# Petco



## Discohorse (Aug 26, 2021)

It's a pretty common topic, but I absolutely hate how Petco cares for its rodents. The rats are in really small homes with pretty much no enrichment, and are sometimes even alone. It's awful, but the mice and guinea pig situation is much worse, in my opinion.
I once visited a Petco and saw upwards of 30 mice all together in the ~ 24'' long, ~ 8'' wide tank they keep the pets in. That tank was labeled "female mice", and below them was the "male mouse" one. At least the male mouse was alone, but a lot of the female mice were _clearly_ pregnant. I really wonder how many mice they had when they arrived. 
At almost all Petco/Petsmarts I see, there's one or two in a tank. Their cages are bigger than the mouse ones, at least, but they get a maximum of 3 square feet of space to move around, when they really need something like 8 square feet for one pig. It's awful. 
They also have really basic care guides on the animal fact-sheets. They don't tell people how they're supposed to care for their animals. "Oh yeah, hamsters can do great in a crittertrail! They love tubes! And yeah, go ahead and feed them whatever you want, they're not really delicate or anything!"

And all of these animals have to put up with snotty little kids coming in and tapping on the glass and screaming about them, and they can barely hide, as all of their hides fact the window. They have to burrow under their bedding to be actually hidden.

So, _no matter what_, you shouldn't EVER buy from one of these chain pet stores, or similar ones. A lot of people see it as "rescuing these animals from the poor care they're getting", but you're really just opening up a spot for another animal to be tortured. And, you're literally providing these awful places with money. In the eyes of their corporate offices, they're doing great with selling rats, so they can expand and pump out babies even faster. 
Buy from a rescue, or at least get one from a *good* breeder who keeps their animals in admirable conditions.


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