Angell Pets involvement in overseas conservation

We take animal welfare seriously at Angell Pets We follow the top industry standards with our own animals and give our customers the best available advice and information so they can do the same. We also have contributed to animal conservation and welfare at other establishments and around the world. Our staff have worked on a projects locally with the Gloucester Wildlife Trust, across the UK, such as encouraging the re-introduction of otters to Birmingham and for the last few years at various locations around the world.

angell pets conservation

Africa Nature Reserve

George Angell (familiar in the shop to many of our customers) left the UK to help with work on Assumption and Aldabra for SIF (Seychelles Island Federation). Having worked on Rhino conservation in Africa during university, he was keen to get involved as soon as possible. Initially landing on Mahe – the main island in the Seychelles, George worked for a few months on supporting Black Parrot conservation. This work was a long term project, continuing after George left that was recently declared a success. He moved on from Mahe to the main focus of his work on the Seychelles controlled Atolls of Adabra and Assumption. These islands are so remote, even from the Seychelles islands themselves, that travel there is not possible all year round, so George contributed to the Mahe project whilst waiting for transport to be available.

 

angell pets conservation

Mahe

angell pets conservation

Mahe

Aldabra is a world heritage site and as such is an important and therefore protected environment. Invasive species of birds had made it at least as far as Assumption Island (40 km from the coral atoll of Aldabra) and an E.U. funded project was in place to remove these birds before they got to Aldabra (and to check how many may have already have got there and remove them).

George left to assist with the removal of these birds, helping to protect this important and unique habitat. He also did his own research for his dissertation toward his higher degree on the work he will be involved in.

Aldabra and Assumption are extremely remote islands in the middle of the Indian ocean. Situated  1100km south west from the main Seychelles Islands, Assumption is only 11 square kilometres. The only population are the scientists George is joining who go by boat to study Aldabra and support staff who maintain the landing strip. He was not be able to get there until October as travel is not possible from the Seychelles island of Mahe until then.

Below is an extract from the project brief outlining why the work was important and what it was trying to achieve and George’s part in it.

Under the European Commission’s (EC) Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources, including Energy, the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF) is implementing a 4-year project entitled “Mainstreaming the management of invasive alien species to preserve the ecological integrity and enhance the resilience of Seychelles World Heritage Sites” (‘the Action’) which started in February 2011. The overall objective of the Action is to develop and implement a strategic programme applying the ecosystem approach to limit the spread and reduce the impact of invasive alien species (IAS) in Seychelles’ World Heritage Sites (WHS). The Action is being coordinated and implemented by SIF, in partnership with the Seychelles Environment Department (ED) and National Parks Authority (SNPA), and with project associates Islands Development Company (IDC) and Island Conservation Society (ICS).

Under the project’s specific objectives, an eradication of avian IAS from Assumption of the Red-Whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus and the Madagascar Fody, Foudia madagascariensis is underway. Until recently, Aldabra was thought to be the largest island in the world with no introduced avian species but in 2012 both the Assumption introduced species have been observed in the eastern part of Aldabra. These species have long been considered the most severe threat to Aldabra’s avifauna, making their eradication an immediate conservation priority. SIF is therefore running two parallel bird eradications on these adjacent islands. Due to the unexpected invasion on Aldabra , more staff are being recruited to help ensure the success of these eradications.

Georges specific role in this project was as follows.

1. Eradication of all introduced birds from Assumption and Aldabra

2. Improved understanding of avian IAS ecology on Assumption and Aldabra

3. Continued trial of alternative eradication methods for invasive avian species

4. Elimination of the threat of avian invasive species to Aldabra’s ecosystem and outstanding universal values

5. Recommendations for restoration of avian fauna on Assumption

George’ duties also included catching their own food (to quote the organiser – “hope you like fish and rice”) and there were lots of opportunities to see the local marine life (he had invested in prescription scuba goggles). Fortunately he didn’t get to see some of it too closely (sharks, venomous snails, fish etc.) and got to meet the famous Aldabran Giant Tortoise  very up close and personal. Assumption has an air strip that has to be cleared of tortoises before supply planes can land and so they are not all as friendly as those on Aldabra. George can vouch for that having been chased by “Terry” who’s head came up to Georges hip! He also made a trip across the island to an abandoned unfinished hotel where he had to construct barriers across the door ways to try to keep the robber crabs (giant land crabs) out of the gear – they steal everything!

angell pets conservation

Fishing for dinner on Assumption

This, as you can imagine, was a sort after placement and George had to interview and compete to get the post. We were very pleased to be involved in such a globally important project and wish the team still on the islands every success in their continued efforts to protect our environment.

After completing his term on the SIF projects George returned to the UK to complete his  honours degree gaining a first. During this period he worked in the shop at weekends, providing our customers with the benefit of his growing knowledge base.

On completion of his degree he again looked about for conservation work around the world. There were a number of competing projects looked at, from  the Antarctic to the Galapagos. In the end he opted for New Zealand.

angell pets conservation

New Zealand Office

New Zealand is a group of islands with an endemic population of flora and fauna This means the animals and plants of New Zealand are found there and no where else in the world.

angell pets conservation

Walking The Trails

As these species have evolved in isolation, they are vulnerable to the introduction of invasive competing or predatory species from outside the islands. Since man has reached the islands there has been a decline of endemic species, from the now extinct Moa (a large flightless bird, hunted to extinction by the newly arrived Maori people) to the endangered Kiwis and Kakapo (smaller flightless birds, brought close to extinction by predators introduced by European settlers to control the rats and mice they had already accidently introduced from their ships and initial supplies). George was to become involved in the control and/or eradication of some of these invaders, such as the Australian brush tailed Possum, the European stoat, ferret and weasel to name but a few.

angell pets conservation

Time Off

He spent three years working towards the stated aim of New Zealand to become predator free by 2050 (with a couple of months out to train vultures in Spain to fly with tourist on paragliders!) As a falconer, he also captured, trained and released two Autralasian Swamp Harriers during his stay, being amongst a mere handful of people in the world licensed to do this.

angell pets conservation

Vulture

After three years of this work George has returned to the UK where he is using his expertise to train upcoming animal carers, handlers and perhaps future conservationists at a college in Oxford. At the same time he is working for us back in the shop in Hucclecote on Saturdays where our customers can benefit from his knowledge and experience. We are very happy that Angell Pets staff are so involved in the promotion of animal welfare at such a range of levels, from giving advice on dog food to protecting some of the worlds most endangered species in the most hands on way possible.

angell pets conservation

Working Hard

angell pets conservation

Back Working In The Shop

So there it is. Just a little background on just one of the Angell Pets staff members. Perhaps I’ll do another log at some point on the relevant experience of the rest of us one day.

The Angell Pets Team

Special offers for August

Special offers this month include Burgess Excel guinea pig nuggets, Whiskas pouches, Johnsons house flea spray and much more.

Click the link for details of this months wholesaler special offers.

special offers August

Best Pets special offers August

We also have additional special offers in store a online this month.

Selected Royal Canin 400g  bags 10% off.

Biorb 30L 20% off

Pet Rebellion mats 10% off

In addtion we have several new lines in our reptile section.

Habistat bulbs

Slate pieces (only available in store as sold by weight)

White rock pieces for aquariums and vivariums (£2.99 each)

Habistat substrates

Komodo salad flavour tortoise food

Habistat digtal thermostats

Pop in and see us or check out the webiste to keep up to date with all our special offers in future.

 

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

New livestock in today

We have new livestock in today. Spiders, insects, amphibians and reptiles. All have been added to our webstore.

Pop in store, check out the webstore, drop us a line or give us a call to find out what else we have in stock.

The Angell Pets Team

 

Christmas gift ideas

It is difficult enough to buy gifts for kids at Christmas. Often presents from relatives remain untouched after the intial buzz of Christmas mornings. If the present is an animal this is obviously a serious issue. It needs caring for even if it is not really wanted.

Instead of buying a pet for Christmas how about buying a kit or starter set up. Then after Christmas, when all the excitement has died down, the child can come and pick out an animal to go with the kit.

Christmas gift ideas

 

No animals to worry about caring for on the run up to Christmas whilst trying to keep the present a secret and if it turns out they didn’t really want a pet then there are only inanimate objects to sell as “unwanted” gifts and not a living creature to find a new home for.

We have a large range of set ups and starter kits for sale from a few pounds to complete reptile kits. Also complete fish tank kits in attractive packaging that make ideal gifts at resonable prices.

pet shop gloucester aqua 40

 

How about a millipede set up, spider, scorpion, stick insect or landsnail. Everything you need to care for these interesting and easy to care for creatures that, after Christmas, would make an excellent pet for a child. Have you been pestered all year for a snake or lizard. Why not buy the set up and come in after the day to select a pet at your leisure.

We are open over the holiday period, so you won’t have to put up with the badgering for long!

Also, more kids get money at Christmas now than ever before. You could wait until the new year to go with them to select a set up for a pet and put up with all the pleading in between, or you could pop in and see us, We don’t have time off between Christmas and new year so you can.

Order your set up online now or call us to put together a bespoke kit to suit your needs. Better still, if you can, pop in and see us so we can show you what is on offer and you can get to see the animals too.

 

The Angell Pets Team

 

Komodo product range discounts until the end of this year

Komodo products range has been discounted at the Angell Pets webstore until the end of 2013. All products in the Komodo range will receive this discount when ordered before 31/12/2013.

Komodo products carry a wide range of reptile, amphibian and invertebrate vivaria, accessories and foods. Their range of glass vivaria is wider and more versatile than the porpular Exo Terra range with a larger choice of styles and sizes.

Komodo products glass vivarium

 

Komoo products also produce some exellent complete foods for reptiles, such as the crested gecko diet and complete torotoise food range. Komodo have been working for years with retailers and owners to continue to improve this range.

Komod products tortoise food

 

Angell Pets online store can now offer a 10% discount, across the whole range of Komodo products until the end of this year, just in time for Christmas.

We now stock Komodo products for lighting, housing, feeding, decor and lots more. Although we have yet to get the whole product range onto our site (it’s only little old me doing the work so it takes a bit of time) it is growing weekly and if they make something we don’t currently show just give us a call, email or message on Facebook and we can get it in at the same fantastic discounted price for you.

The Komodo product range has had a huge revamp in recent times following the purchase of the brand by Happy Pet and continues to grow and improve, with new innovations and products regularly coming out. They have also been recruting new staff to the Komodo products team with years of experience in the hobby and trade to support us retailers and our customers.

Have a look at the ever expanding Komodo products range and grab a discount whilst you can at our Angell Pets webstore.

Exo Terra waterfall? Want to improve it?

Exo Terra waterfall in small to large. They work with a small pump that sits in the base of the assembly and pumps water to the top through a small hose that then runs down the face of the waterfall into the reservoir at the bottom where the pump sits. The medium and large versions aslo have a small reservoir half way down to take an optional fogger.

A few problems we have found using these Exo Terra waterfalls in our display vivs. include the reservoir running low through evaporation and the pump being very intolerant of running dry (they burn out quite quickly if the go dry), blockage of the pump from substrate or dead crickets etc. and the just awkwardness of the assembly to clean out leading to the water being left a little too long and going off. It really is just too much work to do every couple of days, especially if you have the Exo Terra waterfall in amongst a complex display viv.

Exo Terra Waterfall

 

A cheap, easy to install improvement can be made that drastically reduces the amount of cleaning required, improves the amount of water flow (the Exo Terra waterfall pump itself generates quite a low flow) without causing splashing all over the viv. and improves the quality of the water.

We replace the Exo Terra waterfall pump with a Superfish Aqua 50 filter pump. It is larger overall but still fits neatly into the reservoir or the Exo Terra water fall. It has a higher flow rate than the Exo Terra waterfall pump and has an very efficient cartridge filter. This will clean out and solids from the water in the Exo Terra waterfall and will allow nitrosomonas and  nitrobacter bacteria to grow in the filter membrane which will remove ammonia and nitrate (products of biological breakdown of waste) and keep the water clean and fresh for much longer, reducing the frequency of cleaning and improving the quality of the water available to your reptile to drink (we typically use them with chameleons, tokays, etc.). The pump in the Superfish Aqua 50 also has a higher tolerance to running dry than the Exo Terra waterfall pump (although this still is not to be recommended) and has an easy to change and inexpensive cartridge filter.

exo terra waterfall replacement pump

 

If you have and Exo Terra waterfall it is well worth giving this small improvement a go. Save yourself some work and improve the environment of your animal for very little cost.

 

The Angell Pets Team

Online pet store launched today

Online pet store for all your pet supply needs with a company you can trust.

We have been working on providing an online pet store service for our customers who live too far away to make it into our store but still want to use a pet shop with a reputation for caring for our customers animals. The site was launched today.

online pet store

 

Orders generated from our online pet store will be received in our Gloucester pet shop and picked and packed by our experienced staff from our shop stock (not from a warehouse by a nameless picker on minumum wage with no interest in your order). Orders will then be dispatched the next morning by one of our couriers.

The online pet store site is new and still needs alot of tinkering, more photos, some technical changes to the price displays etc. but it is now live and reporting to our shop system. Some stuff might move around the site as these changes are put in place but the main structure is there.

One thing you will quickly notice is that livestock can’t be purchased with a “click” of the mouse from our online pet store. We strongly believe that buying an animal needs a proper dialogue between the seller and the buyer. If you select livestock you will be directed to call us to discuss the sale. The on line pet store site will however let you know just what we have in stock and some of what we can get.

Our range is large and getting larger every day. My next task is to get all of the stock in the shop on the online pet store site. All of our main sellers are there but we have a lot of other stock that we order less frequently still to be put on, so if you can’t find what you want this week, check back as it may just suddenly appear. Of course you can always give us a ring and we can get in what you need (if we don’t already have it).

We pride ourselves that we stock all the good big brands and a lot of smaller brands that you may not see elsewhere. You may find us light on some of the  “supermarket brands” on our online pet store. This is because we stock products that offer quality at good prices. Low quality products that in many cases do not suit the animal are not what we are about. We do have a couple of the obvious ones but that’s just so we can ask the customer that comes in why they are using such a product and then help them find a better, often cheaper alternative.

So have a look round, contact us if you need clarification on a product before buying and enjoy our new online pet store.

 

The Angell Pets Team

Our pet shop livestock list prior to the launch of the live site.

We will be soon launching our new pet shop webstore. Whilst you will not be able to buy livestock directly from this site (we believe you should always want to see livestock before buying and will not send our livestock by courier) the list of livestock available in store will be on there and it will be a live list. In the mean time here is a list of the livestock currently available at Angell Pets. We will continue to give updates of new stock in through our email subscriber list and on our Facebook page.

Mammals

pet shop gloucester ferret

  • Dwarf lop rabbit
  • Guinea pig
  • Chinchilla
  • African pygmy hedgehog
  • Gerbil
  • Syrian hamster
  • Fancy mouse
  • Blue rat
  • naked rat

Birds

pet shop gloucester birds

  • Grey cockatiel
  • White faced cockatiel
  • Rainbow budgie
  • Fife canary (crossed red factor)
  • Yellow bishop
  • Zebra finch
  • Java sparrow (white and pied)

Lizards

pet shop gloucester chameleons

 

  • Balkan green lizard
  • Crested gecko
  • Leopard gecko
  • Tokay gecko
  • Pink tongued skink
  • Yemen chameleon
  • Bearded dragon

Snakespet shop gloucester snakes

 

  • Corn snake (Carolina, amelanistic, snow)
  • Brookes kingsnake
  • Pueblan milksnake
  • African house snake
  • Western hognosed snake
  • Royal python (normal)
  • Royal python (spider)
  • Blood python
  • Jampea dwarf reticulated python
  • Carpet python (100% het granite)
  • Colombian rainbow boa
  • Common boa

Chelonia

pet shop gloucester tortoise

 

  • Horsefields tortoise
  • Common musk turtle

Amphibians

pet shop gloucester livestock fire bellied toad

 

  • Axolotl
  • Ornate horned frog

Spiders

pet shop gloucester spider tarantula

 

  • Chile rose
  • Curly hair
  • mexican red leg
  • Mexican flame knee
  • Chaco golden knee
  • Giant white knee
  • Pink zebra beauty
  • Brazilian pink toe
  • Martinique pink toe
  • Costa rican tiger rump
  • Chile bumble bee
  • Brazilian blonde
  • Brazilian red rump birdeater
  • Salmon pink birdeater
  • Venezuelan sun tiger
  • Indian ornamental
  • Gooty ornamental
  • Malaysian thick foot
  • Malaysian earth tiger
  • Green bottle blue
  • New Guinea rust rump
  • Togo starburst
  • Vietnam blue earth tiger
  • Usumbara red baboon
  • Blue foot baboon
  • Socotra island baboon

Scorpions

 

 

  • European scorpion
  • Asian jungle scorpion

Other Invertebrates

pet shop gloucester assasin bug

 

  • Giant chocolate millipede
  • Giant spiny stick insect
  • Indian stick insect
  • Jungle nymph
  • Indian mantis
  • Dead leaf mantis
  • Red spotted assasin bug
  • Fruit beetle
  • Giant hissing cockroach
  • Giant African landsnail

Coldwater fish

 

 

  • Black Moor
  • Calico Fantail
  • Red and Black Fantail
  • Calico Fantail

Tropical fish

pet shop gloucester tropical fish

 

  • leopard angelfish
  • Veiled angelfish
  • Cherry barb
  • Golden barb
  • Odessa barb
  • Tiger barb
  • Tinfoil barb
  • Leopard danio
  • Pearl danio
  • Gold zebra danio
  • Zebra danio
  • Giant danio
  • Gold sucking loach
  • Clown loach
  • Albino bristlenose plec
  • Gibbiceps plec
  • Neon tetra
  • Black widow tetra
  • Red phantom tetra
  • Serpae tetra
  • Firemouth cichlid
  • Gold severum
  • Lab caeruleas (electric yellow cichlid)
  • Gold thick lipped gourami
  • Sky blue dwarf gourami
  • Dwarf pencil fish
  • Red coral platy
  • Calico sunburst platy
  • Assorted molly
  • Black lyre tailed molly
  • Green swordtail
  • Blue mix guppy
  • Red dragon tail guppy
  • Green snakesking guppy
  • Female blue guppy
  • Brochis spendens (emeral catfish)
  • Albino corydora
  • Bronze corydora
  • Albino rainbow shark
  • Golden wonder panchax

Aquatic invertebrates

  • Yellow rabbit snail
  • Mountain shrimp
  • Blue lobster

 

 

This list, whilst extensive is only what we currently have in the shop. We also have a network of breeders and suppliers from whom we can get a wide range of animals and colour morphs to order. Please remember ALL of our animals are captive bred, most in the UK.

 

 

Why we joined the Pet Retail Association (part of the Pet Industry Federation)

When we first started out Angell Pets I had a picture in my head (trying to avoid the management jargon “vision” here) of what i wanted the business to look like. I summed it up on the homepage of this site. I looked around for a professional association that shared the same aims and landed on the Pet Care Trust, who even had a very similar tag line of “promoting responsible pet ownership” (ours being “promoting responsible and ethical pet ownership”). This organisation also offered excellent training courses that suited our business exactly. Some of the courses staff have under taken with the federation include “Pet Store Management” and “First aid for animals”.

Since then the Pet Care Trust has changed name to the Pet Care Trading Association (keeping the Pet Care Trust as their charitable arm) and more recently to the Pet Industry Federation (still funding and administering the Pet Care Trust). Within the federation are a number of trade associations, the Pet Retail Association being the one appropriate to our busniness. Throughout they have remained active in representing the trade in all areas (regulation, government consultation, legal representation, standardisation, training, care advice, publications etc. ) and have now produced a charter that all members must adhere to. They have also recently been instrumental in producing enhanced model licence conditions for local authorities to apply when reviewing what are now stringent licences.

Pet shop gloucester

 

 

I am please to say that this charter matches exactly with what we at Angell Pets have been trying to do over the past four years and will continue to do in the future. The charter is attached here and is on view in the shop. Have a look and ask yourself  “Would I be comfortable buying an animal from someone that DIDN’T aspire to these standards?” Look for the federation and association logos before you buy. There is an awful lot going on behind the scenes to ensure they mean you can buy with confidence and a clear concience (can you do that if you buy on Facebook or a forum from someone you know nothing about?)

Pet shop Gloucester PRA logo