While in the pet store to buy pellets, I saw a woman with her cart full of:
The small sized
guinea pig cage
Pellets with fruit pieces
Water bottle
I overheard the young pet store employee tell her that they just love the food with the colored bits in it. He also told her that they hide food in their cheeks!!! Well, if anybody here has figured it out by now then you know that I'm a pretty outspoken person and am not afraid to speak up. I excused the young employee and told him that I would be happy to help his customer 'cause I know alot about piggies.
This woman was very nice and well educated. She wanted to get her 7 year old daughter a pig -- just one. I proceeded to tell her about them needing a friend, C&C cages, fruit-flavored pellets are a
, they are HIGH maintenance pets, they need good quality hay 24/7, tons of love and affection and floortime every single day, when they get sick, they must go to an exotics vet and fast and it is guaranteed to be expensive, etc., etc. After the woman got her jaw up off the floor, she proceeded to systematically put everything in her cart back on the shelves!
I gave her several web addys including this one so she could do some research as well as my name and phone number. I invited her to come to my home so I could show her my setup. I gave her my vet's name and number. I also told her that it would be a sure thing that she'd be the one to care for it, that 7 was way too young to have a pet such as a
guinea pig.
So, I was able to nip a disaster right in the bud!! Talk about being in the right place at the right time...
(And oh, yeah -- taking business away from this particular pet store was just icing on the cake!!
)
Yay!
