[StarrySora]

It seems that my Petco has started to have issues with keeping hamsters separated. My sister needed to buy cat treats (I was just in there yesterday getting hamster food and bedding and I didn't have time to look at the hamsters) and I stopped to look at the hamsters. I saw 2-4 Syrian hamsters together in every tank marked Syrian. Knowing I couldn't do much, I took some pictures of one of the tanks (the first one I noticed). When we went to pay I informed the cashier that these hamsters were in tanks together when they shouldn't be, especially when they were only 10 gallon tanks. I used words she could understand because most people that work there don't know what a Syrian hamster is. So I told her the large hamsters shouldn't be housed together or they will fight. She told me that the hamsters that can be housed together (meaning dwarfs) already fight and then left it at that. I thought they were actually a good Petco and I almost regret buying Sora there, but even if I do fall in love with their hamsters I'm not buying another hamster there again (and I fell in love with two dwarf boys that were white and so cute, I even fell in love with the two multi-colored ones down below). It even says on the little insert thing that they are best kept alone! Do these morons not know how to read? This is probably the reason they won't hire me, because they don't want accurate information. Anything to make a sale.


Only one picture turned out the way I wanted it to:




I did send an e-mail to their corporate offices. They do have a place on their website where you can make comments and concerns. I sent them the photo as well.

This post has been edited by StarrySora: 19 September 2009 - 12:07 PM

[HoppingHammy]

Oh yes, Petco has always housed their Syrians together. In fact, every single pet store I know of does this too. The main reason I don't like this is that people who know nothing about hamsters will see them housed together and buy 2 or 3, thinking they'll live together peacefully.

I will say I've never seen any Petco hamsters with wounds on them from fighting (I've seen countless PetSmart dwarfs with wounds, though), so their turnover rate must be fast enough or something. When I bought Creampuff from Petco, she was in with about 5 other Syrians, and it was so sweet because she went out of the igloo that all of them were smashed into, stuffed more bedding in her cheeks, and carried it back to the group.

But yes, it's not right. I imagine it's due to the fact of not having enough space/tanks for each one to have an individual tank to themselves. If they had 10 hamster for example, that would be a lot of tanks! And with corporations, all they care about is MONEY.

[StarrySora]

HoppingHammy, on Sep 19 2009, 05:50 AM, said:

Oh yes, Petco has always housed their Syrians together. In fact, every single pet store I know of does this too. The main reason I don't like this is that people who know nothing about hamsters will see them housed together and buy 2 or 3, thinking they'll live together peacefully.

I will say I've never seen any Petco hamsters with wounds on them from fighting (I've seen countless PetSmart dwarfs with wounds, though), so their turnover rate must be fast enough or something. When I bought Creampuff from Petco, she was in with about 5 other Syrians, and it was so sweet because she went out of the igloo that all of them were smashed into, stuffed more bedding in her cheeks, and carried it back to the group.

But yes, it's not right. I imagine it's due to the fact of not having enough space/tanks for each one to have an individual tank to themselves. If they had 10 hamster for example, that would be a lot of tanks! And with corporations, all they care about is MONEY.

They hadn't done this before, when I got Sora she was alone in her tank and none of the other tanks had more than one Syrian, but others could have gotten picked up before I got her. Why they can't just leave one per tank and then have pictures of the different colors they have in the back is beyond me. As a company you would figure they would be smarter. They are going to LOSE money by housing these creatures together because the fighting can lead to death and there goes another $10-20 they could have made had they just used their brains to keep the creature alive and sold it. I can see it from a business standpoint and still make a smarter decision.

[Yanglicious]

Every pet shops does that to save spaces.
And the Syrians are still young too, so they won't fight for then.
At least yours' stick that (Best if kept alone) sticker there - Maybe you can request for it to be changed to (Must be kept solitary).

It's already better than the stores here, a few years back I was buying a Syrian and the shop assistant was asking me: "You only want one?" .

[StarrySora]

Yanglicious, on Sep 19 2009, 04:40 PM, said:

Every pet shops does that to save spaces.
And the Syrians are still young too, so they won't fight for then.
At least yours' stick that (Best if kept alone) sticker there - Maybe you can request for it to be changed to (Must be kept solitary).

It's already better than the stores here, a few years back I was buying a Syrian and the shop assistant was asking me: "You only want one?" .

Hmmm even so, it's still dangerous...just because they are young doesn't mean they will be that way forever, and if the dwarf hamsters already fight then it's only a matter of time before the Syrian's do. Besides those cages were waaaaaay too small for 2-4 Syrian's to be in there at once.

[hellokitty222]

StarrySora, on Sep 18 2009, 09:54 PM, said:

It seems that my Petco has started to have issues with keeping hamsters separated. My sister needed to buy cat treats (I was just in there yesterday getting hamster food and bedding and I didn't have time to look at the hamsters) and I stopped to look at the hamsters. I saw 2-4 Syrian hamsters together in every tank marked Syrian. Knowing I couldn't do much, I took some pictures of one of the tanks (the first one I noticed). When we went to pay I informed the cashier that these hamsters were in tanks together when they shouldn't be, especially when they were only 10 gallon tanks. I used words she could understand because most people that work there don't know what a Syrian hamster is. So I told her the large hamsters shouldn't be housed together or they will fight. She told me that the hamsters that can be housed together (meaning dwarfs) already fight and then left it at that. I thought they were actually a good Petco and I almost regret buying Sora there, but even if I do fall in love with their hamsters I'm not buying another hamster there again (and I fell in love with two dwarf boys that were white and so cute, I even fell in love with the two multi-colored ones down below). It even says on the little insert thing that they are best kept alone! Do these morons not know how to read? This is probably the reason they won't hire me, because they don't want accurate information. Anything to make a sale.


Only one picture turned out the way I wanted it to:




I did send an e-mail to their corporate offices. They do have a place on their website where you can make comments and concerns. I sent them the photo as well.

Yeah, it makes no sense that the sign says clearly, in big letters, I might add, that these hamsters should live alone, yet right next to the sign, there are 4 Syrians crammed into a 12x12 tank. When I got my Syrian Wilbur at Petco, he was the only hamster that didn't have bald patches. The biggest Syrian in the tank, sort of the dominating hamster, was sitting on him and bothering the other smaller hamsters! I am disgusted with our local Petco, I am never buying anything from them again. If our Petsmart doesn't have it, I'm willing to buy it online, no way am I giving our Petco business.

[CujosMamma]

This is going to sound so bad, but I don't mean it to in any way. That price seems pretty high for a Syrian. I have never seen them over $10 anywhere, and the store I trust the most for all small animals sells them for about $6-7. Just seems odd to see the price more than doubled!

[hammie_ham]

Well I understand where you're coming from but i honestly don't think all the people that work there are morons. They have to do their job. They may not like the companies policies and how they treat the animals and where they come from but some people need a job just to survive not just because they want discounts or something at petco. I know I don't always agree with what my company does and I can't do anything about it because I need the money.

I don't know, I just don't think its fair to blame every associate that works there. I mean if you were to talk to a supervisor or something it would be different but a regular associate can't really do much. =/

[jeangenie18]

I bought my hamster from petco and he was in a tank with 3 other syrians who kept trying to climb the water bottle because there was no wheel. I wish I could've bought all 4 to put them in their own bins. This was my first hamster I bought myself but I don't think I'll be buying another from a pet store unless it's a well respected store or from a shelter.

[Jordyn]

hammie_ham, on 10 November 2009 - 01:59 AM, said:

Well I understand where you're coming from but i honestly don't think all the people that work there are morons. They have to do their job. They may not like the companies policies and how they treat the animals and where they come from but some people need a job just to survive not just because they want discounts or something at petco. I know I don't always agree with what my company does and I can't do anything about it because I need the money.

I don't know, I just don't think its fair to blame every associate that works there. I mean if you were to talk to a supervisor or something it would be different but a regular associate can't really do much. =/

I both agree, and disagree at the same time.
Working in a petstore is not all fun and games like most people think. It's not just about playing with cute little creatures all day, and that's what a lot of people think when they send in their resumes. It's pretty much the exact oposite.
And people who think that? Don't deserve the job. At all.

A fair number of people look to work at petstores for that exact reason, and then they can't uphold the responsibility that goes with it; normally because they didn't know there was one to begin with? I work in a petstore (Pet Depot) and I work and have worked with people who know NOTHING about animal care, but they slip past my managers and bosses because they themselves don't give a <super> about any living creature there.

Can't tell you how many people have worked there for no longer than a week, then get fired because they're incompitent, and people like me complain about it. Sometimes, they don't get caught. Heck, I STILL work with people who don't deserve to work in a petstore...

Fortunately, my bosses don't really have a lot of say towards the housing of the animals... as disgusting as that is. The only thing my bosses have to complain about are what's on the shelves, and how much money we've raked in that day. I honestly have to say I dislike my job for the most part, because of it. It's not just a completely mentally and physically exhausting job, it's also just... yeah. I'm rarely around when new animals come in, and when I do come in I spend half my time rearranging the animals. We've had a lot of casualties because people just put them wherever they want.

It isn't fair, however, to blaim the people working there--to an extent. As I said before, it's a heavy burden (in my opinion) to work in a petstore. You're caring for animals, and making sure they go to a good home. It's both rewarding, and degrading at the same time.

I've never been to Petco, but I have a bone to pick with places like Pet Smart and even Pet Land.

[pyro78]

The PetCo near me didn't have anything but dwarfs, mice, rats, and gerbils so i didn't buy from them but i did notice that the critters that they did have tended to have anywhere from 2-6 per tank, but they were larger style tanks (i think 20gal) still a fair amount of critters for one tank though... I got mine from PetSmart, at the one by my house they don't follow the 1 per tank rule all the time, but in all of my many many trips to it i have only rarely seen 2 Syrians in one tank (unless they were dwarf then they tended to have 2), I liked how they ran things, it was very clean, and the sales people did seem to know a lot even the people who worked in the other sections (though just as in any store there were a few that knew very little but they made an effort to grab someone who knew what i wanted to know). At PetCo, the people also seemed somewhat knowledgeable, but if they didn't know they just walked away which i didn't care for. But all in all, i am for the most part pleased with PetCo and PetSmart, but in PetCo i do not like how they house the rodents

[SouthPaw]

I will say that most of the time, the hamsters are young enough that they're not really territorial yet. And they sell fast enough that it never really becomes an issue.

As sad as it may be to think about, it IS a business. So logically speaking you could say, well, maybe they just shouldn't have as many hamsters so they could each have their own cage without taking up too much space. But they're not going to make much money if there are never more than, say, 4 hamsters in the store. The animals aren't there to be cared for in an extraordinary way, they're just there as a service to the public looking to buy an animal. Really the pet store's only obligation is to keep the animals ALIVE--and sometimes they can't even manage to do that.

The Pet Supplies Plus here is a good store, they have signs all around the cages saying MUST BE KEPT SOLITARY. However in the store, they are kept together. They need to save space, and they also need to make money. If their supplier brings in a litter of 13 hamsters... well, they're going to take all 13, not only 2 of them because they only have 2 tanks.

It's sad, but that's how pet stores have to be. They're a business.

[Spot]

Quote:
I will say that most of the time, the hamsters are young enough that they're not really territorial yet. And they sell fast enough that it never really becomes an issue.

As sad as it may be to think about, it IS a business. So logically speaking you could say, well, maybe they just shouldn't have as many hamsters so they could each have their own cage without taking up too much space. But they're not going to make much money if there are never more than, say, 4 hamsters in the store. The animals aren't there to be cared for in an extraordinary way, they're just there as a service to the public looking to buy an animal. Really the pet store's only obligation is to keep the animals ALIVE--and sometimes they can't even manage to do that.

The Pet Supplies Plus here is a good store, they have signs all around the cages saying MUST BE KEPT SOLITARY. However in the store, they are kept together. They need to save space, and they also need to make money. If their supplier brings in a litter of 13 hamsters... well, they're going to take all 13, not only 2 of them because they only have 2 tanks.

It's sad, but that's how pet stores have to be. They're a business.

exactly what went through my mind.

[Luci17]

CujosMamma, on 09 November 2009 - 08:59 PM, said:

This is going to sound so bad, but I don't mean it to in any way. That price seems pretty high for a Syrian. I have never seen them over $10 anywhere, and the store I trust the most for all small animals sells them for about $6-7. Just seems odd to see the price more than doubled!

I got Bella at $16.99, and she's a Robo. It's too much, but you know, it's not rediculous . At Petsmart they come 'Vet Assured' and you can return them and get a replacement for free (within 2 weeks)

[jeangenie18]

The reason they're higher at petsmart, according to a petsmart employee who posted on this forums (I forgot your name ), is to discourage pet snake owners from buying them as food.

This post has been edited by jeangenie18: 11 May 2010 - 09:19 AM