Gloucester Pet Shop 10 Years Old

Way back in 2009 I was coming to the end of my martial arts teaching career due a combination of injury and wear and tear. I was looking for something I could do as a career that did not involve working for someone else. I had had enough of that with previous employers and had been spoilt by being self employed as an electrician (which I hated) and a martial arts instructor (which I loved). It was whilst out delivering leaflets for my martial arts academy in Tewkesbury that I noticed that just about every every house (near enough) had some sign of animals. This one had a barking dog, that one had a cat flap, this one had a load of bird feeders, that one had a rabbit hutch. One even had a sign saying “beware of the snakes”! I have kept a huge range of animals throughout my life, have an honours degree in biology and have lectured on various courses on relevant subjects so even I was able to put two and two together and the idea of Angell Pets took form. I had no funding, no knowledge of how to start such as business or where to locate it but you don’t become a martial arts instructor unless you are quite driven. Within a few weeks I had resolved all the problems I could think of and formed a company and our Gloucester pet shop was born.

gloucester pet shop
We’ve had venus 10 years this year too.

I borrowed a lot of money against an old endowment policy I’d had for years, and incorporated the company on 23/06/09. We then found a suitable property close to home in Abbeymead, purchased all the shelving, tills and everything else you need for a shop, sourced suppliers, enrolled on the courses needed to obtain a licence, commissioned a website and jumped right in. The whole process, from forming the company to opening the doors of our first Gloucester pet shop took just under 6 months and we finally opened on 17th of December 2009.

gloucester pet shop

We stayed in our first shop in Mead Road for the next five years. Over that time we introduced new services such as free home delivery, a webstore, a new information website, an offers email list and our Facebook page. Despite being launched during a double dip recession, the business thrived and grew every month. Unfortunately, when the lease came up for renewal the landlord wanted the property back for themselves and we had to look for a new location quite quickly. We thought we had found a good new spot at the quays and managed to move the entire business across in only two days! (although there was a couple of months of late nights preparing the new premises and decorating the old).

Unfortunately we did not take into account the stupidity of Gloucester City Council who, at the behest of the Quays development and against the wishes of smaller local businesses, decided to close the local carpark and promptly killed our business overnight. This happened 6 months after we moved in and cut our takings in half. We were tied into a lease for a minimum of 3 years so spent the next 2 1/2 years just scraping by. If it hadn’t been for the launch of our boarding service we would have gone under. Thanks Gloucester City Council.

As soon as we were able to get out of our lease (not cheaply, it cost thousands) we did and found our current property in Hucclecote. The move was not so easy this time. Both properties needed a lot of very expensive works. The Hucclecote site was an old Barclays branch and their contractors wrecked the inside of the building taking out their kit, plus maintenance of the building had not been kept up. They also left behind the vault door which alone cost a few thousand to remove. Worse was the work we had to do on the old property. In order to implement the break clause in our lease we had to carry out a lot of remedial work. Every piece of wood had to be glossed, every wall emulsioned, every piece of flooring replaced (3000 sq ft), shutters that had not been touched in the the 20 years before we got there serviced, the roof cleared of years of debris and repaired where it had been damaged from people going up there without permission (now you know why I was annoyed when the rugby painting on the cafe next door was put up without any consultation with us – it cost me £450 in repairs). Unfortunately most of this work was a complete waste of time and money. We knew, even as we were carrying out the works that the new tenants were going to rip most of it out and sure enough, one week after moving I looked in to see half the new flooring pulled up and stacked ready to go to the tip.

Gloucester pet shop

It was whilst carrying out the remedial works (fitting the carpet tiles that are now buried in the ground at the landfill site) that I injured my spine. This is what was responsible for us having to stop our free local delivery service, I can no longer walk too well and lifting anything is out of the question. I managed to keep it going during the move, when we were operating from a storage unit but had no option but to cease it when, whilst painting a piece of skirting in the new shop I was unable to get up because my legs were too weak. After finally going to the doctors I have been diagnosed with a reasonably serious condition that is not going to improve. I also became quite ill last summer so Billie stepped up and has been running the company since, doing all the work that at one point we had six staff (including myself) doing. George has also been helping out when he can and even Albert stepped in during a break in his studies.

However, despite all the problems with recessions, leases, idiot councillors and illness lining up to hold us back, we have made it to 10 years of our Gloucester pet shop and are still going strong. To mark this anniversary we will be having lots of offers on between now and December in celebration. This will be in additon to, not instead of, our regular monthly deals we already offer. Ever since we opened we have made sure even our usual prices have remained competitive and with all the offers coming up, there will be some real bargains. Like our Facebook page or sign up to our email list to be kept up to date with the latest bargain.

So visit us in our Gloucester pet shop at Glenville Parade in Hucclectoe. Lots of FREE parking and right on the number 10 bus route.

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets Current Livestock List

Time to post a new current livestock list for Angell Pets Hucclecote store. All are on our website but it’s good to put everything in one post from time to time. I have added a couple of “coming soon” items this time as the arrival of these animals is fairly imminent (next week or the week after). We are a little light on spiders this week  but we will be getting some more very soon. I haven’t added these to the list as I haven’t decided which we are getting yet.

Invertebrates

  • Fruit Beetles
  • Deaths Head Cockroach
  • Madagascan Hissing Cockroach
  • Headlight Cockroach
  • Indian Stick Insect
  • Giant Spiny Stick Insect
  • Giant Prickly Stick Insect
  • Dwarf White Woodlice
  • Tropical Grey Woodlice
  • Giant Orange Woodlice
  • Argentinian Star Tarantula
  • Cameroon Red Baboon Spider
  • Flame Rump Tree Spider
  • Guyana Goliath Birdeater
  • Hati Hati Purple Tarantula
  • King Baboon Spider
  • Malaysian Earth Tiger
  • Mexican Red Rump Tarantula
  • Togo Starburst
  • African Land Snail
  • Giant Malaysian Shield Mantis *COMING SOON*

Amphibians

  • Alpine Newt
  • Whites Tree Frog
  • Albino Horned Frog *COMING SOON*

Reptiles

  • Rankins Dragon
  • Chinese Water Dragon *COMING SOON*
  • Leopard Gecko “Montanus”
  • Madagascan Giant Day Gecko
  • Kotschys Gecko
  • “Kastanie” Corn Snake
  • Milksnake
  • Kenyan Sand Boa
  • Common Boa
  • Carpet Python
  • “Chocolate” Royal Python *COMING SOON*
  • Marginated Tortoise

Birds

  • Timineh African Greyt Parrot
  • White Faced Cockatiel
  • Grey Cockatiel
  • Budgerigar
  • Java Sparrow
  • Zebra Finch
  • Yellow Canary
  • Orange Canary

Mammals

  • Fancy Mouse
  • Dumbo Rat
  • Syrian Hamster
  • Gerbil
  • Guinea Pig *COMING SOON*
  • Lion Lop Rabbit

Fish

  • Coldwater *COMING SOON*
  • Temperate *COMING SOON*
  • Tropical *COMING SOON*

Please note our list changes daily. For example if I had writeen this before opening this morning it would also have contained guinea pigs in stock and a Yemen chameleon, so please get in touch to see what we have in our Angell Pets Hucclecote store on any given day. Alternatively visit our website.

 

The Angell Pets Team

Up to date livestock list

Our extensive list of livestock changes daily so I don’t usually have time to post up to date lists. However once in a while I do post what we currently have in stock by way of a marker. Here is our current list. However by tomorrow this could well have changed. See our website for some of what we stock and contact me to find out if we have what you are looking for. Please note we have access to far more than we have on our website or on this current list and that ALL our animals are captive bred – no wild caught.

Birds

  • Cockatiels (coloured and grey)
  • Rainbow Budgies (coming Thursday)
  • Zebra Finch
  • Java Sparrow
  • Blue Canary
  • Yellow Canary
  • Red Canary (coming Thursday)
  • Chinese Painted Quail
  • Conure

Small Mammals

  • Syrian Hamster
  • Fancy Mice (female – coming Thursday)
  • Dumbo Rats
  • Rabbits
  • Guinea Pigs
  • Ferret (last one this year)

Amphibians

  • Axolotl
  • Gold Tree Frog
  • Horned Frog

Reptiles

  • Crevice Spiny Lizard
  • Emerald Swift
  • Bosc Monitor
  • Red Iguana
  • Uromastyx
  • Crested Gecko
  • Flame Crested Gecko
  • Leopard Gecko
  • Chinese Cave Gecko
  • Tokay Gecko
  • Bearded Dragon
  • Panther Chameleon
  • Hermanns Tortoise
  • Common Musk Turtle
  • Corn Snake (hypo masque, anery, amel, ghost, sunglow)
  • Milksnake
  • Common Boa
  • Kenyan Sand Boa
  • Spotted Python
  • Royal Pythons
  • Carpet Python
  • Hog Nosed Snake

Invertebrates

  • Assassin Bug
  • Ghost Mantis
  • Miomantis
  • Hercules Beetle Larvae
  • Carpenter Ant Queen
  • Deaths Head Cockroach
  • Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroach
  • Indian Stick Insect
  • Giant Spiny Stick Insect
  • Giant Prickly Stick Insect
  • Wood Nymph
  • Asian Jungle Scorpion
  • Flat Rock Scorpion
  • Brazilian Red Rump Tarantula juvenile
  • Brazilian Black Tarantula juvenile
  • Giant White Knee Tarantula spiderling (large)
  • Mexican Red Leg Tarantula spiderling
  • Mexican Red Knee Tarantula spiderling
  • Giant Orange Knee Tarantula spiderling (large)
  • Curly Haired spiderling and juvenile
  • Metallic Pink Toe Tarantula spiderling
  • Costa Rican Tiger Rump Taratula adult (M&F)
  • Santa Catalina Big B… Tarantula juvenile
  • Chang Mai Earth Tiger spiderling
  • Malaysian Earth Tiger juvenile
  • Chile Rose Tarantula spiderling, juvenile, sub adult and adult (M)
  • Northern Gold Tarantula sub adult
  • Indian Violet Earth Tiger spiderling (large)
  • Vietnamese Blue Earth Tiger spiderling (large)
  • Sulewesi Black Earth Tiger spiderling (large)
  • Hati Hati Purple Earth Tiger juvenile
  • Red Slate Ornamental juvenile
  • Indian Ornamental adult (F)
  • Venezuelan Suntiger spiderling
  • Bahia Scarlet Birdeater spiderling
  • Columbian Giant Birdeater juvenile
  • Togo Starburst Baboon Spider juvenile
  • Usumbara Red Baboon Spider juvenile
  • Stout Legged Baboon Spider spiderling (large)
  • King Baboon Spider spiderling
  • Feather Legged Baboon Spider spiderling
  • Blue Footed Baboon Spider spiderling (large)

Fish

  • Calico Oranda
  • American Flag Fish
  • Paradise Fish
  • Albino Paradise Fish
  • Leopard Danio
  • Clown Loach
  • Platy
  • Molly
  • Siamese Fighting Fish
  • Guppy (F)
  • Corydoras
  • Flame Tetra
  • Lemon Tetra
  • Cherry Spot Rasbora
  • Norman Lamp Eye
  • Golden Panchax
  • Black Widow Tetra
  • Blind Cave Fish
  • Columbian Tetra
  • Dwarf Blue Coral Gourami

Molluscs

  • Red Onion Snail (aquatic)
  • Yellow Rabbit Snail (aquatic)
  • Giant African Land Snail (terrestrial)

 The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets Christmas And New Year Opening Times

It doesn’t seem like a year ago I was publishing the opening times for the holidays but there you go. So, our first Christmas in our new store. We have got in extra stock to help get our customers over the Christmas period without any shortages.

Angell Pets opening times this year are as follows. All changes to normal times and services are highlighted in red:-

Up to and including Tuesday 23rd – normal hours and free local delivery service.

Wednsday 24th – Christmas Eve 9am – 6pm. No free local deliveries.

Thursday 25th – Christmas Day – CLOSED

Friday 26th – Boxing Day – CLOSED

Saturday 27th – 10am – 5pm

Sunday 28th – 10am – 4pm

Monday 29th – 9am – 5pm. Normal free local deliveries.

Tuesday 30th – 9am – 6pm. Normal free local deliveries.

Wednesday 31st – 9am – 6pm. No free local deliveries.

Thursday 1st – CLOSED.

Friday 2nd – 10am – 6pm. Normal free local deliveries.

Sat 3rd onward – back to normal opening hours and free local delivery service on weekdays.

Please note that UK deliveries will be dispatched as normal throughout the holidays but will be subject to usual postal service Christmas closures so arrival may be delayed.

Have a merry Christmas, a happy new year and if we don’t see you in the shop, hope to see you on your doorstep as we drop off your orders.

The Angell Pets Team

 

FREE local delivery area widened to include Cheltenham

FREE local delivery with any order has been on offer from us at Angell Pets for quite some time.

We are now able to extend this FREE service to Cheltenham and the surrounding areas. Delivery of any item in the GL1,2,3,4,50,51,52 and 53 areas is now FREE.

Orders can be placed over the phone or from our on line web store. Orders on line are by card but COD is available for telephone orders.

free local delivery

This also means we are now able to offer livestock deliveries to these areas, as all FREE local delivery runs are with our own vehicles (we do not post or courier animals). Simply choose from our stock on line and call to arrange payment and delivery. This gives us the opportunity for us to check you have thought through your purchase and for you to check us out and be sure of what you are buying.

If you need to arrange FREE local delivery at a specific time, call us at the shop and order over the telephone and we will try to arrange delivery at a time that suits you. Unless it is really busy we can usually accomodate. Please note we do not usually deliver at weekends. I work seven days a week and do FREE local delivery in the evenings during the week. My wife insists I have some time off!

So sign up on our on line store to receive FREE LOCAL DELIVERY of all your animals needs.

The Angell Pets Team

Chile rose tarantula care sheet.

Chilean rose tarantula: (Grammostola rosea, Grammostola porterii)

Chilean rose taratulas are a medium sized tarantula (body 7.5cm, leg span 15cm) from southern Peru and northern Chile, on the edges of the Atacama dessert. This docile spider ranges in colour from grey, through pink to a vibrant copper red. Females are thought to live from about 20 to 40 years. As with most tarantulas, males live shorter lives, sometimes due to their expiring a few months after maturation, often through becoming a post coital snack for the female. Males have smaller bodies and longer legs. Females remain pretty much in or around their burrows throughout their lives, whereas males roam around when adult, looking for a female. Although a burrowing spider in the wild, captive Chilean rose tarantulas rarely construct viable burrows, although they do appreciate somewhere dark to hide. In captivity they feed almost entirely on crickets and other insects (from which they derive most of their water) although larger spiders will eat the occasional small mouse.

Chile rose tarantula

Adult Chilean roses require an arid environment. They appear to despise damp substrate and should never be misted. However very young spiderlings do require some humidity. Their substrate must be regularly dampened or they will quickly desiccate and die. This is thought to be due to the exoskeleton taking time to “toughen” and become waterproof. As they age the substrate can be allowed to become progressively dryer. As they grow a suitably sized water bowl can be introduced. Too big and the young spider will fall in and drown. Adults, whilst liking it dry, do require a water dish for occasional drinking.

Chilean rose tarantulas are probably one of the easiest tarantulas to handle because they are fairly slow moving and rarely bite, giving plenty of warning first. If they do bite it is usually a dry bite (no venom injected) and in the extremely rare cases where venom has been injected it has proved to be the equivalent of a bee sting.

HOWEVER people can be allergic to bee stings and you would not know if you were allergic to a spider bite until after you had been bitten. And who wants those big fangs stuck in them anyway? As with most new world tarantulas the biggest risk is from urticating setae (the hairs). These either brush off the spider when handled or are rubbed off on cage appointments or by the spider itself. They penetrate the skin causing irritation, which can be quite severe in rare cases. Getting these hairs in the eyes requires hospital treatment. So NEVER rub your eyes after handling a tarantula or anything it has been in contact with and as with all animals ALWAYS wash your hands after handling.

The biggest risk when handling any tarantula is to the spider itself. Any fall of more than a couple of inches is potentially fatal. They are delicate creatures and can rupture internally and externally. A lost limb may well heal and eventually regrow but a ruptured body, whilst sometimes treatable, is more often fatal. Even a regrown limb can cause the spider problems with later moults. All in all it is best NOT to handle tarantulas, you don’t get any irritation or bites and they stay alive.

The Chile rose is probably the hardiest species in the hobby as well. The environment they come from is dry, very hot during periods of the day and very cold during periods of the night. The can tolerate quite wide ranging temperatures in the short term. Generally the normal household temperatures in the UK are sufficient for a Chile rose and no additional heating is required. Obviously if you keep the spider in an unheated room throughout the winter a heat mat would be required.

For spiderlings we use coir as a substrate. It can retain some moisture for raised humidity and is light weight so will not bury delicate spiderlings. For larger individuals and adults I prefer to use a more natural looking substrate, something like Lucky Reptile red clay sand bedding or desert Bedding and construct a more natural looking terrarium. That is only my preference however, you may prefer something a bit more utilitarian and that’s fine. The only thing I would point out is that if the substrate is too damp the spider will spend all of its time on the side of the enclosure to keep of it.

For hides you can use whatever you like from broken plant pots to fancy resin hides, it’s up to you, the spider just wants a dark hole to hide in. I would avoid anything too heavy and unstable though, you don’t want it to crush the spider if the enclosure gets knocked.

Chile rose tarantulas are notorious for stopping feeding as adults. They are reputed to have not fed for up to two years, although the longest I have experienced is just over 6 months. This can worry less experienced owners a bit. If you have an adult female and she looks in good condition I wouldn’t worry if she stops feeding for a while. If you have a youngster and it stops feeding it is probably getting ready to moult.

We feed all our spiders weekly. If the following week there are stiil insects in the pot we remove them and stop feeding. Generally the spider will moult within two weeks. With larger spiders you can see the new skin growing through exposed areas of the old skin (it goes darker), however this is not obvious on smaller spiderlings and keeping track of the feeding habits is a must. Do not leave crickets in with the spider whilst it is moulting. Often the spider will delay the moult in the presence of crickets etc. and when it finally does begin the process the crickets have an easily accessible meal whilst it is incapacitated. Following a moult the spider will remain soft and vulnerable for quite a while, so don’t feed for at least a week.

As with all our animals our Chilean rose tarantulas are captive bred, normally in this country and are not taken from the wild population. There are lots of reasons for this but the two most important to us are wild animals are likely to have parasites and/or infections and we have no control over how they are harvested. It could have been done responsibly, a controlled amount of individuals taken from an area that is then left to recover before more are taken or as is often the case, a businessman could have paid locals peanuts to collect as many as possible in a short period of time leading to the critical reduction in numbers of a species in a locality that may never recover. Always buy captive bred animals, they are generally more expensive but worth it.

Angell Pets Bank Holiday Opening Hours

Angell Pets are OPEN all over the bank holiday as usual

Opening hours are as follows:-

Sunday 10am – 4pm

Monday 10am – 4pm

Angell Pets

Angell Pets

Back to normal Angell Pets opening hours from Tuesday (9am – 6pm Mon – Sat, 10am – 4pm Sunday)

 

Hope to see you over the bank holiday at Angell Pets or on line at angellpets.co.uk

 

Angell Pets Easter Opening Times

Angell Pets are open as usual all over the Easter weekend.

Angell Pets

Angell Pets

The opening hours for Angell Pets for the weekend are as follows:-

Good Friday – 10am – 4pm

Saturday 19th April – 9am – 6pm

Sunday 20th April – 10am – 4pm (normal Sunday hours)

Easter Monday – 10am – 4pm

Tuesday 22nd April – back to normal hours – 9am – 6pm.

On line orders will processed as normal but deliveries will obviously be affected by the Easter break.

So pop in and see us at Angell Pets over the weekend for everything for your pet. For dogs and cats, birds, small mammals and rabbits, fish, reptiles, spiders and other invertebrates, accessories, enclosures food and more. If you can’t see it, we can probably get it in for you. Alternatively visit us at Angell Pets online.

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pet care sheets page

Angell Pet give advice on all aspects of the animals we sell and on others we don’t. In addidtion tyo the advice given to prospective pet owners we have a page devoted to care sheets on this site which is constantly being up dated and expanded.

angell pet care sheet page

Just click on the Angell Pet Caresheet tab for a page of sheets and articles on mammals, birds, reptiles, invertebrates, fish and additional sheets on hygiene, handling and treatments.

The care information for each animal will also be added to the description on our Angell Pet webstore over the next few months.

We also have additional advice on our Angell Pet You Tube channel.

The Angell Pet Team

New range of invertebrate tanks now in stock

We have just negotiated a new deal with a local invertebrate and frog vivarium manufacturer to supply Angell Pets ® branded equipment. These high quality tanks have just made it into stock this week.

So far, the range includes glass vivaria for mantids and other arboreal insects, arboreal spiders and terrestrial or burrowing spiders and other invertebrates (such as centipedes and millipedes). Over time we will expand the range further and we can also have custom sizes made to order. Keep a look out soon for a range of amphibian tanks.

Inverebrate faunarium

The smallest vivarium in the new range is a 20cm (8″) glass cube, with a steel mesh vent in the back and fully opening sliding glass top that is self locking. This makes for a very secure tank for smaller spiders or other inverts.

invertebrate tank

The mantis tank is a 20cmx20cmx30cm arboreal glass viv. with a fully steel meshed top (including a support bar to aid fitting of branches etc.) and sliding, front opening, self locking doors. Suitable for all mantids and stick insects.

mantis tank

The arboreal spider tank is similar to the mantis tank but instead of a fullly meshed top it has a glass top with a mesh vent to enable/encourage nesting in the top corner and to help maintain higher humidity if required.

tarantula tank

The terrestrial/burrowing invetebrate tank is larger at 40cmx30cmx25cm high. It has a full width steel mesh vent (not aluminium, which a tarantula will just rip to shreds with its fangs!) and fully opening sliding, self locking glass doors (The maker held an empty one upside down and gave it a good shake by way of demonstration and the doors didn’t move). For cleaning the whole lid assembly can be removed. These are secure tanks, suitable for the most persistent escape artist.

invertebrate vivarium

As the manufacturer is local (we collect the stock ourselves) and whilst quality is maintained but costs are kept to a minimum (no expensive advertising and marketing to be paid for), prices are very keen. You get a lot of specialist equipment for your money.

Inverebrate cube £13.99

Mantis tank £19.99

Arboreal spider tank £19.99

Invertebrate tank £29.99

All are available on our website. These make fantastic display tanks for you favourite invertebrate and compliment our existing range superbly.

The Angell Pets Team