Just to address a few comments about my chinchilla so that I don't have to keep writing out the same replies: Could I have done more to prevent his death? Possibly. But I was not a legal adult with access to my own money / car, admittedly had limited knowledge on chinchillas compared to what I had now and was pulling together what I could for an animal I wanted to get out of a bad situation that he ultimately would have died in too. Why did I not take him to a vet? It's easy enough now looking back to say 'this is what I should have done different / maybe a vet would have been able to save him' but dwelling on it doesn't bring him back. He had months / weeks of illness in the store left untreated, and was seen by a vet that didn't find anything wrong, so an exotic / chinchilla vet would have been needed. I personally think the months worth of damage done by the store not treating whatever was underlying, probably couldn't have been unpacked in the 5-6 days I had him home. It takes a few days usually for vets to give you an appointment, and if there was any medication they could have given him I fear it would have been too late by that point. I also, back then saw no signs that led me to believe he was declining (small animals are very good at hiding illness), if anything he improved once I got him home, was eating, drinking, active and mostly alert, chinchillas diet should primarily be made up of hay, and in the store he had none, fed only on pellets, it likely contributed to his issues, as soon as I brought him home he had unlimited access to hay, and his pooping improved, although not as frequent as it should have been, but perhaps it was a little too late. There's a lesson to be learnt from everything and I certainly learnt mine, I'm always honest about my mistakes on this channel, and as a young adult I was swept up in the emotion of wanting to get an animal out of a terrible system, yes I could have done better, and these days as a 25 year old I would do better (by avoiding situations like these entirely), I did as much research as I could in 2 weeks but could have done more. It's a story I here time and time again, about impulse purchases, animals that were failed by multiple people, and many animals dying days / weeks after purchase. Moral of the story is don't buy animals from chain pet stores, even if they're tugging at your heart strings. He would have died alone in the pet store, instead he had a final few days where he got to experience his first dust bath, an appropriate diet, and love.

I think we definitely need more regulations for pet stores - what they can sell, how they care for animals & the information they provide all need to be regulated in my opinion

I bought rats from a store pet chain and one of them had a hole in his foot and it had gone green. So I nursed him back to health with the help of my vet because I knew if I took him back he would die. He recovered completely and then I went into the pet shop with the vet bills and demanded they paid for it. They paid instantly because they realised they were going to get in big trouble.

I worked in a pet shop years ago. One day three teenage boys came in who were acting weird. They huddled together in an out of the way spot and were whispering about something, so I went around behind some shelves to eavesdrop. I'll spare everyone the details of what they said since it's bad enough that I know, but...they were discussing which animal would be more fun to torture. It was the worst experience I had working there, and there are plenty of other awful stories I could tell. The good news is that because this was a small business, and my Mum owned it, I was able to tell them exactly where to go and to never come back. Even so, it's one of a number of things that's completely put me off working in the pet industry.

I find it disgusting how in this pet store animals are treated as a source of money rather than a living thing. It needs to stop.

I tell people all the freaking time "do NOT get animals from pet stores under any circumstances". And they always try to rationalize buying animals from pet stores as "rescuing" them. And it is like "NO!!! By continuing to buy animals from pet stores and thinking you are saving the animals all you are doing is keeping them in business and allowing more animals to be bred unethically and irresponsibly!!!" It sounds like your chinchilla had megacolon or something similar.

My hamster was terrified of everyone and everything when I got him, he's now the most confident little boy I've met and loves to get my attention for cuddles

I'm very glad that in highschool I worked for a small non-chain pet store. It wasn't the greatest, but it was a LOT better than the stories I hear about chain stores. The owner of my store was sweet and loved animals, so she tried her best, even if the store still suffered from not having enough space for some animals and misinformation for others (pre-internet era). Your story reminded me, that one of my co-workers fell in love with a beautiful adult blue macaw who was named Tequila. He had been abandoned at the shop and absolutely HATED people (I didn't blame him, what with all the dumb kids who tried to grab him even with all the signs saying he bites). My co-worker spent every break she had slowly gaining his trust and eventually his love. We all teased her (lightly) about being into "older men", but she was dedicated. She saved up every paycheck and the moment she purchased him and everything he needed, she quit. I'd like to think she and him have grown old together, healing one another in the process.

So my rabbit had babys and we were thinking of dropping it off at the local pet store, Now I'm definitely not. Thank you for helping.

So with the hamster, I was working at a pet store where we had radios and headsets and at the beginning of the shift I overhear that a hamster has escaped. I’m at the register so I can’t go looking for them, but I get to listen to my coworkers looking around and eventually I hear my boss say “Got him!” I radio back asking if she caught the hamster and she quickly radios back “Hamster? What hamster I caught the snake?” And I had no words.

I work in a specialist fish store and since then, I've always bought from speciality stores. If you're going to buy a fish, buy from a LFS. If you want to buy reptiles, find a place that specialise in reptiles. The amount of people who come to me with bad or just plain wrong information that they hear from chain pet stores is astounding. The workers are not trained and usually just assigned to an animal group based on some arbitrary experience with the animal. You've kept a goldfish in a bowl alive for 3 months? Here, take charge of our entire fish section. Also, theyre not allowed to say no to a customer who wants to buy a fish in an inappropriate setup. I however, have flat out refused people who want to keep fish in miserably small setups. Support stores that have your and your animal's interest at heart, not a corporation that only cares about money.

I love that your spreading awareness about this, it’s so sad that so many people don’t know about this it’s awful 😞

Whenever I'm in the shop near me that I think you're referring to, I can always see the very obvious difference in care standards. People obviously love cats and dogs but I don't think that should mean the effort and care standards between say a dog and a mouse should be different.

I’ve seen horrific videos of rodent mills in the States, didn’t think we had the same issues here. I’ll look for a breeder next time.

I’m glad my local pet store is good. They sell big cages, c&c cages and good products in general. They don’t sell any living animals and my guinea pigs LOVE their hay :)

I worked at a pet shop for work experience for my course (it wasn’t a chain store, just didn’t have owners that listened to staff that were educated) and worked there once a week, I was the only one that cleaned the enclosures, it was honestly awful, the small animal enclosures were cleaned only once a week when I went in, which was disgusting because of how small the enclosures were. Every week I took out around 1-3 dead animals (mostly hamsters and mice), and this was a small business, they didn’t have as many animals as pets at home would. But honestly it was disgusting, I recommended a few things to help them with them losing the animals and they never listened. The fish were a different story, they didn’t get them from good breeders until another person was employed (which she helped a lot) and I would have to scoop loads of dead fish out a week. I remember when the axolotls were all sick, they were dropping like flies, it was so sad. They luckily had stopped selling exotics when I joined but i can’t imagine what it was like when they had reptiles.

Your chinchilla story had me in tears, those pictures were making me cry. I feel so so bad for you, I know how it feels to lose a pet. They’re so important to us it’s like losing a huge chunk of your heart!

Years ago I bought a budgie from a chain pet store, my first and only time doing it. He lived around 5 years and had health issues from the start, so he had a lot of vet visits. When I got him he was underweight, had digestive issues and he had scaly face mites. I couldn't really see him that well from the distance when purchasing him and they actually told me that he's a female because the mites had turned his cere brown. He passed from a tumor sadly. I hate that I supported a chain pet store with buying him, but I'm glad he was able to live 5 years with me and my flock. ❤

The first hamster i ever had was sent in a tiny cage, with *sawdust* bedding and poor quality food --- I was eight-ish, with no experience, and we thought that me and my parent thought the pet shop knew what they were doing :( The silver lining was that she was from a previous home who couldn't look after her due to ill health, so she was a lovely pet, but i didn't give her the life she deserved :( Godspeed, Amber Edit: she was about two years old when I got her Edit x2: I have a lot more experience and knowledge. I have rats (I've got a four tier cage with more climbing opportunity than a mountain, plus my own mix). I'm able to look after animals far better now

This is absolutely disappointing. You would assume that a pet store could be trusted but no. All they care about is making profit. I can’t imagine what these poor animals has been though. I knew pet stores weren’t good but this is horrific. Edit: I appreciate the likes ty.

i’ve had some awful experiences with this pet store. i’ve been a hamster owner since i was around 10 and most of them have been from this pet chain. my first two hamsters were sold to me as “social animals” and i was encouraged to keep them together in a TINY cage which they told me was a good size for two hamsters. obviously, i had no bad intentions at all and wanted to give my hamsters the best life possible but because of the advice they gave me and their handbooks, i didn’t take care of them adequately. after the FIRST night of having my two hamsters, one had passed and after going to the vet they told me it probably had a heart issue from birth. after this, i bought another hamster to keep the other one company as advised and they both ended up fighting. i separated them and they lived for a good while. this comment is already too long but i have WAY more stories about the advice and traumatic things that occurred as a result of the misinformation this company is spreading.

I know this took place in the UK but this is also very common for pet stores (probably even worse with the pet mill being legal) in the usa. Lets call them “PetDumb” and “Petno” are the biggest offenders and should not be supported when it comes to buying small animals.

I think it's so crazy how every pet store even w in chains is managed differently. Some US pet store chains will sell reptiles and know nothing about them, and it really depends on the employees themselves to care for these animals and do research on their own it seems, which is a lot to put on employees. They should have more training about the animals they sell.

I remember on my 18th birthday, I went to a pet store to buy a Leopard Gecko, what really shocked me is how skinny she was and I just had to get her back home. I named her Kerrie Anne and she lived a lively healthy life till she passed in. Missing her everyday x

I bought my hamster buddy Nugget from a chain store. He's a Syrian Hamster, so he's pretty big. Almost the size of a full grown rat now. He's mostly grey and white, with a little Cresent moon white shape on his forehead. He was the only one left in the tank. I went through the whole checklist, and the clerk was SHOCKED when after she asked if I had a cage for it, I replied with "yes. I have a 40+ gallon sized enclosure for him." Getting him home, and after he got acclimated to his new forever home, he warmed up to me pretty fast. He was scared at first, but I figured it was just because he was in a new place. I'd like to add he never tried to bite me- always such a sweetheart. When I did hold him, I noticed he had a few scars on his back. If anyone doesn't know, Syrian hamsters are solitary. My guess is he was bought before with other hamsters but when they fought they returned him. Either that, or he was left in the store with others. He's now my little fuzz butt, who loves running around and napping on my lap. I'm working on teaching him to stay on my shoulder. Recently a friend and I had to go back, and the amount of dead and dying fish floating in the tanks was so sad....

My condolences on your pet Chinchilla 😞❤️

I agree. You should never buy animals from a chain pet store, I have bought multiple mice and a hamster from a chain pet store and they all died in less than a month and that just broke my heart.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Like I knew it was bad but hearing how bad it really is still sucks. At least the chinchilla got a good last week with you.

I love your impression of a ‘big muscly guy’ 🤣🤣

Thank you for coming out about this!!!! This is very important for people to see.

Thank you so much for sharing this video! I hope this message goes to other people who were considering getting a new pet!

Omg I'm not ready for this video

I used to work for this company. My store was pretty good, the isolation room had the correct signage and we were told to wear PPE (gloves, an apron and, in some cases, a mask). We definitely had to remove all of it and wash our hands before going in to the "quiet room"/quarantine, or before going on to the shop floor. The iso room was always cleaned out last every morning because of this, to avoid possible contamination. Luckily, I didn't see anywhere near as much death in the 4 years I was there. The fish seemed to be the worst, but not as often as 10-20 per hour, although there was a period where the "stock" that came in must have had issues, because we kept losing so many of one particular type. There was an incident with a batch of hamsters that we think had wet tail, I think we ended up losing all of them because the treatment didn't work. Like it seemed like wet tail, but was worse :/ I agree the no natural light in the quiet and iso rooms is horrible. The DFC being changed to FHC (fish health check) cracked us all up for how poor it was. Me and my colleagues were passionate and did try our best to educate people correctly, referring them to resources for them to do further research. We did refuse sales to people we felt were sketchy, but sometimes if the customer called customer service, customer service would contact us and tell us to "just sell it to them" >.

Always love to see your transparency in your experiences!! Your experience is pretty similar to what I’ve seen of the animal side of the place I work. I can only feel a small bit of relief and ease working at a chain pet shop here in Texas. In my shop if the vendors send any kind of ill animals or fish the animal person will stop ordering from them until they can improve the health of their animals. Every animal gets to see the vet and gets all the medication they need. Their habitats, while some are not the most incredible, are adequate to my personal standards and maintained twice a day. I still encourage everyone to stop supporting these places and buying from them. Personally I’m in the merchandise position and my job is to stock the shelves and account for all the items in the shop since I couldn’t stomach working with the animals bcs my standards of care are too high. I am comforted only by the fact that our animal expert is an actual qualified expert who takes great care of our animals. And even he is like don’t buy animals from us this place sucks. Great video as always, despite the grim topics.

When I got my rats I bought them from a local pet store here in Idaho and they were so awful when getting my babies out. The man had grabbed them by their tail and threw them in a box and then dropped their wheel on the other rats, it was SO awful and so sad to me I was absolutely enraged.

I love how so many people, including you Em, with so much compassion for these animals are spreading awareness. In my opinion "Mom and Pop" pet stores are great because responsible people who love animals are running these stores and all of their pets are ethically sourced from great breeders. However many pet stores don't have these kinds of regulations and standards and I think it's time for a change.

I am so sorry you had to go through something like this. I feel so bad for the animals. You never hear about this but I know it happens everywhere. It's so sad..... 💙🐀💗🐁

My daughter is studying animal care at college, and in their animal care unit she is constantly shocked by the bad husbandry the students are exposed to in their TEACHING environment... so it is no wonder that pet store employees are giving poor advice and not caring for animals correctly. It is so sad. Hamsters in the big "home pet" store in the UK hamsters are kept in enclosures the size of an a4 sheet... when they need a minimum of 100x50cm. Then people wonder why their hamsters are neurotic and bitey. 🙄 DON'T BUY PETS FROM PET STORES. And DO YOUR RESEARCH, never trust the minimum wage off the street employee for husbandry advice!

I did two weeks work experience there too. I took a Guinea pig home who’d had an ear infection and was left with head tilt. I was told he was absolutely fine but I ended up spending hundreds on him on vet care for him to pass away 3 months later. I agree there was positives such as the vet care etc but overall it’s just sell and don’t think of the consequences. I work in a vets now as a veterinary assistant and it’s such a better job

Thank you for talking about this! You deserve so much more love and likes :D

I saw a little cage - maybe an armlenght x armlenght big - with around 30 mice in a local pet store... Only 3 houses to hide, it was awful

Thank you so much for your stories, Emi. Ever since I was able to look things up on the internet about poor animal care and practices, I’ve always had a serious problem with pet stores. I understand buying supplies from there (if you actually know what is safe and healthy for your pet) but I have always been disgusted by the terrible things these poor animals are subjected to. I have three beautiful male rats that I recently adopted from a very reputable breeder here in PA. They are truly one of the best things that have ever happened to me! And they are super friendly and well socialized, and most importantly they are happy and healthy. Recently, I walked into a Petco to buy some Oxbow rat blocks (my Amazon order was running late ugh) and I always make an effort to not look at any of the animals. It makes me so upset when I do. However, it sometimes is impossible to avoid. I saw this lone female rat sitting in a tank with her face against the back walls. She was very stressed and depressed, hunched back, her head was buried in her hands, piloerected fur, you name it. There was nothing for her to do in there. She also had missing patches of fur, indicating that she probably was pulling her fur out of distress. I actually had an emotional breakdown in the car. It was so heartbreaking. For every animal, no matter which, deserves respect and care (to live life as the species they are). We also have a koi pond with a low stock of koi fish. We also buy them from knowledgeable and honest breeders. My dad thinks I should work at a nearby pet store that stocks koi and I keep telling him no. I just wouldn’t be able to get through the days knowing these animals deserve so much better. Thank you for sharing your experience. I can only imagine how tough that must have been for you, especially given your love for animals. 💙

I was moments away from adopting a couple of macaws from a infamous pet store chain when I walked by the front and I saw two macaws and a cockatoo stuffed into a tiny table top cage that they could barely move in without touching another bird. The birds were showing signs of plucking and as much as I am against impulse buying animals I nearly made an aception that day.

Unfortunately I know exactly where you mean and I worked in one myself for about 2 years and honestly I feel so guilty looking back at how horrendous it is there... as you say all the DFCs, the deliveries, the conditions of the deliveries and quiet room, iso... severe anxiety thinking back to this! Its why I quit in the end, I just hated it so much :(

This video is heartbreaking yet so important for people to hear. I am obsessed with guineapigs and have so much knowledge about them that many friends say I should work at a pet store. I absolutely refuse because of reasons like this.

Hi Emi, my rat girls are doing great and watching your videos with me. I used to work at a pet store and it wasn’t too bad overall (I do have stories though) but I had to sell a guinea pig once to an obviously cracked out lady… I didn’t have the ability to refuse as a cashier. I cried after she left with the poor thing and I could only hope she sobered up and either took care of it or returned it. I still feel guilty that I didn’t say no, but ultimately someone else would’ve sold it to her anyway. It makes me love my girls that much more, knowing that they went to a good home and didn’t end up as some impulse buy.

One of my little hamsters came from a chain pet shop and he was so nervous and jumpy when we first got him. I know this could be due to a change of environment etc but it was so heavily linked with human interaction and it was so sad. He had a multitude of health problems too, which we’re treating accordingly with the vet. He’s so much happier now, a lovely little man who comes right up to you asking for cuddles. I’ll never again buy from a large pet shop chain, only locally now.

Omg I'm early! I love you!! My family owns 2 small pet supply stores and I hope to take it over someday, the holistic pet industry is filled with some amazing people❤

So sad. Thank you for posting this video. I suspect that this is also true of Petco and Petsmart here in the U.S.

I just purchased one of your "ask me about my rats" hoodie I can't wait !!♡

Off-topic but I love your enclosure in the back, it's very well terriformed!

usually not a huge fan of commenting bc it gives me anxiety, but i just wanted to say i really appreciate the hard work and emotional and physical effort you put into your videos. rats and mice, as well as some "less cute" reptiles have a huge stigma around them, especially here where i live in a part of america where they are very commonly known as vermin instead of sweet things that deserve their place in the world too. i also suffer from chronic illnesses that are similar to yours and actually had to miss work today (i work at the local shelter store for my county where all of the profits go towards the animal shelter) because of my pain and fatigue. you clearly have such a huge heart and so much love in it to work so hard to make videos informing people and shedding light on the sweet, beautiful side (and harsher reality too) of these incredible animals. the fact that you do youtube, run multiple social media accounts, as well as an online store and make merch all at the same time while dealing with two very draining chronic illnesses is so inspiring and admirable. thank you for making my sick days and time off work so enjoyable and enriching while also spreading such important messages that all pet owners should be aware of. the best for you and your whole family (including your pets ofc), you deserve the absolute world 💕

Your chinchillas story broke my heart .. I have 2 chinchillas and they are such special little animals. I am so sorry about that loss , I can’t imagine loosing my boys. Chain petstores (even the majority of my local petstores) really make me sad. And overhearing them making a sale on a animal and all the wrong care being given out…. If I had the confidence I would try to help inform people.

We once adopted a rabbit from THE pet store,her name is hovis.Hovis wasn't taken care of badly in the store she had a play pen outside her cage because she had breathing issues and they wanted her to get fresh air. The employees were actually very good and you could tell they loved her. When we saw her she was the sweetest rabbit and trying to every one's attention and just wanted to get petted. We took her home as she also happened to be very drawn to us. When we went back the employees were asking about her and we were notified and her vet care history and that it was genetic. And within a couple of months we took her to the pets store vets (Big mistake,don't ever go there it's terrible) and they charged us a ridiculous amount. Put her on oxygen and said that they can't euthanasia her even though she could barely breath.they said she would die that day, and we took her home and said our goodbyes honestly it wasn't the employees fault but the store and the vet and it was no way for hovis to live because she was suffering I hope she rests in peace now 💖

This is truly horrifying but sadly no surprise. Even in Switzerland we are facing similar issues with chain pet stores. I tried to reach out to the media and police but they just told me that these aren't news and they can't do anything about it. After this video I have realized that giving up is no option. Pet stores NEED to improve! PS: As a chinchilla owner myself I can confirm that it isn't always easy to look out for them or even find a good vet. My chinchilla almost died because of a vet who just had no idea how to handle chinchillas. Sending you and your pets lots of love

One thing I have noticed is that ermm….. Sets Cat Roam…. near me have stopped selling rabbits thank GOODNESS!

Pet stores abuse their animals. If you plan on getting a pet, do research and find a reputable breeder or rescue group. Quite a few years ago, I bought two pet rats from a pet store. They were far too small to have been away from their mother, but I was a new rat owner, so I didn't know. The male rat, named Peter, died after less than a week. He had an upper respiratory infection and was too exhausted and in too much pain to move at all. When I confronted the pet store about it, I was told "That's what you get for trying to make a pet out of a feeder rat." The other rat was named Bentley. I later found out she was a female. That feeder rat was as sweet as could be. I could feed her soup from my finger and she would just lick it off. I could scoop her up and cuddle her. Every time I walked into the room, she would run to the cage door. I loved that rat so much. Because of her time at the pet store, she dealt with spontaneous upper respiratory infections every few months for her entire life, even though her cage was kept very clean. She lived to be two. A year or so after I lost Bentley, I found a Facebook post where someone was surrendering some rats. The story of how they got the rats was unclear, but they claimed that they were from the same pet store. A mother and three babies. The mother looked exactly like Bentley, and one of the children looked like Peter. I took them in. Mamacita was what we named the mother. She was a small, extremely fluffy, grey and white hooded dumbo rat. She looked so adorable, I wanted to pet her so much. But I couldn't. She was extremely human-aggressive and would attempt to bite me whenever the chance arose. The only thing she wanted more than the blood of humans was food. Though her children didn't seem to have any brain cells, Mamacita was extremely smart. She knew her name. She knew the sarcastic tone of voice I liked to use with her. She knew how to make eye contact, and gave constant death stares. She knew how to look nice and pettable. Any time there was a plastic glove near her, she would viciously attack it (more so than any of our other rats had done). Her children, Gracie, Feta, and Gouda were all very sweet. They weren't affectionate, but they were always happy to see people and just kinda vibed. Gracie got mammary tumors at age 1, and Feta and Gouda both got what was suspected to be brain tumors at around age 2. Mamacita outlived all three of them. The difference between Bentley and Mamacita was jarring. Bentley had been at the pet store for only a few weeks, meant to be a feeder rat. Mamacita, on the other hand, was a breeder rat, believed to have had at least four litters in the first year of her life. One was a sweet angel, while the other was nicknamed Cujo. Every other rat I've had have been rescued. Some have been traumatized from their previous homes, but nearly all of them have been super sweet, and all of them have been incredible pets. Although buying rats from pet stores may feel like a rescue, it'll just lead to more demand, leading to more rats suffering. The pet stores don't care what happens so long as they get their money. I've heard people say, "Oh, there are regulations though!" Pet stores don't follow them. Don't give them money. Don't let them continue this. I'm sorry for this being such a long comment, but I'm tired of animals suffering.

That's the reason i have never bought fish from pets at home. The tanks are dirty, have sick fish, the stocking advice is abysmally poor ( I do get occasional supplies). Even the feeder insects are not fed ( even though there is literal insect food right next to them). I go to my local maidenhead aquatics and a family owned business called sweet knowle aquatics with excellent fish. I leant a lot from this video. Thankfully mine stopped selling reptiles

Happy to know we take good care of the animals in the store. We are a part of a chain, but each store is individually owned, with own animals of the choosing, products, etc. We always bring sick animals to the vet and properly medicate them (fish, hamsters, you name it). Each animal have cages fit to their needs with good size, hamsters kept separate and guinea pigs kept in pairs etc.

wow. I never knew. I will never purchase from a pet store again. This was a very helpful video 😊

I bought my hamster Pluto from THE pet store and have owned him for about 7 months. He seemed perfectly fine... until a few weeks ago. Don’t worry, he’s still alive thank fucking God, but he became extremely unwell over the course of just a few hours. The moment I noticed something was very wrong (he was violently trembling, could hardly move, couldn’t seem to stay awake and had a bit of a head tilt) we took him to the vets immediately. Before we even arrived I was already in tears convinced he was going to die and that it was my fault because the previous night I had been talking about how lucky I was to get such a friendly and healthy little hamster. We went in, the vets examined him, then we were brought into a private room from the waiting area and one of them told us that he’d be lucky to make it through the night. If I wasn’t already upset before, I was a fucking mess at this point. It was ugly believe me. I was sat there sobbing holding my baby believing that these next few hours were going to be his last. I already had one traumatic hamster death happen so this experience was like reliving that Hell all over again. We were presented with the option of euthanasia, or to give him a chance with medication. The vet told me it wasn’t likely it’d do anything except provide pain relief, but I just couldn’t let go. To make an already long story short, Pluto miraculously survived and recovered. Costed me about £100 in total but that doesn’t matter to me. I’m just so glad he’s okay and even just typing this out is bringing tears to my eyes. The reason I bought him in the first place is because I wanted to rescue at least one of the animals in that store, I know it‘s still not a great idea to do that but I was thinking more emotionally rather than logically. I don’t regret it though. He’s one of the best things that happened to me in a long time

Thanks for sharing your experience. I’d considered working for a chain pet store as I’d love to work with animals safe to say I won’t be applying! Pet stores shouldn’t sell animals of any species! Support responsible breeders.

I love u and your content so much xxxxxxx

You gave the chinchilla his best last days 💗

Omg I work at a pet store and your experience sounds horrific. The most dead we get is feeder fish and that's about it[aside from the day after fish are shipped in, but thats just the way they come and the people who ship them]. Extremely rarely we get a dead ham on arrival but they come in huge containers[1-4hams in a really big shipping container] with food and water, even carrots🥕. Ugh I'm so sorry you had to deal with that.

One time when I was at petco I overheard a store employee telling someone that single tail goldfish could, and should be in a fish bowl... no fish can survive in a bowl, and single tail goldfish need a pond, while double tail goldfish need a 20 gallon.

I went to a store which is part of the largest pet store chain in the uk a couple weeks ago to pick up some hard to find food for my cat, and I noticed there was 0 animals for sale. The cages where still there, but every one was empty. The signs that where up with the "name, species, etc" info template where all blank too. I don't know if they just had sold out or if they've stopped it at that one but yeah that was odd but nice to see.

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At the pets at homes near me they had some enclosures which had animals for adoption in. I have never bought live animals from them but seeing as these were for adoption we decided to adopt 2 baby bunnies. They ended up having a deadly parasite which should of been picked up far sooner. One of the rabbits (flopsy) was really poorly and how she went un noticed for so long was just ridiculous. The vet thought they wouldn’t last a week,but I wanted to give them a chance and we started medication they lived for another 2 months and then sadly snowdrop passed away. And flopsy a month after. If the parasite had been picked up sooner they probably would of survived as a lot of their major symptoms wouldn’t of happened. It’s so frustrating. There’s also always dying reptiles and insects. They should not sell live mammals let alone live reptiles that need there environment to be specific otherwise they will get sick. Hamsters are a little more hardy then crested geckos kept in a tiny enclosure with barely any humidity or places high up to hide. They should be banned from the selling of live animals.

I loved work experience at my local rspca until the rspca closed and transferred their cats to places like the petbarn where I got my four year old baby 😊. I love it that owners can bring their dogs in if you want to

My brother had a chinchilla when I was a kid. My dad built a large cage from an old wardrobe with lots of shelves for him to jump up and down, and a middle floor with two holes in so in case he fell, he'd only fall through half the cage and not from the top to the bottom. He loved it. He was so cute and cuddly. I don't remember how old he got, be he died from old age.

I used to think working in a pet store would be fun, but then realised pet stores would probably not want me since I would be honest to people about pet care and I wouldn't even try to sell people too small cages and such.

wow, I think this really showed how important it is to source your animal from a good breeder.

i remember getting my hamsters for my birthday and being so excited. (bearing in mind i was like what? 8? when i got the little guys so i didnt really know what was good and bad) and they brought out this cage which had the bare minimum (food and water) there was no bedding, no wheel and there was 6 little baby dwarf hamsters in there. now i think back on it i hope the 4 i couldnt adopt got into a great home and wasnt stuck in that horrid store.

As one of the many people who have been traumatized for life as kids from misinformation about hamsters being “social animals”, yes, this is such a horrible issue and I can’t believe that misinformation is so common. Well, I stand corrected - I suppose I can believe it, but purely by virtue of the fact that pet stores probably let it continue because a) people buy more hamsters that way, and b) they may end up giving any resulting babies back to the pet store, resulting in even more profits

I tried to tell my boyfriends mom that pet stores are not ok but she said her firneds own and work there so they are good people, and I tried to explain that the workers do not alwyas try to hurt the animals. It’s just the buissness in general that is never going to keep the animals that healthy or happy

i used to work at PaH luckily i was an animal management student and knew a lot about the animals so i tried to sell as many as possible so i could give people the correct advice.. i did get into trouble with the manager a couple times so i left as i refused to give the pet shop advice. So sad as i loved working there knowing that i was helping these little animals get a better home and promoting good care to my other employees.

that place makes me feel sick 😞. honestly don’t understand how all this is able to happen.

Another problem with these pet stores is putting more than one Hamster in one enclosure. I had one instance where my coworker who started the same time I did was opening with a manager, and she went to look into an enclosure to see if everyone was still okay. It was also her first day opening the small animals herself. She ended up discovering a beheaded hamster next to a hamster covered in blood. And this happened more often than it should have. I hate chain pet stores but one thing that would need to change is overstocking live animals. Its absolutely NOT okay.

It all sounds horrific, but the story of the freezer is what really got me. Animals just thrown away, when lots of them were peoples pets or could have been! It’s so sad

"So many died within 2 weeks" "i can't say who" Petco. She was talking about Petco. Daaamn petco

I work at a chain pet store in the States, been there a few months. Its pretty similar. We "scoop dead" as a daily task(we don't have a fancy code, we've been taught diplomatic ways of talking about it if customers ask), and barring any filtration/heating system failures, there's usually only one or two per tank. Our iso and new arrivals rooms are awful for rodents. They're in plastic bins(like you might use to bus tables if you worked in a restaurant) that come in two sizes, and are stored on racks. The bigger size is reserved for guinea pigs(largest rodent we sell) but I've seen them three to a bin. Our location is supposed to only received and sell male animals, and yet, we've had a litter of hamsters, a litter of mice, some parakeet eggs, and now a pregnant guinea pig. Reptiles, our supplier has a bad rep, and deserved. Since its gotten warm, we get shipments multiple times a week and my store manager has said he doesn't know what we're getting til we get it. We put them straight out to the sales floor because we only have space for a few reptile enclosures in iso(those are definitely better than the sales floor) We also house cats that come from our local shelter. They have to most adequate care because the folks from the shelter have some oversight. We don't sell them, people have to talk to the shelter to adopt them. Overall, we're just not equipped to care for the animals we're expected to keep and sell.

What you said about mixed crates of rodents made it make sense that my sister once bought a guinea pig from the pet shop and a few weeks later had an extra

Having just left the company you're talking about...I've had many similar experiences, I took home 2 rats because one came in pregnant. I do believe the company are trying to better themselves for example PPE being mandatory in iso and Q and hamsters being sold singularly, I have found every store varies, the store I worked at has very educated staff who advise customers off their own knowledge and not company policy but that's down to the staff and their love of animals not the company. Other stores I've been too have very poor standards, it's actually frightening.

I hate big chain pets shops... especially pets at home and the new updating. Some of the products are OK but avoid buying animals.

I worked at the same chain for a few years (I don't anymore), and maybe our store was different, but my managers were extremely strict and worried about the animals in our shop. Yes, animals did sometimes show up with some health issues, but ours went straight to the vets, we didnt have one in store, so everytime we had to take an employee off the shop floor to spend a few hours out of store. And we were on the sick animals like glue to make sure they were as comfortable as possible. Only death we had in the 3 years I worked there was a little roborovski who had a major birth defect. I'm guessing it comes down a lot to the stores management and how much they're willing to cut into profit for the animals health. Our bunnies all came in roomy crates, with about 3-4 in each crate and divided into gender.

that’s awful. i’m glad that most of the pet stores near me are pretty decent. of course some animal habitats and food are very cheap and they sell fish bowls, but they sell more of and always recommend large habitats

I did an intership at a pet store for a year and let me tell you there where so many death and even so many sad ones. I even took one who was about to pass away a week later just to take care of him and get him comfortabel

I hate how as I've got older I'm realising more and more how horrible some of these stores are. I go in sometimes for feeders for my gecko and I hated how every time I passed the hermit crabs they'd have aquarium stones only like half an inch thick as their bedding. As someone who lives in Australia it's not as bad as it sounds there, but I really cannot get over how bad the conditions that some of these animals are in. I also worked in a chain pet store for work experience and I'm glad to see that it's at least a bit better here. I was there for just one week and I only saw a couple dead fish (mostly bettas) but it really bothered me how the same filter was used and the same water for almost all the tanks in each row. The amount of misinformation even within a pet store is actually crazy, I was actually talking to the manager about the crabs since it's something that could so easily be fixed and in the end they actually switched to sand. We've also (mostly) stopped selling dogs and cats in pet stores which I think is great. There's normally only a couple of rabbits and guinea pigs all housed separately and our birds are quite well looked after. There was only one bird death in the time I was there and it was a baby so there's lots of reasons that could be unrelated. For me, the current worst is the treatment of the rats and mice. The cages are never deep cleaned, just a biweekly substrate change. They just get a food bowl and one small hide each and it doesn't even have enough space for more than 2 rats at a time. Not even covering the amount of genetic problems these animals have it's just enough to make me want to never support them again. I had a rat that I took in from there that I nursed back up but she aged so quickly that she seemed older than my other rats who were like 2.5 years old. The mice I owned didn't even make it to one year.

I’m so sorry for you Chinchilla that passed. He had a wonderful week with you though, much better than if he had stayed at the store. Definitely had a much better experience with rats from a reputable breeder than from the pet store, will NEVER buy from a Pet Store again.

I adopted the last Syrian hamster from a pet shop in my high street. They are not open everyday of the week and this hamster was skinny. I went back a week later and heard them talking about getting a pregnant female hamsters and guinea pigs etc… luckily I convinced them not to get any animals because of the size of this shop and the fact it’s closed most days of the week. I’m so glad I convinced them becuase there were only 2 hamster cages and one tiny guinea pig cage.

Unrelated to the video, but I have those same bins as you do in the back ground. Idk I just found it funny when I looked at the background and notices them.

Pets at home in Oxford is incredible with their rats, and I know most of the staff there have rats or were breeders. Still not ethical but it means when I bought my rats from there, as I was uneducated, they have fab temperament!!

I haven't had any pets for a long time, but back in the 1990s/2000s, I had reptiles and amphibians. I never worked in a pet store, but during this time period, I shopped at many of the local pet stores. The huge chain pet stores were just starting to expand in my area at this time. When I was just getting started, they weren't around, but there were numerous smaller stores. Most were locally owned, and there was also a chain of god-awful small stores located in malls. The quality of the local stores was highly variable; many were far worse than the big chains that came along later, and a few were excellent. I remember encountering filthy stores full of animals in poor condition, watched over by disengaged and incompetent employees who were likely treated no better than the animals in their care. When the huge chains moved into the area, most of these local stores could no longer compete and went out of business. As bad as the huge chains are, this was an improvement, as they set a minimum standard that was a lot better than the disgusting local stores that they replaced. The best local stores were not threatened by the huge chains, and they continued to thrive, as having a well run store with healthy animals turns out to be a good business practice. It's sad to think that these terrible chain stores are an improvement over what came before. This just shows how horrific the pet trade can be. Stronger government regulations are necessary, but here in the United States, I don't see that ever happening, except maybe in a few of the more civilized states and cities.

I have a job interview today at PetSmart. All the things you've discussed would really bother me as well. But I feel like this place is need people that care like you and me to advocate for the animals which is what you did hopefully it makes a difference.

Well, I guess its a good thing that there aren't even 10% of the pet stores that there used to be when I was a kid. I'm 45 now, but when I was little.....they were EVERYwhere. I remember walking through my mall, and my mom deliberately avoiding the wing of the mall that had a pet store with all the cute little dogs and cats in this glass cage built into the window facing out into the mall. I would make her stop every time so I could hold a dog, they would just get them out for anyone to hold. & they had every animal you could possibly think of. All breeds of dogs & cats, a huge tunnel of all fish breeds, tarantulas, ferrets, lizards, snakes, parrots and all the talking birds (even huge "pirate" parrots), seahorses, just everything. It was like a zoo right in the mall. Now, there are hardly any who sell pets, and if they do, they are very limited. I was looking for a gerbil so my sons could have a mate, and it was very hard locating one in Columbus Ohio.

My rabbit was in the 'rescue' section at Pets at Home. As soon as I brought her home she was so unwell. She had pasteurella and ecaniculi (sign of bad, unhygienic breeding), I wasn't told about this although the branch knew. She's been in and out of vets all her life and with extreme TLC from me, nearly 10 years later she's still with me. I've always kept her as a free roaming house rabbit with everything she wants and needs but if I'd overlooked her that day, I doubt if she'd have survived a year. Not sure what store you're referring to but I personally hate pets at home, it's extremely cruel to sell live animals from a store.

Awwww :( I could tell she was about to cry when she was talking about her Chinchilla. Its crazy how close you can get with them. I have two gerbils who I am DREADING the day I find them not alive in their cage. They were my sons & when he moved out I kept them, but almost let him take them all because I dont want to find them dead one day, it will crush me. But he has 3 cats where he lives, so I quickly changed my mind. lol. They have a huge gerbil mansion here (40 gallon glass tank connected by tubes that lead to a plastic gerbil house that is connected by tubes that leads up to another 20 gallon tank) here that he couldn't take there because its open on the top level.

Chain pet stores make me so upset and this is from a pov of someone who has just seen in passing the small cages they're all kept in. I ended up getting a pet from a chain store but it was because we were misled. However I can't regret that because we have been able to give her a great life.

There's this pet "store" nearby my grandma's place there's like 30+ maybe 40+hamster on a little space like they're so squished in that tiny space and the rabbits are also in a very small space