual statistics on the ethoxoquin causing cancer in animals (numbers for instance). The ethox scare/threat has been around for 20 years and yet, many pet food manufactures continue to use it. If animals were dropping dead in huge numbers due to this ingredient, don't you think there would be a bigger public outcry to ban it??

Second, you are going on the assumption that all GP owners will "pay huge vet bills" later on. Sorry. "Huge" is relative. What is huge to me might not be huge to the next person. I have a limit. There is only so far I will go to save my CATS or my GP's. As long as they can live pain/ illness free for as long as they can and the vet care they do get can cure them (routine dentals,shots, mending broken limbs, fixing URI's or UTI's,etc), then fine, the money will be spent. As soon as I hear the "C" word related to any of my pets, they will immediately be PTS. Why prolong the inevitable when you can end the process right from the start? It is a ridiculous concept to spend thousands saving a GP when hundreds of them are sitting in shelters dying every day waiting to be adopted. Then I will go to my local shelter and look for another needy, homeless animal that is in danger of PTS just because it is in a kill shelter. THAT is saving a life.

I have spent thousands of dollars over the years to keep my pets healthy but this is one GP owner who won't spend big bucks on a free -$30 pet.

**fairysari** · #35 11-30-06, 01:43 pm

I don't know, but clicking around a website a few times, and subsequently having a large amount of pellets delivered directly to my door, for less than I would pay at a pet store, seems more convenient and less tiem consuming than buying from a petstore. Kleenmama's Hayloft :: Home

**fairysari** · #36 11-30-06, 01:52 pm

There are dangers of feeding low quality food besides just cancer. You are what you eat. Low quality food results in general poor health, for both people and their pets.

You know what, if you think that a "free-$30 pet" is not worth as much as a cat, then that is your decision. I just have to say, I'm am sort of appaled at the way you seem to view guinea pigs as disposable.

And I can't wait to hear the responses from members who have successfully treated cancer in their pets...

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