The last two times I went to Pets@Home.......

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They had no guinea-pigs.
Empty pens.
OK there was fresh bedding in there like it was in readiness but no piggies for sale or in Adoption.

My DD was a bit she likes to look at them. (and tries to find a pig that looks like her boar would've looked like as a piglet. Ours were a year when we got them)

I was so relieved I bought the naice hay and hoped they wouldn't re-stock.

But that's probably just wishful thinking

Are they refurbishing? My local one is putting in a Vets and Dog Grooming place and so they've moved all the livestock to other locations whilst the work is being done.

We've already got the Vet there (not sure about grooming)
I'm hoping we've reached guinea-pig saturation point and they won't sell them.

I hate P@H. Poor creatures. Why are they still allowed to farm these animals to such an extent?

If you ask Pets at Home where they get their animals, what do they say?

I ask because our local garden centers sell them and they say that they get them from breeders.

Last time I asked they said the pigs came from Spain
Poor little souls. Can you imagine the journey they's have.
By plane?
By road?
How many of them wouldn't survive the journey

Hopefully that's why they don't have them. Can't see it being cost-effective TBH.

Still plenty in my local pets at home.

I'd never really thought about where they come from as have never had a small furry. I do like to admire the guinea pigs though, I think they're adorable. Never occurred to me they would come from abroad!

I'm the owner of one cat and one goldfish (the goldfish sold to me by P@H in a stupidly small tank that would have killed it).

From Spain? Really? That sounds awful. :(

I have never known any one answer anything but 'breeders' when asked where stock comes from.

Technically they do.....

You need to pry deeper - ask to see the details of the breeders, get address's, ask about conditions they are kept in etc etc - if they can't answer this (or lie) then you know it not good.

I have two pet shops in my town that sell animals - one says 'breeders' the other says 'local breeders' and pulls out all their paper work without asking :) . They check homes, in fact they refused me gerbils once because they didn't think they were the right pet for me - pointed me in the direction of guineas 3 months later guess what I had .

I hate P@H! I really do :(
I know there are some better branches but most just make me fume!

I just don't get buying from a breeder/pet shop when there are so many animals in rescue centres. I was at a party this afternoon and one of the mum's showed us a picture of a (very gorgeous) puppy her friend has just bought for £1000. I could not justify paying that amount of money knowing there are so many dogs stuck in centres, some getting pts

Went to see our local P@H, expecting it to be awful, but not really.

They were selling pairs of rabbits more cheaply than singles, to encourage people to keep two not one alone; good point?

The staff seemed very knowledgable and the queue moved very slowly as they expained in detail how to look after pets/use filters for fish tanks, etc.

Which I think is good - not a complaint!

DD and I went to one where they were promoting a Guinea-Pig 'would be owners' session.

An oppurtunity to meet the staff, ask questions, find out about what the guineas need , health issues .

Excellant idea - don't know if they still do them though.
That's the sort of thing large pet stores should promote.
(Though DD would want to take her hulking big boars in to show people what those cute little piglets really turn into after a few months)

I think they still do events like that - they certainly advertise them at my P@H. They hold them at weekends and also during the school holidays. Never been to one though.

LaBelleDameSansPatience, selling rabbits in pairs sounds like a good idea in theory because rabbits should live together but when poorly trained staff like the ones in P@H can't sex the animals right then you end up with lots of kittens that no one wants. Even if they do manage to sex them right and you end up with single sex pairs they don't tell you that when the hormones kick in you end up with 2 very aggressive bunnies who fight with each other. P@H don't advise you that they should be neutered to help prevent this from happening and they deff. don't tell you the cost. Some people think that two girls are best because they think they don't get aggressive, but they do. Also 80 per cent of female rabbits that remain un neutered past the age of 3 will die from uterine cancer something eles P@H don't tell you.
I know this because I work in a rabbit rehoming centre and we constantly pick up the peices from P@H.

They're not as cuddly as guinea pigs, but when I asked their fish came from it was Hong Kong! Can you imagine the mortality rate when shipping them?

Oh.

They had baby pigs in again.
And a boar trio in rehome. that I desperately wanted to scoop up and bring home but my Resident Boars would get the hump that will hopefully find a new furever home

With fish you should also be asking how they were caught, not just where they come from. A lot of coral reefs are being ruined as people use dynamite to stun fish to be removed for pets and food.

That Finding nemo clownfish doesn't look so pretty now does it?