How daft are we ??

[wendy]

Keep meaning to tell you this.
A number of weeks ago. We collected some food and medicine's for a our Greek Charity from a vet.
When we get home [they loaded the car as well as us], there is a small animal cage. Well we can't send that all the way over there, it would take up food room.
So I said lets get a small animal from the RSPCA. Along we go and ask if they have any mice, no only hampsters. So we go along and choose the hampster we will have. Go back and fill in the forms. To be told that we can either have a home visit or bring the cage tomorrow and pick her up. We say we will being the cage. Then we are told it must be 2ft4 x 1ft4 x 1ft4. Well it is a big cage we are sure it will be fine. Needless to say when we get home it is a few inches short in all directions. So we say we will buy one on the internet [remembering we were given a cage] couldn't get one that size anywhere. A large pet store had one for £60.00 with the best will in the world I wasn't paying that for an animal I wasn't going to get anyway.
So we decide to go to a local garden centre and get a couple of mice there. Have you any mice? yes he says and open the freezer door Noooo I want live ones !! No they didn't have any. How about a gerbil. Yes, they are sweet, we will have one. No must have two !
Ok we will have two. We pay and as he is putting them in the boxes we say can't wait to get them in the cage. Oh can't go in a cage as they will chew the bars.
Soooo now we have two gerbils, we didn't intend haveing, in a twenty gallon fish tank, we fortunately had, in the kitchen.
How did that come about ??? Harriet and Polly are absolutely gorgeous, never had then before only mice. But they are getting so tame.So sweet.
Sorry this is so long I thought I would give you all a laugh.
I will hasten to add, we have no children at home and himself is 66 and I am 64. How daft are we

[juicylucy]

Lol Wendy..the answer you're well daft What a rigmarole you had trying to utilise that cage!
Sometimes you just cant win can you? x

[bluebell]

Wendy!!!!

Thank goodness I'm not the only nutter!!!!! That is something I would do, honest. I used to have a gerbil and kept it in a plastic and metal cage, it gnawed on pretty much everything, but it didn't escape!

I went to a certain large animal/feed store and was shocked to see a lovely bunny for sale £125 - EH! It didn't look anything spectacular or anything (sorry bun ). You could have knocked me over with a feather. I only went in to price layers pellets/mash. Came out ready for a lie down on a hard surface

[chickenchaser]

I agree with Bluebell, there's no reason not to have gerbils in a cage. I kept them like that for years (and fancy rats) they would be fine.

As you know, they gnaw continually because they are rodents and need to keep their teeth short as they never stop growing, if they have things in the cage to gnaw, they wouldn't be a problem.

Enjoy them, anyway. " more for the menagerie''

[morph]

Funny story Wendy - typical RSPCA!!!!

I had gerbils in a fishtank, but I also had them in a cage with metal bars - they were fine, so don't worry!!!

[lou]

Lol wendy, that is comedy of errors!
I had gerbils a very long time ago now, before i had kids! And yep had them in a plastic cage - they burrow a bit aswell (well mine did) and would make a terrible mess if in a wire cage! They are very sweet pets though
So what you going to put in your free spare cage now?

[wendy]

Dunno Lou. It is still sitting there empty. Apparently with the new Animal Welfare Bill of October 2007 that is the size for Hamsters.
So all the shops are breaking the law ??
Wendy

[lou]

Good question wendy, however the sizes you see in pet shops amaze me, when we were getting our guinea pigs someone was buying a rabbit and a hutch - it was tiny, cheaper but in the long run they will have to get another one at some point surely. I would say it was to small for a rabbit, they get huge!

Whilst on this subject if anyone knows or not - pets at home have a rehoming section at the back of its stores. must be quite a recent thing (well the ones near me do) i thought that was a really good idea?

[lindelu]

Hamsters hey, I bought my daughters a hamster each as they kept nagging me for a pet. We called them bubble and squeek and I spent £100 on one of those fancy cages with loads of things to play with. Got them home, moved all my furniture round in the lounge I don't know how many times to make the cage look less 'in your face'. Hamsters seemed to do nothing but fight and my daughters were getting upset about it. Stupid me went and spent another £100 on a similar cage to the first (£200 for 2 hamster cages !) and then my kids suddenly got less and less interested in their pets, infact I moved them into our caravan as an experiment - and guess what, the kids never even noticed they had gone. I decided I was wasting my time cleaning hamsters out all the time and buying all the food for no one to even care but me, so I asked about to see if anyone wanted them - no, so I ended up going to the RSPCA to see if they could rehome them, oh yes they said but you will have to make a donation - had to pay £5.00 each hamster for them to take them off me - aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh - and the kids still didn't notice they had gone for at least 2 weeks ! - I gave the cages away with the hamsters in as no one else wanted them - could have had a holiday with that cash thinking about it now !

I now have one African Grey Parrot and 8 Chickens and I love them dearly and I got them because I wanted them, not for the kids. But now, the kids want a dog - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY !