Adopting would you pay a rehoming fee?

[spacefem]

hope this is in the right place... I guess if not it'll get moved, no biggie

I'd really like to add a new guinea pig to my little group of boys. I live in Wichita Kansas and there's no local rescue here, and I keep watching the humane society listings but they haven't had a male up in a while. So I went looking on craigslist, and on all the listings there people are asking for ~$30 "rehoming" fees, some say "to make sure it's going to a good home" (not sure what the implication here is, I guess if you're too poor to fork over $30 you can't afford vet bills either, which is a true statement) or some say it's to reimburse for supplies they're giving you (cage, food, etc... which I actually don't need but whatever).

Anyway, our other guinea pigs are from humane society or they were adopted without any such fee. Rehoming fees sound a little sketchy to me, but then again maybe it's just normal, and I reminded myself that even humane society charges $20 or so.

What's the deal... if they want a rehoming fee should I just avoid it and move on?

 

[ellisa]

People use re-homing fees as a way to keep their pets from becoming snake food.

I paid $25 for my neutered boar. He was in really bad shape and his previous owner didn't deserve the money. I paid it anyways because I wanted to get him out of a bad situation.

The lady I got my sow from ended up dropping the re-homing fee once she knew that I would give the sow a great home.

 

[Raine59]

If you don't want whatever cage or supplies they are offering, you might ask how much they would want for just the pig. Maybe if you showed them pics of your current cage and other piggies, they would realize you are a serious owner. I understand the rehoming fee to try to keep them from being snake food, but if they can no longer care for the pig and you are taking over the expenses of taking care of the pig for the rest of its life, they shouldn't expect to be paid. I think you can negotiate the price down to little or free if they see you will be a good piggie parent.

 

[Inle_Rabbit]

I have no problem paying rehoming fees as long as they are reasonable. If for that 30 dollars you are also getting supplies and a cage I'd say that is reasonable. If it is just for the animal then they are asking too much. Also try to negotiate. Sometimes people mark up "prices" because they know there may be some haggling.

 

[CavyMama]

Right, a rehoming fee needs to be high enough to ward off people looking for snake food. Someone who is willing to pay $30 is likely a serious adopter rather that someone looking for a quick pet.Whenever I see a CL ad that offers a pig (or any animal) for free, I usually send them a note suggesting they ask for a fee for this very reason.

 

[mufasa]

I have no problem with a reasonable rehoming fee. I got Amy from Craigslist, and she was advertised with a $25 rehoming fee. That's about what piggies sell for in pet stores around here, although Borat's fee was only $10 at the humane society. When we went to look at her, we discovered that it included grids, a cage, water bottle, food, hay, and various other supplies, so it turned out to be quite a bargain.

The only time I'd balk at a fee is if it's a pet store adoption. I'd never adopt a piggy directly from a store anyway (e.g. a store trying to get rid of older piggies that didn't sell), but I wouldn't give money to a store to adopt a dumped animal, either. In my view, if the store is legitimately adopting out the animal, the money should go to a charity just as it would with a rescue or shelter adoption. Quinn was dumped by her owners at Petco, and the "fee" was a donation to their spay/neuter drive, so I was fine with that. That included the stuff she was dumped with, but I didn't want the aquarium so I only took her water bottle, food bowl, and a pigloo the store had given her since the poor thing was in a totally barren tank.

 

[Mastershroom]

As others said, it's largely to deter people who would just make the animal a live snack for a more predatory pet. If the animal is available for free, that's a real possibility, while most snake owners would not pay $20 for a single feeder rodent.

People might reconsider their fees if they believe you are a responsible and caring owner. For example, my Curly was listed on Craigslist for a $35 fee, but after meeting her owner and talking for a while about my other piggies and how I take care of them, she only asked for $20,and threw in a baggie of pellets and some homegrown hay.

 

[cibrown]

I heard recently that some craigslist shoppers were actually looking for free animals to take out and use for target practice. My family has gotten some of our pets from craigslist and once they saw how they would live, they donated them.

 

[piggi_zone]

I think I would be supicious if they put a piggie/or any animal up for free

 

[coconutty78]

A rehoming fee should always be minimum $10 and up. As mentioned there are people out there looking for feeder rodents for their reptiles. So by doing this it will deter them as they can go to a feeder breeder and pay between $5-8 for the same purpose. I recently have gotten involved with a Guinea pig rescue here in Ontario and we aim to educate people about why its an error to post any animal for free and how they can prevent the animal from being taken by the wrong kind of person.

 

[jacquerooks]

People that advertise rehoming fees on craigslist call it that because owners are not allowed to sell pets on their site. I got Stevie from craigslist and paid $35. This included a cage, food bowl, water bottle, igloo, and a small amount of food. I happily gave the money knowing that I could take better care of him than they were doing.

 

[Elthysia]

Often organisations are voluntary and they don't make any money and ask for rehoming fee to cover some of their costs. The rescue I got my piggies from asked for a donation so I gave them £40 (British pounds) to cover the costs for them neutering any boy GPs they may have.

They also asked me for picture of my cage and proof of address to ensure they know where piggy goes to live. Any snakefeeder would've been put off by it.

 

[iamsnape]

A friend of a friend nearly ended up losing their rats for free to somebody who only wanted them to feed a snake. After that I'd say anyone who isn't willing to pay good money for an animal is a questionable owner - for example, on a rehoming pets page on facebook I saw somebody post saying they wanted a kitten, but refused to pay more than £15. Firstly, who sells kittens that cheap? Secondly, if that's all they're willing to pay, what about food, vets fees, toys, etc? Just makes you question if the person is serious about looking after them. If I were a kitten owner I certainly wouldn't let that girl have one!

A lot of people drop the fees when they find out what sorta home they're going to anyway. I got my piggy Noah from a friend who had adopted pregnant guineas (well, he was somebody I knew from years before but is now a friend!). He ended up dropping the adoption fee when I showed him all the stuff I'd bought, research I'd done and his cage. He's doing the same with another I'm adopting

 

[Field-of-Dreams]

I got two piggies from CL that were free. I took them because I was afraid they'd be snake food. I'd like to rehome the Teddy male, as I have enough males already, but I'm so paranoid he'll go to a "bad" place I just can't seem to do it.

The others I also got from CL but paid $15 each for them, and I adopted the Willis piggies for $50 but that was two piggies and a ton of grids, hay, toys and stuff.