Australia what is your opinion on Australian pet stores?

[Alanas]

I buy my food from a rescue now. All the animals sold there are from NSW Animal Welfare and the money goes back to the Animal Welfare. It is great, the produce is excellent too. I make up my own food now because I am so sick of the crap they put in the supermarket produce, and I know they are getting all of the nutrition they need and it costs me a lot less.

 

[shermn]

Wow...

There are some truely shocking stories there...

I bought my 3 all from the same pet shop in the town I live in. They rarely have pigs because there aren't any breeders in the area to supply them. This, I believe is a good start (that there aren't any breeders in my area).

But this pet shop (recently re-named "spoiled rotten") is very good with their animals.
They stopped selling dogs and cats because they said that the shop was too small to be able to give the animals enough room (this is great to hear).

And all the piggies are housed in 4x4 sized cages with about 5 or 6 in there at 1 time (I've seen a maximum of 7).
The females and males are kept seperate and away from the birds. AND they have good food and always have alot of water and places to hide and play with.

This pet shop is only small, but all the animals have good sized display enclosures and all of my piggies hav been VERY tame since I first brought them home and are all adorable.

I don't think I could handle walking into a petshop like the ones you have described. I'd cry :weepy:

 

[pigloverr]

When I decided to get cavies, I did my research so I knew what to look out for when buying cavies, cages, etc. I learnt stuff about pet shops that I didn't know before and with this new found knowledge I went to 3 local pet shops to see what they had to offer. All the rumors were true! They kept male and female guinea pigs together with rabbits in one store and they kept guinea pigs in mouse cages in one store, with barely a 1ft square of room AND in another they didn't sex their cavies properly. I ask you how they can sell cavies when they obviously know NOTHING about them?!
I got my sheltie Pickles from the RSPCA. I was aware that she was pregnant before I adopted her but I knew I could give her and her babies a good home.
Pickles had her pups four days ago and so far I've had no problems at all. I just hope other people make the right choice. Adopt, don't breed or buy.

 

[akintolife]

I don't know if people know about the Say No To Animals in Pet Shops campain that has been running for awhile now (broken link removed), but it's one that's been running for awhile now.

I've also found that the RSPCA generally has a lot of guinea pigs come in and that they are always in need of people to foster. I foster for the RSPCA in Queensland and at the moment as soon as I return my fosters I get another lot. The one good thing is that they seem to be adopted pretty quickly as well, but if you are looking for one to adopt a good place to look is adoptapet and (broken link removed)

 

[pigloverr]

I found my Pickles through adoptapet.

 

[Lakota]

I remeber that the first pig my brother adopted was pregnant. But it wasn't the pet store's fault; they were always up-front about the animals they sold and told us she was expecting. However that guinea pig died because of her age (about 9 mths old); apparently the breeder didn't tell the store this was her first litter and that she was bred too late. They stopped buying from that breeder after they realized what happened.

That pet store actually took good care of their animals. They kept male and female animals separate and in big cages. They were even willing to separate animals that did not get along. We adopted 3 more guinea pigs from them, and all 3 were healthy, happy, and well-adjusted pigs. One lived for a number of years... despite our naive way of caring for him. They also always had a local vet check their new animals and only used certain breeders. Sadly the store closed years ago.


Our area PetSmart is pretty good. I'm not sure if those are in Austrialia though. My only complaint is that they keep guinea pigs in small tanks no different from those they use for rats. On the plus side they always have their stock vet-checked and use more reliable breeders. I also have to give the store credit for housing cats (and rabbits) from our area's shelters and rescues instead of simply using breeders. That helps those animals find homes. Maybe they'll start housing guinea pigs from shelters sometime.

SuperPets is a bit of the oppostite of PetSmart. They keep their pigs (and ferrets and rabbits) in bigger runs, but theirs are often not as healthy. Plus they overcrowd their mice intended for snake food. I once counted over 50 in 2 cages that were connected. The poor mice completely covered the floor of the cages and were even in the space where the screen attached to the top of the cage. Thankfully the store has fixed that slightly; now they limit each cage to 15 to 20 mice.... still a bit crowded but much better than before.


(Sorry I can't say much about Australian pet stores; we just went thru something similar in having a pregnant guinea pig. I hope you didn't mind reading my post though.)

 

[Sticky Mann]

We took our pigs to the vet both were female, and discovered they were pregnant.

I recently just bought a GP from a pet store and she might have the same thing happening.

Some pet stores are alright. In Coffs Harbour there is a pet store called Brontasaurus Pets. It never houses animals of the same sex together. They have huge cages to store them and there is always a large supply of food/water with them. They also never buy inbred/diseased animals. They just send the owner to the vet.

Now for the bad stuff. Where I bought Artemis (not at Brontasaurus) there was no food in her cage. Artemis has really weird hair and it sticks up everywhere. I think this could be because she developed the habbit of chewing her hair in there. She was housed with a rabbit (that's why I thought it was ok). I asked about leashes and harnesses and they said they were fine. They even said you could leave it on them while they were in a WIRE CAGE!!!! That would kill the poor GP in one night. I haven't touched the lead since I joined here and discovered how bad they are.

 

[SEpiggie]

I am very disenchanted with my local pet store, he seems to think that it is simply a business and he has little care for his animals. When I bought my little ones there was no food in their cage and he suggested that they 'might' like carrot-some one had told him that? Not good at all, I refuse to buy anything else from him at all.

 

[AussiePigs]

Someone earlier mentioned a Petshop on Chapel St, I didn't get my piggys there but have bought some supplies there as it's on my way home from work.
The animals in there do seem well looked after, I've even seen the staff refuse sale of a pig as they had another one that they had received that was in poor condition that they didn't want to be left on it's own. I think the staff ended up taking them home to nurse.
They've also been a good source of information about feed, vitamins, housing etc.

 

[kathrynj]

I really would question the advise given by petstores, they are the number one source of misinformation.

 

[pigsforlife]

There is only 1 rescue/shelter in W.A, which unfortunately is days away. My first guinea pig was brought from a pet store, a month or so later when I decided to get another guinea pig, I found out that the pet store had shut down. With no other pet stores anywhere near me (with one to open shortly) and with Lilys (my first guinea pig) best interest in mind I turned to a professional breeder, I was amazed at the level of care her guinea pigs got. She did not have many, but their cages were spotless, food stacked high and all of the guinea pigs were social and interactive. This is where I got Buttercup and later Toffee.

 

[kathrynj]

Could the shelter ship the pigs? I know the one here in Queensland has flown pigs cross states, and throughout the state also. Beats supporting breeding

 

[pigsforlife]

I tried that tactic, but because they are only a small rescue they replied with a sharp no. If I had a choice I would adopt, but at the moment the circumstances are unfortunate.