Finding Distributors

[abull]

Hello All and any help will be greatly appreciated.

I have been knocking around the idea of opening a pet store in my area for a few years. I am now starting to get serious about it and in doing reseach on-line, I have not been able to find out a whole lot of information on where to get my supplies. I plan on fresh/saltwater fish, no dogs or cats, some birds and small animals. I also would like to have a well stocked inventory of supplies supporting all of those (including supplies for cats and dogs).

I had thought about going the franchise route, but that seems to be throwing a lot of money out the window right into someone else's pockets.

Again, thanks for any help

[Jennicat]

Abull, you're in my state, so hopefully I can help you a little with this question. I would really beg you to consider not doing small animals. There are four small animal rescues in the Triangle area (I work with one of them), and we are all full. We've got guinea pigs, bunnies, gerbils, hamsters, mice, rats, etc. Please, please, work with the rescue community on this.

[abull]

thank You Jennicat

I had not considered that. Everyday we learn something new.

That is the reason I will not do dogs or cats, with the excpetion of ones through shelters. All of my cats , dog and even Amazon are adopted from shelters. The fish aren't though ;o)

[Jennicat]

Yeah, the small animal overpopulations usually aren't quite so bad, so I'm not sure why we've got it so bad here... but even the Wake Co. SPCA has rabbits, guinea pigs, and snakes in at this point.

[Kimmy85]

Jennicat out of curiosity with the rescues that you work with do you guys ever get ferrets? I have been casually looking for a ferret for about three years but in this area there really aren't any small animal rescues. I would prefer to get one through a rescue instead of a pet store.

[Jennicat]

We tend not to get the ferrets in... we're not really set up to handle them. Most of them go to TRIFL (Triangle Ferret Lover's Association), which is trifl.org, Dook And Dance ( http://www.petfinder.org/shelters/NC189.html ) , or Ferret Guardian ( http://www.ferretguardian.org/index.htm ).

I know that Dook and Dance nearly always has about 3 dozen ferrets in. Right now on Petfinder they've got 63 listed, and ferret guardian and TRIFL have some listed too. :) Good luck!

[Kimmy85]

Thanks! I will definitely check that out.

[hockeyturtle41]

I wish I lived in your state abull.If I did I would be able to supply you with Guppies.:)

[ThisVacantHeart]

You could put needy animals from the rescues in your store and try and adpot them out. You could have all the nessesary paperwork there and then send the application to the shelter.

[Dustin07]

We've got guinea pigs, bunnies, gerbils, hamsters, mice, rats, etc. Please, please, work with the rescue community on this.

Do pet stores often pick up animals at shelters to sell or provide for adoption in their stores? Seems like a logical way to lighten the burden for the rescue.