Armitages (maker of Rotastak) & Pets at Home

one-non-blonde

A couple of weeks ago my daughter spent £40 on a new Rotastak home for her gerbils from Pets at Home. When we put it together we discovered that a couple of little clips were missing and another piece was broken. We went back to Pets at Home (without the cage we'd bought - would never have got it back in the box!) and explained the problem. The very nice assistant went straight to the shelf no questions asked and opened another box to get us the bits we needed. However, the only one left turned out to be an ex-display model which was still partially constructed and instead of footering around to free up the precise parts he just handed us 2 sizable chunks of the unit and said to keep them as the rest of it would probably end up in the bin anyway. (At this point any self-respecting MSE-er would have either asked for or made an offer for what was left as well, but this didn't occur to me until I got home and kicked myself!)

Anyway, after we'd put it all together I realised that the extra bits (worth about £15-£20) we'd got from the pet shop weren't really much use to us without another set of the parts that had been missing/broken from our original cage. So, I emailed Armitages who make Rotastak saying that I needed a few parts and asking if I could order them (sneakily putting my address at the bottom). I got a very nice email back to say that the parts I needed were in the post and they arrived the next day.

Full marks to both for customer service

Davidboy

Please please please do not buy plastic Rotastak cages for Gerbils. I bet you within 2 days they will have chewed an great big hole in it somewhere... take it back asap and get a glass tank.

Gerbils by nature are terrible chewers, and have very very sharpe teeth, glass is the only thing they can't get through.

We have had Gerbils for years, always in a glass tank. We had 4 of them all together until they decided to fight (all sisters) so had to split them up, and temporarliy put 2 of them in a rotastak cage. Was used for the hamster 'til it died, anyway they bit through that rotastak tank in 2 days had to go out very quickly and buy a glass tank.

BE WARNED!!!!!!

one-non-blonde

Davidboy wrote:

Please please please do not buy plastic Rotastak cages for Gerbils. I bet you within 2 days they will have chewed an great big hole in it somewhere... take it back asap and get a glass tank.

Gerbils by nature are terrible chewers, and have very very sharpe teeth, glass is the only thing they can't get through.

We have had Gerbils for years, always in a glass tank. We had 4 of them all together until they decided to fight (all sisters) so had to split them up, and temporarliy put 2 of them in a rotastak cage. Was used for the hamster 'til it died, anyway they bit through that rotastak tank in 2 days had to go out very quickly and buy a glass tank.

BE WARNED!!!!!!

Thanks for the warning! I've yet to find anything in this particular tank however that they can actually get their teeth into and believe me they spend all day (and night) trying to find a way out. We've had them for about 6 months, previously in a Crittertrail cage which got chewed to bits, but that had a lot of internal plastic edges and tubes that were particularly vulnerable. Several of her friends with gerbils have had Rotastak cages for quite a while with few, if any problems. Maybe you had particularly militant gerbils!

I totally agree with you on the glass tank concept and the original cage replacement plan was to try and pick up an old fish tank at a car-boot sale but we hadn't got round to it yet and new ones of a reasonable size are pretty expensive. However, when I said recently the kids could take the money out of their banks and spend it, my daughter had her heart set on a fancy new garish plastic home for her fluffy friends. Unfortunately, I can advise, coax, cajole and hint but not dictate how she spends her own money! :eek:

UKTigerlily

When I had hamsters in a rotastak they used to push out the drinking bottles & chew round the hole the bottle went thru till they got out! So I doubt gerbils are anymore at risk. Agree a glass tank is best, used to love watching mine make tunnels, but no doubt they love the tubes in the rotastak & if they're happy & healthy it's as good. Wd to armitage!

gravitytolls

Hee, we had a rotastak for gerbils. They chewed the ruddy tubes, and every day, I pushed them in a bit. Unfortunately that meant the tubes didn't fit properly, and were slightly looser than pre chewed.

No problem, the gerbs couldn't dislodge them, but cats being intelligent type creatues, could.

We got rid of the stupid house when the cat chased the gerbils into the furniture and we had a divil of a job to get them out.

Anthillmob

my sister bought the boys a hamster once that chewed its way out of the cage.

two days after she bought the hamster she thought it was dead one morning and that its guts were hanging out. they were infact tiny babies! after they were old enough to leave mummy the pet shop she bought "pudding" from took the babies off her hands which was very nice of them.

Annando

Pets at Home are brilliant! The attendants are always smilling and they have treats for the dogs if you take them up to the counter. Had to return an item once, forgot ticket at home, they refunded me the money straight away, no ticket required, no silly questions asked.