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Pet Stores D'oh! New Petco Guinea Pig Art

mufasa

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I went to our local Petco's grand re-opening today because they had a big sale. Part of the remodeling was to put huge pictures of animals around the upper walls. The picture of the guinea pig is of a piggy with a child who's giving it a bite of his ice cream bar!! Sigh. This is the same store that didn't understand why I didn't want the 10 gallon aquarium for my piggy Quinn when I adopted her there. They give you whatever the animal was brought in with by its previous owner and couldn't see why I didn't want her "cage," despite my explaining why it wasn't suitable and that I was taking her to a proper home. I asked, and thankfully they're still taking in/adopting out unwanted piggies now that they've re-opened.

At least I did get to educate someone; she was looking for ferret food and overheard that we were looking for guinea pig food. She said, "Here's some," and pointed to a bag with all the dried corn and seeds and "marshmallow" bits. I quickly educated her on why plain timothy-based pellets are best.

The piggy eating the ice cream bar, though...seriously...SMH.
 

pigmommy89

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I bet the people who work there love you as much as the people at my local one used to love me! (Total sarcasm there) I know I talked a few people out of buying tiny cages and crappy food. But my store closed six months ago so no more educating for me.
 

kairi26

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I told my manager about that sign and she said that she'd refuse it if they ever tried to put one up in our store. Especially since the current advertising slogan is "what we feed matters", or in my opinion "what we feed matters, as long as your pet is a dog or cat."

It's hard fighting on the front lines for good guinea pig care, especially given the bad reputation of pet stores. I had a couple yesterday looking for a bigger cage than the one they bought at Petsmart to house their two boys in, so I excitedly told them about c&c and showed them the pictures of the old configuration that I have at home (2x4 with a loft, now a divided 2x6 because blood was drawn :( ). They still bought a prefab cage, because "oh, this one will fit perfectly on our table!"

Sigh.
 

Lagertha

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I once called out the petco near us for keeping the regulated temperature for their guinea pig "cage" being too hot. They don't like me there xD I also scolded them for not giving them enough hay and for the enclosures being literally no more that 1 foot by 1.5 foot...smh
 

mufasa

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I told my manager about that sign and she said that she'd refuse it if they ever tried to put one up in our store. Especially since the current advertising slogan is "what we feed matters", or in my opinion "what we feed matters, as long as your pet is a dog or cat."

It's hard fighting on the front lines for good guinea pig care, especially given the bad reputation of pet stores. I had a couple yesterday looking for a bigger cage than the one they bought at Petsmart to house their two boys in, so I excitedly told them about c&c and showed them the pictures of the old configuration that I have at home (2x4 with a loft, now a divided 2x6 because blood was drawn :( ). They still bought a prefab cage, because "oh, this one will fit perfectly on our table!"

Sigh.

Good for your manager and also for you educating people! I know the sign in meant to be cute, but I can just imagine people going home and sharing unhealthy snacks with their piggies because that makes it look like it's okay. The people at that store are well-meaning but totally uneducated in small animal care, so I'm sure no one ever thought to question it when they put it up during the remodeling. I'm just happy they're going to keep doing the small animal adoptions. I was worried when I didn't see any, but it just reopened so I'm guessing they haven't had any animals dropped off lately.
 

Beatrix187

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Sometimes I can't believe petco puts all this bad stuff on their shelves still. And that companies still make it. Can't they do research? And why does it seem that we piggie OWNERS know more about guinea pigs than the actual MANUFACTURES and STAFF. Oh, its because we DO know more than them. Its not the nineteen 80s or 90s anymore. Guinea pig care has been updated. I almost feel like starting a petition or something. Or Kaytee better start up their game. People depend on pet stores sometimes to care for their guinea pigs.But good for you, for speaking up about the cages and stuff.
 

Cavies4EverEver

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I went to our local Petco's grand re-opening today because they had a big sale... QUOTE]


There is a lot that annoys me with petco, It annoys me that they DONT carry oxbow, it annoys me that the only brand of anything for guinea pigs is KayTee, and third that they keeps their guinea pigs in a small fish tank.. thats probably the most annoying thing.
 

Beatrix187

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I went to our local Petco's grand re-opening today because they had a big sale... QUOTE]


There is a lot that annoys me with petco, It annoys me that they DONT carry oxbow, it annoys me that the only brand of anything for guinea pigs is KayTee.

I know, I just can't understand why they can't carry it. Just blow the KayTee of the shelves, and order some oxbow!
The only good thing there is the chew toys.
 

mufasa

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Kaytee does have one decent product. They do a timothy-based pellet now. I'm not sure whether it has the bad preservative, but I don't think so. Of course, people pass right over that and go for the stuff with the colored bits because it looks better to humans, even though it's terrible for pigs.
 

Cavies4EverEver

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Kaytee does have one decent product. They do a timothy-based pellet now. I'm not sure whether it has the bad preservative, but I don't think so. Of course, people pass right over that and go for the stuff with the colored bits because it looks better to humans, even though it's terrible for pigs.

I buy the timothy pellets no colors or any seeds or nonsense, my pigs dont seem to mind it. It does bug me that Petco only sells Kaytee products.. and they have a cage with 6 to 8 ferrets just running arround on top of each other.
 

LittleSqueakers

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My local Petco does sell American Pet Diner hay in small bags. Tribble gets it as a special treat (instead of his regular hay) to get him to sit in my lap longer during laptime. :) That's about the only thing I've found there that is acceptable product. Honestly, I get so discouraged to see all of these things and it makes me feel like I'm fighting such a losing battle that I usually don't even try to talk to people in pet stores. I just feel that by being there they've already made up their minds and it's just a waste of my energy to try to convince anyone that all the pretty, flashy colors don't make it right when it's really wrong.
 

mufasa

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It never hurts to engage them in conversation in a friendly way. I usually show empathy by saying something like, "I used to think that was good for guinea pigs, too, and then I found a great site online and learned about proper care." That way, you're showing you were once just like them rather than acting superior. They still might not change their minds, but at least you get them thinking. I love showing people who come to my house how I keep my pigs in the swimming pool. They're always shocked because they inevitably think a small cage is fine, so it's a great way to educate them.
 
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