Is petsmart trying to kill their cavies?

[liluqt]

I was actually feeding my pigs that Oasis Vitamin C liquid junk for MONTHs until just a few weeks ago when I was informed that it sucks for pigs. I feel bad for putting my pigs through that. PetsMart is always looking for a cheap way to earn a buck. I shouldn't have listened to them when they told me I needed a salt wheel, liquid vitamin C and guinea pig food with toxins in them. Thank god my pigs are hippy pigs now.. they're geting the all natural stuff from oxford cavy cuisine/performance and Kleenmama's hay with tons of fresh fruits n veggies daily. Oh yeah!

 

[tashagurl]

The last time I was in Petco I looked at their pigs out of habit. They had two males. One was considerably larger than the other. I noticed that the smaller one had some crusting around his eyes. He also had some around his nose. I imediatly called someone over and told them their pig had an URI. I was also worried that it was a girl. It was a male and they said they would take care of its URI. I dont know if they did.

I also looked at their rats. One was breathing very hard and looked like it was dying. I told another person, and they said they would take care of it.

I got my first pig from Petco and her was almost completly bald from mites. Salem is a silkie, he is supposed to have long hair, not no hair! I only buy things from Petco if I have no other choice.

 

[liluqt]

I bought two of my pigs together from Petco and then on the way out the manager pointed out that somebody had dropped a pig off on the counter, cage and all. So I ended up adopting that one and taking home 3 pigs in the same night as a new inexperienced guinea pig owner aside from the minimal amount of knowledge I picked up off the internet. It was a huge learning crash course for me, but I have been breathing and living guinea pig knowledge for the past 7 months now and know more now than I ever did thanks to here and guinea lynx. Luckily, my two pigs from Petco are healthy, but if I ever get another, it's going to be adoptions from here on out. The last time I bought something from Petco was when I stocked up on 16 50L bags of Carefresh because they had them on sale. Other than that I have absolutely no need to go back to Petco. Everything I get is from an online store now.. er.. except Aspen bedding.. been getting that from PetsFart.

 

[sofiemuffins]

This is a little off subject, but my Boyfriend recently told me about a co-worker of his who has a Male Guinea pig in a 10 gallon fish tank! I'm so flipping mad! So John and I are going to give him one of our pre-C&C cages. It's a Marchioro (spelling?) cage-definately not the recommended 2x3 grid size...I think it would be a 2X2. Which is a whole lot better than a 10 gallon tank!! Poor thing! We also bought a bale of hay a month or so ago, and haven't even used half of it-so I'm going to bring over a big bag for the pig. I just hope he's taking good care of it other than the tank, I don't wanna go there and get all furious at this guy I don't even know!


I'll keep you guys posted, I'm not sure when we can actually go to his house.

 

[tashagurl]

Yeah I agree. I was worried about the baby. I made a big deal about it and it was on the weekend and raining so there was a lot of people in the store because of the dog and cat rescue they help. They were setup right next to the pigs. I was worried that someone would just put him back after I left. They were just carrying him around for awile.

 

[DocDolittle]

I just commented on the way way too small cage because it was in the guinea pig section.

 

[DocDolittle]

But thanks everyone for informing me so much about how horrible these places can be! You guys are all such a help!

 

[RubyPiggie2]

Almost three yeras ago now I got my guinea pig from owners who obviously didn't care about him. He was in a 10 gallon tank, had a hamster water bottle, no hay, and had no food dish. The pellets were just laying there. You could see his bones, and his nails were curled under. Now he is as fat as can be(waddles!), lives in a 2.4x3 with another male, Mr.Stripe. He gets hay 24/7, and apparantely always gets veggies. Unfortunately, we were never able to repair his nails, and it's practically impossible. That's what the vet said. We can't really do a thing about it, except clip them regulary.

 

[dagwellismypigy]

I went to another non-chain petstore and it was worse than the petco or petsmart around me. They had HUGE guinea pigs in aquariums with pine(not kiln dried). They pigs had to be like 2 year old and they were being fed alfalfa based foods no hay i dont even remember seeing a water bottle GRR I had a very heated conversation with the clerks! So non-chain store arent neccisarily better than chain stores.

 

[mncavylover]

Each store is different. If they sell animals, chances are they're not the greatest.

 

[RubyPiggie2]

I agree with mncavylover. Unless they are a non chain store and have animals in the BEST cages and such, I would buy from them, only if they knew a lot of stuff and didn't breed.

 

[Loveheart]

the reason they sell that stuff is...because people actually buy it, so there must be alot of people out there that do not have a clue at all whatsoever

 

[Susan9608]

Petco and Petsmart, but mainly Petco, are under investigation and boycott by PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals). You can read all about it, the horror stories and how you can help, by going to http://www.petcocruelty.com/. They even have an action pack you can order.

In our ignorant days, my husband and I purchased a guinea pig from Petsmart, Oink, and we were assured that Oink was only 4 months old. Within two weeks after our purchase of her, we discovered that she was closer to 2 years old than four months, and that she had cancer so far progressed that the tumor had lysed away most of her jaw bone on the left side. She died about 3 weeks later. We complained to Petsmart, and they paid our vet bill, but they wanted to take Oink back. We refused - our vet speculated that Petsmart had sold Oink many times, only to have her returned because of the tumor, and instead of having her treated, they just resold her.

We reported Petsmart to PETA, the Humane Society of the United States, our local SPCA, and to the Better Business Bureau (as they committed fraud by selling me a 2 year old pig, while claiming it was only 4 months old.) I don't know how much good it did, but at least our complaints are on the record.