# PETS AT HOME Bad Or Good?



## Vamp176

Ok i want to know your Opinion on pets at home
this involves quality of pets and and the staff "amazing" skills with animals


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## Flissy

My first hamster was Sausage, at the time I had no idea where else to get a hamster from, so I got him from pets at home. He is a lovely hamster and the only health problem he has is sneezing quite a lot but the vet said he is fine! 

The lady when we bought him was very good, she asked if we had hamsters before and stuff although when she got sausage out she left the glass tank open and one of the hamsters was trying to escape! And there was a little brat trying to poke the hamsters, with his mum standing behind him laughing and saying "hahaha he'll probably squeeze them so their eyes pop out" but not actually doing anything to restrain her child.... grr 

Anyway... I get food and bedding from there usually, their lack of cages annoys me now as I really think they should sell the cambridge still, and also the imac fantasy as its a great cage and loads better than most of the ones they have.

I adopted Poppet from their adoption bit as he only had one eye and was very very cute! The guy got him and the other hamster they had in the adoption bit out to show us and seemed good at handling him and seemed quite helpful as well.

So I don't really have any complaints about it really... I know other people have had trouble with the staff in their pets at home but I haven't had problems... yet


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## Tigerneko

I think there should be a few other options on the poll as i've never personally had a bad experience with them, but i've heard plenty and would be wary of buying an animal and wouldn't be the first place i'd go.... although I wouldn't neccessarially say they're bad. People have different opinions as there are many different branches of the shop, and some people find the staff to be very knowledgeable and genuinely caring about their animals, and some people find them to be absoloutely useless and not giving a toss about the animals!

So maybe an inbetween option on the poll? I'm not going to vote for now, because I don't think they're 'bad' or 'good' but I think there could be room for improvement for them


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## Cazza1974

I use Pets at Home quite a lot for supplies. When we got Florence they were very thorough with us asking us lots of questions. They even called us 3 days later to see if she had settled in well.
The only gripe I have really is that some things can be quite pricey and I don't think there is enough selection toy wise for Dorrie.


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## Vamp176

Any way to get this going i will give you my storey about Pets at home

My partner and i decided that we wanted a lil rodent, but as i was scared of rats at the time i said we will get Chinchilla but we saw 2 Degu's and i thought they where adorable, so the woman in Pets at home told us they where just like rats just cuter, so we went ahead with buying the degu's and spending nearly 200 Pound on the lil guys, after 5 days of having them i must have been bit about 10 times, they never slept and they chewed the s**t out the cage and where restless, so i decided we would have to take them back because i work 10 hour shifts and my partner said he couldnt handle them, as when they got out of the cage we couldnt get them back in. Also they where pooping and throwing it out of the cage (Bless then lol). So i phoned up pets at home and they said we can exchange the two degus for one rat or have or money back, so we decided for the money as we paid 60 Pound for them. When we got down there and had our money back, i asked can i purchase two rats but she refused telling me i would not be able to handle two rats if i couldnt handle degu's. Because aperntly rats are harder to tame and handle. And Oh God She Was Soooooooooo Wrong. So thats my first problem with Pets at home so i asked to speak to the manager and she made me feel like a pets abuser!!!!! So i left the shop empty handed and got my mate who lived a hour away to drive down to buy the two adorable rats. When he went to get them the woman couldnt even pick the rats up because she was too scared (She Actually Screamed) That was my second problem with pets at home. So after all this WhoHa i decided i will never go to pets at home again, and i decided to shop online on the Pets at home website for supplies, so i purchased a traveling cage, and guess what that turned up damaged, so i took it to my local pets at home and exchanged that with difficulty as each one she gave was damaged (got a good one in the end) thats my third problem. and i decided as i am here now i will look at the rats and i fell in love with these two grey dumbo rats and bought them, and since i brought them home one has been sneezing so i am not satified with Pets at home one bit!!!!!


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## JohnKay

It Depends Some Are Good And Some Are Awful
Some staff are experienced and some are clueless:mad2:


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## Tigerneko

Vamp176 said:


> Any way to get this going i will give you my storey about Pets at home
> 
> My partner and i decided that we wanted a lil rodent, but as i was scared of rats at the time i said we will get Chinchilla but we saw 2 Degu's and i thought they where adorable, so the woman in Pets at home told us they where just like rats just cuter, so we went ahead with buying the degu's and spending nearly 200 Pound on the lil guys, after 5 days of having them i must have been bit about 10 times, they never slept and they chewed the s**t out the cage and where restless, so i decided we would have to take them back because i work 10 hour shifts and my partner said he couldnt handle them, as when they got out of the cage we couldnt get them back in. Also they where pooping and throwing it out of the cage (Bless then lol). So i phoned up pets at home and they said we can exchange the two degus for one rat or have or money back, so we decided for the money as we paid 60 Pound for them. When we got down there and had our money back, i asked can i purchase two rats but she refused telling me i would not be able to handle two rats if i couldnt handle degu's. Because aperntly rats are harder to tame and handle. And Oh God She Was Soooooooooo Wrong. So thats my first problem with Pets at home so i asked to speak to the manager and she made me feel like a pets abuser!!!!! So i left the shop empty handed and got my mate who lived a hour away to drive down to buy the two adorable rats. When he went to get them the woman couldnt even pick the rats up because she was too scared (She Actually Screamed) That was my second problem with pets at home. So after all this WhoHa i decided i will never go to pets at home again, and i decided to shop online on the Pets at home website for supplies, so i purchased a traveling cage, and guess what that turned up damaged, so i took it to my local pets at home and exchanged that with difficulty as each one she gave was damaged (got a good one in the end) thats my third problem. and i decided as i am here now i will look at the rats and i fell in love with these two grey dumbo rats and bought them, and since i brought them home one has been sneezing so i am not satified with Pets at home one bit!!!!!


I'm sorry but I can't back you up with the Degu thing - you should perhaps have gone away and researched the Degus a lot more before buying them, then maybe you would have changed your mind on buying them in the first place. A lot of rodents chew their cages, you're lucky to get one that doesn't! If you can't handle cage chewing then tbh I wouldn't suggest owning a rodent, perhaps a rabbit or guinea pig would've been better because they don't tend to do it (from my experience). I always feel a bit sorry for animals that get taken back to the shop for things like that, they aren't aware that they're doing anything wrong and they're just behaving like they think they should, all these problems should really be considered before buying an animal and if you think it's gonna detract from your lifestyle, don't buy them! I have 3 birds in my bedroom that wake me up at the crack of dawn every day with their tweeting and calling (which can be at 5am in the summer) but I didn't take them back to the shop because I knew what I was letting myself in for before I bought them!

However, I do think the member of staff was wrong about Degus being easier to tame than rats. The degus we have at college cannot be handled without gloves, yet our rats were friendly and sociable from the day we got them and nobody has ever been bitten by them. But again, you shouldn't really take the word of one person as gospel.

As for the sneezing rat - what substrate and bedding do you use for them? Many rats are allergic to wood shavings/sawdust and other beddings, so it could be that. Try changing the bedding material if you haven't already.


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## Marcia

Pets at home are useless and overpriced. I have never had a good experience with any of the ones i have visited.
And don't get me started on their new reptile sections...


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## tafwoc

My local pets at home is ok. I like taking my dogs with me, and it has wide aisle's for them to fit down, unlike small pets shops where i can't fit them all in. 

I don't buy my food from there as i do that online, but it's nice for the dogs to go and pick out their own toys. hehe.


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## owieprone

our local one is good, there is a lover/keeper of each animal employed there and they're very knowledgable. [email protected] itself needs to stock better stuff when it comes to rats but other than that, i've had no problems with them. alot of our rats have been from [email protected] and none of them have been bad health wise, temperments or handling.


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## Lady3131

Awful! Rambo had wet tail the first week we got him back.. the vet said he must have got it whilst being at Pets At Home. 

Luckily I nursed him back over two weeks but when I rang pets at Home they were unmoved and offered to swap him if I just brought him back...

It makes me shudder to think what happens to the 'swapped' hamsters.. 

I also hate any pet shop that tries to make pets appeal to small children... the cages aren't really animal friendly... they are designed for maximum cuteness and with children in mind. 

Although, that said I think they have been incredibly clever allowing veterinary surgeons to move into their premises!


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## simplysardonic

Verbatim said:


> I'm sorry but I can't back you up with the Degu thing - you should perhaps have gone away and researched the Degus a lot more before buying them, then maybe you would have changed your mind on buying them in the first place. A lot of rodents chew their cages, you're lucky to get one that doesn't! If you can't handle cage chewing then tbh I wouldn't suggest owning a rodent, perhaps a rabbit or guinea pig would've been better because they don't tend to do it (from my experience). I always feel a bit sorry for animals that get taken back to the shop for things like that, they aren't aware that they're doing anything wrong and they're just behaving like they think they should, all these problems should really be considered before buying an animal and if you think it's gonna detract from your lifestyle, don't buy them! I have 3 birds in my bedroom that wake me up at the crack of dawn every day with their tweeting and calling (which can be at 5am in the summer) but I didn't take them back to the shop because I knew what I was letting myself in for before I bought them!
> 
> However, I do think the member of staff was wrong about Degus being easier to tame than rats. The degus we have at college cannot be handled without gloves, yet our rats were friendly and sociable from the day we got them and nobody has ever been bitten by them. But again, you shouldn't really take the word of one person as gospel.
> 
> As for the sneezing rat - what substrate and bedding do you use for them? Many rats are allergic to wood shavings/sawdust and other beddings, so it could be that. Try changing the bedding material if you haven't already.


I have to agree with everything you say here, rats are IMO one of the most 'people friendly' of the small rodents, being easy to tame, I don't know anything about degus as I've never owned one. Also, even rats will chew the plastic bits on a cage, some more than others
Sorry, I digressed! Pets At Home seem to have widely varying standards- there are 2 in Norwich & one is better than the other, I've never bought my rats from there so I'm not really sure what their advice for potential owners is like, but I don't mind getting the odd bit of equipment there, although it's often pricier than other pet stores & they don't stock any of the food I give the animals


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## jackson

I think Pets At Home are a lot better than plenty fo smaller pet shops. We have had a number of Syrian hamsters from them over the years and all have lived long lives and been friendly. We have a boy now, called 'Oscar', he is 18 months old now and doing great. 

I do find the staff a bit of a mixed bag, but I recently got a doe rat from the 'rehoming' section after asking the girl on the tills if they had stopped selling them, and she mentioned her. She has obviously been in a pet home and extremely well handled, although the staff didn't know why she had been handed in. They were helpful though, and knew their stuff. 

I do find the shop expensive, but it is convenient as they have most things I need under one roof. (we have a hamster, rats, mice, multi-mammates, cats and dogs) 

I think it is better than most Pet Shops,a lthough obviously there is the issue of where they source their animals, but that applies ot most pet shops anyway. At least they don't sell puppies or kittens.


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## sequeena

[email protected] is neither good or bad imo. Most of their products are overpriced, they only do a limited selection, they sell animals and most of their staff are undertrained.

However they do have some good stuff in there and sometimes I get good advice. I like their range of dog shampoos.


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## happysaz133

Always had good experiences with [email protected] I have been in 3 different onts (Inverness, Dundee and Wick) and not had problems in any


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## Leah84

i love the pets at home in my area. they`re very clued up on the animals and treat them well. my friend works there so i know she does her bit in there and all the animals are well looked after and they also educate every buyer ( she tried it on me but i pointed out the fact i knew more than her lol). i know some can be bad but swansea has a good one thankfully


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## sequeena

Leah84 said:


> i love the pets at home in my area. they`re very clued up on the animals and treat them well. my friend works there so i know she does her bit in there and all the animals are well looked after and they also educate every buyer ( she tried it on me but i pointed out the fact i knew more than her lol). i know some can be bad but swansea has a good one thankfully


Swansea is a nice one  The one in Port Talbot is pretty bad though


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## xliljanex

i do use pets at home for my supplies as any others are a fair drive away from where i live.... i find it good for the supplies but with regards to the animals, some of the advice ive heard given by staff has been TERRIBLE to be honest.... i have spoken to a girl who knew her stuff about rabbits but it seemed this was from her own experience with rabbits.... it seems to be all about customer service rather than the animals, certainly at the one near me anyway.... the staff should be trained so that they are giving the right advice i think because some of the staff have seemed pretty clueless and ive heard them give very wrong info to potential pet owners which should not be allowed at all


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## ....zoe....

Leah84 said:


> i love the pets at home in my area. they`re very clued up on the animals and treat them well. my friend works there so i know she does her bit in there and all the animals are well looked after and they also educate every buyer ( she tried it on me but i pointed out the fact i knew more than her lol). i know some can be bad but swansea has a good one thankfully


o0o0o0o your from swansea 2 

no offence to your friend but i REALLY disagree with you on the swansea store. i have many many different reasons why and ide be here forever listing all the reasons, i also have a friend who works in the llaneli store and even she has told me some bad things about the company, plus as i work in a small pet shop myself i get loads of customers coming in who tell use their complaints, or even need us to sex the animals/babies due to the store advising wrongly :frown2:


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## chug89

There is someone I know that has done an animal degree course 'sorry don't know true name lol' and he works there x


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## Vamp176

....zoe.... said:


> o0o0o0o your from swansea 2
> 
> no offence to your friend but i REALLY disagree with you on the swansea store. i have many many different reasons why and ide be here forever listing all the reasons, i also have a friend who works in the llaneli store and even she has told me some bad things about the company, plus as i work in a small pet shop myself i get loads of customers coming in who tell use their complaints, or even need us to sex the animals/babies due to the store advising wrongly :frown2:


Yeah when i lived in Llanelli i went to Pets at home in trostre and i thought they where very good but im just not amused at Pets At Home in Pembroke as they where very cocky about everything


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## Marcia

Leah84 said:


> i love the pets at home in my area. they`re very clued up on the animals and treat them well. my friend works there so i know she does her bit in there and all the animals are well looked after and they also educate every buyer ( she tried it on me but i pointed out the fact i knew more than her lol). i know some can be bad but swansea has a good one thankfully


The Swansea store is the worst i've been too so far 
My sister went in there looking for a rabbit for my neice and they gave all sorts of wrong information. Apparently, rabbits don't need much hay, once a week is fine 
I was at my parents at the time and i marched back down there and said that i wasn't impressed, my boyfriend was with me and he wasn't happy either.

Zoe, where is your shop, i'll recommend you :thumbup1:
When we move down, we'll use your shop too


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## ....zoe....

Marcia said:


> The Swansea store is the worst i've been too so far
> My sister went in there looking for a rabbit for my neice and they gave all sorts of wrong information. Apparently, rabbits don't need much hay, once a week is fine
> I was at my parents at the time and i marched back down there and said that i wasn't impressed, my boyfriend was with me and he wasn't happy either.
> 
> Zoe, where is your shop, i'll recommend you :thumbup1:
> When we move down, we'll use your shop too


hi marcia, my shop is in killay, down in a street call broadmead. 
wooooo hoooooo will get to meet you one day then


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## kenwaan

We are getting 4 degus from our local Pets at Home next weekend . The young lady who we have spoken with the few times we have been there has been very helpfull and has also been very blunt about the hazards of degu ownership.
Evrtything she has said basically correlates to what we have read about them .
Im assuming that it really does depend which branch you go to as to what level of customer service you recieve.
the reason we are buying them from Pets at Home is that we thought there history would be better known etc etc and maybe in the long run it would be better for us and the animals . 
And i also thought 60 pound for 4 isnt to bad .
p.s our local branch is in Farham hampshire


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## Maiisiku

The one near us wasn't very good. They staff didn't know the diffirent breads of animals and the animals had severe personality issues which was probably due to imbreeding. I wouldn't get any pets from them but I don't mind their toy section. Some of them are reasonably priced.


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## emzybabe

kenwaan you would be much better off getting the degus from a private breeder, who will know that the generations of kits they have raised and sold directly to people are healthy and have no genetic problems. I am totally against farming small animals and shipping them off to these chain pet shops, I would strongly advise you to go else where. No matter how nice and knowledgeable the staff are they will know nothing about the history of their factory farmed pets.


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## Guest

I don't go in there anymore. The pets at home I used to go to sold me a pleco telling me he would be fine with my two goldfish but I ended up seperating him after he attacked and killed one goldfish.


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## Marcia

danielled said:


> I don't go in there anymore. The pets at home I used to go to sold me a pleco telling me he would be fine with my two goldfish but I ended up seperating him after he attacked and killed one goldfish.


I got told it was ok to keep American flagfish with black moors! 
We had to return the flagfish when they were both eating the fins off our black moors


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## kenwaan

emzybabe said:


> kenwaan you would be much better off getting the degus from a private breeder, who will know that the generations of kits they have raised and sold directly to people are healthy and have no genetic problems. I am totally against farming small animals and shipping them off to these chain pet shops, I would strongly advise you to go else where. No matter how nice and knowledgeable the staff are they will know nothing about the history of their factory farmed pets.


Thanks for your advice , maybe i hadnt thought it through enough. After reading what u have to say i have seen it from the other side . We are now trying to get in contact with a breeder in portsmouth and hopefully she maybe able to help us . Once again thanks for your advice !!


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## Guest

Marcia said:


> I got told it was ok to keep American flagfish with black moors!
> We had to return the flagfish when they were both eating the fins off our black moors


I tried takeing the pleco back but they wouldn't have him so I am keeping him but not in the same tank as the goldfsih. I was so upset but I do love the pleco don't get me wrong it just upsets me the fact that they said he would be fine with goldfish.


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## emzybabe

kenwaan said:


> Thanks for your advice , maybe i hadnt thought it through enough. After reading what u have to say i have seen it from the other side . We are now trying to get in contact with a breeder in portsmouth and hopefully she maybe able to help us . Once again thanks for your advice !!


you are more than welcome, I didnt mean the comment nasty or personally I just feel so sorry for the millions of little animals that are farmed and sold at these big pet shops. I have a rescue rabbit and him and his brother came to the rescue with nasty eye infections as they both have 1 blocked tear duct. I have to bathe Georges eye everyday and its heartbreaking


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## kenwaan

Nah its cool i didnt take it personally it was exactly the type of advie i was after as we are new to this and want to do it properly . We just want them to be as well as possible and live as long as they can thats all .  oh and be happy to of course


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## crofty

emzybabe said:


> kenwaan you would be much better off getting the degus from a private breeder, who will know that the generations of kits they have raised and sold directly to people are healthy and have no genetic problems. I am totally against farming small animals and shipping them off to these chain pet shops, I would strongly advise you to go else where. No matter how nice and knowledgeable the staff are they will know nothing about the history of their factory farmed pets.


Very well said, pets shops should not sell animals, anyone can walk in and buy an animal, it encourages impulse buying and animals are being famred for this market as emzy said. My experience time and time again hearing PAH staff near me advising customers is very bad, alot do not know what they are talking about. They have a huge problem sexing animals aswel it seems 

Kenwaan you sound sensible anyway and want the best for your animals.


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## ElsieB

Well, I have never had any problems with Pets At Home and actually count them as one of the few good petshops!
I go there to buy pretty much everything! I like to rescue animals and was going to rescue hamsters too but they were a christmas present and as it was the 23rd we went to Pets At Home because we knew we could easily buy everything, that there would be hamsters, and because it was the nearest. I knew I wanted dwarf ones because I was going to buy one from a breeder. When I got there I immeditely said I wanted the russian ones because I heard about them from the breeder. However my mum said she preffered the roborovski so we bought two of them instead. BIG MISTAKE! They are very quick so I never actually got to hold them ect. The man did say they were quick in fairness but I can't help thinking he could have said a bit more. He asked us questions but didn't pick up on the fact our cage wasn't suitable for dwarfs (we didn't realise!). Other than those two things it was ok - the hamsters weren't ill and their gender was correct which is the two main problems with petshops! We buy the worm and flea stuff for our cats there too which I am always impressed with! The product is fine, it is locked in a cabinet, none of the staff can sell it to us other than the manager...

Overall, I love Pets At Home! It's one of my favourite shops. I have never heard anyone complain about the one we go to and it always seems good so I'm guessing your Pets At Home experience depends on which one you go to!:001_unsure:


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