Northcote Pet Stores

I love this little pet shop. Purely for the 2 full time members of staff there who are basically the movie 'clerks' in real life - too funny. Anyhow they stock most things I need for my guinea pigs and Pygmy hedgehogs (food, bedding - not so great for cages etc but it is a really small shop) and have always offered to order in anything else i've wanted. When I had my staffy dog, they would order her favourite toys in for her!

What I like most about this pet shop is that the full time staff really care about the animals in the shop - and will happily give as much advice as they can. I've seen them refuse to sell fish to people that don't have tanks set up etc and to me that is the mark of a good pet shop - caring about the animals more than the customers - as it should be!! I'd give you 5 stars, but I don't want you both to get big heads! hahahaha

As far as small, independently owned pet shops go, this was is probably as good as it gets, but it's not without its downsides. It covers all the animals you might expect a middle-class Clapham resident to have in her home. Dogs, cats, birds, fish, hamsters, ferrets, rabbits, gerbils, rats and mice - Northcote Pet Stores has supplies for your little furry/scaled/feathered baby.

Of interest to me particularly are the rat supplies. Northcote has two types of rat food, which is pretty surprising; I'm lucky to find one type of rat food in most pet stores. However, the store doesn't sell any litter appropriate for rats (it needs to be dustless, so woodchips simply will not do). There are at least seven different types of small-animal cages available for purchase; however, again, none of them are suitable for rats.

If you have a more commonly kept pet, Northcote Pet Stores will have you covered for all your needs, and its prices are reasonable. For me, I still need to purchase things online and from other pet stores for my ratty babies, so Northcote simply can't be my go-to place for pet supplies. But it's still pretty damn good, and the staff is always friendly.

When we found our little cat, Snodgrass, we bought all our cat food, cat toys and other cat paraphernalia from this shop. I much prefer independent stores anyway so this little place was perfect.

We really needed a lot of advice when we found Snodgrass and the shop owner was more than happy to dispense his wisdom unto us! They also have an engraving service for cat and dog collars, it takes 2 or 3 days and is completely inexpensive.

This place is really cheap and affordable. They have SO much pet stuff from food to bedding. If you are local to this shop and are a pet owner, support Northcote Pet Stores!

4 stars for the selection and the prices. Amazingly competitive and verging on cheap for a lot of stuff - especially compared to the chain stores.

However, this shop has really odd and sporadic hours. I should've seen if they are posted when I was last in, but most of the time I try to go on a weekday afternoon and the place is closed up with the gate locked down and no posted signage about times. I actually thought it had closed for good a couple months back when I tried 4 times in a week and couldn't find it open.

But when it is open, it's a great little shop!

Affordable, friendly and well stocked. It's also the only pet supply store in my neighbourhood and the next closest one is always closed and never has what I need so I stick to Northcote Pet Store!
I got two goldfish there. Carmella died after a few hours, but the shop owner *did* warn me she didn't look like a good choice and was swimming a bit slow. But Tony is still going strong 3 months later, healthy & happy as can be!