wish pet stores knew more bout chins

[AZChins]

People get rid of hammies and mice because they don't have enough room for them? Seriously? LOL

I hope that the new chin thrives and does well. That's all anyone can ask for! I REALLY don't like chins in petstores...but if you are going to give that little fuzzy beebee a good life, I am happy.

 

[MelodyR]

Susan, I wish I were joking -- but the local SPCA has an entire room full of hamsters, mice and rats that people "didn't have room for." The Humane Society won't take "exotics" (like rats, lol) so the SPCA does. They have empty cages out front of their location for people who want to sneak in in the middle of the night to dispose of their unwanteds anonymously. I have a litter of four Guinea pigs here that came from one pregnant momma dropped off the night before she gave birth. Nice, huh? I took the four sons, someone else took Momma and the sister.

At the moment, I have six hamsters (living in a total of 8 Crittertrails), 1 mouse (3 moved on) in a "duplex" Crittertrail, and 7 rats in a 6 foot mutli-story Martin's cage, all rescues. And 14 guinea pigs. And -- well, lots more!

 

[AZChins]

What is wrong with people? Well, I know what's wrong with them. LOL Everytime I get to take in a chin that is so thin that it makes me cry I realize even more how cruel people can be. No room for a hammie, that's crazy. They don't take up any more space than anything else in the house. You can put the cage anywhere!

People...

Someday I am going to have the money saved up to put the enclosed back porch on the house...and I want to take in guinea pigs and other small animals. We'll just see if I can ever get my husband to agree to this. He's just fine with the chins...he doesn't seem to like other animals except the doggies, of course.

 

[shubbles]

What makes me angry is that they house chinchillas in fish tanks and maybe 10 yards away there is a ferret nation. You would think that even inexperienced chinchilla sellers would know to put the chinchillas in a good environment. Im wondering if you could talk the pet store people into letting you take a free ferret nation. Accessorize it at my cost and then give the store it back. hmmm....that would be cool. again to the rescuing part, as human beings we all have some part in us that cannot let things suffer. We can't just sit there and say " well i don't want the pet store thinking that they're good at caring for animals so im going to let that animal die", at least i couldn't. I don't know anyone that doesn't care if someone or somethings life is at stake.

 

[mustangchins]

thank u melody r...i really appreciate what u had to say...again thank u..merry christmas..

 

[addictedtochins]

Pet stores have issues with wire cages, esp. with rodents. They are afraid someone will say they were bitten and get sued. Also the wire cages make a mess on the floor.

 

[shubbles]

I get upset by criticism from people who say you should have left it "to teach the pet shop a lesson." Tell that to the chin. If some dimwit had purchased it, tortured or mistreated it a bit more and then surrendered it to a rescue -- THEN it would have been okay for you to adopt it???????? Only THEN did you rescue it?????

Exactly.

 

[shubbles]

i guess there could me some liability issues for a cage that someone can reach their fingers in, i was just voicing an opinion not really taking the realistic factor into it.

 

[ticklechin]

All chins deserve a good home, its not the chins fault it ended up in a pet store. You did good and enjoy.

 

[Jazicat]

I think you did good too. I'm sure Pooh Bear is going to have a very happy life with you!

 

[chinchillalover0927]

i also think you did a good thing, im sorry but NO MATTER where you go in life whatever you buy will be replaced, mills will NEVER go away and all we can do is save the ones we find..... to me we rescued our last chin, from a 5 gallon aquarium......being fed doughnuts and pretzels or however you spell that lol... but like i said i understand both sides but we will NEVER be able to keep petstores from resupplying chinchillas.... its life, we can only deal with it and help the ones we find.... so im glad you took home that chin. she needed your love...

 

[CheeCheeLaa]

I know! When I got my 2 chins, the pet shop got the sexes wrong!

 

[Luci]

so...today i was at the mall and i walked into the pet store. my parents had told me there were chinchillas there and i just had to see. being away from gizmo for 5 days has already given me chin-withdrawals.

there were 2 there, a standard and a white. i was surprised to see that they werent housed in an aquarium but in cages with decent spacing. they had ledges and nothing was plastic. they could've used some chew toys though, but it looked like they went to town on their hidey houses. anyways, i knew i couldnt buy it but i still asked the attendant if i could hold the standard. id estimate he was about 4 months...maybe 5.

as i was holding it, other people noticed and were asking the store attendant questions. it was obvious he didnt know much so i politely stepped in. there was this one girl who looked really interested in buying one so after i gave the chin back (sad moment lol), i wrote down CnH's website and gave it to her. she asked me a few questions and i told her that before buying one to visit this lovely site cuz the information here is better than what pet stores provide. i let her know that chins aren't as easy as they seem but with proper care, they make great pets. i wish someone had come up to me the day i bought gizmo and given me this information.

i dunno...i was happy to have helped her and she was extremely grateful. i know that pet stores dont properly care for chins and they sell to owners who arent as informed. i figured that this little guy deserved the best and it was great to help someone else out. i dont know if she'll buy him or if she'll go else where, heck, she may even come here. regardless, i felt pretty good today.

maybe thats what we all should do. visit local stores where we know chins are sold and either bring up chins in casual conversation to interested customers...or even ask the store if we can promote CnH. is it possible?

...i'll ask tunes...

 

[grace]

I find it interesting that out of the 30 plus replies to this very deserved rescue, only 3 or 4 people replied that had more than 6 chins. Forum members that have 20 to 250 chins... Gosh ! I have a difficult time finding time to exercise (Outside cage time) for my 6 kids. For those of you that have 20 + Chins - Why so many ? Sincerely, Grace

 

[Essentia]

Those aren't pet owners, but breeders. All these chins don't get playtime.

 

[chinchillalover0927]

I find it interesting that out of the 30 plus replies to this very deserved rescue, only 3 or 4 people replied that had more than 6 chins. Forum members that have 20 to 250 chins... Gosh ! I have a difficult time finding time to exercise (Outside cage time) for my 6 kids. For those of you that have 20 + Chins - Why so many ? Sincerely, Grace

i have 11 chins at my house and i have playtime for every one of them everyday ... my boyfriend has 9 at his house and he does the same. every one of our babies gets there own individual attention every day and night .. yes its hard to squeeze in the time for all of that but if your determined enough its possible promise

 

[AZChins]

I work very hard to make sure that my chins get playtime. It's a full time, lifestyle type job that I have. Actually, it's more like several full time jobs.

Right now I have as many as I do because there are many chins that are too old to go to new homes being 8 to 19 years old, there are also rescue with problems that no one seems to want to deal with. The amount of chins that I would have would probably hover around 100 if I didn't have the rescues and the chins that no one else wants. I have this many chins because I love them...and I am lucky to have to ability to be able to devote pretty much my entire life to them. It isn't easy, it doesn't just take a few minutes twice a day...it's all day, every day...and then when I am not with the chins (like right now) I am talking about the chins in some way.

Maybe someday it will change, but I doubt that it will. I'll probably never have a real human baby...so it's just the chins and pups for now. The chins really do seem to take priority over everything else...even the dogs.

 

[addictedtochins]

Right now I have as many as I do because there are many chins that are too old to go to new homes being 8 to 19 years old

Just wondering why 8 or so is too old to try to adopt out? Does the chin have problems adjusting?

 

[AZChins]

Most of the chins would do great, it's mostly that people don't want them once they are more than a few years old. I can convince people to take a five or six year old chin...but the older ones aren't so desirable. But, hey, that means that I get to keep them with me! I love having the older ones around because they aren't very demanding and I can generally put them in cages with other chins...old girls are my favorites because they get along with each other all the time...and playtime with them is a breeze since they will willingly go back and not give me a hard time taking them to the play areas!

 

[ticklechin]

Give me a 8 year old chin over a 8 month old any day, the older ones make better pets IMO.