How far would you trust a Pet Shop?

Pet shops are every where, weather they're a big well known company, or a small local business, they can be found everywhere, selling a different varienty of toys, accomodations and foods. But, how much of what pet shops tell you can you believe? Eventhough almost every pet shops claim things such as '98% of our staff have their own pets' , ' helping you to care for your pets to the best you can' and 'where pets come first' , at the end of the day, they're also business people, who have to try and sell their products, even if that means wrongly advising customers. In order to acurrately write this report, I focused on 'Pets at home' , looking at: the products they sell; the information they give (signs around the shop and what employese tell customers) and also how they keep their in-store animals.

Lets start with the products they sell-

The acomodation that pets at home sell for guinea pigs is totally inadiquate and over priced! One type of cage that is very popular in store are the indoor cages. These cages have plastic, tray bottoms and a detachable wire top, which usually has a smaller door for easy access. The biggest of these types of cages they sell measures 140cm x 48cm x 71cm and is advatised as suitable for 2 guinea pigs or 1 rabbit. Obviously, this size cage is much too small for either of these as it claims to be, infact, this is the suitable size for a hamster, which is a fraction of the size of a guinea pig or rabbit. This cage costs £129.00 , which is over quadrouple the amount it costs to buy a 2 x 4 c&c cage, which is the suitable size for 2 guinea pigs. Howerever, I am glad to say that Pets at home have put on the item description 'A rabbit or guinea pig should never permanently be kept in its cage and should be let out in a suitable run for exercise. Indoor cages are only suitable as temporary homes.'

The hutches they sell are a little better, but still not big enough, and many have ramps, which not all guinea pigs are fond of, and have runs attached to the bottom. Obviously, having a run attached does provide more space, but being on the wet grass in winter is not ideal, and shouldn't be the only place your guinea pigs can run around. Hutches also incourage having your guinea pigs outdoors, which is not ideal in the winter months. However, they are much better than the indoor cages. They're bigger, much more fairly priced, and have really good feautures, such as a mesh door and a wooden door to provide privency. I own the Poppy Den guinea pig hutch and the Blue bell hide away hutch myself, and must admit that I do really like them, but not as permenant housing, they would be ideal for a free range rabbit to have its own space, to feature in a larger pen/cage, or have a spacious run attached.

Another thing that has caught my attention when shopping in pets at home are the number of unsuitable treats and food mixes they have on sale. Every time i want to buy a new treat for my pets, I always check the ingredients as there are lots of things such as seeds, nuts and dairy products in the treats. These things are not good for your guinea pigs or rabbit and if fed large quantities, can be very serious and lead to fatality. Products such as the hanging treat sticks, small animal choc drops and yougurt drops, and at this time of year in particular, the small animal advent calenders are totally unsuitable for guinea pigs and rabbits. Anything that generally looks seedy or seed based, stay clear of. Pets at home stock alot of these kind of treats, which is very misleading to customers, especially new guinea pig owners. Another thing they sell is museli foods, which eventhough they arn't particulary bad for the guinea pigs, it shouldn't be fed as a stable diet as the guinea pigs can pick out the bits they like and leave the bits they don't, meaning the miss out on some important nutrients that are essential to their diet . I feel like it is irresponisble for such a well known company to be selling unsuitable foods in such a misleading way, and having no signs around the shop warning you of the risks of these products.

Next, lets move onto the information that Pets at home provided to their customers.

Honestly, the information that pets at home provides is pretty good and mostly correct, but can be very limited. There are alot of signs up around the shop with correct information on them, and also bullet pointed information on each animal enclosure about each of the animals in the pens. However, you should not just read this information and decide you then want a guinea pig, you should much more research via the internet, books or other people who own guinea pigs, and then decide weather a guinea pig is right for you. The pets at home website also provides a care page for guinea pigs, of which I have read through and it does provide some very good information, some of which could be argued, however on a general note is very good. So, all in all the visual information they provide is very good. On the employee side of it, I have never really asked for information from them, howevere i have adopted 2 animals from pets at home, therefore, I do know about the information you get when purchasing an animal, and it is very bare. They don't really give you any information when purchasing the animal unless you ask, yet they ask you to sign a form saying that they have infact told you all the information, where as when I went, all they asked me was if i had purchased a set up or if i have already got one. But, on saying that, if you ask questions, the employees should answer your questions in as much detailed as desired.

Finally, lets move into how they care for their animals in store. The set ups there in arn't too bad, they have company, hides, water, hay and if you go at the right time, you can see them munching their veggies, however i have never seen them with pellets. As far as the size of the cages go, they're a good size for maybe 2-3 pigs, however, at my local pets at home, there are usually around 10-11 guinea pigs in these cages, so not really enought room for them all. The cages do always look clean. I wouldn't say that the pets at home cages are not a good example to go by, because it would be very difficult to find a cage like they use at pets at home, and they could do with adding a few more hiding places and toys, and definatly a bigger cage if they want to keep that many guinea pigs in it.

In conclusion, this report goes to show that you can't go by everything a pet shop tell you, and that you should always check the suitability of the products that you're looking to buy. This not only applies to Guinea pigs, but all other pets you may own.

I hope you found this Report useful. Any questions or quirries please ask.