The Pet Shop

I have to disagree Lizzie G, I have been here many many times over the last 5 years and have always found the staff knowledgeable and helpful and the conditions excellent, I couldn’t criticise the shop in any way. One thing I have always noticed is how caring the staff are about animal welfare, they recently gave me sound advice about healthy cat food which I have followed to great success. I highly recommend the shop :)

the range of pets in this shop is really fantastic. i think my friend bought a kitten from there once and he is happy and healthy

I feel I have to write this review to warn anyone going to the pet store after reading the review below. This place is not magical! It smells and is stuffed to the brim with unhappy looking furry friends that just need a good home.
Okay — So I had been hankering after a hamster for about 20 years and now I am a fully fledged adult I felt responsible enough to get one. I popped into The Pet Shop and wanted to buy them all. I feel really bad about a place like this because I am torn between rescuing all the animals in there and not wanting to hand over my money to people who keep animals like that.
It’s not the worst pet shop I have ever walked into but unless you are prepared for it I would not think about going in… just don’t, it will most likely upset you.
I have given this place 2 stars because of this. It is the only place locally to buy live animals but if I were you I would stick to gumtree and the rescue centre.
They sold me 2 hamsters, saying they had to live in pairs and when I got them home they were not the happiest hamsters. Debra tried to eat Barbara and I actually had to separate them. Debra is now in Hawaii and I’m still waiting for her post card. Actually what happened was she made little Babara bleed so I put her in a box to take her back to the store as I felt the bully should go back but she chewed her way through the box and went missing. It was a sad day!
As a store though, good selection of stock but a little price, go somewhere else in my opinion.
NB. Hamsters Barbara is doing well: O)

So who doesn’t enjoy going in to a pet store? Nobody I know anyway. There is something about this pet store that I really like. Maybe because it is always busy and you don’t have to be nervous about going in just to look. I think it may have to do with the service as well.
I went in to buy flea treatment for my kitten and within a minute, 4 staff members were on the case, I though I was talking to a panel, but it was humorous rather than intimidating. They gave me the one I needed and also recommended science plan, a top quality cat food. I found the advice they gave me reassuring, which is really nice when you are looking after your first kitten.
As far as pet shops go, this is the best around, mainly because they genuinely car about the welfare of your animal.

This is the sort of shop that gets me very emotional, as it sells live creatures of many kinds (mice, kittens, birds, reptiles, fish). I do believe pet shops shouldn’t sell live animals. It can be the cause of too much suffering and impulse buying. (For the danger of impulse buying, just read reviews of pet shops on Qype. For the dangers of suffering read pet rescue websites, such as this one (
)). Especially dangerous is when people buy because they feel sorry for the animal stuck in the cage. Of course by doing so they are paying the shop keeper to get another animal to stick in there. The right action if you are upset by the conditions in a shop is to complain to the local council (who licence pet shops) or RSPCA. On the other hand being an animal lover I can’t help being drawn to a place like this, and it was hard walking out after finding myself drawn to one particular kitten
So, trying to be objective On the plus side, this place does has a massive range of stuff you’d need to look after all kinds of animals. Crammed full in every corner. The animals are well looked after, in clean cages. The staff seem to care about them. The shop’s own cat is a little grouchy (good thing if you ask me, as a little reminder of how those cute kittens might grow up!). Kittens are kept in Perspex sided pens, so reducing risk of cross infection. They have bedding and toys as well as the basics in their pens. Kittens are priced at £100-£150 pounds which will hopefully put off some impulse buying.
On the negative side (and please note this is true of any such pet shop really, and not just this one in particular) kittens are being sold unvaccinated at 8 weeks. Ideally they should be sold at ¹⁴⁄₁₅ when they are fully vaccinated and more ready to leave mum (but of course are beginning to get less cute). It’s all too easy to imagine the impulse buyer who might just raise the £100 and not have the extra for vaccination, microchipping and neutering They are also advertising multiple breeds of pedigree cats and dogs. As most responsible breeders of pedigrees handle the selling of their litters privately (and the advice is always to see your puppy/​kitten with mum) this suggests they may be coming from puppy/​kitten farms with all the problems that involves (mum and dad may spend their lives in pens). Legitimate breeders are also likely to have checked their breeding animals for viruses (eg FLV and FIV in cats, which are potentially deadly and may not show in kittens), and congenital disorders. These could well be present in the ‘accidental’ moggies etc ending up in pet shops.
I’m sure the majority of kittens etc sold from here do end up with nice people (such as the ‘tempted’ person, you maybe, reading this review right now). Just please remember that owning an animal is more than the price on the cage and the time when it’s a cute baby. You may be taking on an animal that will live many years (20 for a cat, maybe longer than you for a parrot), may have hidden health problems and the costs that goes with them, and you will be paying for another to take it’s place in the pet shop pen. If you are not happy with that then just buy your food and toys here, and resist the live stock.
I’ve given it 3 stars as a compromise between my dislike of places selling pets from cages, and the fact that of its type it is a well above average example.