Pet Stores: Pet Reform needs to happen.

[Dr Doughnut]

I feel the entire pet industry needs reform. Why?

There is no FDA for pets:

Rarely are there actual restrictions on what foods and such can be sold for pets. For guinea pigs and other rodents, preservatives like ethoquixin (Sorry, I have no clue about the spellin) are allowed in food and can cause, but in the human industry, sometimes dangerous substances are regulated or even banned (For instance, Cyclamate). In addition, pointless products are released by companies who are either completely ignorant or lookin for a sucker-dollar. Example: Salt Licks for guinea pigs. I'm not sure if any other rodents even need a salt lick, but whoever thought guinea pigs needed salt licks is just wrong. Other problems are misleading products like Vitamin C drops.

There is no regulation for products at all, and there is little mind when it comes to quality:

Likewise for food, there are just many problems with other kinds of products. A good example: Guinea Pig Harnesses. I bet the minds over at whoever makes them though 'Hey, guinea pigs... lets let them roam outside... but a leash won't work... maybe a harness' and BOOM it's a product. Its as if they make every idea they can think of a toy. When I walk into a petsmart, I see all these products in the 'Small Pet' section, but almost every guinea pig 'toy' I see is something utterly pointless, or dangerous.

All rodents are the same:

You see the exact same products for all the rodent pets, aswell as for rabbits and ferrets (which aren't rodents). The only difference is size. Sometimes it is fairly obvious it is good for all, like hidey houses and food bowls. It is very hard to mess those up. But other times, you will see 'treats' that say 'Made for Hamsters, Gerbils, Mice, Rats, Guinea Pigs, Ferrets, and Rabbits'. Or you will see a plethora of exercise balls or wheels that probably do benefit some species of rodents, but not for others. Its bad for toys, but it is worse for treats and food, when you consider guinea pigs need vitamin C, rabbits are vegetarian, rats are omnivorse, and ferrets are carnivores (I think).

The Petstores are not regulated:

Its probably easier to buy a rodent at PetSmart than it is to buy a case of beer at WalMart. At petstores, most of them to get a small pet the process goes: Pick you animal, box them up, and buy them. They don't make you sign up for forms, or get background checks, or even a well researched pamphlet on the animal. The books at petstores are sometimes pitiful with the information, outdated, or conflicting. I have yet to see a pet store that even mentions Cube and Coroplast cages. Not to mention the stuff we already know; sick animals and killing them in the freezer.

There are a ton more issues, but I'll get to them when I get to them.

[Amsley246]

I agree, they need better laws and guidelines for animals, especially for all other pets other then cats or dogs (I feel all other animals are lower on the list although cats and dogs are just as high a priority). I think what some people have for pets is ridiculous. It feels like sometimes, they just think oh hey, I want that as a pet, I'll just give it a bowl of food and call it mine. And the food/toy companies, think much in the same frame, they do a little research and then think it ok because it's somewhat consumable. I've heard of so many pets dieing lately because of solely what their eating and that's sad. It still echoes in my head when one day an older lady came up to me at work (I don't work at a petstore, but somewhere that sells dogfood for some odd reason) and she said her dog died because of Iams dogfood and was basically in tears as she told me. What is it going to take in order for our animals to get a better quality products that we can trust? Sure we, as pet owners, try and we're lucky to have brands like oxbow and KM, but too many other companies are selling garbage, and that's not right.