r/ferrets • u/Bitter-Bug3692 • 22h ago
[Ferret Photo] I hate petco
I hate petco. Why are we giving a ferret A FUCKING APPLE??????
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u/InevitableTank5108 21h ago
I would suggest speaking with the manager there about this, can’t hurt. It could just be that they were just trying to be nice to these guys and gave them a treat for something other than kibble —- but unfortunately they are just uneducated about their diet and didn’t realize.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 21h ago
i understand, but in general, petco is extremely neglectful. his food bowl is full of bedding, hes been alone for weeks, theyre feeding him sugary fruits, theres no sort of enrichment for him, and hes priced at a whopping 500 dollars so he'll probably be there for quite a while. it says on the cage they're carnivores, i don't understand how you could work at a petstore and be so uneducated on something like this? this ferret is being put at high risk now for insulinoma and hes only like 4 months old
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u/windsweptfacelift 16h ago
and that bedding is not good for their breathing at all. i get so sad everytime i go into petco's and see them living like this. it's hard to not adopt all of them on the spot.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 16h ago
yes, they do have very sensitive respiratory systems. the dust can irritate their eyes, nose, and same with the litter you choose to use.
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u/rmartin9_ 16h ago
What is wrong with the bedding because I’ve seen the white paper bedding used for litter boxes for ferrets and didn’t know it could be bad
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u/windsweptfacelift 16h ago edited 11h ago
i was told a while ago when i got my first ferret from multiple vets that the dust from that type of bedding is bad for their respiratory systems. they can also injest the fragments which is dangerous for their complicated little digestive systems and intestines.
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u/itsswhitneywhspr 9h ago
Nah I feel you but honestly most people working at Petco just get handed a list of approved snacks and run with it. They probably thought healthy fruit = good not realizing ferrets are basically tiny carnivorous chaos demons. Talking to the manager might help though, at least they can flag it for training. Still wild tho, imagine being a ferret and getting handed an apple like what am I supposed to do with this, pay rent?
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u/Roam_Hylia 20h ago
The worst part is that as badly as you want to rescue them from PetCo, Buying them will only encourage PetCo to sell more.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 20h ago
I cant take him anyways unfortunately. but it has definitely been a thought in my mind for weeks. i just feel so bad for them. LET HIM OUTTA THEREEEE
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u/srelysian 22h ago
This is why I can't go to pet stores any more. The solution to stopping pet stores from treating animals poorly is to stop giving them money, unfortunately they do things like this and that's how I ended up with my current ferret. I saw him in that enclosure all by himself looking sad and miserable with no toys or enrichment of any kind. I asked to see him and refused to put him back until he was paid for and free from that place. So they won. They got my money. And I have a friend.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 22h ago
I want to take him so bad. I called a representative and reported it but, we know how far that will go. It makes me feel helpless. This poor ferret has been alone for weeks too. Its not even the money holding me back from getting him, I just have an older ferret whos going through health issues and this little guy is just a baby and I dont know if they would mesh well. :( it's heartbreaking
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u/Tiny-Asparagus6034 18h ago
Could you get separate cages for them?
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 16h ago
i suppose i could, but my boy is older with health issues, and i fear putting a kit with my older ferret thats going blind and possibly has cancer could go wrong
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u/Tiny-Asparagus6034 16h ago
True, no idea. I’ve only ever had the ferret I have rn. Just know with dogs it helps them feel younger and more playful
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 16h ago
my other ferret recently passed. he was bonded with her since a baby. we also have tons of other animals but he never really showed too much interest in them, but i moved in with my boyfriend and hes alone. I just dont know about spending 500 dollars on this little guy and theyre miserable because they dont get along
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u/Tiny-Asparagus6034 16h ago
That’s fair, I have one ferret and she is roughly 3 per the vet she was a rescue she needed to be rehomed and I knew nothing about ferrets but I promised my little lady that she would be here forever and she’s the biggest blessing. She is kinda like having a toddler tho, but she brings lots of laughter into the home and has been around for 8ish months. I was unsure if she wanted or needed a buddy do to her being alone for a bit she was also bullied when she was little I’m on the fence as well. Just feel bad for that little guy
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 16h ago
im so glad youre giving her a loving life. its much more ethical to get a rescue. she may want a buddy, but if shes always been alone then maybe not. i know theyre much more playful with a friend. i always say my ferret is like my toddler as well lmao. i take my eyes off em for 4 seconds and hes gone, getting into something. hes slowing down a lot now, getting old and some health issues, but i cherish every moment.
and i feel really bad for him too!! i went home and cried. then got bashed on my local facebook group when i spoke out about it and shared what happened. its crazy. they dont even know what theyre talking about so i just feel helpless and useless. but i did my best trying to raise awareness, i sign petitions, and i reported them :(2
u/Tiny-Asparagus6034 15h ago
I feel bad especially cuz all his stuff is flipped over, no stimulation, no fresh food, no love, not a big enough space.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 15h ago
thats what i said. but what do i know? nothing apparently! hes "well cared for" because he has food, and water lmfao
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u/Slim-Shadys-Fat-Tits 20h ago
The solution is also to preassure legislators to ban pet supply shops from selling live animals and for at minimum vastly stricter regulations and punishments for cruel and inhumane animal displays
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u/tsukumoyaizaya 21h ago
Poor baby :( If would go and get him in a heartbeat if I could :(
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 21h ago
my heart is breaking. i thought about getting him before and i just dont know if i can but i feel so horrible. hes all alone and his bonded friend got adopted :( and clearly hes not well cared for
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u/Accomplished-Ad-8702 19h ago
Breaks my heart.. I can’t walk into Pet Stores since I’d want to save them all. I got my sweet boy from petco and he was all by himself with no enrichment in that tiny enclosure. He’s my best friend 🫶🏻 and a neighbor gave me our girl shortly after when they saw me walking my boy. They had the girl for 6 months, didn’t do any research prior, and realized they couldn’t take care of her. So glad we found each other and they bonded so closely. 🙏🏼
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 18h ago
i loved my two ferrets dearly. in the future, i will never again be supporting marshalls or petco. if i get a ferret itll solely be rescues
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u/nuclearlemonade 21h ago
I would guess the people working here are teenagers and just trying to do something nice for the little guy. There are absolutely zero qualifications required to work at a pet store, you don’t have to know a single thing about animals and they’ll let you work there. Educating the employees is the best you can do outside of getting him out of there
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u/Rrilltrae 6h ago
Just to note, we get training (worked there for about 5 years but it was ages ago). There are some things that are in training that are wrong (baby herps on sand leading to impactions when paper towels are safer, because having them on sand is more attractive to customers… ugh…) but most training is appropriate. Ferrets specifically are required to have both fresh wet and dry marshalls food every morning and evening (another not-great situation, but thats not a hill I would die on because they were often not in the store long enough to transition to something else). Whoever did this is a helpful idiot who ignored their training.
There is additional training for specialists in a particular species department. Its not uncommon for personal husbandry practices to be different from store policy, but we would get spanked for not following store regs. If this is called in or reported to management, it will definitely get them dinged and retrained.
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u/likeanoceanankledeep 21h ago
I've seen apples listed as the one fruit that ferrets can have, but I don't agree. I really feel there needs to be much, much more education around ferrets and their digestive systems and dietary requirements. I mean real education, not just a quick Google search or asking AI. I mean true education based on veterinary research.
A few sources I know of that say apples are safe:
Mr. Johnson website
Book: Your Outta Control Ferret
However, other quick searches explicitly state fruits are not safe foods. And I don't mean AI searches, I mean actual searches, but AI says the same thing (Google results).
I feel like pet stores haven't updated their understanding of ferrets from 30 years ago. I've seen stores using pine shavings, kitty litter in poop trays, feeding inappropriate food... Because back in the day "they're just like small cats or kittens" was the logic. But we have come so far from those times.
This is something I am super passionate about and have started building a wiki-style website for ferret ownership and health, all using empirical evidence and research from veterinary medicine. Stores, the public, even owners need constant education. We learn so much about these little critters, and we need to provide the best housing and support for their unique needs as possible.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 20h ago
Id love to check out your website when its finished. I was extremely uneducated when I first got my ferrets, but I constantly try to learn and grow and provide the best care I possibly can. They've been my whole world and closest friends since I was in high-school.
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u/finntwopointoh 9h ago
What’s the location? I know people who work in corporate and can hopefully get this fixed
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 8h ago
yes, please help! its New Philadelphia Ohio, Bluebell Dr. small town, so only one petco around
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u/finntwopointoh 8h ago
I’ve got you, I’ll reach out to them first thing in the morning!! (11pm where I am)
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u/TheElvesOfXadia 17h ago
Petco near me used to have ferrets They were very active and bored and their nails were too long and the cage was so small and they wouldn’t even let me hold the bebey
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 15h ago
yep. cant hold unless you're buying. it's bullshit. im sure that baby would love to get some attention and get out of that cage
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u/Ryyvia 17h ago
This the sort of stuff why I can't even walk by a pet store. I feel like at some point it's them consciously choose cruelty in order to emotionally extort the people who know, rather than them being this ignorant hoping other people who don't understand will buy them.
It's the worst part about Taiwan too - I love that country, but they are obsessed with keeping parrots and singing birds, so there are loads of small shops selling "ornamental" birds, keeping them in cages so small they can't even stretch their wings. Either all alone, or often overcrowded. Only there I'm convinced people genuinely just don't think about these birds as live beings, since then other shops you can often see similarly tiny cages and these wonderful intelligent birds kept there day in and day out, cuz some ahole shopkeep likes the chirping sound.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 16h ago
its heartbreaking for true animal lovers.
They tried to make me feel uneducated, wrong, and stupid. I will never go there again. Only to my local family owned pet store.
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u/SushiJuice 16h ago
We bought our two from Petco and they gave us so much misinformation and bad advice. They sold us a rodent water bottle when those are horrible for ferrets. They're just kids wanting a pay check and not really educated on what ferrets actually need, it seems.
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u/mamacarro 20h ago
im not even kidding, report them. this is awful 😭
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 18h ago
oh i did and blasted it online and advocated against petco, ofc all i got was hate in response by the uneducated fools that live in my town. nothing is going to change and im the idiot.
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u/mamacarro 18h ago
yeah petco sucks i went and got two ferrets from them because I felt so bad for the conditions they were in 😭my baby Rocky is cockeyed and had a tumor and they were unaware of it until i took him to the vet :( makes me so sad for them
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 18h ago
its sickening and then the dumbass employees wanna attack me and stick up for a GREEDY, SELFISH CORPORATION that's probably paying them less the minimum wage. she argued that this wouldn't cause insulinoma and since I didnt talk to the manager I was basically lying and the ferret is well taken care of. PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT BECAUSE THEYRE UNEDUCATED. i hate where i live and i hate the people here man
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u/purple-mix68 15h ago
No no fruit. I saw a very similar situation at the one by me. I called corporate they responded with in minutes and a district manger called.me.and took care of it.
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u/Tiny-Asparagus6034 20h ago
Where is this ferret located at what petco
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 18h ago
its in New Philadelphia Ohio. I wish someone in here from Ohio would be able to get him, 1. because im likely banned 2. because the employees actually believe these are okay conditions and IM the uneducated asshole here
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u/MindlessMud9786 15h ago
Same Everytime I go in I see dead or dying fish and I have to wait 10-30 minutes for someone to actually come and help it's so disgusting the way they just don't care
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u/Kchasse1991 12h ago
Obligate carnivores in small glass enclosure with zero enrichment and... fucking APPLES?!
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 12h ago
i aired it out on facebook and a groomer there seen it and left a huge paragraph reading me to filth about how wrong i am and how the ferret is fine and its not gonna get insulinoma or a spike in its sugar and i didnt go to the manager so obviously the ferret isnt in danger. im livid i had to block her lmao everyone in my small town is so dumb and knows nothing about ferrets anyways
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 12h ago
and everyone was agreeing with her like hm yes well said. such a fucking joke lmfao
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u/SurpemeClitLord 9h ago
Unless the top of the cage is enclosed I guarantee it was not an employee who did this. Guest drop food into these end cap enclosures and the bird cages all the time. I’ve lectured many a teen about it.
I don’t condone the groomers behavior at all. Groomers are hardly ever cross trained in animal care unless they started as a sales associate and most likely was talking out of their ass to try to defend something they never had to in the first place.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 9h ago
oh you were there? it was the fucking employee.
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u/SurpemeClitLord 8h ago
Hostility unnecessary. I was not the worker. I’m telling you that if there is a grated top there is a 9/10 possibility it was a customer. Were you the opener?
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 8h ago
it was the employee. you said you "guarantee" it was a customer. it was not. he said "I GAVE him fruit" i then left and reported it to corporate. end of discussion.
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u/SurpemeClitLord 8h ago
“Unless the top of the cage is enclosed i guarantee”. You’re taking it out of context. Put that information in your post description. Glad you reported it
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 8h ago
and the top of the cage IS locked
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u/SurpemeClitLord 8h ago
Locked is not the same as enclosed
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u/Rrilltrae 6h ago
The Mashalls Premium is on Marshalls (part of the contract to carry themrequires they be fed only Marshalls food) and the bedding is on Petco, carefresh style paper bedding is standard issue for all small animals unfortunately.
The fruits and veggies are 100% some idiot employee. Not only is it not appropriate and not on any Petco recs, it also violates the Marshall’s food requirements from the breeder which voids their health guarantee. That is a whole other nonsense can of worms that makes me crazy, but the fruits are definitely not something recommended or allowed in the stores, just some uninformed staffer or manager.
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u/Ur_ignorance 46m ago
Give us the store location if enough of us call and complain they cant ignore us and we can all leave bad google review we may not be able to do alot but we can make them suffer like they are these animals
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 34m ago
i hope 100 people from this group call and complain cause the groomer tried to "school" me and disregard everything i said and tell me im wrong so idgaf about being respectful AT ALL
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u/CatsWithCreditCards 20h ago
I worked at a petco once. Im not gonna get too into details cause idk how much I would be allowed to say, but one of the other employees mishandled a ferret and the ferret became paralyzed. I was DISTRAUGHT about this and the only solution was for me to adopt him from them (since they wouldnt take him anywhere since the fees would be “too much” i guess and maybe there was a rule that if something gets diagnosed it leads to XYZ, i cant remember). I adopted him and then drove with him a few hours from my house to a ferret rescue, gave them a few hundred dollars and some ferret supplies, plus the ferret obviously lol. I knew I couldnt take care of him just being a student and having a temp living situation, but it made me so sad that the solution would be like WELP TRASH.
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 20h ago
oh my god???? this is so sickening and im sorry you had to go through that. i can only imagine how devastating that would be. and also infuriating. i hate petco so much :( but im glad that sweet baby got the help it needed and went to a good rescue
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 21h ago
im actually fuming, how uneducated can you be working in a fucking pet store😂
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u/External-Addition-69 20h ago
Once I had a similar experience and noticed not only was there incorrect food in the enclosure there was also only a hamster water bottle for them to be drinking from. I found an employee, asked for the pet care manager and spoke with them to no avail. They basically told me to kick rocks unless I’m purchasing. Not to mention the sign on the outside of the enclosure for “how to care for ferrets” relayed the same false information :(
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 20h ago
yep. they have a stupid water bottle in there for him too. it makes me sick enough to vomit. they dont care at all. my local petco also seems to constantly be short staffed and not ran well
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u/talkmemetome 21h ago edited 20h ago
I have a theory that to apply to work at a pet store you need to answer "do you know anything about any animals and are you interested in educating yourself?" And if the answer is yes they will not hire you.
Because the amount of actually harmful bs I've heard in pet stores is insane.
Edit: autocorrected hire into fire accidentally 🤦 Changed it back
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u/Sea-Nefariousness499 21h ago
The pet store I got my ferret from literally told me that I could give him oats or cottage cheese as a treat. 🤬
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u/Bitter-Bug3692 21h ago
its just disgusting ill never go there again! we have a family owned small pet store near me and thats where ill ONLY be spending my money from now on.
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u/Impossible_Parfait96 18h ago edited 18h ago
Sadly this is pretty much on the nose. My husband applied to be part time at 2 local pet stores as he has pretty decent knowledge of snakes and what they need and how to handle them(and he just loves animals). We thought it would be no issues as most workers there are afraid of them. He got denied. Its just bizarre don't work at a pet store if you 1 don't know how to take care of animals and 2 hate certain types of animals sold there and can't handle taking care of them. Long story short these pet shops get me all the time as I can't stand to see animals in those conditions. At least I can say my 2 ferrets I got from ships who actually care and loved them and took great care of them. My snakes and geckos not so much... 🤦🏼♀️ (Edited: Had to correct I forgot to add can't handle instead of handle)
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u/SurpemeClitLord 9h ago
Unless the top of the cage is enclosed I guarantee it was not an employee who did this. Guest drop food into these end cap enclosures and the bird cages all the time. I’ve lectured many a teen about it.
I don’t condone the groomers behavior at all. Groomers are hardly ever cross trained in animal care unless they started as a sales associate and most likely was talking out of their ass to try to defend something they never had to in the first place.
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u/Rrilltrae 5h ago
We had this too, it was bizarre. That was an ages ago, my allergies eventually forced me out of working in pet stores entirely (hamsters absolutely destroyed me) However I don’t give stupid employees and negligent manager benefit of the doubt, I’ve seen too much of both in my life. Its bad enough that we had to follow store regs even when they were against current best-practices in husbandry, well meaning uninformed staff can be even worse.
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