Lied to?

It seems that so many people on this board have been lied to from the pet store about their pets' sex.

How many people actually had this problem? I'm just curious..Thanks. :)

Me ME ME ME

I got lied to twice..

once about my gerbil Sage, and another time about my hamster Spur.

I was once told that both my dwarf rabbits were females, and when we found out one was male, my mother took the female to the petshop :mad:

We were told that our Dwarf Hamsters were both females, but Perrie is a male. I hink that was just an honest mistake though.
Also, they once sold us a PREGNANT GUINEA PIG and told us it was a male. I do not think that was a mistake. :mad:

We were told that my brothers hamster Harvey(RB) was a male. But it turned out SHE was a FEMALE!

I don't think it's necessarily being "lied to". Kittens in particular can be very hard to sex when they're little. Sometimes it's just an innocent mistake. This very thing happened when we got Elvira. She was originally going to be Hobbs. ;)

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Originally posted by Cheshirekatt
I don't think it's necessarily being "lied to". Kittens in particular can be very hard to sex when they're little. Sometimes it's just an innocent mistake. This very thing happened when we got Elvira. She was originally going to be Hobbs. ;)

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That's very true. It could be an honest mistake, especially if it is at a young age. Thanks for pointing that out :)

Britt - That's just stupid :mad:

Hecky no! I did a lot of research on the animal I was interested in buying (rats), and I learned how to sex them myself.

Good plan! And it worked out, didn't it? ;)

YLL - I know you have over 8 rats now, right? Are they all males - or all females? Or do you just separate them? Just curious :)

Well I did a Bunch of research as well on sexing and it is REALLY hard to sex gerbils compared to any other rodent I have seen. The genetils look the total same. So ya I went on by what the pet store said unfortunetly.

I have 2 males and 6 females. I got my males neutered, they all live together like one big happy family.

TM - That's too bad. :(

YLL - Cool. :cool: Good job

I only have dogs, and someone would have to be pretty dumb to sex a dog wrong! lol :rolleyes: And I'd have to be even dumber to believe them!

I don't think any pet store employee would want to lie about the sex of an animal. People make mistakes, especially if you see thirty people in a day who all want their hamster or whatever sexed, you're bound to make the occasional mistake.

Rabbits in particular can be difficult to sex before they mature, as well as dwarf hamsters, especially whe you're wearing awkward gloves...

We accidentally sold a very well-endowed male guinea pig as a female. *OOPS* Fortunately, everyone who buys an animal from us has to sign a paper that says they accept that we don't guarantee sex or disposition. ^_^ No money back for them! (She didn't deserve it anyways, the woman was a *****)

With our hamsters (all at the RB now :( ) you could usually tell because the males have such big rear ends :o . Plus, they were always in their own cage, so it didn't really matter to us.

But I answered yes to your question, but I want to add a caviot that in our situation, it wasn't really a lie, they just didn't know any better, I guess! Milly came to us as Willy. They said she was a male, and for all I know, maybe she is, but she has all the traits of a female Cockatiel, thus the name change. There's an old thread here, somewhere, that we discussed this after I got her/him. Birds are especially difficult to sex if you don't have DNA testing done, and for me it didn't matter, so I never did it. :) We love her whether she is a Milly or a Willy!!!

She did prove it, PCB, a couple of times!!! LOL!!!! :o

My guinea pig, Maverick was sold to us as a little girl - my sweet Maeve!
It's not that they lied, I think it was an honest mistake - and it wasn't that I didn't know how to sex them either, because I do, even though it's sometimes difficult. It's just that we never had reason to doubt them so I never checked. I mean, they had a 'boy hutch' and a 'girl hutch'...we picked out Maeve and Garrison from the girl hutch and that was that. Until ten weeks later, of course ;)

When I got my first ferret Gambit(RB) I got into an argument at the pet store because they kept telling me he was a she. Ferrets are really easy to sex and it proved to me that them people didn't know anything.:rolleyes: They also told me he was mean and he was the sweetest little guy, they didn't know that he was just trying to play with them. He was pet of the day some years back. There's a link at the bottom to his special day.


My mom had two birds that they messed up on sexing them, but birds are really hard to sex. We didn't realize Buddy the cockatiel was a girl untill she laid eggs. I hear snakes are really hard to sex too, but I've never had one, so I don't know for sure.

Gambit

Lied to about sex of pet...no...about anything else YES!

All started with Lu, a baby ferret separated from the other ferts because of a biting problem.

When I asked why she was separated, they said she bites and..
Lie #1 someone was working with her on the biting.
After talking to 3 managers, they all told me a different story and it was quite obvious no one was working with the ferret.

First said they were sending her back. I said they'll put her to sleep(which I know for a fact because the place they got her from is a closed colony and once a ferret leaves, it does not come back)

Lie #2 No they won't put her to sleep..the guy that distributes the ferts keeps the problem ones and breeds them.
Outright Lie! Marshall Farms ferrets do not leave for the stores until they are altered. Plus, who in their right mind would breed an animal with behavior problems even if you fix it?!

When I called them on it...
Lie #3 they assured me they would keep her until she sold.
I'm so sure she is going to sell with DO NOT TOUCH!!! BITES!!! plastered all over the cage.

After much arguing with the store about her care...or lack thereof...they finally gave her to me. Wouldn't you know, with a little work, Lu is the sweetest most spoiled fert I have. Would never bite a soul. All she had to do was get over her fear of people...she was terrified of people...now she's wonderful.

That pet store cringes whenever I walk in to check on the ferts.

Chinadoll, the pet store did me the exact same way with my Rogue.:rolleyes: It didn't happen to be a Super Petz store did it? It's been my experiance that none of them people know a freaking thing about ferrets.:mad:

Once - with my first gerbil (I knew nothing at the time about them) the man on the stall said it was a male. It was the only one left and we needed to get it a companion. So the gerbil and I went to the local rescue centre - no gerbils but they did double check what sex it was - they verified (2 people) it was a male.

So the next day we got him a male companion from another store and introduced them just fine. However the next day gerbil number 2, Nibbler, was very sick - my vet said he had Tyzzers which was highly contagious so he was separated from gerbil number 1. Nibb was only given a 5% chance of survival, my whole family helped me hand feed him every 2 hours and our lounge was like a sauna to keep him warm. By the time he was fully recovered and ready to go back with number 1 a month had passed. Re-introductions via a split cage went well and they were back together.

By now they were tamer and I could hold them, looking at their bits I could tell a distinct difference in the maturing gerbils - number 1 who was male according to 3 people was actually a female - my vet confirmed it. So they were again separated and Nibb the true male neutered. He and the "old cow" (Miss Piggy!!) have lived together happily for a year now.

It did teach me a lot, having one of each meant that I can usually sex a gerbil without even having to pick it up, the difference is rather obvious!!!! I was annoyed that the rescue centre got it wrong, but then I think it was fate that meant we got Nibb and he survived (my vet said the chances of any other gerbils in the shop surviving was nil).

I have! My mom wanted a female anole for our male and TWICE this lady gave us a male. If she didn't know she could've said so but no had to make us drive back and forth and result in the death of one of the males because our male didn't tolerate him very well:(

~Rachel