Animal lovers embrace unusual pets
Puppies and kittens may be cute, but potential pet owners are leaning towards more low maintenance animals like reptiles, Macarthur Pets & Reptile Shop staff say.
Macarthur
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Puppies and kittens may be cute, but potential pet owners are leaning towards more low maintenance animals like reptiles, Macarthur Pets & Reptile Shop staff say.
The Gregory Hills store will celebrate its first birthday this month, and accounts and marketing manager Lani Welling says the last 12 months had seen less conventional pets rise in popularity.
“Dogs are always popular but there’s been massive growth country-wide in keeping reptiles,” she said.“They’re easy, independent and interesting.
“There are a lot of people who now find they don’t have the time or space for a pet like a puppy.”
Ms Welling said the same was true of marine life such as saltwater fish, which had become both more popular and more affordable.
“It’s important to be educated when you get a new pet and the store is a good place for residents to get personalised advice,” she said. “We have everything from dogs, cats, guinea pigs, mice, hand raised and specialty birds, fish, reptiles and creepy crawlies.”
The store originally started out as The Reptile Shop at Narellan about six years ago, before moving to Smeaton Grange and then Gregory Hills.
The new store will celebrate its first birthday with an open day on Saturday, September 24, from 10am to 4pm.
“We’re holding it [the open day] to encourage new people to our store but also to say thank you to our loyal customers,” Ms Welling said. “It’s a way of sharing our love of animals and we want everybody to be able to come together and celebrate.
“We encourage residents to come along, especially children.”
On the day, residents can interact with parrots, owls, marmosets, farmyard animals and reptiles. The event will include a sausage sizzle, face painting and petting zoo.
The Macarthur Pets & The Reptile Shop is at 13/2-64 Steer Rd, Gregory Hills .
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