# Stupid, Stupid Pet Store



## MyrtlesMom (Oct 7, 2014)

So the pet store I got Myrtle from breeds their own rodents and, aside from rats and regular mice and hamsters and the like, they also breed egyptian spiny mice. They are changing location and even though all the animals are going with them, they had a sale going to get rid of as many as possible. My mother and I are fawning over Myrtle and we look up to see this tiny hamster cage full of eight spiny mice. These guys are so cramped they're eating each other and we've had one before. We know spineies need about five bagillion acres of space for that many to be happy. We took them all, set them up right. Pet store said all girls. I look. Mom looks. Okay, all girls. This would do until we could find homes for some of them (and if anyone in New Hampshire or Maine wants spiny mice...they're free, very cute, some are chewed up, but healing and healthy, nearly all are happy to ride on shoulders). 

I go to feed them today and boom! Two little, _baby_ spineies and likely more on the way. Now I have to go through and find who's really a girl and who's really boy. Mind you they were pregnant when we got them...so babies either way, but dangit! Stupid, stupid pet store. I know spiny mice can be hard to sex, but come on. Supposedly you breed them. They should've known better.


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## Mrs.Brisby (Jan 4, 2014)

That's awful. I had a similar experience with a pet store in my area. It was definitely the worst pet store i've ever been in. There was a dead guinea pig in the piggy enclosure with about five live ones. The lady that was working there tryed to tell me that the piggy had been sick (obviously) and that it had just died but you could tell it had been there for at least a couple of days because it was all stiff and sunken in. The rats and mice were in deplorable conditions. They only had two spiny mice but they were in a tank that was probably less than five gallons. One of the spiny mice had chewed through the tail of the other spiny mouse. It was only hanging by a tiny piece of skin. I never understood how people could treat animals so horribly. I hope you find homes for all the little spiny mice! It's nice that you took them all in.


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## Reedrat (Oct 17, 2014)

Uggg! What a nightmare! The pet store here where I got my ratties is awful! If only I could have saved more from that place! Many rats housed in ten gallon tanks, several tanks had two girls and a boy and their current litters! Sad, sad, sad!


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## MyrtlesMom (Oct 7, 2014)

I just took a refresher in spiny mouse gender telling and took a second look. Out of eight spiny mice, six of them were boys and only two were girls.  Found a third baby, put him with mom and separated the two genders. I'm upset with the pet store and angry with myself for not being able to tell. I mean I bred mice for a science fair project for crying out loud. But their balls are so _tiny_ compared to other rodents, ugh.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

I have a really hard time telling mice apart >.< I'd never trust myself to pick two of the same gender. I'm glad you were able to get them figured out and hopefully without too many unexpected extras. At least they're cute, right?


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## MyrtlesMom (Oct 7, 2014)

Mice are easy. They may be smaller as a whole, but the boy parts are just about the same ratio to body size as a rat, so embarrassingly obvious xD. Spiny mice on the other hand...


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## PawsandClaws (Jul 22, 2014)

Sounds like a complete nightmare. Might want to make a listing to adopt out the survivors here and on goosemoose for the spiny mice - explaining the situation in the post. Maybe someone near you will take a couple on as pets. Good luck.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

It might be that the only mice I've ever attempted to sex were tiny tiny pet store mice that didn't want to have anything to do with me. They're definitely not as easy to handle as baby rats. I was so frustrated by the time I actually caught one that I'd almost forgotten why I was trying to catch it in the first place lol


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