Searching For a Rodent Companion
My experience of exploring animal adoption/selling platforms
I’m “on the market” (or on the shelter since I intend to adopt) for new pets and I am currently considering rodents as they are the best suitable companions for my current situation.
As I started researching the options for adoption and for cages and care material in my new city in Germany, I was surprised by two things.
The first surprise was when looking through ebay classifieds, mainly for cages, and stumbled upon ads for adopting mice, hamsters and rats. At first I was a bit skeptical. Throughout my time involved in animal welfare at University and also keeping up with animal welfare issues in general, the main advice is to not get a pet from ebay or internet sellers. Though this advice is mainly about dogs and cats.
However, out of curiosity, I still checked the ads and the descriptions were actually quite encouraging. They described the minimum set up required for the species, explained that pet shops sell cages and wheels that are too small and also requested photos of the place where the animal was going to go as well as an adoption fee. Almost like an animal shelter ad. There was even a “false ad” that had a picture of a cage with a big red X on top and the description had a detailed list of minimum…
