I have no idea how good (or how much) chins they are selling in other countries, but here in Belgium it was virtually impossible to buy chins at a local petstore. To get one, you needed to go to a breeder, wich made the chance of being an impulse buy very slim.
Lately however, and by that I mean last 4-6 months, you can see that more and more stores do sell them.
Most of the time their housing in the store is a bit small, but it does the trick especially since these animals aren't there for a very long time.
One of the petstores near me (who is part of a store chain throughout the whole country) even started with putting up these basic info cards at the animal cages. It explain basic needs, acceptable treats and it gives you a number on a 1-10 scale to explain how hard they are to take care of.
This is fantastic, and there should be a law stating that every store needs to do this. Since 2010 petstores who sell fish need to label their aquariums with name, latin name and water quality demands. Why not do this for rodents right?
So, good report on my local pet store then? No! Their basic info card states that the chin's diet consists for 50% out of hay, and next to pellets the following fruits and vegetables are good treats: papaya, apple, pear, cucumbre and zucchini.
I went to see the lady that works there, told her that I think it's a fantastic idea to provide the customer with basic information (and avoid people buying animals they can't handle or take care for), but that the provided info was wrong. I told her about my experiences with my chins and told her about the fragile digestive system they have. She just interrupted me, nodded and smiled and said that its company policy to hang em up and that she didn't come up with the given info.
Don't get me wrong. I ain't a green hippy eco boy trying to persuade everyone in acting and thinking the way i do, but I wonder if those people selling animals in petstores like that never feel bad at night.
People like the ones that visit these forums, people like you and me, we tend to overreact. I've seen people on this forum go mental over a silly youtube video where you could see a chin "not being handled properly", but when you actually try and take a step back and look at it rationally you could say that all in all the chin wasn't treated "bad", just in a way we wouldn't.
Why? Cause we feel a certain love and affection for these animals, it's a choice we made and we stick by it.
We overreact cause we know the animals we have, and took the time to research them and thus know what can go wrong. That's why you spend time on this forum!
So now I am wondering... Am I overreacting towards this store? Should I try and send a mail to their main office and try to inform them about this situation? I mean, i can imagine they would like to see happy customers returning for food and toys rather then with a plastic bag containing a dead animal.
Why can't a petstore hire people that know their "products" (after all to them it's all they are), not saying everyone should be a vet but come on, it can't be too hard to find people who care.
How do you guys feel about this? Same situation where you guys live or is it different?
This all just makes me a bit sad
Lately however, and by that I mean last 4-6 months, you can see that more and more stores do sell them.
Most of the time their housing in the store is a bit small, but it does the trick especially since these animals aren't there for a very long time.
One of the petstores near me (who is part of a store chain throughout the whole country) even started with putting up these basic info cards at the animal cages. It explain basic needs, acceptable treats and it gives you a number on a 1-10 scale to explain how hard they are to take care of.
This is fantastic, and there should be a law stating that every store needs to do this. Since 2010 petstores who sell fish need to label their aquariums with name, latin name and water quality demands. Why not do this for rodents right?
So, good report on my local pet store then? No! Their basic info card states that the chin's diet consists for 50% out of hay, and next to pellets the following fruits and vegetables are good treats: papaya, apple, pear, cucumbre and zucchini.
I went to see the lady that works there, told her that I think it's a fantastic idea to provide the customer with basic information (and avoid people buying animals they can't handle or take care for), but that the provided info was wrong. I told her about my experiences with my chins and told her about the fragile digestive system they have. She just interrupted me, nodded and smiled and said that its company policy to hang em up and that she didn't come up with the given info.
Don't get me wrong. I ain't a green hippy eco boy trying to persuade everyone in acting and thinking the way i do, but I wonder if those people selling animals in petstores like that never feel bad at night.
People like the ones that visit these forums, people like you and me, we tend to overreact. I've seen people on this forum go mental over a silly youtube video where you could see a chin "not being handled properly", but when you actually try and take a step back and look at it rationally you could say that all in all the chin wasn't treated "bad", just in a way we wouldn't.
Why? Cause we feel a certain love and affection for these animals, it's a choice we made and we stick by it.
We overreact cause we know the animals we have, and took the time to research them and thus know what can go wrong. That's why you spend time on this forum!
So now I am wondering... Am I overreacting towards this store? Should I try and send a mail to their main office and try to inform them about this situation? I mean, i can imagine they would like to see happy customers returning for food and toys rather then with a plastic bag containing a dead animal.
Why can't a petstore hire people that know their "products" (after all to them it's all they are), not saying everyone should be a vet but come on, it can't be too hard to find people who care.
How do you guys feel about this? Same situation where you guys live or is it different?
This all just makes me a bit sad
