My disappointing experience at Russos was as follows:
I purchased a guinea pig at the Spectrum location. At the time of purchase I was told the animal was a male. A few days later I called the store about getting another guinea pig and staff informed me that they order only female guinea pigs at this location but that the gender ""could not be guaranteed."" Thus, I checked my guinea pig's gender and, having purchased what I was told was a male guinea pig, determined that it was in fact female. When I went back to the store to get a second female as a companion I found that this store is housing both male and female guinnea pigs in the same enclosure. Staff stated that the guinea pigs, who are 2 months old are too young to be sexed and would ""really probably"" not get pregnant at 2 months of age.
I am saddened that those who are selling these animals are simply misinformed. Check out:
cavy spirit's website (a site about guinea pigs) which clearly shows that the gender of guinea pigs can be determined at any time. Additionally, female guinea pigs are sexually mature at about three weeks of age (Barron's Guinea Pigs book-A Complete Pet Owner's Manual, pg 32).
After several phone calls and after visiting the store, we obtained permission to return the potentially pregnant female guinea pig and we got our money back. But that is not the point. I don't care about the money, I care about the guinea pigs at this store and am concerned about the lack of basic knowledge about the guinea pigs that are being sold at this location.
Thus, I am dissappointed and saddened that males/females are being housed together because those working at the store are uninformed regarding guinnea pigs. I feel badly for those guinea pigs and want to warn others that the staff at this store is not knowledeable about the animals. I am not going to purchase any more animals from this store.
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