My 3 older girls all came from a pet shop that claims to breed their own, the woman certainly talked the talk- she asked questions about feeding & housing etc & I signed a contract, not that any of that means a lot. I won't be buying rats from a pet shop again though as I would like rats that come from ethical breeders & also in more unusual colours (like blues & Siamese- never seen one in a pet shop before)

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the pet shop i work in gets all the animals from local breeders i sometime do have to buy some birds off a big breeders but very often even our reptiles come from local breeders i think the animals are better looked after that way infact i think most of the staff do breed at least one animal for the shop

best way for it

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1:2:0 blue degus -
1:2:0 bibrons
1:0:0 frog eye gecko
1:2:0 fan foot gecko
1:2:6 skinks
1:1:0 water dragons
1 green snake (sex unknown)
1:1:0 kittens - felix and wiskers

I would be much happier seeing a pet shop sell pets that they bread and actually know and understand, rather than shipping them in plastic food containers as if they were just another action man to sell. (cough p@h and garden centers)

I think it's a lovely idea, I wish more pet shops would do it

Sadly I don't know of any round here who do

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R.I.P Buster - Causing mischief over the bridge, sleep tight soldier

This is the thing though, it's such a grey area, people don't advise buying from pet shops, but as was said before, you can get bad breeders and good pet shops.
I think maybe instead of saying 'don't buy from pet shops', maybe it's worth advising to ask quesitons.
I find pet shops that buy in from rodent farms are quite honest about it or say something along the lines of 'a big supplier' when asked where the animals come from
It's a difficult one, as people who know nothing of rodent farms (as I didn't til a couple of years ago), don't really know what to ask or what they are buying
The pet shop that I just got my new Berky boy from have pics of the babies from day 2 all the way up which I think is great
The temperament of the rats is completely different to what you'd see these chain pet stores