This is bad

[mookiecookie9]

This is bad

Those cage manufacturers must not be listening to ANYTHING the responsible animal lover would want. All of the cages I see in "pet" stores(

) (such a wealth of info there!) aren't good for any sort of animal. They are just too small/inadequate for the species they are intended for!! No animal likes to live on, nor does well on a wire floor, but almost all of the store cages have that cold, hard, ugly mesh floor! They are WAY too small for rabbits, ferrets, adult rats and guinea pigs (except maybe as travel cages), and the mesh is too large/ there are too many escape routes for smaller animals, such as hamsters, gerbils, and mice. To add insult to injury, these painfully, abusively small cages with all the WRONG features are often marketed as "luxury", "deluxe", and "spacious" to entice unsuspecting customers who often know of no other option to pay the extravagant price. I have even gotten into arguments with store employees who pointed customers to a smaller cage, insisting that an already painfully small enclosure was "way too large" and the animals should be on wire flooring! Consequently, responsible caretakers are forced to make cages for their companions just for the safety and health of their little friends, who can't tell them that their cage "sucks". I do not have any guinea pigs (yet:evil: ), but I do have four rabbits whom I had to make cages for, and they aren't even large rabbits! They still have the run of the house, and the cages aren't as large as I would like, but they're ok for rabbits with free run of the house. I am currently working on a cage, or "habitat" for my two rats. "Construction" will begin soon, and I plan on putting in many shelves and toys for entertainment, and to supplement their free run time. The C & C cages are awesome!! What a great idea for oft-misunderstood animals!!​

 

[SuperCavyLover]

Re: This is bad

I agree wholeheartedly with you! Pet store cages just aren't enough to keep a pet healthy and happy. While my large cage isn't made of Cubes and Coroplast, it is very BIG and I my piggies really have more room than the reccomended space

 

[2steps]

Re: This is bad

Couldn't agree more. I have a large (3 storey) cc cage. Before that I had built a simular cage using an old fire guard and mesh (had less pigs then) The cc cages are brilliant and I love how each person can make what's best for their pigs and the space avaliable. I wish there was something simular avaliable to use for smaller animals like hamsters.

 

[AngelicumCavy]

.

I agree as possibly as I can, people keep on saying, "but not allof them are that bad" but for me, ALL petshops that sells animals are bad. This Cage issue alone explains how unknowledgeable and how not-credible pet shops are. Maybe in the usa there can be some good pet shops. But in my country unfortunately, HELL NO! :| NOT A SINGLE ONE has impressed me to the slightest.

Cages with wire-bottom is a complete suffering, and how about cages for birds? oh well, I never see any pet shop that sells enough cage space for a bird at all. Yes, a Guinea Pig canlive in a foot square cage for five years, they can live with rabbit pellets, but it's not wether they physically survive or not. Yes they can live but they'll live in suffering. So Many petshops are doing inhumane treatmentsto their animals without them even noticing it. So SAD

 

[mookiecookie9]

unfortunately...

Well, NO pet stores, in the USA or otherwise that sell commercially bred animals are good in my opinion. I agree about wishing for larger cages for hamsters. These store owners and cage makers must be smokin something:rollin: b/c I know that there is no way any animal can have any quality of life in a 9" x 13" x 8" cage! I make brownies in a pan that size!! I mean, that's like a human living in a bathtub or something!!:| :| :| I used to keep my hamsters (before they crossed the rainbow bridge) in a 72 gallon aquarium with a screen cover and lots of toys and things to climb on! The only problem was that it was so heavy and took nearly an hour 8o to clean!!! Now if I need cages I just order wire, custom or standard size sliding trays, and various other accessories and make my own. I'm working on a "ratitat" because I want my rats to have plenty of space since they can't have too much floor time b/c I have three cats (although I do have rat leashes for them to take them outside) . I want it to be @ least 4 feet tall and 30" x 18" base, w/ many shelves and other climbing accessories(solid, of couse) I think the coated wire will look nice, and I have also made many cages for my friends, who have nothing but great things to say! It's less expensive than pet store cages (the cost of making a 36" x 36" cage would buy a 24" x 18" cage at a pet store!!8o ) So if any1 who can't find or use the C & C, or wants a cage for a diffferent animal, wants any more info about making your own cages (which, by the way, look 10000 times better than poorly constructed pet store cages (especially the rabbit and cavy cages) just email me @ [email protected]!
PS: Many companies I order supplies from and many of my designs (which are free, of course) are also well- suited to many species of birds!

 

[secutores]

small cages

On the cavies I agree, they need room to exercise, but as for my hamster, I am of the opinion that his 10x14ish cages is big enough, because he hardly uses it at all. It has tubing running out the top and then sideways where his wheel is, as well as a loft that has a bubble lid.
As soon as I clean it, he gets busy moving all of his food from his food dish to the wheel, where he can run and throw it all over the room (the wheel is external.) He then seals the tubes with toilet paper I put in as nesting material, and starts running. The only time he moves his tunnel block out of the way is to go get a drink of water, then he's right back in there. He gets plenty of exercise, like 3 hours a day of running, and I have no idea how many at night.
I think that hamsters are burrowing animals, and therefore, at least mine is agoraphobic.

 

[faeriedebbie]

pet stores

I work at a pet store that SELLS NOTHING ALIVE WHATSOEVER but still of course, the biggest cage we have would be the bare torturous minimum for one piggie, so I spend my day trying to talk people into going to this website and build a bigger, better cage for cheap (mine cost me $32 grand total) and explain to them what I've learned here. I will say though, most of our hamster cages are pretty darn expansive. many have three stories and decent floor space and about a million tubes and add-ons. but I still have to beg people to not put hamsters in aquariums ("it's so much less mess, and it's what we've always done" :| :| ) and explain that despite the pictures on the boxes, you cannot use with your piggie (1) cedar (2) excercise balls or (3) wheels. And I'm famous for talking people into buying "the cheap boring pellet food" instead of the junk-food seed-filled ones. so I promise, some of us pet store employees are trying as hard as we can! but no distributor even seems to carry a cage that's really adequate for the piggies, and if they do it's gotta be sooooo expensive. c&c's are so much better!

 

[2steps]

Re: pet stores

It's brilliant your trying to help people do the best for their pets well done.

I bought a rat cage for my hamster and used rotastack tubes to make a network running round it and he loves it! It's great cos I can vary it too so he doesn't get bored. My pigs, hamster and rats all get floortime but I still like for them to have as big a cage as possible because they will still be spending most of their time in there. One of those small cages would be like me living in a cupboard!

 

[MoMmA CaVy3160]

Re: pet stores

i hate when some pet shops take advantage of a possibly new piggie owner, they try to grab your attention with their so called sales the "buy a starter kit and get the piggie free", of course the sales person tells you that the cage is big enough and if your a new owner you tend to belive them, since they are suppose to be experts on the subject of animals. i always tell potential piggie owners to do alittle research on the www first and i also tell them about sites like these where there are great people waiting to answer any q's they might have and can get great idea's about building your own cage for way cheaper than what you would spend even on the biggest cage there is available. i wish i had the internet to help me out when i had my very first piggie 9 years ago, .

 

[Octoberborn]

They're so mean!!

I went the my local pet store and they also had a guinea pig starter kit. The cage, they called it, was an indoor cage and it was hardly even 2 feet!!! It's so tiny! They even sold those "run around balls". I suppose they want the guinea pig to brake it's back. I can't believe they were on sale! So I tried to push it under the parrot cage to hide it from unresponsible guinea pig owners and people who want to buy them [/center] . I don't even think they even cared for their pet's they were selling.

Another time I went into another store, they sold their guinea pig with an extreamly shallow water bowl on the flore of the cage. It was probaby about 2 inches by 1 inch and inside was dirty soild water filled with beding and things like that. The guinea pig living in the cage was scratching it self uncontrollably. I had a feeling it had mites! Poor animal!

Anyway that's all.

~Octoberborn

 

[miss g pig]

Re: They're so mean!!

well i know the cage thing but at my local petstore the animals(guinea pigs are in quite a big cage with loads of hay,fresh water and food) i go and look cuz they are all so cute.
however they had large rats in a small petshop display hamster aquariun cage thing(sorry not to good at describing)
there was 3 large rats in a cage that would have been too small for a hamster let alone 3 rats!!

 

[janiexo]

Re: They're so mean!!

I don't entirely agree. I know petco is crappy, but I actually go to a petstore called NJ pets and they are pretty good. When I originally bought my piggy (at their store, not that i knew better then), the lady who was in charge of the small animals sold me a cage that was about 5 sq ft. She warned me that it was too small and that I would probably need to make my own cage because cages that are well suited for piggy's aren't produced.
Recently I was buying the supplies I would need for a C&C cage and stopped by the pet store to get some bedding and wound up buying a cage there. Im very happy with it, it's 8 sq ft which is not bad for my 2 girls.