THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T HOUSE HAMSTERS TOGETHER! | Ivy and Willow's Rescue Story | Munchie's Place
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- Welcome back the rescue intake stories here at Munchies Place. My rescue helps hamsters, gerbils and mice find loving homes and a temporary place for them to stay during their transitioning.
Today's story involved two surrendered Hamsters being rehabilitated together in one tiny cage, originally sold by a petsmart employee to this one unsuspecting owner. Listen to their story in today's introduction video.
Get involved in Fostering Animals. Start here & change lives:
* www.paws.org/g...
Follow me on Social Media:
Twitter - / munchiesplace4
Instagram - / munchiesplace4life
My Rescue's Pages:
(This is not a personal account)
/ munchiesplaceforhomele...
/ munchiesrescue
Housing rats together: ✅✅✅
Housing a pair of bonded Guinea pigs: ✅
Housing a pair of bonded gerbils: ✅
Housing bonded bunnies: ✅
Housing dwarf species hamsters: ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
Housing Syrian hamsters together: ❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
Housing male bettas together:❌❌❌❌❌❌❌
Housing female bettas together: ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
Feel free to leave more small animal input too!
Also housing adult chinese hamsters is a big no no because they are also strictly solitary. Robos and Russian dwarves can live together under the strict conditions they are litter mates but most of the time the so end up fighting!
housing male mice together is a big no
however females must be together
@@emkine6564 I housed two rescue robos from a tiny crittertail cage. Apparently before the family k*lled the third robo, there was THREE OF THEM IN THE SAME TINY CAGE. When I rescued them, they didn't fight. They just hurled up together and the poor babies looked sad. When I housed them together and they started to realise that any danger is over, they started to fight. At couple of smaller fights I tolerated Lucy (Other lil ones name) Dominating Paroni for awhile. But when I heard a loud squeak from Paroni one day, I knew that was the point to seperate them. I do not advise to house multiple hamsters together.
Guinea pigs have to live in groups of 2 or more anyway x
Housing Sugar gliders together ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
My sister bought her syrian at petco around Christmas time, and the employee who was helping us made sure to ask my sister if she knew how much space they needed, what kind of bedding was she using, if she would be housing the Syrian alone, and if she was purchasing her Syrian as a “present”. There was another woman waiting with her daughter for us to finish up so her daughter could pick her hamster. The woman turned to me and whispered, “you’d think we were buying a dog.” As if asking these very important questions wasn’t necessary for “just a hamster”. I really hope the daughter was more educated than the mom.
"Lady, if that's your attitude, you should NOT be getting a hamster!"
I got my hamster, Nacho, at Petsmart. It wasn’t planned. I got that exact same cage; I know I’m sorry. I asked if I have everything I needed, and they gave me a yes. Anyway he would go on top of the wheel and run it. That’s when I started to question if it was the right cage for him. He would climb the cage, too. I decided to search up hamster cages, and I discovered your channel. The next day I went to Target and got a big bin for Nacho. I want Nacho to have a great hamster life. He definitely loves his new home and new wheel. Thank for your videos, and helping me be the best hamster mom I can be.
. Well done you doing the right thing by Nacho. It's lovely that you actually saw sense and got him into the right living conditions. I hope he has a long and happy life of love with you.
I love when people live and learn from their hammy mistakes ❤️ May nacho have a happy healthy life! Bin cages are great
Awwww its so nice to see people not denying hamster care
you are doing great, so good that you saw the sense to look it up and found this information! it makes me feel good that finally owners are getting the pet info they need and not just whatever petsmart/petco decide is profitable :'D
My friend has a bunny named Nacho! And also good job!
I work at petsmart and I always give the best information I can I don’t ever recommend the cages we sell. I tell everyone they’re too small. Also about a week ago my district manager came in and asked me what I thought about the items we sell and I told him my concern about our cages and told him what is appropriate and what they actually need. He basically told me I was wrong and that the care guides and cages were made and designed by veterinarians and experts ????? They are obviously the worst experts if they think the cages we sell are okay?? Also told me the themes are good for the kids they like seeing them interacting in it. It made me sooo mad and they don’t care they I still will not recommend them wnd tell them the truth
At least you're trying to educate people, It sucks that the DM didn't listen to you. They really should.
PetSmarts direction right now is to push the tiny tails. PetSmart does not like to hear its own employees shaming the products they sell. This is where Petco outrules PetSmart where they don't force their customers or employees to promote their "you and me" lines. If PetSmart has refused to listen to customers like myself and others who've reviewed their line of tiny tails, then it's pretty clear they'll choose not to listen to their own employees and force you to promote. The last training video from PetSmart I saw told it's employees to promote it. That's sad. Especially when it's marketed like a toy. I'm so sorry you are fighting the hard fight. But I believe in you. Don't get too burnt out now. 🙏 Good luck.
Its because there "experts" are getting paid to say those things. Like when smoking got big a long time ago industries would pay experts to "research" and say no diseases come from smoking. I'm a Biochemistry major and my professor said that companies will pay to have results and a lot of times, numbers will be smudged and things won't add up. The fine line of moral and ethics is always challenged when money is involved. Listen to the actual experts like Munchie and groups dedicated to certain animals. Just because they pay "experts" doesn't mean what they are saying is true.
Mmm current petsmart employee here. Trust me within the first 5 minutes of this video I was already getting more and more reasons as to why I am currently trying to leave this company. I've worked in 2 pet stores for the past year. And you are absolutely right when it comes to our animal care training. We get some basic ground rules and everything else is "refer to the care guide" which as you know, many of them have either very vague or outright false information. It is a shame because I can see some strides to make things better, especially for the fish as that's my area, but our little rodent friends still have a very long way too go. Unfortunately we dont sell ANY cages that are big enough that have thin enough bars for hamsters, and good luck trying to convince your avg customer to spend $100+ on a large fish/reptile tank when they could just get the cheap all in one crittertrail or tiny tales cages.
I feel that in store, at least in my location, we care for our animals pretty well considering our resources, but I notice a handful of people in our animal care staff really dont ask questions and don't really try to guide pet parents to a better solution. It's really sad and I hope more laws can start being enforced to stop animal neglect for the sake of corporate bullshit.
But Frosty, if you and we dont force PetSmart to change it won't. Sometimees working on the inside will help a great deal.
FrostyFiend Current employee here too. People always look at me weird when I strongly suggest getting a cage online or from a different store. Literally just yesterday I tried to convince a family to get an appropriate cage for the hamster they were going to get, but of course they ended up getting a tiny tales because their daughter insisted they wanted a princess castle, even when I told them that it’d be too small. I think about quitting every day. ): PetSmart is a difficult company to work for if you like animals.
@@mbr4702 when anything you're trying to say is met with
"But a hamster is small"
"They don't need large cages"
"That is too big for a hamster"
"They will be fine"
I feel you. I worked at Petsmart before for 3 years and I actually did my research and made sure I knew about the animals I was selling. I would ask the customers so many questions and give them info and would never ever sell two hamsters together. However, they were some coworkers who couldn’t care less and sold them. I would get into arguments with them about it but they were just too ignorant to care. Finally left because I couldn’t take it anymore
@@melina001a trust me as much as I wish I could... not with my manager. Lady's so so sales focused imma not hear the end of it if she catches me daring to recommend going to a competitor for supplies.
Petsmarts employees worst nightmare:
*Hamster owners*
We wouldn’t be their worst nightmare if they would just listen to us lmao
Leah’s Little Critters wouldn’t be their worst nightmare if they correctly did their job and gave the correct information
It's not just them either. Cause there's rabbit, ferret, any reptile/bug owners(which I mainly am) too and it pains me to see the cages and misinformation being tossed around inside stores. ;;
I'd say any small pet/reptile/fish owners. No joke, I went into my local petsmart to buy fish (I know, bad place for that, but mine at least takes decent care of them) and one of the employees was trying to get me to buy a bearded dragon. He also said that his friend had one, and that he ate a few crickets once a month and didn't have a cage, just ran around the house. If you don't know, this is a big no-no because 1) starvation is a thing and 2) I'm pretty sure you're not going to keep your entire house the temperature that bearded dragons need. Also, I was there for fish, not a lizard that's going to get bigger than the tank I had at home.
Animal owners in general.
There are two female Syrian hamsters being housed in a tiny cage on Craigslist in Jacksonville Florida if anyone lives there it would be nice to get them a better home also please do not harass the person when looking into it
I'm literally around that area, I might look into it.
@@appleglassjuice11 Thanks a bundle
@@mumustelids8657
For an update, I talked with them. I ask the some questions, but haven't gotten a reply back for the last question I had. There pretty close to me, but I currently cannot take the hamsters unless I have a talk with my guardian. If I can get more details about the hamsters, then I might be able to take them in within giving time. Or hopefully someone else can talk them off the owner's hands.
AppleGlassJuice please do
i had an interview with a pet store. they said that forget what i know because it isnt right well teach you whats right. i was pissed and told them i know more about the pets then half the employees, costumers need to know the proper care guides.
This is what people don’t understand. There’s no difference in applying to work at a pet store than there is a grocery store. It shouldn’t be. All people working at any pet store should have full training in %100 proper care. They should have specific people strictly for reptiles, birds, small animals/rodents, cats, dogs and fish. Not just anybody giving “information”
ive been working with reptiles for 8 years and small animals about 6 years so i have the experience. They told me i dont have qualifications/experience to work at their store. so i didnt get hired cause i made it known to them that i would tell the costumers the truth and proper care then pushing their stuff.. they hired this girl who had no experience and would scream if a rodent or small animal touched her. (i had to shop there to get breeder mice as i own 13 reptiles.) she had to wear gloves just to touch anything alive even crickets.
Princess Kit Kat that’s actually insane😩 they need people like you with the experience and well being of the animals in mind
My husband was told that too, and hot written up by pet co for giving the customer the correct information.
Awwww that is very sad. Wish people would do their own research first and wish it was mandatory for pet stores to be well educated on ALL animals they are selling.
Omg i love your channel and your cleaning vlogs.❤️ You are absolutely correct. I was thinking of getting guinea pigs but i watched your channels and other channels about them and i decided against guinea pigs because i couldn't provide the bare minimum. Thank you for educating everybody.😘
Yes,my nephew was interested in getting a fish didn’t know anything about it :P but I was saying hey do yoUr reSeARChHHH!
When my daughter and I bought our 2 dwarf hammies from PetCo, the associate that helped us personally admit she wouldent sell them to us unless we were prepared to separate them if needed! Which we were fully prepared and did end up separating them in the end more for our peace of mind than anything else. But that is one HUGE reason that I would consider purchasing from PetCo, (or at least the one in my town) in the future, tho I will always ask if they have any for adoption first, before going strait to purchase.
Glad yours is like that! Whilst I wouldn't suggest buying animals from any large chain pet shop tbye did have the decency to atleast ask question!
People also need to contact Pet Smart. If they're hearing from enough consumers, they might get forced into adapting better practices to stay in buisness.
Me they literally don’t care I tried to directly tell the district manager and he told me I’m wrong. And told me they were made by experts and vets. Blah blah bs
@@nicoledeweese8370 I'm so sorry to hear that, it makes me so upset! I suppose you hit the nail on the head though. They just don't care. Will definitely not be buying from them anymore.
PetSmart refuses to listen. Please check out pickles pets about the tiny tales paid cage promotion from PetSmart after video reviews came out about their cages in a negative light. And talking to some employees in comments over the years has shown that they get upset at you when you talk in a negative light about their product lines. 😓 The one who's been listening surprisingly enough is Petco. It's possible in the future I may be in talks with them. We shall see.
Munchie is so inspirational she has taught 90% of the things I know today about hamsters my first hamster lived in a 320sq inch cage and now my second hamster is living in an ikea detolf whith 10 inches of bedding.❤️
Munchie is the best.
% hehe, there's a little button next to the * in your punctuation keyboard :)
buddy you could have just spelled out percent, or held shift and typed 5
Deo grey and Gracie puff thanks I never noticed that :)
I just purchased an IKEA detolf with the money I had saved up. My parents looked at me funny when I told them it was for casper. When they saw it set up tho they were like oohh
My petsmart made sure to tell us not to house 2 together
Kristen Grace same
Kristen Grace same
Mine didn’t but luckily I watched enough munchy and Victoria raechel :)
There are some nice employees
Hello have 2 cats would it be OK to get hamsters
It's not just the employees's fault
Its the pet store and the companies that make the cages for the animals.
It's like the companies don't care and just want to shit out something quick and cheap to make.
I try and deter people from buying the hamster cages we sell at my store and convince them to buy sterilite tubs but it has never worked. I just think people are so cheap that they wanna buy a small ass cage that comes with everything in it so they don't have to think too hard.
People almost never do their own research before they buy an animal. 90% of the time a customer wants an animal it's an impulse buy. Most people are still stuck in the mindset of "Oh, this animal doesn't need that much space because when I was a kid they were kept in bowls (fish) or small containers! You're wrong for telling me that what was commonplace decades ago is wrong! I know more than you even though you are so clearly passionate about animals."
Legit I don't want to push you to buy more expensive stuff I want to push you to buy the CORRECT stuff! I feel like when I recommend proper setups to people they think I'm just trying to get them to spend more money when that's just not the case. I had a customer yelling at me because I recommended a tank for a betta rather than a small bowl less than a gallon. That same lady yelled at me because I said a 1 gallon tank wasn't big enough for any fish.
It is saddening how animals in this world are treated, especially fish (bettas and goldfish in particular) and small animals. Those two groups are neglected the most because it's like people don't see them as animals.
I agree with you 100%
I wish my petsmart was like every petsmart. The people who work there always tell people to not use tiny tales and instead get a tank or a bin cage with mesh. Ive talked to about three of them and they all asked about my setup and one even showed me hers for her chinese dwarf hamster, which was a gorgeous 40 gallon tank with lots of stuff. Its so shocking to me to hear all these horror stories but I guess thats how alot of these petsmart are like.
> I wish my petsmart was like every petsmart.
I think you got that the wrong way around. Every petsmart should be like your petsmart - if your petsmart were like every petsmart, they'd give bad advice and only be interested in making sales. ;)
Maybe you see this so you can give the correct information in the future. I live in Austria, the minimum cage size if you want to adopt from the local rescue is 780 square inches for dwarfs and 930 square inches for syrians. In Germany it's 780 as well as far as I know.
I'm really happy you mentioned minimum cage sizes for other countries in this video, I always thought it would be nice if you did so and not only mention the 450 in the US to maybe get people in the US thinking that minimum 450 doesn't mean that that's really enough for their hamster.
Yep! In the UK the bare minimum for any species of hamster is 620 but 700+ is recommended for Syrians :)
Yes, in Germany it's 780 for every specie, I used to live there😊
It’s such a tiny detail but I really love how you mentioned her biting you & just being like “yeah I understand” bc it makes me so mad when people get angry at animals for lashing out and biting/scratching when they’re uncomfortable with how the giant human is handling them
I work at said petstore and am manager over the petcare department. It all really depends on management and the petcare employees. I made sure to train all my employees with the proper husbandry for each animals. You’ll be surprised when the last time we sold a crittertrail was. We all recommend the fish tanks and if they don’t pick the right setup we deny the sale. So there are good ones out there! Also i almost always write your youtube channels name on the top of our hamster sales contracts so people can get more educated.
Oh goodness I am honored. Thank you. I too use to work at a petstore and understand the struggles. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. It's unfortunate when you do not have a good team, staff DM or leaders above that change their policy on you. So keep up the good fight! 👍 Cause I know how burnt out you'll get.
The poor babyyy 🥺 So glad to see that theyre doing better now though
Just rescued a Syrian from the veterinary hospital I work at. Previous owner kept 3 Syrians in a 30-40 gallon, and finally brought them in for treatment after one was killed. The previous owner said she thought if they were raised together from young they could stay together. She bought them from a local store and had them for a month.
Pet store employee here! Not Petsmart or Petco, but another company that’s pretty popular. Can you please make a video addressed to pet store employees who aren’t given proper training and information? I’ve done my research and I have a Syrian of my own (who I rescued from my store because his “cage mate” was attacking him and almost killed him!), but I’d love some advice on working in this industry and working with customers who may not have the best intentions in mind when purchasing a hamster or small animal. Thanks!
As a previous employee of a petstore, yes I'd consider it. 👍
I had a hamster who had a 'scab' on him. He lived on his own, and we immediately took him to the vet when we found it. The vet wasn't sure what it was, but thought it might be some type of tumour. She gave us some antibiotics, and it didn't really get worse or better. He lived for about 6 more months. He was the best hamster I ever had. RIP Bucky.
"we care about pets" petsmart
(whispers) "we just want money"
When I heard cancer I instantly thought of my first hamster I had when I was little, his name was Jasper and we did the best we could for him (this was in the early 2000's so pet care hadn't really caught up yet) but we noticed him limping and brought him to the vets, turned out he had leg cancer and had to be put to sleep, we buried him in the garden and held a little mini funeral.
I can hear your frustration in your voice, hope you're okay!
Also, so happy you helped this hammy! She's so pretty
My frustrations was that my throat needed to be cleared every few seconds as my voice was going that day while filming due to acid reflux. So that may be what it is. But yes sometimes it's upsetting when trying to be calm and collect about hard situations like this.
when i got my dwarf katya, they didn't give me any information on hamsters, they just took her out of the tank and gave her to me, I was shocked, but when I got my rocky from petsmart , who died last year, they told me allot of things first time hamster owners NEED to know
I have so much to say.. How did the lady not hear the hamsters fighting? I have 4 rats and they wrestle and I have a small stroke every time.
When I rescued boba my winter dwarf they lady actually told me to message her if I had any questions... I moved him from a little crittertrail to a 40 gallon bin. So its safe to say ive never contacted her about advice lmao
When I had my two Syrian hammmys both in their own bins of course they chewed on their chews occasionally. The looooooooovvvvveeeedddd whimsys though
In the UK we have pets at home , AND THEY'RE THE SAME, they don't even try! They're currently plans to change their stores into a playground with the animalsfor kids to attract customers. Horrible :(
@Spooky Fellow all our pet shops are bad here. That's awful! I hate them with a passion! And it's not just hamsters, it's ALL their animals, even fish and reptiles. These poor animals can't tell people what they need.:(
I completely disagree! I got my first hamster from P@H a week ago (I had done my own research for over a year before deciding to get one) and the lady that served me was incredible, she recommended me hamster you tubers, which she was pleased to hear I already knew. She gave us a care guide, went through tons of questions and explanations. Warned us about wet tail, told us the UK minimum cage size (of course we already had our cage set up at home but still very good of her), encouraged us to use a sand bath etc. She took my phone number so that they could do a follow up call to see how our little guy is doing. I was absolutely beyond impressed with the service I experienced there. Couldn’t believe it.
@@emsycola5 Sometimes they have good individual employees, doesn't justify the company's many wrongdoings, they've caused the neglect and death of millions of animals. I volunteer for rescue and I advise on many animal groups and everytime something's wrong it's thanks to pets at home horrid failure to provide their animals with the absolute best care.
Ellie Davies I understand that but I don’t think it’s fair to tarnish all stores/employees with the same brush. The lady that served me was outstanding and I have to give her credit for that. She did a fantastic job :)
@@emsycola5 it's not the employees, that's what I said, it's the company. Yes you may have those individual good employees but it doesn't automatically exuse the whole company. :(
My dad works at Petco and he tries his hardest to make sure that the animals are given the correct needs and are cared for in a safe environment. They were actually caring for a Syrian hamster this week and he was giving me updates and advice about them, explaining how they should never be housed together as adults. Watching this video makes me sad for Ivy and Willow. I hope they're doing better now that they are under your care.
People in my area sadly don’t see hamsters as actual pets , they see them as more of a toy you get then replace after they die it’s very sad and they don’t get how I can be so attached to them. I love my small animals , they are my babies
I work for a pet store and we don't push animal sales. Obviously some employees or stores unfortunately slip through the cracks, which isn't good, but we do try our best to educate people and if we feel its an impulse buy or the person over 18 (has to be the homeowner too) doesn't really want the animal and its for the child, we try to deter them from buying there and then, educating them and telling them to have a good think about it, get the suitable housing first and then come back for the pet. One thing I will say though is that some customers do lie! You question them about what they have, tell them what they have isn't suitable and what else they need and then as if by magic they sudden;t have an extra cage a family member can give them! Or an extra fish tank to keep their betta fish separate from their guppies etc. Its frustrating. Thanks for raising awareness
Ivy is so adorable and fluffy! Im happy they got rescued
Beautiful girls. Glad their in your care now Munchie. ❤
Ethical petstore manager here!
I don’t even sell my dwarf species littermates together, as my clients and employees are often beginners in hamster care. Our hamsters are housed seperately in 40gal breeder tanks or similar sized good cages. I do NOT sell any cage under 450 square inches of unbroken floor space, and NO WHEEL that is meshed or under 8 inch of diameter.
Just know that there are good petstores out there!
My childhood hamsters were called Ivy and Willow! They were both Russian dwarves 🥰 so glad you rescued them!
I never knew that petco does an adoption system for small animals! So glad i learned something new
This is why I'm going through a local hamster rescue when I decide I'm ready to bring a hamster home and doing a TON of research in the meantime.
Omg. After I clicked play on the video I got up to get something. The petsmart sound is so similar to my doorbell that I'll for my own dignity not say how often the sound repeated before I understood that no one was playing a prank on me. The content of the video is heartbreaking but I had laughed so hard afterwards
When I was 12 I was sold a hamster that was pregnant, because some kid dropped in a boy with all the girls. After she had her babies and they started to get fur and eat, I took out the mom, and I noticed they started fighting with each other. Even at 12 I knew they wouldn't get along together!! I had them all separated in 8 boxes with the essentials until they could get adopted. You would think the parents would know better. What's worse is they probably saw them fighting and didn't care.
A shop near my blck in poland is a very underrated shop. Its a very unknown petstore which does such a good job at making sure their animals get good homes. They usualy get their animals from breeders who actually know what they are doing and their animals look so well and healthy when they are buying them. When ever u tell them u want to surtender an animal they take it if they have room and make a big effort to take the animal in. They have such good info and when i bought my first ever pet when i was 14 bc my mom let me they gave A TON OF INFO they made sure we knew the flaws of having a hamster they told us they need a BIG cage and a BIG wheel they told us all abt the sicknesses and how much it will cost and that a small 40 goldies (polish money) cage wont do us any good we were gonna buy two and they simply said NO they told us we should absolutly not keep two hamsters together and they told us NEVER EVER to hobby breed bc it not a good idea if us disinformated. They told us what wheek to get what food is ACTUALLY good for them and what is very bad for them. They didnt sell small cages their and they sold great cage additions like chubes , wheels , cute wooden houses , working water bottles and massive cages and i mean big as in sometimes 500 square inches. They also told us all abt bin cages and told us all abt how some breeds are better starter breeds. Like syrian hamsters bc they are very chill. How ever they also told us that it doesnt mean that we can treat them like toys a.k.a throw them arround drom em and squize them but we knew that bc i was 14 (i still am btw) and they told us how started cages are terrible and thanks to that person my hamster is living in straight up luxury. He is a male sirian hamster with a white and beige fur. He has a 14 inch wheel and a 450 square inch tank. He has a 8 inch deep bedding and a foodball and water bowl he also has a water bottle but i dont like it bc i think it will dehidrate him i love him so much he has a lot of wooden hides and two sandbaths and overall i think he is happy. I hope im doing a good job tjank u for reading i wish all stores were like the store down at my block.
You inspire me so much. I’ve always wanted to have my own animal rescue, but always thought cats and dogs, but you’ve really opened my eyes to the need of small critters.
I work at a pet store, I often tell customers that hamsters are solitary but damn some people are stubborn as hell! They tell me, "well I'm going to petsmart "
Of course they don't inform people, they WANT them to buy multiples so they can make that extra 5 bucks on the sale. Bless you for educating people like this.
I’ve gotten hamsters from both petsmart and petco. At Petsmart they Woke the hamsters up and grabbed one of them and didn’t tell me any information. At Petco the girl was actually patient with the hamster and let him crawl into the little house so she could put him in the box. Also, another lady who was there making fun of the girl for taking so long to get the hamster out actually warned me about wet tail which I thought was pretty cool of them.
I'm trying to get through this video but as a current Petsmart employee it's really hard. I know the company itself sucks but a lot of Petsmarts (mine included) are trying our best to change things and would never have allowed this shit to happen. I know I'll get some comments saying "oh sure tell yourself that lol" but it's honestly true. From what I've seen with Petco a lot of it is reliant on the manager at the time, just like Petsmart - both companies can refuse to sell animals if the customer doesn't have the right supplies, it all depends on your manager and that has nothing to do with what store it is. Commercial pet sales in general need an overhaul big time.
I'm so glad I watched this i just bought 2 Syrians today at petco. Now I will return one tomorrow. So sad they encouraged us to get them both saying they were friends.
ORRR you could've just done research before getting animals
@@waltergrove2657 ikr im fucking tired of these people impulse buying animals and then first after buying everything researching them
My dwarf Campbell is going to have a good life because of you and your channel! Me and noodles would like to say thank you!
Sadly most people don't educate themselves... I once had someone who wanted to buy one of my hamsters and suggested it would make a good mate for their current hamster 😭
Even my Robo wouldn’t fit in that wheel, it’s insane. While like you said the U.K. guidelines are higher, our small pet care still has a long way to go. We do sell ridiculously small cages like this in our version of pet smart (pets at home) and you are really hard pressed to find a cage suitable for the animals you get from the store. The one I go to there doesn’t sell pets, but they have an adoption centre for pets surrenders to the store, I have rescued both my robo and my rabbit from the adoption centre, and the tiny cages I was recommended for both to be able to take them home with me were ridiculously tiny - I had to get them to take them home or they wouldn’t let me adopt them, but instantly at home I got to ordering the right cages!
As a little kid we had 2 Syrians in connected critter trails 😔 I know horrible, but we never saw them fight until one evening one of the hamster started straight up eating the other one! The other one died minutes after he ate the other one. It was traumatizing as a kid and I know I’m not the only one this happened too! I feel guilty but I was also like 6 and we just listened to the pet store
I recently just rescued a hamster that was in this cage off Craigslist. It broke my heart to see just one Syrian in that cage, much less two!! I can't imagine that thought process. My boy was so stressed while he was in that cage, I can't imagine how those poor girls felt.
I am from Germany and the lady from the animal welfare association I got my hamster from required their cage to be at least 930 square inches big and at least 20 inches tall so that there fits enough bedding into the cage and the hamster has enough room to burrow. I think it’s so good how much care there associations put into their animals. She gave me SOOOO much information on what to feed my hamster, what should be in the cage, how big it should be, which bedding to use, how to decorate the cage in the safest way possible etc. She is just amazing
Exactly! Pet stores can be incredibly stupid sometimes. Just yesterday I headed to a pet store called “Animal World” for some rabbit toys and I noticed two rabbits in a tiny cage with no litter box and no chew toys just pellets and a plastic hidy house. So I asked an employee why there were two rabbits in a tiny cage she said “one was pregnant and needed to stay with her baby so she wouldn’t be touched as much” and when I advised them to have them spayed after they have a litter they said that some customers just buy them to breed them. This honestly pisses me off because if more rabbits aren’t spayed that will contribute to the amount of rabbits homeless on the streets. I just wish pet store owners would just do some bloody research before buying animals ridiculous
I’m pretty sure that ‘wheel’ was a food bowl for a kitten! It’s disgusting how people treat their animals, HAMSTERS NEED WHEEL AND BIG ONES!!!!
thank you Munchie great vid!
got my daughter a 40 gallon its 36x18 for 648. I put deep bedding in and my daughter I can't find him. but he was making his tunnels in the bedding that is easy 10 inches + on one side. I made tunnels out of some cardboard the tank was wrapped in and covered them in the bedding. Went from 316 to that nice large tank and he is loving it. He was exploring every inch of it. he needs a lot more toys in there and chews. and to get stuff he has to hunt for for foot. instead of the bowl. I'm making my Daughter watch a lot of your videos and Victories videos, and do a of research. So she can learn about her Animal. When we got him he was labeled as a Fancy Bear Hamster Panda.
I can’t thank you enough for your channel and just existing on CZcams, I kept my Hamster in a 29 gallon tank with only seed mix and a wheel the kept breaking. I saw your channel and decided to purchase a 50 gallon breeder and use a pellet and seed mix mixture. She has a 10 inch wheel which is good since she is a small dwarf hamster. Her name is migi and she is white with red eyes and is loving her new life. No more mesh wheel, no more small hide, just open space and tons of things to do.
This upsets me deeply. Imagine being forced to live in a tiny room which you can't get out of with someone else who attacks you all the time. I would never house any animal in that thing. $60 for a death trap.
Omg petsmart southpark meadows in Austin tx is great and always question the buyer , giving size suggestions for cages . The right stuff. I am so happy with this location. 💓
this is the cage Oreo was rescue in mid 2019. Once i got him he was moved to a 55 gallon tank. this wheel is crazy tiny i didn't even let my mouse use it when Oreo borrowed Cow's wheel for a few days. Since his 12 inch wouldn't fit in this cage
Munchie I don't know if your ever gonna read this or not (I don't mind tho) but I just wanna say I respect u so much for what your doing. Thank you soo much
In Germany, the minimun for Djungarian and Campbell dwarf hamsters is 775 or 780 square inches, for Syrians and Robos, it is 930 square inches. (I run a very small rescue for dwarves in Berlin, love what you do, Munchie!)
Brit here, yep our minimum is 620. The german absolutely bare minimum is 775 but the more widely used minimum is 1550
Love the advice at the very end about educating politely and kindly. A lot of people come online and just act rude forgetting there are other people reading what they're saying. People are way more likely to listen to someone educate while calm, rational, and kind, not an angry rant/essay lol
I worked at a petstore and left after less than a year because of, among other things, all the unnecessary abuse / neglect in the store. The store I worked at housed these hamsters together sometimes, on purpose. Even when they stopped doing that or separated them, they would put them in enclosures next to each other- essentially a 20-gallon enclosure with a divider in the middle. The issue was, the manager was instructing people to rotate the cages as they cleaned- a little hard to explain, but basically, some of the cages had proper slots for the dividers and others didn't, so as they rotated through (not only potentially spreading disease through the whole section) they would end up with two syrians in a tank with no slot for the divider and just assume it would be fine because the bedding/hides would "hold" the divider in place. There were multiple incidents of hamsters breaking through these dividers and attacking other hamsters.
TW:
I found one dead when I came in to open one morning and the poor thing was a horrible mess. It was awful.
Btw I started working at my local petsmart and help people have better knowledge on fish to birds to rodents. So thx for helping me learn more
I'm not a huge fan of PetSmart due to their breed-specific dog policies-- i.e. pit bulls are not allowed in group classes or group playtime or any group activities solely based on their 'breed'. Nearly 7 years ago now (I'm still bitter) once told me my super mutt (she had a whopping total of 17.5% bully breeds in her when we did a dna test on her-- and is the friendliest little booger) would not be able to participate in daycare playtime because it looked like she had a little bit of pit bull in her jaw. So yeah petsmart sucks!
But I also at the same time was privy to a 20% discount at PetSmart for adopting my hamster since they are kind enough to house my city's municipal shelter small animals in one of their facilities. The employee passed that discount on to me when I didn't even bring home an animal during that trip because I told him I was planning to adopt but wanted to get everything set up first. I didn't even end up getting my rescue hamster from there because the one rescue they had was scooped up before we were ready to adopt so we ended up going to a neighboring city's shelter to adopt.
That's ridiculous. Even if she was one, Pit bulls are actually super friendly dogs. They get a bad reputation that honestly isn't deserved. The highest bite incidence actually comes from the golden retriever in America, not the pit bull. They're not even in the top ten from what I remember! It's awful to see so much bad practise and misinformation being spread to the point where it affects people and their animals based on a stupid assumption.
Hope she gets well soon. She is so cute.
Thanks to you and your vids I was able to help my friend upgrade from a crittertrail a bin cage! Now
Piccolo lives in luxury and has a wonderful life.
Hello, I am a former employee of PETCO not PETSMART so can not speak on their behalf, BUT I was told by 4 different store managers that if i was to tell customers that they cant house hamsters together, or dictate the nature of the care of the animals I was selling by informing them information that is not in the little booklet you can grab for each animal I would be in violation of some Petco employee law of sorts and could be fired and the only person in all of petco that can refuse the sale of an animal or change the care guidelines for petco was some lady named Helen that I never even knew existed. Turns out "Helen" can only be contacted by store managers, AND typically those who do manage to get in contact with Helen end up fired or "talked too" by like, your regions manager if that makes sense..
It is not always about the employees not wanting to inform the customers, as I ALWAYS did, even after this was brought to my attention, HOWEVER, i did have to do it knowing that if a customer contacted my store i would potentially fired if they mentioned i said anything outside the care guidelines put forth by PETCO as a company.
I think we need to not call out the employees, rather those higher up who restrict us in what we are allowed to say, as well as the video training we are provided is lack luster, which once again only allows one to learn the basics of each animals care. There are pet care guides more in detail about each animal however, those are also either out dated or completely wrong.
FOR EXAMPLE, my companion animal leader in my store did things as she knew as right care for each animal until our store manager was fired and replaced and "Helen" was brought to our attention. Because of this my CAL was forced to now house bearded dragons with sand, and after ONE DAY, we had lost 3 babies due to them eating it. This was not my CALs fault in my opinion, as I was there the day before when we were told the repercussions of not following the rules put forth by petco and "their certified team of experts"..
I would like to say, after one day my CAL took away the sand and went back to what she was using before, with hopes that no one would notice and as far as I know she has been in the clear. But if someone were to say something, I do not doubt petco would try and terminate her employment over this action.
We need changes in the store, not the employees. Educating them will only make them furious in what they have to do working at these stores. There was a rule before that we could only sell white mice as feeders AND first have to recommend they try frozen. HOWEVER this has now changed without me or my coworkers knowing. That being said, my friend was told to quit or be fired for refusing sale of a non white mouse as a feeder.
As much as I want change, I know with big companies like PETCO it is extremely unlikely as "adding to the basket" and "showing value" in items by talking about the quality of them to increase sales is their biggest concern. Not to mention they may send the money you donate to good causes, but just know the employee checking you out will be scolded or told they didnt do well enough that day as we have a donations goal for each store, and each employee is required to get a certain dollar amount of donations each shift. I think it is outrageous to have someones job requirement be grind out the money of customers, and on top of it grind out more for donations.
I think we might just need to get rid of big chain petstores and start fresh.
i was at the pet shop today and there was a lady who was buying a hamster for her kid and the employee was like buy too so the could play with each other and there was really small cage and he was like it’s perfect for both of them then i told the lady privately that they need at least 450 square inches of space floor and they can’t be together all from your advice so she bought 1 hamy and a 22 gallon tank
My most recent Syrian got some kind of cancerous tumor he had it about a week before he got to sick and passed away I've had at least 5 pass away from cancer and I've had over 15 hamsters so a lot have gotten it and all you can really do is make them confertable one nice thing was Kodiak I think was the oldest Syrian we had at 2 years and about 2 months old and week has him since about 6 weeks
Oof why don't people know the info for their animals
Right, but noo lets just wait till we get to the store and learn "all" care in less than 5 minutes😂👿
@@littlepetkingdome7492
LOL yup sound about right
Don’t discount people trying to do research and being bombarded with misinformation
Edit: especially if theyre new to pet care/don’t know the best way to research
Im so glad we have breeders who care about hamsters in Denmark,where you even get pedigrees when you by a hamster from them.
But still a lot of people by them from petstores and dont know the right information.
I think the minimum for Syrians is around 80*40 cm. In Denmark.
80 is the lenght
And 40 the width
Actually there are no regulations by law for the minimum size of a Hamster cage in Germany. The law only states it should be "appropriate" in size and enrichment to enable natural behavior.
However, most Hamster clubs & Animal care organizations recommend at least 100x50 cm (5000 sq cm or 775 sq in) for a Hamster habitat.
Ivy is absolutely beautiful, thank you for taking care of this poor lil girl. :)
I work at PetSmart. Im getting trained as a pet care associate soon. Ive actually made sure to do my research. Unfortuneatly they dont train us for that info. But Im trying to make a difference.
I never recommend our cages(our cages are for too small).Or Pine/cedar bedding. Hamsters are solitary animals.
previous PS employee here and I can confirm there is to training on this. now I knew better but still not everyone has common sense
My roborovski hamster used to live in a critter trail... but then, I did some research and I moved him to a ikea detolf !!!!!😀
"For any pet owner out there, you would think this is kind of excessive"
Well, any pet but rats maybe, for them that chew toy would actually be in pretty good condition :D
I can see why hamsters have the most traumatic death stories. False information given from employees, people, etc. I see people house even different species of hamsters together. Some people even would say hamsters are dumb and have no brain 😢 ty for giving such great info!!
Let's show munchie how much we love her and please continue subscribing to her CZcams channel
I adopted a Syrian from PetSmart because it was born without/deformed front paws. I was really sad though, because one of the employees who helped me said that her store sends back deformed hamsters which to me sounds like they would just be put down. It is so disappointing because she is so happy and so sweet, and so many have probably been put down because of small defects.
Hi from the UK! I can safely say the UK hamster cages here are just as bad if not worse than some of the cages you have reviewed. The lack of education is horrendous over here!
I know a lot of petsmart employees get trashed, but when I got my goldfish from petsmart, the girl actually asked how big of a tank I had to make sure I wasn’t putting three goldfish in a fish bowl (I have a 55 gallon tank) , a lot of employees don’t know, don’t care too know, or know and still don’t care, but there are some workers that just need the job and do actually care and try to always guide people the right way, but they can’t tell people no to selling them the animals
Just seeing Ivy's precious little face and her body covered in horrible scabs breaks my heart. Those small prey animals are so brave and will do everything not to show their pain. The stress both of these girls must have going through to being locked up in that tiny cage together is just animal abuse.
From what I know, 775 square inches (5000 m²) is recommended as absolute minumum here in Germany.
Oh my poor ham hams 🐹🐹
Glad that there in ur care 🙏
The only chain pet store that has adiquit care and gets their small pets from local breeders who I know personally and take amazing care of their animals
Yeah I have 2 syrin hampsters boys in different cages they say hello to each out by their cage
Munchie is the Gordan Ramsay of hamster care.
It hurts to see that sm.. In Germany you can't even go buy them before 5 pm because they are not waking them up and stuff.. The cages they have them in there, only for sale where you can buy them, are much bigger than these from petsmart haha and even in the robo cages there are 11 inch wheels and even bigger.. We have very good and caring pet stores here.. They check the hamster for health issues before giving it to sale and you get a pass like dogs get as identity passes for the hamster too hihi..that's what they all do with us too.. And they ask you a looooot of questions where you keep them, if you keep them alone etc etc etc...In Germany small cages are illegal.. The small cages you can only get at amazon or some..in the pet store about 600sq to 800sq is the minimum.. Smaller they will never give you.. I'm so happy about it.. But a problem is that Germany is expensive..A cage here can cost up to 300€...But you can get cheap big cages / bins / glass aquariums etc from ebay here, sometimes with hideouts etc and environment with the cage haha.. and of course I'm happy for the hamsters here❤️❤️if you would say you keep them in pairs they kick you out of the store and don't let you buy one, that's not a joke.. Love it💕we are hamster breeders and love our animals❤️ absolutely adore your videos munchie👍😊
Ivy is massive and so cute
It’s just horrible...not just 1 that I saw at Petco...BUT THREE SYRIANS WERE TOGETHER!!! IT MADE ME CRY
I’m 11 and I know more about hamster 🐹 care than pets mart employees
I worked at a “mom and pop” pet store for a couple years. I wasn’t allowed to be honest with customers because it “discouraged a sale” and that meant we’d lose money. I also wasn’t allowed to say no to a customer even if they showed clear signs of being terrible pet parents. I ended up selling a hamster to a 5 year old boy, which I swear to God had never seen daylight before. He was running as fast as he could around the store, slamming on the tanks that held the animals, and even tried giving the puppies we sold his flip flop. Dad pretended that his kid didn’t even exist as he browsed the crittertrail hamsters. Selling that man that hamster scared the living shit out of me and I wasn’t allowed to say no.
So sorry for ivy & willow
I saw a hamster stuck on top
Of it water bottle I had to keep asking employees fo help get it down bc it was scared and stressed I wanted to adopted it but I own rats and have no cage or anything for it it is still there 2 weeks later :( it was a petsmart
The hammy is so big o-o
Well, it is a syrian hamster
I actually did just recently purchase a male koi betta at petsmart because I didn't want him to get taken home by a family with children shopping next to me (unfortunately, instead they took home several goldfish. I only hope they actually know how to take care of goldfish heh...) And the person at the checkout did ask if I had a male betta at home already (which I did) and then asked to make sure I wasn't going to house them together (i wasn't, of course. I had a tank that had been empty of everything except snails for months and he was going there.) But I still applaud that employee for actually making sure of my intentions for the little fella.
For anyone who's curious, Ghost is doing well and will hopefully be a part of the family for years to come ^^
Those goldfish probably are all dead now or only 1 survived cause the tank was too small for all of them
Poor powder puff. Best of luck to her on the road to recovering
Poor Ivy. On the bright side, at least she survived
Edit: What exactly happens when female Syrian go into heat? I’m curious.