[AprilPearl]

I agree with Drago and Wisper.

Mushu is my first P@H hamster and I have only had him about 5 weeks so I don't know whether or not any health issues will arise later. I certainly hope not.

As much as I love Mushu, I wish I had not purchased from P@H. I was so idiotic and naive and I feel horribly guilty about it now. I had no idea their hamsters were bred in rodent farms. I didn't even know such things existed. It's only since finding this forum that I gave discovered how P@H source their hamsters.

My past hamsters were all from a small pet shop nearby who only stocked hamsters occasionally, and they came exclusively from one local breeder. So, in my ignorance, I assumed all pet shops operated in the same manner, getting their hamsters from people who bred them at home, either for a hobby or as a one off. I should have realised that P@H always have hamsters in stock and that wouldn't be possible unless they were running some sort of mass breeding programme.

Although at the time I didn't know about the rodent farms, I would have preferred to buy from the pet shop I used to. The only reason I bought from P@H is that the license required for pet shops to sell live animals in my London borough has gone up by a lot recently. So, my preferred pet shop had to stop selling live animals. Retrospectively, I now realise that this fee increase means only shops selling a lot of hamsters, such as P@H, can continue to sell them without making a loss. This really annoys me because presumably the license is in place to prevent animal cruelty, but in practise it now means that only shops mass breeding animals in less than ideal conditions can afford to continue.

Ok, rant over. I didn't want to offend anyone who buys from P@H. I realise I don't know much about rodent farms so maybe they aren't as bad as I imagine. But that's just how I feel.