Re: Pet shops???

by AnonONIagent Sun 03 Jul 2016, 7:17 pm

My local Petco is pretty good, honestly. It's always clean, the cages are well-maintained, and the staff are helpful, friendly, and most importantly fairly knowledgeable. They still throw all the mice in the same tank, but the tank they give them is at least way larger than all the other rodent tanks.

by DVirginiana Mon 04 Jul 2016, 4:47 am

I work at a PetSmart and have been pleasantly surprised by the animal care there. We will isolate and treat any of the animals, even for stuff that I would personally not bother with (and those of you that know me from the old forum know how much I worry over my animals' health, so you can imagine those guidelines are pretty stringent). Health-wise, our mice seem on par with what you'd expect; generally healthy, but the occasional genetic issue like cancer at a young age. We get some pretty cool patterns too; we recently sold a red satin, and have a long haired silver satin right now.

The health can be a toss up, but I really love the personality of my feeder bin mice and rats. They just seem to be bolder for some reason.

by CinnamonPearl Mon 04 Jul 2016, 8:06 am

Yeah, when I was getting Lilith, there were two STUNNING light gray girls with pink eyes. It was a toss up between them! Luckily Lilith came to my hand first.

by CallaLily Mon 04 Jul 2016, 9:17 am

The petco nearest to me is clean, healthy looking mice, with larger tanks than Petsmart, and they keep females and males separate. The nearest Petsmart to me in DE does not usually have mice but there is a Petsmart just a tiny bit further away (but out of state) that does and they're pretty clean too.

However, there is a Petco a bit further from me that the few times I've stopped in, all the mice had injuries. All. Of. Them. Not one mouse looked well. All had multiple crusty looking little scabs and just overall looked very rough. Sad

by Rodents rock! Mon 04 Jul 2016, 9:24 am

CallaLily wrote:The petco nearest to me is clean, healthy looking mice, with larger tanks than Petsmart, and they keep females and males separate. The nearest Petsmart to me in DE does not usually have mice but there is a Petsmart just a tiny bit further away (but out of state) that does and they're pretty clean too.

However, there is a Petco a bit further from me that the few times I've stopped in, all the mice had injuries. All. Of. Them. Not one mouse looked well. All had multiple crusty looking little scabs and just overall looked very rough.

Aww that is sad about all the mice looking bad. That's just not right.

by scaredymouse Mon 04 Jul 2016, 10:24 am

Funny, my jumpiest mice came from PetSmart. Now, that's where Gilly and Furgie came from and we all know they are the best mice in the world. But PetSmart is also where I got Penny, who is the OG scaredymouse. And that's where Annie and Bitsy came from... Annie who died of cancer at 6 months old and Bitsy who was like a flea when I brought her home, so scared and jumpy.

The three I got from Petco, Delilah, Goose, and Jellybean were all hand friendly from the beginning. But I wasn't shopping for mice when I got these. These mice caught my attention because of their personalities. I might have had a different Petco experience if I just picked out a random mouse or picked a pretty one.

So, as you can see.... everyone's experiences are quite variable!

by DVirginiana Tue 05 Jul 2016, 3:07 am

The wonderful personalities of the animals I've gotten from feeder bin situations makes me wonder if maybe being kept in large numbers like they often are causes them to be more socially well adjusted? Like maybe in those situations they can't afford to be super jumpy or overly aggressive or it could have serious consequences?

Agent Bauer is from PetSmart, and he's super friendly to me but is very high strung. I don't think he would have done well with someone that doesn't have a fair amount of small animal experience and/or patience. I'm sure this depends entirely on who happens to be working a a given store, but I try to get to know the personalities of all the animals that come in so I can try and match them up with owners who can handle their different quirks and really bond with them.

by Rodents rock! Tue 05 Jul 2016, 9:00 am

DVirginiana wrote:The wonderful personalities of the animals I've gotten from feeder bin situations makes me wonder if maybe being kept in large numbers like they often are causes them to be more socially well adjusted? Like maybe in those situations they can't afford to be super jumpy or overly aggressive or it could have serious consequences?

Agent Bauer is from PetSmart, and he's super friendly to me but is very high strung. I don't think he would have done well with someone that doesn't have a fair amount of small animal experience and/or patience. I'm sure this depends entirely on who happens to be working a a given store, but I try to get to know the personalities of all the animals that come in so I can try and match them up with owners who can handle their different quirks and really bond with them.

That is a really interesting take on why the feeder bin mice may be more socially adjusted, I never thought about it like that. Sounds like you are spot on with that observation. Very Happy

by CinnamonPearl Tue 05 Jul 2016, 9:20 am

I don't know, DVirginiana! The mice at the feeder bin at my Petco seem to be way jumpier than the mice I've gotten from Petsmart. I think it completely boils down to individual personality.

by MouseLover Tue 05 Jul 2016, 8:54 pm

I think another thing to remember is that these shops will have different suppliers, some of which will be better than others. This could explain for the variation of experiences, as well as the different individual shop practices.

by Soren Tue 05 Jul 2016, 10:57 pm

It definitely okay to buy from pet shops, a lot of people aren't always so lucky to have a reputable breeder within reasonable distance. You just have to be careful since pet shops are notorious for a lot of things.

I have had bad experience with petco. All my mice i've gotten from there have been sickly and lived short lives. On the contrary, the living habitats were well cleaned/maintained. They did keep all the boys in one big cage though. The petsmarts in my city don't carry mice.

Surprisingly, my healthiest mice came from a small mom-and-pop pet shop. Unfortunately they mixed male and female and most females I've gotten from there were pregnant.

by MouseLover Wed 06 Jul 2016, 9:30 am

They probably get away with keeping all the boys in one cage if the boys are all still really young. Most of the serious fighting doesn't start until they're older. Though obviously it is best to separate them as early as possible to avoid the risks.

by River Wed 06 Jul 2016, 10:08 am

Problem with that is that some pet shops don't separate them once they get to old to be housed together, and it's too often that some pretty bad injuries happen. I don't know if anyone has a tumblr but if you do, scalestails.tumblr.com had adopted a mouse that had severe injuries from being housed with another male at the pet shop, and I'm sure they aren't the only one who's seen that happen.
I may be wrong, but in certain countries, can't males be housed together? I read somewhere that in some regions the territorial gene had been bred out altogether so males can have friends. Of course, I wouldn't take the risk either way, but I find the idea of it curious.

by CallaLily Wed 06 Jul 2016, 10:31 am

ThePetekeyPrep wrote:
I may be wrong, but in certain countries, can't males be housed together? I read somewhere that in some regions the territorial gene had been bred out altogether so males can have friends. Of course, I wouldn't take the risk either way, but I find the idea of it curious.

It has been said that some well bred lines in the UK have males that are less likely to fight. It's also more common there to neuter males. Personally I wouldn't keep males together, no matter how well the line has been bred to lower the risk. It's just not in their nature to live with other males. Now neutering a buck so he can live with a group of females would be more natural. It's just not common here in the U.S. because there aren't many vets here that have a lot of success with it. (Or so this is my understanding)

by River Wed 06 Jul 2016, 11:52 am

Oh, I see. I definitely wouldn't risk housing a pair of guys together, either. I've also heard of people housing males with female african soft furred rats, since they can't breed and won't fight.

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