Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Adoption Form Answers -- "Don't Know Yet"

I get this a lot -- an adoption form filled out, and all of the relevant questions (such as what food are they going to feed, what sort of hay, what sort of dust, what cage, etc) are all answered with "not sure yet" or "I don't know" or something of that nature.

Now, let me start by saying, I am perfectly happy to help if someone needs suggestions or thoughts or whatever, on picking what is right for their new pet.

That said... when I get adoption forms like this, usually, about all that is filled out with concrete answers is their name, address, whether they own/rent, whether they have air conditioning... etc... the thing is... I can't approve someone to adopt based on just those things.  The questions that get the "I don't know" answers are the ones that are crucial to chinchilla ownership.  If you feed the wrong food, they can get sick and die.  If you have an inappropriate cage, it may be dangerous for the chinchilla and could potentially result in injury.  This may be a surprise, but I really am not that interested in your address.  Over 75% of the time, I don't even notice where the people put down that they live.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I glance at it, but if the person is within a few hours distance of here, I move on.  I need the answers to those other questions to know if the person will be a good home or not.

I'm not saying don't submit forms.  But maybe, before you submit a form that is 90% "not sure yet"s, just maybe... ask some questions or read some care sheets first.  Because either way, we will have a long discussion about care.

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