No, You're Not Always Right

[Next Level Geckos]

yeah, but dog food is all the way across the store

Then gravel works.

 

[2bacop]

we almost never have hamsters die, except from wet tail. luckily the last one we had with that has made a full recovery.

i wish the dwarf hamsters were nicer... we have more of them returned for biting the crap out of some kid than anything else. :main_no: (we always warn people that owning a hamster means you'll more than likely get bit but they never listen)

We rarely have syrians die it is actually mostly the russian dwarf hamsters because they fight each other. (we are a female store). That is just about the only type of animal besides fish that we really sell on a continuous basis, oh and guinea pigs too. It is the rest of my very large district that has the problem. We still have them for now but soon we will not, and that will be a sad day.

 

[Kitsune]

Our pet loss with hamsters was 99% wet tail.
We also had the russian fighting issue.

 

[Haligren]

Pardon me for asking but what is 'wet tail'? We apparently never had a problem with it at our store. Most of our rodents were bred in-house and received excellent care as compared to the reptiles. :\

 

[2bacop]

Pardon me for asking but what is 'wet tail'? We apparently never had a problem with it at our store. Most of our rodents were bred in-house and received excellent care as compared to the reptiles. :\

Its diaherra (sp?) in hamsters, they get dehydrated really fast, im talking 24-48 hours you can bring them back from it but it takes a lot of work and experiance. Thats why we dont have a problem with it, because we take preventative measures and act fast if they do get it. We really only loses the dwarfs to wetail because they are really hard to cure of it, but that is still rare.

 

[Spooki]

we try to keep the russians (including winter whites) separate. the one time we don't i hear a woman SHRIEKING and the cashier comes running with her arms flailing. one winter white had practically skinned the backside of a smaller one. there was so much blood and all the customers were freaking out.

i thought for sure the little guy was going to die, he was in shock and convulsing. some how he made it, his forearms are heavily scarred and he's terrified of everything though.

 

[KnECritters]

I personally think hamsters should be only sold as large lizard food...lol! When I worked at a pet store, most of ours ended up savannah food (the dwarfs) as they were ALWAYS killing each other. I made sure to show potential buyers how mean they are...it wasn't too hard to get them to attack something, like hemostats. Evil little fur balls...

 

[lizardlove]

Hamsters are adorable and all, but they'd bite me all over the place... They're sort of scary. Only hamster I ever had that didn't maul me every time I held it was a little pet store Syrian named Jake who was completely blind and one eye was missing altogether. He was a rescue. He was a pathetic little dude, but he was pretty affectionate. Didn't live long, but I was 9 and he was my buddy. I had just moved across the country and the house we had bought fell through, so we were living in a hotel for a long time, which was pretty stressful. I had Jake in the hotel with me during that tough time, he was a good boy.

Then I got one of those black bear hamster things that the pet store said was 'The tamest hamster breed,' and it tried to kill me.

 

[BettaDragon]

I handled 12 dwarf hamsters in a day (long story involving lots of idiocy). Only one of them was mean and only two fought with the others. I'm guessing this was a rarity.

 

[Spooki]

it really depends on how socialized the hamsters are. the ones i owned as a kid came from a privately owned pet store and were bred by the owner. they were used to people and very calm.

all the ones at my store were probably handled for the first time they were put in the shipping container. they all bite, but i think dwarves have a reputation as social so people assume they'll be friendlier and get bit. everyone wants them for their little kids, who do not understand the concept of patience and slow movement. "omg it's so widdle and cuuuuute it can't be mean" lmao.

 

[2bacop]

I'm not talking about all dwarf hamsters. I have a chinese dwarf hamster who is over a year old and she has never bitten me. I take her into work and she just sits in my hand while i walk around. Its the stupid russian ones and winter whites. We try to keep as many seperate as possible but we only have so much space since we still have the syrians. I have seen a lot of different small animal set-ups in our chain and mine is def. one of the smaller ones. We have 12 small ones and 4 larger ones on the side and then two giant ones in the front for the guinea pigs and chinchillas. We also dont have a door that goes inside or anything everything is opened from the outside.

 

[Spooki]

chinese "dwarves" aren't related to any other species of dwarf hamster, the ones in the genus phodopus. most of the dwarf hamsters are russian species- robo, winter white/ dzhungarian/ siberian and russian/ campbells. i don't like the name "russian hamster" because lots of other species are from russia too. phodopus dwarves are less receptive to human interaction than other hamsters... personally, i'd be totally fine with no selling them. my hands don't like being mauled.

most people know that syrian hamsters (honey bear, panda, black bear, short hair, long hair) are solitary, but phodopus dwarves have a reputation as being social, but this refers mainly to the OPPOSITE sex. the problem is we're all same-sex stores and these hamsters may or may not have been raised together; which is pretty much the only way two males or two females won't try to decapitate each other.

the way i see it, hamsters of all species are best left alone.

 

[Haligren]

This is kinda odd. At the store were I worked, we had a few cages that usually had several hamsters in them at one time. Even the Chinese Dwarves. I actually found those to be much more tame than the teddy bear ones. I hated those things. The Chinese Dwarves were really laid back and, in my opinion, much cuter.

Anyway, the cages full of hamsters were hardly, if ever, had them fighting.

 

[Kitsune]

Chinese are the sweetest little buggers ever. <3
Robos are super sweet too. All of the others.. Ugh. lol. I've seen tons of nasty fights with those little brats! lol.

Both the store I work at now and the store in NJ ALWAYS took preventative measures against wet tail. Always. It's just a matter of conditions and stress at the vendor. Syrian hamsters are more susceptible to wet tail from what I understand. In the 2 years I've worked for the company.. I've seen...2 dwarf hamsters come down with wet tail.. Both of which recovered. I lost count as far as Syrian. Of course, some bounced back but a lot did not. A lot of those who did.. ended up with prolapsed rectums and needed surgery.


Katelyn, my old store in NJ had the same habitats as your store. They're the "newer" companion habitats. The store I'm at now has the old habitats which I despise! lol. I'll trade you! =P

 

[2bacop]

I think I would like the older ones. We always have trouble with kids and dogs/owners coming up to us while we are trying to show someone a hamster and ask to pet it or the dogs are trying to eat it. I think it would be much easier to be able to take the customers inside and talk to them and show them.

 

[leoman777]

i hate people that do that and that many bala sharks in a 15 gal.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! way way over crowded and calci sand for baby leos not good at all not good for adults either man those people just make me want to give then a left hook lol.

 

[Spooki]

i hate people that do that and that many bala sharks in a 15 gal.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! way way over crowded and calci sand for baby leos not good at all not good for adults either man those people just make me want to give then a left hook lol.

worse than that... the ******* next door to my store tells people 5 bala sharks in a 5 gallon tank is fine. then they come over here after they all die and want to buy more... because it's obviously faulty fish and not bad fish keeping.

 

[2bacop]

I hate when people come into the store and ask this:

"My tank is really dirty what can I do to fix it?"

me: "What type of filter do you have?"

"I dont know, one from wal*mart"

me: "Ok well thats why, you will need to purchase a better filter."

"I dont have the money for that:

me: "Alright then you will have to clean it weekly with an tank scrubber"

"Thats to much work"

me: "Then I'm sorry there is not much we can do for you."

"Aren't you all supposed to be experts, some help you are"

At this point in the conversation I am thinking two things

1. If you dont have the money or want to make any effort in taking care of the tank then you should'nt have started it to

2. We are very well trained in our field however we can't help laziness, you may have to see a life coach about that

 

[eric]

Give em' Hell, Hannah! :main_thumbsup: