# Improper Care



## PastelRat (Jul 28, 2016)

So I need to get out a rant. 

My friend, and a lot of other people I see online, do not take good care of their pets.

I mean, they mean well, but in practice don't take very good care of pets. My friend has 0 hammocks, and 1 wooden hide. Their rats have a basically bare 2-story cage. Their fed a Kaytee diet, and only have a tiny bit of paper bedding at the bottom of the cage. They also use a hamster ball for exercise. And when they had a hamster, the hamster lived in a tiny 100 inch cage. Plush they bathed it. And their excuse for having no hammocks was "the rats chewed it up and didn't like it." Like come on people, this is a living being's life in your hands.


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## Andromeda (Apr 28, 2016)

Oh my god, I feel you. My best friend just got a rabbit (singular, even though she's in college and is gone for 6hrs a day, and usually has at least 2hrs of studying/homework at nights), and is keeping it in this cage. Every time I go to her house I try to take the bunny out for a bit, because I feel so bad for it being stuck in that tiny cage all day. She takes it out for maybe an hour every night? Most nights less than that. And the worst part is, she loves that rabbit! Talks about it all the time, takes pictures of it, but won't actually do any research on it. She read the pamphlet at the pet store and figured that was all she needed to know. :/

Actually, the lady I got my boys from was kind of like that. Clearly loved them, but when I first met them, all they had in their cage was one plastic igloo, a wheel (which was too small), and three plastic shelves that came with the cage. She was feeding them a homemade food mix, which if I recall correctly was mostly birdseed with some wheat puffs and dog food mixed in, and gave them iceberg lettuce as a treat (basically has zero nutritional value). When I asked her how much she handled them, she said sometimes she would put her hand in the cage and pet them, or take them out on her lap, but that was it. She had developed allergies to them which was why she was rehoming them, so I guess I can't really blame her for not wanting to hold them, but still. They also had mites when I brought them home, but I don't even know if she realized. :/

When I got them home, it took them a month to figure out what hammocks were for. xP They love them now, but back then when I would go to clean out the cage after a week, I wouldn't even change the hammocks because they would be literally untouched.

It just blows my mind how some people go out and buy an animal, fully aware of the fact that they know literally nothing about taking care of them. I wouldn't even consider getting a pet until I at least knew the basics of keeping them alive.


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## Rattielover965 (Apr 26, 2016)

Can you try to get them to do reasearch?


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## Asteria (Jul 6, 2016)

Some people are just flat out ignorant. I have a friend who has a lone rat in a tiny cage, I encouraged her to join a Facebook group with lots of proper rat information but she still hasn't change a thing despite being active in the community. It's so hard watching small 'pocket pets' suffer because people have been brainwashed with outdated information.


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## LilysPets (Jul 1, 2016)

It always saddens me to see pets go to irresponsible homes. 

Some people just choose not to listen and believe what they are doing is best. Of course, what we define and see as "best" may be different from theirs. I learned over the years to be more open-minded and accept that how I take care of my pets may not be the same for them. I had a former housemate during university who had a German Shepherd cross, and he was crated 23 hours a day. Sometimes even more or less, give or take on her. She was simply lazy and a mess. I was close on calling the SPCA on her as you simply cannot crate a dog for that long per day. I confronted her about it, but her response was "I know what is best for my dog." ...Yeah, clearly you do.

What bothers me the most is where people don't take the financial responsibility to invest in higher quality diets, mental stimulation, etc. claiming they have no money, yet they go spend their money on something far more expensive that isn't practical. That housemate always claimed she had no money to take her dog to the vet (A $300 bill or so) yet she goes spends $400 on lingerie?? With a $300 Michael Kors bag at that. Those people drive me INSANE! I don't buy much nice things for myself as my pets come first and they get EVERYTHING they need. Emergency clinic at 3AM that's 2 hours away? My babies will see and receive the BEST care that I can get them.


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## Hamthebunny (Nov 24, 2016)

This is sooo true we have six dogs of all different sizes and and we spend hours day and night making sure all of our dogs get the love and care they need. But a few months ago we moved and our nieghbors at the new house had a 3 year old female Siberian husky who jumped our fence and killed 4 of our chickens! Now we didn't blame the dog (even after she mauled our goat) due to the fact that it turned out they never walked the dog, she went out three times a day for barely 10 minutes! And the owner stayed home all day! And she was created almost all the time in the house! And at one point when we mentioned one of our dogs wasn't neutered he said to "please keep it away from her cause she's an unnutuerd purebred" and he didn't want mixed breed puppies!!?! Like wtf?! Your dog is the one that gets out, kills and attacks our animals, you can't even care for her properly and now. You want an unnecessary litter?!!! Esecially from a dog thats probably not fit to breed judging by care!That poor dog! Some people shouldn't have animals of any sort!


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## B'sMom (Nov 24, 2016)

Oh my god. My best friend has two guinea pigs. She keeps them in seperate cages because they fight. They're in the "standard" cheap one story guinea pig cage. She keeps them on pine bedding and only has an igloo and food dish in their cage. She takes them out once a week maybe. She cleans their cage every other week. Her room reeks. They're like living vegetables in those cages. They don't have any hay or vegetables. She feeds them a Kaytee seed mix. And then she yells at me for having "too many pets". Its insane! Her younger Pig, Miracle developed an abscess on her cheek/face and it just grew and grew and no one took this poor girl to a vet. It was raw and the size of a tennis ball before they took her to the vet to have it removed. I don't understand why people have animals if they dont really care about them


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## Rattielover965 (Apr 26, 2016)

Today I heard someone say they got a rabbit from the pet store. A pet store !And I don't know a lot about pet rabbits but I know the pet stores don't treat them any better then the pet store rats are treated,and when I said pet stores are evil and that the animals aren't treated well or bred well and often get sick she just said "eh".I then asked how big the cage was,because I know that rabbits need a lot of space,a she showed me with her hands,and it was only the size of a large storage bin!She said it was ment for baby rabbits but her rabbit was a adolescent (and she just got it last night)!I said rabbits need a lot of space and again she just said "eh,she's ok."!!


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## LilysPets (Jul 1, 2016)

I've seen quite a few terrible housing conditions for some animals. 

My rescue ferret was housed in a bird cage... Yes, a bird cage. 

Someone put a chinchilla in a 100L BIN CAGE. I told her that was cruelty but she said it was temporary, I'm sure she said that just to shut me up.


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## B'sMom (Nov 24, 2016)

That poor bun. My rabbit is in an extra large dog crate and has run of my office from 9am to 10pm


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## NFCRattie (Jan 25, 2016)

Rattielover965 said:


> Today I heard someone say they got a rabbit from the pet store. A pet store !And I don't know a lot about pet rabbits but I know the pet stores don't treat them any better then the pet store rats are treated,and when I said pet stores are evil and that the animals aren't treated well or bred well and often get sick she just said "eh".I then asked how big the cage was,because I know that rabbits need a lot of space,a she showed me with her hands,and it was only the size of a large storage bin!She said it was ment for baby rabbits but her rabbit was a adolescent (and she just got it last night)!I said rabbits need a lot of space and again she just said "eh,she's ok."!!



that is so sad, I did get my bunny from a pet store too but, she was a gift from someone. She is in a pretty standard cage but, gets out for at least 5-6 hours a day and gets to roam my room and the bunny proof space we have for her. I do have a lab mix so, she sleeps in her cage and stays in the cage when we arent home! I really hope she at least attempts to change and accomodate her bunny


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## Rattielover965 (Apr 26, 2016)

Well today I tried to talk to her about it and today she said someone sold it to her for $5.Yet last time she said it was from a pet store.Hmmmm...


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