Saw my first chin in a petstore, I am SOOOO ANGRY!!!!!!

[Wheelie1985]

OMG, I am so upset.

Today, my friend and I walked into a local petstore called "**name removed by admin for legal reasons" took look around for some hermit crab supplies.. so I walk around a corner and there are some cages..

At first, I saw a small 1'x1' cage with a HEDGIE inside it. I was freaking out, the poor little thing had no bedding, nothing to hide in, and was on a wire bottom. The hedgie was curled into a little ball in a corner.. I tried to pet him to see if he was okay.. and he jumped and made a kinda noise that sounds like a muffled chinchilla bark. I don't know much about hedgehogs but don't they have to be warm, or they will start hibernating??

So, then I looked down and there is a chinchilla. It was in a coated wire BIRDCAGE. Small birdcage, like 1' foot tall, 1 1/2' foot long and 1' wide. Full wire bottom, no bedding. No ledges WHAT SO EVER. Then, to top that off there was a bath house in with him, with the crappy kaytee dust in it. He had 1 tiny water bottle that I am sure wasn't kept clean, and a bowl full of crappy chinchilla pellets. I am not sure of the brand of them, they were long and skinny though, unlike mazuri. Heck, they could have been rabbit chow.

The chin was a little beige, probably about 6-8 months old. He was scared to death, his cage was on the floor with the hedgie cage on top of it. I am not sure if it was a boy or girl, I didn't ask. The only thing I asked was the price, and get this, $249!!!!! It makes me so sad, because at that price, he'll be there for awhile. I tried to get him to come up to me, and he walked up to my finger, but then took off. He had no hay, no toys, nothing to chew. I am so sad for him.

I've never seen a chinchilla in a petstore down here, it's kinda uncommon. Most petstores I talk to say they dont keep them because they are too complicated to care for. Plus, I live in FL, it's hot here. Only thing I can say for the poor guy is at least it was cold in the store. He didn't look to be overheating. His fur looked surprisingly good, but it had a few slips hanging off. Though, if he is taking baths all the time, his skin is gonna be so dryed out.

*sigh* I was so hoping he would be like $150, I kinda wanted to buy him. He is gonna go downhill fast if he stays there.

Anyone wanna make phonecalls to this store and tell them they need to take better care of their chinchillas?

[kittygirl109]

*raises hand* I do! I do! I'm so upset! Sorry you had to go through all that. Poor little critters..

[MischievousChins]

That's soo sad for that chinchilla, we actually had a new pet store just open up in our town and they had chinchillas...lucky for us the new owners of the store happen to be our neighbors, when i told them i have chins the started asking all kinds of questions so i gave them alot of info on them and alot of my books to read, its just suprising that they didnt even know the basics....you'd think that if you were going to open a pet store you'd do some research....but they were really eager to learn about chins so that was good...however they still feed their chins that cheap food chalked full of treats!!! GRRRRRR

Anyway...couldnt you call the local ASPCA??? I'm sure they could do something...at least the pet store would prolly listen to them instead of just "some customer"

[Legend8201]

I have yet to see a petstore here in Florida that follows all if any of the regulations. Anyways, from what you have described they are most likely in violation. Those cages don't come anywhere close to meeting the caging requirements, however they can keep animals in smaller cages for a maximum of 60 days. I'm going to attach the links so you can see all the different regulations. If they don't meet the requirements, then you'll be prepared to show exactly what regulations they are violating if you report them.

http://myfwc.com/permits/petshop.pdf Things a petstore needs to do to be licensed. There is also a phone number for their Headquarters Inspections Sections Office and they may be able to direct you who to report violations to, if not themselves.

http://myfwc.com/codebook/68a_6_004.pdf Standard Caging Requirements referenced in above link; includes hedgehogs.

http://myfwc.com/ This is just the homepage of where I got all of this from.

[Wheelie1985]

Thank you for actually offering me up an option of something I can do! I'll look into all that.

[Legend8201]

No problem.