Pet Store Troubles and Bringing Problems Home

[Hi I am Snek]

I think so...but saying that cautiously...& I truly HOPE so too. I don't know what more you could do, & it's nice to hear from a really caring pet store employee who
is doing their best to "go the extra mile" for the animals under your care, both on the job & off. It's very sad to hear about local breeders giving up their operations. Out
of curiosity, what state are you in? You can PM if you'd rather not post your approximate location, or decline to answer at all...I'm not a stalker, lol, but I do understand.

I'm in Ohio, actually!

And thank you, and I hope the precautions I'm doing are enough...Yeah I hear a lot of horror stories about pet stores, so I try to do better to show they're not all bad...it just doesn't help that without the local breeders I have to get animals from places who mass-produce them now, instead of buying them from people who actually care about their animals. And there really is a HUGE difference between the quality of health and temperament between the two. Idk, maybe I should be a breeder for the store; I mean, I was planning on breeding feeder rodents anyway (both for the store AND for my snakes) so why not add hamsters and gerbils to the mix? I've done a ton of research into it this past week and I do really like hamsters/gerbils/guinea pigs, but honestly I'm not sure it's wise to do so because I know I won't be able to keep up with the demand a pet store has...which is why I either went to the distributor or the few local breeders in my area; and now I have no breeders left which leaves me little choice Either I breed the animals myself to ensure the store doesn't get sick animals (plus I could take them to the vet if they do fall ill while in my care at home) but that would mean I never stop working PLUS running the risk of eventually not being able to afford it anymore like all the other breeders...or I order from a distributor that for all I know treats their animals poorly until they arrive in my care.

I never knew how much I relied on small breeders until they're no longer around...