Where are the hamsters?

[Ria P]

On my way to the rescue i picked up some supplies at a pets@home.

All the hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, gerbils and bunnies have gone!! The adoption section was empty as well.

What have they done with them and where are they living now?!

There was only an unapproachable skeleton staff team around so i wasn't able to enquire and my trust in humans isn't that great. Staff could have been told to stick to a standard reply whether its the truth or not.

By the time the Covid-19 pandemic is over, the hamsters will be too old to be sold in the shop, so what happens to them?

I have an idea but its too upsetting to mention.

Does anyone here have an insight?

[sushi_78]

Pets at Home have stopped selling animals for the time being. Their feeling may have been that people shouldn't be going out to buy pets at the moment.

The ones already at the stores are being cared for at the back apparently (so I've heard from people who work there). I had wondered what would happen to them when this is over, and what would happen to the litters already born at their breeders that now won't be delivered to the stores. Perhaps they will eventually end up in the adoption section.

[NibbleeTheHamster]

thats so unsettling. I live in the us and our animals are all still in their pet shop enclosures. Like you said, the hamsters will get old and wont be sold in the shop, then what do they plan to do with them?

You can only hope for the best.

[LunaTheHamster1]

Pets at home boss announced that the animals would be looked after. " All of our pets are now no longer on the shop floor but don’t worry they are being loved and taken care of by our colleagues in dedicated facilities"
But like you say what happens to them when they get too old and nobody wants them...As for all the ones at the mills...

[toastyunicorns]

Wow honestly that's scary enough to hear from, can,t imagine how confused and scared you felt firsthand at p@h

[Vierville]

Very unsettling indeed. I dread to think what will happen to the litters born at the 'suppliers'.

While adopting a young hamster is lovely, I've adopted an older and partially disabled hamster before and he was an absolute joy and delight. They are all lovely in their own ways and all of them deserve a good, loving home.

I must say that the hamsters at P@H at least at the Farnborough branch which is the only one I've been to looked like they were decently cared for. A lot better than they are looked after in the pet shops in South Africa at least .

I really do worry about how these little ones are looked after in pet shops, animals as items of stock in a shop is just such an unsettling concept to me

[Celestial]

Poor hamsters! I hope they're getting attention! Pet stores don't usually have the best of accommodations...
And why shouldn't people be buying pets now? What if your hamster died and you want another furry friend to comfort you in these trying times!?
Do they think people will hoard rodents as food?

I had a similar issue months ago due to "supplier issues", but then it was more along the lines of "are dwarf hamsters going extinct??" than "poor hammies ". In fact I found this forum because I was getting worried at our inability to find dwarf hamsters for months! We had been (initially casually) looking since before December! (aka before the pandemic)

I hope the store hamsters get taken care of well, and that this situation ends soon so they can find homes!

[Ithuviel]

Well at least in your country something is happening. In mine i still see live animals in pet stores. i don't know if this is good or bad.

[AmityvilleHams]

Buying or adopting more pets of any species is risky at the moment. Getting proper supplies, even the most basic ones, can be difficult to say the least - whether you're shopping for common pets like dogs or more "exotic" ones like hamsters.

I personally made the responsible but difficult decision to put off getting any more pets until after everything is at least more stable in terms of this particular coronavirus and supplies are actually reliably available(along with shipping being reliable - it really isn't the best at the moment and takes longer than usual with potential for items to just not be available far more than usual). It isn't the choice I want to make, but we have to put the health and safety of others above our wants in such a time as well as putting the proper care of pets above our wants.

[Pebbles82]

There was something on the news about the many people rushing to adopt all the animals from pet shops and pet stores to have company during self isolation so that is probably the answer . I am sure they are being cared for. I hate to think about the illegal breeding situation though when they no longer have demand from shops.