Pet store guinea pig care!

You know what gets me so mad and very upset. When I walk up to the guinea pig cage at a pet store and smell guinea pig urine. I feel so bad each time I'm there. I asked to hold this adorable guinea pig and I picked it up and it smelled so bad I had to put it down and clean my hands quick. It hurt so bad to walk away so, I went and told the store associate about the cage condition and they told me there not in charge and if I'm so worried then I should buy them all. It got me so angry, but belive me if I could buy them all I would. Well, my point is don't be afraid to help fellow piggies out and nicely approach an associate and inform them of your worries and contact the store manager. I did and I am hoping to see improvment.

Oh, that gets me so mad! "Yeah, go buy them all! They'll have a great life with you! Oh, by the way, we now have empty cages; better go get more in-bred piggies from a pet mill! They will also live in smelly cages, unless you buy them too!"

I stay away from pet stores now; I'm horribly shy, so I can never work up the courage to talk to the managers, however, friends of mine have talked to the managers of the stores around here, and absolutely NOTHING is going to change. If conditions are really bad, can you talk to your local council? Or ASPCA? I don't know what it's like where you are, but usually pet stores have to work under certain regulations.

Good luck!

I hate pet shops! They made me so mad most guinea-pigs at pet shops aren't well cared for and the people there that are meant to be looking after them know nothing about them! I stay away from pet shops now too, I only go in one to buy hay and they don't sell animals so that ones not too bad.

If your town has like town meetings you can go and tell them your worries about it and if you get enough people to back you up then they would have to do somthing about it. Also, I'm the type of person who loves convosation and always will talk to managers and ect. With my life style I can't be shy of it just wouldn't work out. lol

I got my 2 guinea-pigs from a pet shop, this was before I knew of rescues for guinea-pigs otherwise I would have gone there.

Yeah, Kloie is from a try store, but I took her from somone that couldn't keep her.

Although I really hate pet shops, I'm also kind of torn because I think that all guinea-pigs deserve a good home, wherever they are from, but buying one from a pet shop is basically creating an extra space for more guinea-pigs that have been bred badly. If the guinea-pigs that were sold in pet shops were from reputable breeders and the shop took good and proper care of the guinea-pigs, then I wouldn't mind so much. Obviously I think that rescues are better, but this is why pet shops annoy me so much!

I know how you feel. Yeah, there's nothing we can do to stop it so, I think you should adopt them from a pet store because if they don't get adopted they end up dying with no love. So, honestly weather you adopted them from a pet store or not more piggies will be put in there and I feel that ALL guinea pigs deserve love.

I agree with this but I don't agree with buying from pet shops. If the pet shop has an adoption section, so a section where they are giving the guinea-pigs away, then this is a bit different because they won't make a profit, and so if they don't make a profit, the hope is that they will stop selling guinea-pigs. Of course they won't but if they keep loosing money on them hopefully in a few years they will. The only thing I worry about is with pet shop adoption sections, when they give them away free they don't know where they're going. Some people might feed them to snakes because they are free, whereas they wouldn't buy a guinea-pig for £20 from a pet shop because that would be too expensive to feed a snake. Sorry to bring the snake thing up on a guinea-pig forum but I was just wondering if pet shops actually check where their guinea-pigs are going from the adoption section? Like, do they ask questions or anything?

I don't know if they are free in the adoption section? I think they might be a lot cheaper than in the for sale section, but I don't know. Does anyone know if they are free in the adoption section of pet shops?

The pet shop I go to is very good. All the cages are very clean. No smell out of them at all. I say they clean them everyday cause whenever I go there, they are always evry clean. All the guinea pigs get hay, fresh water, pellets fulltime, loads of veggies too. They all have hidey houses and all are kept with same sexes etc.

Well, that's very good to hear.

I agree, its great to hear that your pet shop takes good care of their animals. I think normally its the smaller pet shops that take better care of the animals then the big brand pet shops like petco and pets at home.

Yeah, there's this little pet store and I'v never seen any cages cleaner.

My pet shops don't have "adoption section" for any animal, but cats and dogs..

I got both mine from a petshop as a last resort.
One was kept in a large glass cage, newpaper floors, food water ... It wasnt smelly and the guineas were healthy. But no hay, or veges, or a hidy hole.
The other was in better conditions. Plenty of food, water, veges, hay, a pigloo, hay floor. But the piggy wasnt in the best condition. Ive lost that pig twice and found her both times, shes unaturally skittery. Whilst the one in poorer conditions is a chubby, beautiful angel, who is going to be shown.
But i like my skittery bubba the best, I dunno why.

@hm You should become a member you seem to have some klstoies to share.