I work for Pets at Home AMA

as soon as I mention where I work to people I get all sorts of questions (including personal messages on here) on all sorts of things from animal care, to animal problems to just simply how to get a job here.

So ask away...

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Reply 1

Lil08

How many have you killed?

Reply 2

Anjum - Yasmin

If you buy a pet from pet's at home and it dies, how easy is it to return?

Reply 3

Ghughes92

Are you one of the rare breeds of knowledgable Pets at Home employees or one of the shelf stacking zombies?

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Reply 4

Da Di Doo

Original post by Natalierm2707

Pets at home sold me a sick bunny. I then googled stuff about your pet shop and saw that this is normal. That apparently you guys treat your animals like crap...

Reply 5

Mutmit287

Original post by Da Di Doo

Pets at home sold me a sick bunny. I then googled stuff about your pet shop and saw that this is normal. That apparently you guys treat your animals like crap...

That may be true for other stores, I cant speak for them im sorry I can only speak for my store... but here is how it is at my store...

Every single staff member trains (really hard IMO) for 9 months after starting to become a fully qualified member of staff, and I do not know one person who I work with who doesn't want the best for the animals we sell.

Every animal that comes in from a pet delivery (which often there isnt very many) get sexed and health checked, and then housed in a quiet room in the back of the store for a set period of time (hamsters = 1 day up to rabbit = 5 days) to allow them to settle in and destress. In this time the animals are cleaned out everyday, given fresh fruit and veg (only on day 2 for the rabbits and guinea pigs so their stomachs dont get upset) as well as fresh water and food, and are visually health checked each day.

Before they go out onto the shop floor they are also health checked using our 6 step health check to ensure they are healthy.

Now please understand we are not vets, and we will never claim to be, and we can only spot the signs of disease when they are showing, which they may not have been at the time, so sometimes animals who are unwell do slip through this health check as they were not showing symptoms or any signs of illness (strange behaviors, changes in eating pattern, lethargic etc.) at the time.

This is why with every rabbit and guinea pig we sell we give you a free health check at our vets to ensure that anything the colleagues may have missed is spotted by the vets so you can be assured that your animal is healthy.

Everybody on the internet claims that we treat our animals badly, but i can guarantee we do not... we go to the ends of the earth for these animals, and many colleagues give up their free time (this is a job remember) after work to help out with the animals. on many of my late shifts when the vets are closed as we are going around the cages doing our end of the night visual health check and we notice a very poorly animal that has not been spotted in the day, we will go out of our way to drive like 2 hours to an emergency vet surgery so the animal can have the best chance of survival.

We are a pet store and we have a lot of animals so sometimes things may go wrong, but as colleagues we do everything in our power to give the animals a great quality of life, because we really do care.

twice a day they get fresh fruit and veg and many get handled often to allow them to get used to handling.

as colleagues we cannot go against store guidelines and look after the animals how we see fit, there are rules we must follow such as our five freedoms for pets which ensures no animal is badly treated.

pets at home gets a bad name from the negative experiences the minority of people who shop with us have... yet we have a large footfall in my store and out of those say 500+ people we see in an average day, 99% leave satisfied.

Reply 6

Mutmit287

Original post by Lil08

How many have you killed?

Zero!! we dont kill our animals, we prefer cuddles :smile:

Reply 7

Mutmit287

Original post by Anjum - Yasmin

If you buy a pet from pet's at home and it dies, how easy is it to return?

It really depends, if you can take it to a vet and get the reason why it died it will be much easier, as you can determine whether it was something that was present when you bought the pet or not.

most of the time we do not return animals unless we know for certain that the reason the animal died was because of an illness it picked up from pets at home...

usually we will return animals if they die within a month of you purchasing them from us though, but again every store is different.

if you dont want to talk to the employees face to face then you can always get the number of your local store and ring up and ask over the phone...

you may be alarmed to hear they may want the take the deceased animal to determine how it died... but not always...

hope this helps.

Reply 8

Makashima

do u get discount and how much

Reply 9

Mutmit287

Original post by Ghughes92

Are you one of the rare breeds of knowledgable Pets at Home employees or one of the shelf stacking zombies?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Thankfully I would consider myself a knowledgable employee.

I really did listen to everything on my training and love to learn when something new pops up.

I also keep up to date with new research about the animals we sell and do extra research...

the only animals I cannot sell currently are fish because my store is an aquatics centre so we have separate fish and small animal employees (but I am currently under my fish training... so if you ever want a goldfish... im your girl!)

some days I shelf stack like a zombie, thats often after a long day when i have no energy though!!

Reply 10

Anjum - Yasmin

Original post by Natalierm2707

Oh wow thank you - this was really useful :smile:

Reply 11

Mutmit287

Original post by Makashima

do u get discount and how much

Yes all colleagues who have worked at the store for more than 3 months and have passed their steps one training get 20% pets at home, the groom room, vets for pets, companion care vets and our horse branch (ive never seen the horse one though).

we are also entitled to extra benefits sometimes if we do well, so if we hit a new charity target or get loads of new VIP members, or its just a big company milestone (like 10 years etc.) then we often have a 40% off day or two where we get double discount.

Reply 12

Ghughes92

Original post by Natalierm2707

I'm convinced! Haha. Coming from someone who worked in the pet industry for 3 years (not Pets at Home) this is high praise indeed 😂

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Reply 13

Mutmit287

Original post by Ghughes92

I'm convinced! Haha. Coming from someone who worked in the pet industry for 3 years (not Pets at Home) this is high praise indeed ��

Posted from TSR Mobile

Thank you...

what many people dont seem to understand is that pets at home is a retail store... so its employees are working on minimum wage and are usually students (like myself) who only do like 12/16 hours a week...

so as much as we are trained like crazy, many have other things to worry about other than work as to them it is only a job... despite this I would 100% trust the advice any 1 of my colleagues (apart from the new guy) could give me.

most of people that work at pets at home OWN PETS!!! we know these things...

fine were not crazy like some of these pet youtubers but we do love pets!! and we want the best for any pet we sell in our stores... I couldnt ever tell you the amount of times we refuse sales to people because its high... we will not let you take any pet from our store unless we can see that you know what your doing.

Reply 14

Lil08

Original post by Natalierm2707

Zero!! we dont kill our animals, we prefer cuddles :smile:

Are you liable for selling pets to owners that aren't even capable of looking after themselves?

Reply 15

hukdealz

how much is an small animal, say a hamster?

also, stop procrastinating and get back to revision so you meet that offer of yours

Reply 16

Mutmit287

Original post by Lil08

Are you liable for selling pets to owners that aren't even capable of looking after themselves?

Like in an above post I just mentioned that every customer that wants to take a pet away should be asked basic questions so we can judge how to handle a sale... and whether to even allow them to take the animal or not.

these questions include...
"what are you doing after you finish up here?"
"have you owned rabbits before?"
"where will this rabbit be kept?"
"can you show me the cage you have bought"
etc. etc. etc.

we also check that they are over 18 (we do the challenge 21 rule) and they need ID as proof, as well as check that they are not intoxicated etc.

I had one customer come in on sunday asking for a rabbit for his son, and when i proceeded to ask him what cage he bought, he showed me to a guinea pig 80 home, which is suitable as an indoor hutch for up to 2 guinea pigs provided they have the run of the house in the day! and then he said to me he is putting it at the top of the garden... he was shown the door.

again sometimes customers who are not suitable pet owners will end up with an animal, as its very hard to tell whether someone is bluffing etc.

Reply 17

Mutmit287

Original post by hukdealz

how much is an small animal, say a hamster?

also, stop procrastinating and get back to revision so you meet that offer of yours

After my 8 hours of very successful revision today, and the fact that tomorrow is my 18th birthday I have earned myself a break!!!

A Syrian hamster is £10 (i dont know all the prices off by heart, just some of them, its all electronic so we rarely see the prices as colleagues)

Reply 18

Lil08

Original post by Natalierm2707

My younger brother has killed at least 20 gold fish from pets at home!

Reply 19

Mutmit287

Original post by Lil08

My younger brother has killed at least 20 gold fish from pets at home!

Sadly although they may seem simple goldfish are very difficult animals to keep... and killing them is very easy.

things to ensure is that the goldfish has a tank big enough, that the filter is fully functional and is cleaned often (not with tap water as that kills the good bacteria and allows the bad to thrive... clean it with water from your tank, you just want to remove the grime). Also make sure when you clean the tank that you are not fully emptying it!!! only take around 20-30% of the water out and top it up with clean water back to fill level and treat with tapsafe... removing all the water and disinfecting/cleaning the gravel removes all the good bacteria in the tank which help break down ammonia into nitrates which is essential (go read the nitrogen cycle, its actually pretty simple to understand fish care when you have read that)

also keep tank away from direct sunlight, radiators, air conditioning etc.

Goldfish have a lifespan of 20 YEARS!! and they grow HUGE!!!