RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:35 am

We went to Petco yesterday because that's where my sister wanted to get her new parakeet (who is a cutie, btw

) But anyway, I spend most of my time there looking at the rats. Me and my brother were looking at them, most seemed pretty healthy, but there were some that didn't. (I've called in this petco to the humane society several times and they really have started doing a lot better with their rats) But...we noticed that they all had lice, poor babies Sad

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Well... Sad Rat

my brother noticed that there was a female in with some of the boys. I pointed this out to one of the ladies and stared at her until she opened the tank to take the girlie rat out. I was happy that she did but then she grabbed the rat by the tail... Sad

I was mad enough about that, but the lady started SHAKING the poor little rat by the tail!! She kept saying, "Stop moving! Stop moving!" Then when the rat didn't stop moving the lady smashed her into one of the boxes and closed it until she could open the girl tank. Me and my brother were just standing there staring at her, i COULDN'T believe she had just done that. She finally put the little girl into the girl tank. But I KNOW it is too late. She was already a good sized rat, old enough to be pregnant I'm sure. I begged to take her home, but we have a lot of rats right now and my mom didn't want to deal with babies right now, which I understand but it still makes me sad Sad

The thing that I thought was weird was how she treated a "fancy" rat. This was a GORGEOUS hooded rat, btw. Usually they treat the white "feeders" badly and act all nice (at least in front of people) to the "fancy" rats. (not that i see any difference between the rats, just an observation )

Puppy Dog Eyes

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-Randi and the Rats: Notti, Mysty, Nilla, and Wafer

~My precious Angels: Nosi, Jumper, Margie, Francie, and Bart~ We miss you.

Sat Feb 04, 2006 5:50 am

Reporting things like that to the general manager is usually a good idea. Those people keep their jobs based on the performance of their employees. Most will at least tell the employees that they have to make a serious effort to handle animals properly... in front of customers, anyway Sad

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Unfortunately, I don't think the humane society would consider picking a rat up by the tail as a punishable offense.

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Sat Feb 04, 2006 7:06 am

I've never been very thrilled with Petco. Hypocritically, I bought both my rats there. xD I found one store that was clean, with healthy animals, and good employees. Anyway!

I agree, talk to the general manager, perhaps something will get done if enough people complain (Or the arguements are good enough.).

Parkeet, eh? (Not to change the subject.) I love parrots, I have a cockatiel myself (Who turned a year old today. Random trivia.). They are like feathered rats, I swear it. xD

Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:31 am

I was just at a pet store this weekend and it was horrible Sad

They had a cage with a bunch of males (at least they had the genders seperated) and there was this poor dear little boy, just a baby, who was all skin and bones and incredibly mangy looking. The others were all pretty sickly looking, and one was a clear high-white - never a good sign to see those in pet stores Confused

The mice were no better. Three moms in a cage with what looked like 50+ babies of varying ages. One mom's back was falling off - the skin had separated from the rest of the body and scabbed over underneath, a whole big chunk of her back. It was horrible. I really wish I had complained more but after having a very rough weekend I didn't think my family would put up with me putting up a stink in a petstore. I did make sure to complain loudly to my family when some workers walked by though, to at least get the point across.

If I was back home and my grandfather had not just passed away I would have complained a LOT. I have never seen such horrible conditions in a pet store.

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~Mikaela and the RitterRatten~

Blaze~Shadow~Luna~Chinchilla~Malt~Merry~Pippin~Nim~Tiri~Cinder

Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:15 pm

Ive been to a few really bad petco's, but the one by my house isnt *that* bad. They usually only have abt 5 small rats per cage, which I know is still not ideal .. but at least they dont have 10-20. Theyre clean, and theres at least one person on duty who knows a little abt them and isnt afraid of them.

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