Jaffacake
Alpha Buck
I've been thinking about how many negative threads and comments I see on here about Pet Shops (quite rightly, some are horrible!) and I was thinking that the good ones really deserve some credit too
The Big Pet Store is in Halesowen near lots of big towns and cities including Birmingham, Stourbridge, Kidderminster. It is epic!
http://www.thebigpetstore.co.uk/index.php?webpage=smallanimals
I'd been searching for a 6' hutch for my bunny for AGES and was having no luck. I didn't like the Pets at Home one and I didn't like the idea of getting it from there anyway, no other pets shops had anything near big enough except for one which looked like it was two smaller hutches stuck together, and the ones online were either far out of my price range or looked poorly made with too little covered at the front, no lifting roof, no side doors etc. etc. :evil:
I ended up going to stay with my Grandpa in Bromsgrove to get him to help me design my own hutch and pick materials. We ended up totally it up at £200 which is a lot of money for me, but I was willing to spend it. He suggested we look at this Pet Shop before we bought the materials and it turned out perfectly! We found an ex display 6' 2' 2' hutch with a same sized run underneath (my bunnies have free range for daylight hours all day every day but Christmas afternoon) for an amazing £80!! There were other ex display hutches for the same price, as well as lots of other flat pack hutches and ALL of them that I could see were RWA standard, most with runs attached. :thumb:
I went inside and the place is stacked floor to ceiling with toys, runs, good quality food, fly strike treatment, and much more! And the best part? The only animals sold were fish (along side decent sized tanks).
So I went to the guy and asked him to reserve the hutch as it didn't fit in the car. I mentioned that I had been searching for a decent hutch for months and couldn't believe I'd found one! Even if it was nearly an hour from my house! He started on a full on rant about how he was horrified by some of these cages that are sold for rabbits, how he works with the RWA and how all his hutches are RWA standard. He said he had become sick of people buying animals from his shop and then buying the cages elsewhere so they could get them smaller and cheaper and so he stopped selling animals. He said other pet shops say 'if we didn't sell the smaller hutches the customers would just get them elsewhere!' but he thinks that if all the pet shops flat out refused to sell smaller hutches then people would have to buy the bigger ones!
Then when I mentioned my Foxie, he said 'rabbits really should have a friend you know' and handed me a leaflet for a local rabbit rescue, and started raving about how wonderful they are... :lol: (He does have a rescue rabbit friend now )
There were RWA, Flystrike, and Rescue leaflets by the till and there was information about what animals need around the store. The staff were friendly, approachable and full of knowledge.
Basically it was wonderful =P And I really wish that more Pet Shop Owners thought that way. I thought that nasty stores deserve to be named and shamed, but the good ones definitely deserve a shout out too!
The Big Pet Store is in Halesowen near lots of big towns and cities including Birmingham, Stourbridge, Kidderminster. It is epic!
http://www.thebigpetstore.co.uk/index.php?webpage=smallanimals
I'd been searching for a 6' hutch for my bunny for AGES and was having no luck. I didn't like the Pets at Home one and I didn't like the idea of getting it from there anyway, no other pets shops had anything near big enough except for one which looked like it was two smaller hutches stuck together, and the ones online were either far out of my price range or looked poorly made with too little covered at the front, no lifting roof, no side doors etc. etc. :evil:
I ended up going to stay with my Grandpa in Bromsgrove to get him to help me design my own hutch and pick materials. We ended up totally it up at £200 which is a lot of money for me, but I was willing to spend it. He suggested we look at this Pet Shop before we bought the materials and it turned out perfectly! We found an ex display 6' 2' 2' hutch with a same sized run underneath (my bunnies have free range for daylight hours all day every day but Christmas afternoon) for an amazing £80!! There were other ex display hutches for the same price, as well as lots of other flat pack hutches and ALL of them that I could see were RWA standard, most with runs attached. :thumb:
I went inside and the place is stacked floor to ceiling with toys, runs, good quality food, fly strike treatment, and much more! And the best part? The only animals sold were fish (along side decent sized tanks).
So I went to the guy and asked him to reserve the hutch as it didn't fit in the car. I mentioned that I had been searching for a decent hutch for months and couldn't believe I'd found one! Even if it was nearly an hour from my house! He started on a full on rant about how he was horrified by some of these cages that are sold for rabbits, how he works with the RWA and how all his hutches are RWA standard. He said he had become sick of people buying animals from his shop and then buying the cages elsewhere so they could get them smaller and cheaper and so he stopped selling animals. He said other pet shops say 'if we didn't sell the smaller hutches the customers would just get them elsewhere!' but he thinks that if all the pet shops flat out refused to sell smaller hutches then people would have to buy the bigger ones!
Then when I mentioned my Foxie, he said 'rabbits really should have a friend you know' and handed me a leaflet for a local rabbit rescue, and started raving about how wonderful they are... :lol: (He does have a rescue rabbit friend now )
There were RWA, Flystrike, and Rescue leaflets by the till and there was information about what animals need around the store. The staff were friendly, approachable and full of knowledge.
Basically it was wonderful =P And I really wish that more Pet Shop Owners thought that way. I thought that nasty stores deserve to be named and shamed, but the good ones definitely deserve a shout out too!