good petco?

**loves2travel** · #1 09-19-04, 11:35 am

yesterday, i went to a local petco and was surprised at what i saw. The guinea pigs there lived in humongous cages (about 3x5), three pigs to a cage, and were on carefresh bedding. It smelled fine so they were obviously cleaning oftenThey had fesh veggies, and TONS of hay. there was a hidey hole for everyone,a nd a couple of safe toys. No wheels! there were little notice boards posted all around the cage that said stuff like: "guinea pigs need to provided with extra vit. c every day in the form of fresh vegetables" "the best bedding to use is careFRESH" "they need unlimited hay" etc. I was very impressed and happy.

what do you all think?

**loves2travel** · #2 09-19-04, 11:36 am

i forgot to mention, their pellets were oxbow cavy performance as they were all still very young

**loves2travel** · #3 09-19-04, 11:47 am

someone? anyone??

TinaFabulous · #4 09-19-04, 11:55 am

Wow, my petcos nothing like that, all the fish are sad looking, the reptiles are ugly, the ferrets look cranky and sad, the bunnies are bored, and the guinea pigs condition... Well they have those light up display boxes that they use for hamesters as well. The took one level, about 2x1 and use a seperator in the middle. Last time I was there there were 2 females on hte right and 3 larger males on the left... We even pointed out once that to the workers that they were out of water, they use carefresh... But the only pig i got from there had nemonia and died within that week even after the vet

TinaFabulous · #5 09-19-04, 11:57 am

O ya, and the other petstore that was in town, that is no longer there. They had more than 15 larger pigs mixed together in one of those industrial strength organizer bin thing that arnt to huge.

TinaFabulous · #6 09-19-04, 11:57 am

it was so sad... Theres one more petstore on the other side of town that gets pigs locally and treats them nicly, but they arnt a chain petstore like petco

**piggielover92** · #7 09-19-04, 12:06 pm

That's great you found a good Petco. Unfortunatly not all Petco's are that good. I hope I can find one that takes good care of the live animals or doesn't sell animals at all!

**loves2travel** · #8 09-19-04, 12:09 pm

do you think it is ok to support this petco and buy their products?

TinaFabulous · #9 09-19-04, 12:15 pm

I dont really know...

**loves2travel** · #10 09-19-04, 12:39 pm

i dont really know either, because it still IS a petstore that sells live animals, but they take such good care of them...

TinaFabulous · #11 09-19-04, 12:42 pm

And its sort of tied with mine, which is an aweful aweful place.... And i guess by buying stuff there your sort of supporting all the petcos and breeding

**piggielover92** · #12 09-19-04, 02:06 pm

I am not sure... They do sell live animals, but they sound like they take excellent care of them. I would go ahead and buy from them.

**MetallichicA** · #13 09-19-04, 04:31 pm

If you buy from one Petco, you are supporting them all. The money does not stay within that one store - it funds each and every Petco across the nation.

TinaFabulous · #14 09-19-04, 04:39 pm

she's right, when you buy something their you are supporting the breeding and selling they do all over the nation

**loves2travel** · #15 09-19-04, 05:59 pm

very true, metalchica. besides, its not like there arent any other places i can get stuff from

**Emily F.** · #16 09-20-04, 02:50 pm

I would go ahead and buy. I'm not ALL against petstores. So I can't judge them, and say I hate them, because all the one's I've been to are great.

**cinn&sprinslave** · #17 09-20-04, 04:51 pm

Thats great that this petco takes good care of their animals! (could ya send me a pm about where it is at?)
I wouldn't buy stuff from them.
1) They are way to expensive, (if you really want to support a large chain pet store support Petsmart they are way cheaper.)
2) There are other petco's in this area (we live in the same area) that aren't good. You would be supporting them.
3) I just don't think you should do it. Find a feed store etc. that isn't a large chain store if you have to buy from a petstore.

**CavyCrazyMom** · #18 09-20-04, 11:10 pm

Just to point out that a feed store, that I know for a fact one of the rescue groups uses, sells live animals in worse shape than any Pet store I have ever been in. Rabbits on wire floors with no where to rest their feet and chicks bred and sold there...what makes this OK to use and not a pet store?? I was just thinking that a lot of times we get into somehting that makes us mad, but then we don't look at the whole picture. If we were a rabbit or a chicken group we would be mad about that but we wouldn't nessesarily be talking crap about petstores, we'd be talking crap on the feed stores. But we don't because they don't sell pigs. Although I was told she could get me one if I was interested (wich I didn't take her up on btw).
I do think that feed stores are better to buy hay and stuff at because it's definately cheaper! And I buy my bedding at wal mart because it's cheaper too! (well, half of it, they don't carry carefresh...)
Anyway...I just wanted to bring up that point because if one is considered bad, then the other should be too and they should both be brought up. An animal is an animal, no matter what kind it is, and ALL animals deserve the same treatment and help from those of us that are willing to help.
~~Cheri~~

**loves2travel** · #19 09-21-04, 05:06 pm

cavycrazymom, you bring up a valid point, and i just thought about something. Fish can not be adopted from the humane society or bought off of cavy classifieds, and still people do have to buy them from somewhere. so if everybody buys fish from a store, and all animals are supposed to be equal, then what is wrong with buying other animals from a store.

(I dont 100% percent agree with the above, just wanted to throw it in, get your guys' thoughts and feedback)

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