So, new stuff. The person with the rats emailed back and really didn't explain why she hadn't responded to any of my other emails, but said she wanted to still adopt. Ok.
Then, I've been going back and forth with this one person about guinea pigs for a bit now. First, they asked if I had guinea pigs, yes I do. They want to know how much they are, so I told em, and they asked if I still had Squirt and Wizard. That must have been a day or so past when Squirt was adopted, but I slacked on getting his ads down (my bad), and so I told her, sorry, we didn't have him. But still had Wizard. To answer the question about which we had and prices, I directed them to the website. This was the person that asked if I would still have guinea pigs in a month's time. And I had told her, I really don't know. So then (and this is all over a maybe a week's time, in texts), she asks if I still have Sammy and Bashful and I tell her yes, and she asks if she can reserve them for a month. So, I tell her, for that long, she needs to put a deposit down. So then she asks, can she get updates if I get more new pigs in. I would assume, so if cuter ones come in, she could switch to those. I told her, and this applies to everyone potentially adopting, if she's not positive which animal(s) she wants, she doesn't need to be putting down a deposit. Every once in a blue moon, I will let someone transfer a deposit to another animal, say, if something happens to the one, or it doesn't get along with theirs, or whatever. But, adopting out animals isn't like making sure you wash your sheets every few weeks. There's actual work involved, feeding them, cleaning them, etc, and I told her, the problem is, say I hold them for you for a month. Then I get in new ones and you decide you want those instead. During that month, I may have turned away people asking about the ones you had on hold, because I thought you were going to get them. Therefore, in the event you were to decide to not get them, now I've wasted a month of time and potentially lost out on adoptive homes for them because I let you change your mind. Maybe that seems harsh, but this is how some animals end up being here for a year or quite a few months, is because they'll be on hold, that person will vanish, they'll get on hold again, that person will decide not to adopt, and so on and so forth, and it almost NEVER FAILS that during the time they are on hold (for someone who does not end up adopting them), I have to tell someone, sorry, they're on hold, you can't adopt them until that person decides not to.
Like with Mariah. She was on hold for that one person, and I had someone email who sounded like a great home, and I told them, hey, I can let you know if they decide not to get her, but I can't promise anything. I never heard back. When the original person decided not to adopt Mariah, I emailed that person back and said, hey, she's up for adoption if you're still interested, but never heard back. From what I know of that potential home, I think they would have followed through and adopted. But... I told them they couldn't, because she was on hold. Now, that's a completely different situation, because that person decided not to adopt, in general, versus wanting to get a different pet. But still, with the current one, I told her, if you're not positive those are the ones you want, don't put them on hold, cause I won't change it later.
Ok, so a few days pass and again she asks if I have Sammy and Bashful and I say, yeah, I do, and she asks if she can put them on hold and this time she says she wants to put them on hold for 2 weeks (which is the longest animals can be put on hold without a deposit). So I tell her, that's fine, but pickup HAS to be within the 2 weeks. It's not like on the 1st you can say, let me put them on hold, and then you diddle daddle and finally schedule pickup on the 30th. No, if you're putting them on hold on the 1st, pickup better be by the 15th, or you will be getting an email saying hey, you need to come adopt your fuzzball. It's one thing if something comes up and someone has to cancel or reschedule, but people try to get around it however they can.
Anyway, that's beside the point. I told her that'd be fine, but I need a completed adoption form to put an animal on hold (which I really do need to stick to, as that's what I keep telling myself is the best way to do it). So anyway, she gets me the answers to the adoption form back and asks how long she has to pay the deposit, and I told her, she has 5 days, which I think is reasonable. She said she wants to pay by debit card, so now I'm just waiting for that. I told her, her 30 days (which is the longest a deposit will get you) will start the day I receive her deposit. In this case, considering she originally wanted to pick up in a month, because she's moving (I did ask, curiosity got me), I imagine she will be waiting until day 5 to put down the deposit so she has the max amount of time to pick them up. But maybe not, we will see.
Unrelated, but the person who adopted Lucy, she also had one of our breeding chins, Jessie, as a foster case for her eye watery-ness. She has become a case of a foster failure, as she asked to adopt her. With Jessie's eye issues, she had been pulled from breeding a while back, and I had been debating putting her back, not putting her back. When Meredith and I were at the Ritterspach ranch in Ohio, I asked Jim what he thought about eye issues, genetic or not, and he said they're typically not, but I still didn't particularly like the idea of the possibility of it being passed on. Hence her going to foster (which I like never do, by the way, which is why no one ever hears about it happening) with this lady. So, her eyes have improved a little and she's gotten a clean bill of health from this person's vet (despite the eyes), and she's currently living with Lucy. I got an email a bit ago asking if she could adopt her. So I finally got around to emailing her the forms that she needs to fill out and sign and get back to me with the adoption fee and then Jessie will be her chin. Which frees up a spot in my runs to get a nice puffball white female from Jim next time we go out to his ranch. I am actually excited about that.
Let's see, what else. Winx is currently still on his respirachin (?) cleanse. I think it's day 4 or 5, and then he gets his water switched out again and probiotics on day 7-8. The stuff actually went in his water, and it did say it doesn't have a taste, but I left another water bottle up on his cage in case (the cages with the valve water bottles -- like his -- typically have a ryerson bottle as well, in case the chins can't figure out the valve). So I made sure that had water, and he has drinken some out of the ryerson bottle, which he usually doesn't do, but he's clearly drinking the water with the solution in it. It's got some sort of dye (food coloring would be my guess) to make it a medium green color (noted on the bottle so that it's obvious if you're still "using" it or not), so there's no doubt his water has something in it. Either that or I have a flourishing algae colony in his water bottle, lol. He seems fine on it, I have been giving him extra supplements as well. He probably thinks this is great, more treats than he's ever had!!, but at his age (10 -- and he's a pet store chin), and the fact that he's barely 500 grams as it is, anything that's going to help him along I can deal with. I've been giving him some of our supplement, as well as a variety of other things. I have some marshmallow root here, some supplement ingredients that were given to me by someone, so I can't use them in supplement that I'd sell (because I don't know, where it's from, if it's organic, etc etc), but he can have it, because I do know what it is. So he's getting our supplement, some additional ingredients, some ryerson supplement, I have a sample of tanya's broad spectrum supplement that he's getting 1/2 teaspoon every few days, and then someone dropped off some forever feisty supplement, herbal fusion I think, so he gets that as well. And I have a bag of another herbal supplement I bought way back when that I dole out. He doesn't get this all at once, but over time. I have some much variety here I need to use some of this stuff up and not replace it because I have no more room in the drawer where that stuff goes. So he's getting that, and eating it all up. I did buy him the weight loss/appetite supplement that tanya (fuzzies kingdom) makes and it came in the mail the other day, so I intend to use that and hopefully see positive results. We shall see.
So, I've been trying out the organic herbal supplement (by us, NWI) with the chins here, and it's apparently two paws up. It's not going to replace the cheaper, $2.50/pound ryerson supplement (for the breeder chins) anytime soon, but I can switch off every other day or something. The reason I wanted to make the supplement wasn't because I really wanted to sell supplement (as if I need more store items to mess with), but rather, because it's so gosh darn expensive to buy herbal supplements that even if it was just marginally cheaper by myself making it, over time that would add up. And in reality, the cost of the herbal supplement (for ingredients & jar) isn't a ton less than the $8.50 I charge. But it is cheaper to get it in bulk, make it myself, and sell it as well, rather than shipping in small amounts here and there from fuzzies or another supplement place. So, it's apparently chin-approved. I don't know yet if it's guinea pig or rabbit approved, but according to the guinea pig/rabbit experts, it is safe for them. The herbal sampler, on the other hand, has jasmine in it, which is not safe for the piggies. I can make it without the jasmine (and throw in extra of everything else to make up the subtraction) for pig owners, if someone wants that, but I need to know ahead of time, not when you walk in the front door. Supplement and herbal sampler creation take a bit too much work to be on-demand.
I want to say that's it for new things going on.
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