well... oops.

yes, some pet stores sell junk cages and junk food for critters. The one that I sell most of my pet stock to is really good in that aspect though. They stock the big cages for rabbits, and strongly encourage their pet rabbit people to purchase them.

Though I have to admit... there are a fair number of breeders who keep their rabbits in cages smaller than what most pet store cages are, so I have to wonder... what's so wrong about the cages pet stores sell? Most meet my minimum standards and I don't do anything smaller than 24 x 24. Just makes me curious is all.

Actually , the local pet store has a no questions asked take back policy any animal the sell,(or take one that might have come from them)
don't know what the extra paper is worth at pet stores, sorry Rachel, most of the time the paper makes to the waste basket. With personal pet sales, yeah, that and business cards help on a non pedigree (pet) sale

Well, I disagree. I'm sure it's not fool proof. I know I, too, can be bad about losing paper work. But I do know for a fact that the paperwork actually makes it into the hand of the purchaser, and I do know a fair number of rabbits that people can no longer keep end up going back through their breeder. (I know you don't really like messing with getting pet sales back, but I do!) People like for their animals to have "papers", even if they are arbitrary. It makes them assign more value to the critter, for some reason, and the pet stores like anything they can do to make their animals seem more valuable without added expense.

Of course, like I said, accidents still happen, and that's why I have taken measures to follow up with other outlets people might use to "get rid" of a pet.

Every little bit helps.

Rachel, ask me how I know....
Most of the paperwork you see, is either from a direct sale, or from them passing on your info from the purchase invoice.

Ah yes I meant the supplies they sell and the prices they charge! Most of it is dollar store worthy at best, yet they charge premium prices for it. Unless they are selling actual wire cages like breeders use, those plastic coated ones that have a lot of plastic parts holding them together actually fall apart quite easily. Which considering the price charged you would think they are the Cadillac of cages or something..

Well, we may not know conclusively either way. I'm sure things happen from time to time that might circumvent the certificates from getting to a knew purchaser, but all I know is that the breeder I got my stock from has had had returns with certificate in hand, and I have also picked up rabbits with those "certificates of authenticity". I think that's a pretty negative outlook on things, though.

At this point, I have not sold to a pet store. I do consider it a last resort, I like to make eye contact and feel the folks out a little bit since I have the luxury of living in a fairly central "pick-up" location now. If I still lived in Sutton I'm sure I would have to rely more on the pet shops!

I Pm'd you, sorry but... that was pretty much out of the horses mouth, most of hers were from 4H sales to seconds, if I remember correctly, and maybe someone bought one from the store before they trashed it. That and she had herself out there as THE thrianta breeders... after all how do you think I found her for the pedigree on my first one.

I used to sell to Pet Supplies Plus, mostly because they got my business card from a feed store and called me. They love taking my pet-quality Harlies and I check up every time I come in to make sure that they're labeled as Harlequins. They also set a stack of my business cards by the cages. If I can, I send them a stack of pamphlets about the breed and rabbit raising in general. I also appreciate that they rarely sell a rabbit for more than $20.

I've had people call me saying that they were referred to my rabbitry by that pet store, so I'm pretty happy with them. Oddly enough though, I told my mom to take her leftover baby Palominos there, and they wouldn't buy them from her.

I would suggest NOBODY sells to PetLand. I went there a few weeks ago, there was a dead rabbit in the pen with 6 week old BABIES. The kits appeared to be very sick and thin, and they were probably Mini Rex. The dead rabbit was bigger, and looked to be BEW in colouring. It was in a plastic tunnel stretched out, not moving. Babies were hopping through the tunnel all over it, cuddling with it, and grooming it, it didn't move.
I spied that out and was a bit worried, so I touched it's foot and lifted it up, the foot just dropped down. It was obviously dead. They call puppymills (my grandmother runs one. ASPCA didn't do anything when I called them) and ask to buy puppies from them. They overprice things out of the roof! They were asking $700 for mutts of breeds they were GUESSING most likely.

TERRIBLE PEOPLE