Impulse Buying Pets is a Big Mistake
Impulse buying pets is buying something without planning to in advance or on impulse. Many businesses encourage this spontaneous buying, including big chain pet stores. This isn’t a problem when buying candy at a checkout. However, buying a life is very different. I learned the hard way why it is a bad idea. I am writing this to foster a pet community more thoughtful of their actions despite the upselling and encouragement of these stores.
How Stores Promote Impulse Buying Pets
Stores encourage impulse buys by creating a pleasant environment, improving the shopping experience, and promotions. The big things pet stores rely on when selling animals are the workers, money-back guarantees for deaths within the first 2 weeks, and sales. Your own brain also plays against you with instant gratification. Also, with live animals, you can get attached.
Associates and Environment
Stores create a pleasant store environment with music and cleanliness. Associates are important in improving the shopping experience. Stores often train workers, knowing or unknowing, to promote impulse buying. If you are impulse buying a pet, chances are nothing is set up yet. So they go down the list on their pamphlet, helping get everything they say you need.
Ethically, they should say no because you didn’t already have an enclosure ready. However, you seldom find a store doing this. With fish, they might even call the water conditioner a suitable substitute for cycling your tank (hint: it’s not!). This way, you own fish now instead of reconsidering. But by the time you buy your first set of fish and they die, they got you hook, line, and sinker. Now you have an empty tank! Back to the pet store you go. Associates asking if you need help with anything is also by design to encourage buying. It helps you find what you need, but also opens a dialogue to upsell and get you to buy things you otherwise wouldn’t. Just because they say you need something doesn’t mean you do.
Promotions
Often, you will notice promotions on fish at 10, 20, maybe even up to 50% off, and sometimes even mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. A pet having a good price should not be the reason you get one.
Impulse Buying Pets and Health Issues
Vet Fund
Unless you already have pets, chances are you will not have a vet fund set up before an impulse buy. Each pet needs a different minimum for a vet fund. For example, in the United States, cats and dogs can get insurance. With insurance, you may not need a large vet fund. However, many animals are not insurable or only insurable by one expensive provider. Here, and since exotic pets are more expensive at the vet, you will need a higher vet fund.
Not researching the impulse-bought pet’s needs can blindside you when something goes wrong. This leads to unnecessary euthanasia from a problem you can’t afford to fix. Or to a pet being re-homed and bounced from person to person until dying or someday finding a forever home.
Expenses
An example of vet bills: The cost you expect when you buy a hamster at a pet store is around $25. A female hamster with a uterine infection called Pyometra requires an emergency spay. A normal hamster spay can cost $250, but emergencies like this can more than triple the price because of complications and pre-existing infection.
At A Disadvantage
Pet store animals are more likely to get sick from improper care and environment, and increased stress from shipping and noise. Stores source pets from mills, like puppy mills are, for all or most of their animals. Rodent and reptile mills do not value good genetics, a crucial source of an animal’s long, healthy life. Instead, they value quantity.
So a pet store animal already has environment, stress, and lottery genetics piled against their current immune system and future health before you even get them. Lack of prior research will mean you learn the hard way, and your pet pays the price. This raises the chance of expensive vet bills or death even higher.
Pet Store Ethics
The only reason any pet store is still in business is profit. This does not make them unethical, but the practice of today’s big chain pet stores does. They sell inadequate or downright unsafe products. Everything from cedar based toys, deadly dust marketed as sand for hamsters, dangerous fiber nesting, wheels so small they cause back injury or made of bumblefoot-causing mesh. Too small unsafe cages which don’t allow for enough bedding. And because they sell these products, they will say nothing bad about them.
If an employee says something bad, even if it’s true, about a product and gets caught, they can get fired. Management encourages them to upsell products. They may or may not be aware of the item’s danger because researching the proper care for even one animal takes hours. Stores also teach an improper way of caring for the store’s animal stock. Even if they realize the correct way, they are made to keep to the store’s practice, regardless of an animal’s detriment. So truly knowledgeable employees seldom stick around.
Affordability
Stores market hamsters as the best beginner friendly pet you can have. They say they’re easy to care for and afford. Ironically, pet stores make caring for a hamster the correct way harder with false information. There are many Hamster Care Mistakes to Avoid and stores don’t help. They say hamsters need a small cage, but good hamster cage sizes start at 775 square inches and bigger is better. A critter nation, above minimum, is in the 200-300 dollar range. A 60 gallon breeder, a popular recommendation for hamsters today, is 864 square inches. A quick price check puts the price between 100 and 300 dollars. While bin cages are a more affordable alternative, they require some DIY not everyone can do. They are not cheap pets, and the setup is expensive. You can spend as much as $500 to start, barring any health mishaps. I spent over $2,000 for my 2 first hamsters by the time I factored in enrichment, the cage, and other items.
Bad Fit
Impulse buying guarantees you won’t learn if the animal’s species or breed will fit in and meet expectations until it’s too late. For example, chinchillas are one of the softest animals on earth, but many of them hate being touched. If you hold a chinchilla at the pet store, you might fall in love with how soft and adorable they are. You may not realize until you get home chinchillas do not enjoy cuddling. That can change many people’s minds. In fact, chinchillas are surrendered so often rescues devoted to chinchillas exist.
Knowledge
Impulse buying allows no time for prior research. Lack of research before getting a pet allows for many mistakes of crucial and expensive supplies before you even get your pet home. One of the most popular cages pet store employees recommend is not even 150 square inches. A male mouse wouldn’t be happy with that. Tiny plastic cages are marketed to many animals. From mice who need a minimum 10 gallon tank, to gerbils who can chew out of plastic caging. And to hamsters who need more space. Feeding the improper diet for too long can lead to nutrient deficiencies. An inadequate diet causes health issues and can shorten lifespan by months or years. There’s a very good reason Why Research is The Most Important Skill You Need.
Begging Children
Your child becoming attached to a mouse or guinea pig at the pet store and begging to get one is tough to resist. A good prevention tactic is having your family watch your child while you shop. I understand that is not always possible, so when you bring your kid in the store, keep them away from the live animals or don’t let him/her/them watch them. If it happens, be steadfast in your “No.” Later, when they calm down, explain why. For example: “We can not give the pet a good home right now. We need to do a lot to get ready before getting a pet. We would not do right by the hamster if we got him/her.” Chances are you’ve said no before. It is even more important now. Remind yourself you would need a vet fund, hours of research, access to an exotic vet, and an established cage waiting at home.
Fight Impulse Buying
Refusing to impulse buy pets does not mean not getting an animal. Not buying on impulse means choosing to only get an animal when you are ready to bring one home, and buying from an ethical source. Fighting impulse buying starts with education on what it is and how it happens, so you already have one tool in your arsenal to resist. Make a list and stick to it. “I want this. Why can’t I get it?” “It’s not on the list.” Don’t go to the live animal section, or don’t look. And if you fall in love with one, stop and think. Can you buy only this animal (s), with everything ready at home, and give it a happy life? Can you afford a $500+ vet bill if you find a tumor or pyometra a month later? The adorable critter may only cost $20, but vet bills can hit hundreds of dollars with ease, and every animal deserves vet care- hamster, mouse, gecko, and all. Reward yourself after. If you go into a pet store and don’t buy an animal, you get a rare treat after leaving the parking lot. Tracking your spending behavior can also ground you. If you intend to get an animal, creating a to-do list with an emphasis on doing it in order without skipping steps can help prevent buying a pet prematurely.
