The dangers of commercially bred animals
Posted by admin under Gerbil Care, Gerbil Health | Permalink | | Leave A Comment | 6 Comments
Odd title for a post, isn’t it? I feel though, that a lot of the time, when myself and other gerbil owners warn people of buying from petshops, we do forget one vital part in it – the borderline mental retardation your gerbils may have.
The gerbil above is Lol, some of you will recognise her from my ‘My gerbils’ page. Her sister is Bonnie, and quite frankly they are a lovely pair, very friendly and happy. Except that they are both originally commercially bred animals, and it seems that Bonnie has a problem.
If she is on heat, or not kept busy by playtime out of the tank, or chewing up cardboard or burrowing, she will attack her sister.
Lol is an absolute darling, she’s so shy and gentle and has never once bitten her sister in retaliation (with Bonnie being top dog, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea anyway), but last night I found Bonnie attacking Lol once again and biting her around the base of her tail so hard the fur and possibly even skin has been ripped off.
I feel bad for her now-ironic name.
It seems that this behaviour is almost from frustration, almost reminiscent of a child kicking out at the nearest person because he’s bored and fed up and nobody is keeping him entertained. But none of my well-bred, well-rounded gerbils feel the need to do this in the slightest if I’m out working, or not paying them attention, so to me, it just proves yet another point to why petshops and the commercial setups their animals come from disgust me and countless other species owners that’ve came across similar, frustrating behaviours.
So by going to a petshop, yes, you’ll have a pet, and it’ll be faster than locating a breeder, but in some cases, you’ll end up with far more than you can cope with if your gerbils have either or both mental and health problems from their setups they have been kept and bred in.
Weak bones, scrabbling aimlessly in corners for hours, e.coli, salmonella, worms, wonky teeth, severe respiratory infections, allergies, and more, is it really worth it, just to have a pet within a couple of days?
2:22 pm, 5 February 2009
Loz i feel so sorry for poor lol and also poor Bonnie. Well done for highlighting this Loz as i hope it makes people think about what they are actually buying into. Its a very sad thing. ON the upside at least these two have landed safe with you.
4:17 pm, 5 February 2009
It just annoys me when people would rather go to a petshop than rescue or search out a reputable breeder – having said that, there’s so few reputable breeders I would honestly back and recommend to new owners. The gerbil world needs to buck itself up.
5:54 pm, 5 February 2009
and it’s also the reason why more and more pet shop gerbils are ending up in rescues!
Hope she improves, how’s the split going?
6:00 pm, 5 February 2009
Oddly, lol. I’m going to keep them split until Lol’s tail looks a bit better.
7:29 am, 7 February 2009
Poor Lol…and for Bonnie, too…she knows no better. Luckily, I don’t see this very often at work but they are rather young 8-10 weeks when they are at the shop and they aren’t there very long.
Even though I work at a pet shop, I do strongly recommend adopting and rescuing and if somebody wants a “quality” gerbil, to get them from a breeder, not a pet store. Too often I see our animals come in either sick or something “not right” with them…not just gerbils but the hamsters and the guinea pigs too. The rats…you can just forget it, the poor little babies.
When did you get Lol and Bonnie?
2:34 pm, 12 February 2009
As I said, they were originally commercially bred, pet shop animals, but I took them on through someone who had brought them and could no longer look after or cope with them. I’ve done an update on Lol’s tail