# Are pets at home as bad as they seem?



## ilovesox (Nov 6, 2009)

I have only been tp pets at home a couple of times out of curiosity and if desperate supplies. I am quite lucky in that there are quite a few garden centres and individual pet supplies stores near where I live so pets at home are more of a last resort for me. 

I did notice the last time we were there they had a bun up for adoption, I wasnt sure of the breed but he came running up to the glass of the pen and started pawing at the glass. I did notice he was a tad chubby but unfortunatly he needed to be on his own so I couldnt adopt him as I also have another bun and wouldnt be able to give the adopted bun the time and attention he needed. I have heard rumors that they 'fatten' the buns up to make them look cuter if these are true surly there is something we can do to stop this. I would love to get a few other ppls replies on there expiriences with pets at home as what I have been hearing is very worrying.


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## sequeena (Apr 30, 2009)

I don't own small animals so I can't really comment on their condition whilst at [email protected] However I do know that so many small animals should not be kept in the same pen/cage! I've heard stories of them mixing sexes or breeds that shouldn't be kept together!

I find their customer service on the whole to be useless. Sure they love to see my dogs whenever I bring them in but they don't tend to know a lot about the food etc yet they know everything about their brand and try to push you into buying it  I fell for it once and paid £28 for a sack of dog food which was rubbish 

I use them on the odd occasion to get nature diet for my dogs and always go there for the cat litter (which I can't fault as it's brilliant) but I find them overpriced and go elsewhere for the bulk of what I buy.


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## belleboris (Oct 8, 2009)

I also dont know about the small furys they have .
But i have always found the one near to me to be great always very helpfull and the store here knew most things i asked .


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## AmyCruick (Jul 20, 2009)

One of the vets where I take my buns said he used to work in a vet that was connected to pets at home. He said at easter [email protected] would completely sell out of rabbits but then 3 months later the vets would be overun with rabbits brought in for things such as bad claws, teeth and dirty etc which was almost always due to the owners not knowing how to properly care for a rabbit.

He said he used to plead with the staff to educate people better before selling them a rabbit but they wouldn't so he left


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## Sarah+Hammies (Jul 20, 2009)

AmyCruick said:


> One of the vets where I take my buns said he used to work in a vet that was connected to pets at home. He said at easter [email protected] would completely sell out of rabbits but then 3 months later the vets would be overun with rabbits brought in for things such as bad claws, teeth and dirty etc which was almost always due to the owners not knowing how to properly care for a rabbit.
> 
> He said he used to plead with the staff to educate people better before selling them a rabbit but they wouldn't so he left


Oh thats awful  the [email protected] near me isnt too bad they are quite informative but thats down to the staff that work at that particular store.

I agree with what sequeena said though they do push the sale of their own brand products to the point that it can be quite intimidating at times.


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## xliljanex (Sep 2, 2009)

i do use pets at home myself for our supplies etc because there are no other pet stores near us, there is an rspca but it is quite a drive away. i find pets at home to be good for supplies etc, however sometimes i have found some (not all) of the staff dont seem to know what theyre talking about, for example before i got a girl rabbit as a friend for my male rabbit (i didnt get her from pets at home btw) they told me theres no such thing as rabbit bonding and it was not possible, and that if i tried to get them make friends they would kill each other... i also had a girl once tell me that rabbits shouldnt really eat vegetables because its bad for their stomach, luckily i knew that these things werent true, but i think its a worry that if the wrong info is given to someone who is say, not an experienced pet owner, they could take that information at face value... i wonder what training the staff have?


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## xliljanex (Sep 2, 2009)

oh yeah and my mum actually started to have an argument about the rabbits not eating vegetables thing which was quite emabarresing!!! haha but i have to admit i was annoyed too...... i mean ok so some veggies are bad like iceberg lettuce but she shouldve made this clear.... unless she genuinely thought rabbits cant eat vegetables, she cant of really thought that though can she? :frown2: i seriously hope not


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## Sarah+Hammies (Jul 20, 2009)

xliljanex said:


> i wonder what training the staff have?


I was wondering that too.

Any one know?


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## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

xliljanex said:


> i wonder what training the staff have?





Sarah+Hammies said:


> I was wondering that too.
> 
> Any one know?


Well from what I have heard, when you apply for a job at [email protected] if you say you want to work there because you love animals, your application goes in the bin! If you say cos you believe in good customer service then you are ok.

Our [email protected] is actually pretty good, they seem to know what they are on about with their small animals, there is one particular girl there that I had a half hour conversation with about rabbits!
What does annoy me is that they dont get told what breeds of rabbits they are getting, so they cant tell the new owner if they wanted to, they have to guess by what it looks like, and therefore they dont know what size or temprement it could be! The member of staff I was talking to said that she thought it was so wrong that they just didnt get that information.

They were pretty bad with their fish but they have just had it re-done and they are now in better conditions, I dunno about the advice, cos I just dont bother!

*Heidi*


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## daisyboo (May 19, 2009)

When i was in there i saw some guy advising this woman that guinea pigs and rabbits could get the same food (pellets) and telling her which one to buy. i felt like saying something stupid idiot.


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## xliljanex (Sep 2, 2009)

daisyboo said:


> When i was in there i saw some guy advising this woman that guinea pigs and rabbits could get the same food (pellets) and telling her which one to buy. i felt like saying something stupid idiot.


yeah it is worrying :frown2: i dunno if its more the fault of the people working there or the actual orgnisation itself... i mean, surely they should make sure the staff know what theyre talking about.?
also i dont want to lump all staff there in one bin because i do remember speaking to 1 girl who said she had a few rabbits herself and seemed to know her stuff, however it seemed this was from her own experience of keeping rabbits so i get the impression the staff arent very well informed by pets at home as a company :confused5:


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## crofty (May 2, 2008)

I cant stand PAH peronally, i cringe everytime i hear them giving advice on all animals, mainly cats, rabbits and guineas ive heard some terrible advice, all the staff i have some across dont know what they are talking about!!! 

They also have the cheek to ask for a donation for adoption pets which are mainly pets they have sold and had back so they earn more money by asking for a donation when they do not vaccinate or neuter any of them!

Ive seen 4 week old baby buns up for adoption they said they were not rehoming them yet but they were gone the following week and no staff would tell me where  also have seen a bun covered in poo which i also had to speak to the manager about to get her cleaned up.

Sorry they just make me so mad!


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## emzybabe (Jun 30, 2009)

I really think the animal care at the store comes down to the individual staff that work there and this is obviously down to the managers who run the stores.....a good manager who actually cares about animal welfare will only recruit staff that care, so the animals should be well looked after and only sold with proper care guidance.

on the other hand like any retail outlet there have to be sales targets and I wouldn't be surprised if these include live stock.  :mad2:


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## emzybabe (Jun 30, 2009)

personally I would be much much happier if [email protected] and the garden centers stopped selling pets. leaving it to specialist breeders and private pet shops only specialising in certain animals. 

I would also love it if breeders didnt breed specifically for Xmas and Easter etc. 

I also think that no animal should be sold as a childs pet and that parents need to be made properly aware that they are fully responsible for the animals care. 

I also wish the RSPCA/rescues were better funded to deal with more cases of neglect and had time to train schools and pet shops etc in proper animal care.


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## EmzieAngel (Apr 22, 2009)

In my nearest Pets At Home, there's probably only one person in there that I'd ask advice from as she really knows her stuff about most pets, once when I bought a hamster from there, she didn't just shove it in a box like the others do, she took her time, got the hamster out, sat on the floor with her and let me hold the hamster too, the other staff in there seem to be completely gormless that haven't got a clue, it's like they'll just employ any old person.

And the manager, well he's a right old ****, I went in to exchange something and he made us wait about 20 minutes because he was having a conversation with a customer, but it wasn't even about pets, I can understand if he was giving some advice, but it took two minutes to exchange a product and we were waiting for ages.

Ohh and some of the advice I've heard them give out about dogs, hamsters and fish, what a load of twaddle.
x


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2009)

When i was 16 i bought a black baby rat from pets at home and after a week of having her i noticed her belly had become very large and then gave birth to 11 babies. Pets at home refused to take the babies when they were old enough to leave and said they only can take rats from their breeder and from no one else even though the rat was pregnant when i bought it. i ended up keeping most of them myself and having to buy more cages and a friend took four for me. Id never buy a pet from them again.


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## ilovesox (Nov 6, 2009)

I agree that a lot of the problems could be downto staff training, but its got to be up to the company and the managers of their stres to ensure they employ people who care and are trained to give correct advice. My partner bought some fish from pets at home about 2 months ago half of them died with in a week, know I know fish can die due to t the stress of moving etc but 4 fish dying just after being brought with none of the others showing signs of illness or stress is unusual. We have put it down to the store we purchased them from and have not returned since. I too have heard people being given absolutely absurd advice about rabbits one of their staff was selling a rabbit \nd indoor hutch on the same day, the buyer didnt seen to have a clue so was taking in every bit of advice he was giving her. The hutch was fairly small and he was telling her that hutch would be fine for the bun and he shouldnt need a run till the summer. I was apalled as he just seemed to want to get her to buy anything.


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## AmyCruick (Jul 20, 2009)

emzybabe said:


> personally I would be much much happier if [email protected] and the garden centers stopped selling pets. leaving it to specialist breeders and private pet shops only specialising in certain animals.
> 
> I would also love it if breeders didnt breed specifically for Xmas and Easter etc.
> 
> ...


I totally agree with this, I do think that pet shops (although I know it will NEVER happen) should do home checks as thats the best way of educating people and ensuring the pet is going to a decent home.

Alan was bought as a present for a 2yr old and then the parents were suprised when she couldn't clean him out etc!  and the rescue centre nearest me was so full they couldn't take him for a month (not that it mattered in the end  )


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## Jazzy (Apr 15, 2009)

emzybabe said:


> personally I would be much much happier if [email protected] and the garden centers stopped selling pets. leaving it to specialist breeders and private pet shops only specialising in certain animals.
> 
> I would also love it if breeders didnt breed specifically for Xmas and Easter etc.
> 
> ...


Yes I think they should stop selling pets too cos I always feel sorry for them and buy them.

I adopted a Russian hamster a couple of weeks ago because it said it was 'older' on the little adoption notice and I thought if they don't sell her she might go back and become snake food or something. So I said I'd have her and then when I asked if they had any idea of her age at all the lad serving me said she was around 8 weeks. He said she was one of their hamsters that had escaped in transit and they didn't know what to do with her cos they didn't know what cage she had come from. So it makes a bit of a mockery of the adoption bit I think when it's just their hamsters that they are selling off. He also said he had a few more like her in the back and he could put one of those out now she had been sold.:frown2:


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