Why I HATE Petco

[Melody]

Why I hate Petco
I was at Petco looking for a rope ladder for Melody, with Melody herself to see which one she liked best and see if she wanted to see other budgies. However, as soon as we got to the Birds section of Petco, Melody disappeared, digging into my hair. I already knew about the bad conditions of Petco, but after a year of research later, it seemed way worse.
There was a huge glass box with about 20-30 budgies crammed into it. We arrived at the perfect time, when an employee was feeding the birds. The poor parakeets were so terrified and they ran and crammed themselves as far away from the gloved hand as possible, some standing on others. All of them were young, with solid black eyes and no rings, meaning they were about 2 months old. None of them was more than that. Melody was shaking at the back of my neck, but quickly calmed down when she noticed the toys and diverted her gaze. Later I saw many of the poor budgies were fluffed up, eyes closed with many missing feathers and obvious signs of sickness. They all were dirty and scruffy, and all tired and lacking the energy and cheerfulness that parakeets are supposed to have.
The man who was feeding them gave them millet spray on a regular basis, as soon as he put it in, all the birds attacked it, and were standing on each other again to eat( By this time Melody saw the fruit on the man’s cart and jumped to it and started pecking at it. Another woman noticed Mel and started fussing about Melody. Melody, with her over inflated ego, started showing off by doing wings and limbo trick.) The water in there was obviously containmentated, had food floating in it ,and feathers in it. On the fight for food over at the corner, one bird was so weak that it just stayed at that corner unmoving and probably going to die. It shook a lot, and I felt so bad for the poor thing. The man only gave them millet spray and no seeds or pellets. Also, I purposely asked him where the parakeets’ native country was. His answer: South America.
Sometimes, at Petco, there is a parrot section. There was a Sun Conure, or Sun Parakeet, named Moltres(Pokemon). The poor thing was shoved in a plastic box that is smaller than Mel’s cage. He was hatched in March, so the poor thing was only 4 months old. He didn’t appear as sick as the parakeets, but when the man took Moltres out, he flew away quickly, and then, fell out of the air. He landed in front of me, and talking to him quietly, he let me scoop him up and pet him. The poor bird was so frightened of the employed that he tightened his grip on my arm when the man came to get Moltres back into his box/cage. The man said that the bird likes human company and attention. When the man left, I talked quietly to Moltres. He made soft noises and tapped where I put my hand. I almost cried. The poor bird, only 4 months old, was probably not going to make it, like all the others that were there before him. I wanted to adopt Moltres so bad, but he cost $600 and there was no way I could get him. Walking away with the poor parrot watching me was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I picked Melody up and we left immediately.
Melody is one of the survivors of that place. She was the most pitiful bird I’d ever seen when I got her. Not knowing better at that time, I was going to buy a bird for $20. Melly was gray, and her tail bent with many feathers in it missing. She also had a toe that was cut off, and it used to be bleeding. I bought her, and she soon trusted me. I found that Melody likes bathing, and found that Melody was white, not grey. Her toe healed, and it’s nail is growing back properly, but it still is shorter than the others. Melody’s name comes from that place as well. Even though she was probably the weakest, and never flew, Melody sat at the top of the tree, and sang with all her might. Hope is probably something Melody excels at.

[Wolf]

You asked recently in another post if we thought Melody was sick and I could not honestly answer you. Well with this story I really must say take her to the vet and tell him about this visit as there is no way of telling what Melody may have picked up there. So it is very possible that she is sick.

If you go to a pet store that has birds in it and you touch anything in the store you may have picked up something that can make your bird at home sick, so you wash whatever you purchase before letting them have it and take a shower and change clothes before touching your bird. This is just to prevent the spread of disease. The closer your bird is to contact with birds in such places the more chance there is of her picking up a fatal disease. Please don't take her to these places. I know you mean well but exposing her needlessly to possible infection is not good.

[Pajarita]

Ditto!!! I literally have to bite my tongue every time I see somebody walking into a petstore with an animal! They are breeding ground for all kinds of diseases, not only from the animals they sell but also from all the people that bring their potentially sick animal into them. Please stop taking your bird everywhere, you are not doing her a favor, my dear. I know you think it's good for her but it's not.

[Melody]

Okay. Thank you both

[salaar]

I understand your concerns in regards to both nutrition and providing enough food for your baby bird. But, I think that using pellets to accomplish this is perhaps not in the best interests of the bird as pellets are very dry as well as in most cases too high in proteins, and possibly in fats and sugars.

[JaydeParrot]

Is it safe/safer to bring a parrot into a pet store where the only animals being sold are rabbits and hamsters (not allowed to touch) and the only animals being brought in are dogs?

[Wolf]

As far as disease goes it is a little safer, but there are some diseases that will infect rabbits as well as birds. I do not know if they would infect a parrot or not but, I learned about it a long time ago when I was raising rabbits for food and kept chickens as well. The company that bought the rabbits advised that they not be housed near to each other due to the risk of cross species disease.

[marie83]

As far as disease goes it is a little safer, but there are some diseases that will infect rabbits as well as birds. I do not know if they would infect a parrot or not but, I learned about it a long time ago when I was raising rabbits for food and kept chickens as well. The company that bought the rabbits advised that they not be housed near to each other due to the risk of cross species disease.

Wolf would you mind giving more detail on the zoonotic diseases that can infect both birds and rabbits? Just when I spoke to a vet when both my rabbit and birds appeared sick and broached the possibility of zoonosis he wasn't aware of any and concluded it was highly unlikely although not impossible that there was something he had never come across. I also never found anything in my own research but that wasn't very thorough as the rabbit recovered very quickly. I'm more interested for future reference now. Thanks

[Wolf]

Well it has been over 30 years ago and I was raising rabbits for a company called Pel freeze, they sold rabbit meat for human consumption They gave me a list of diseases, it wasn't very long, but the one that they were the most concerned with was salmonella and cockcidiosis . You will need to excuse my spelling of the second as I know it is spelled wrong.

[Pajarita]

I am no expert on rabbits so I don't really know what are their diseases specific to the species but I would think that things like parasites, both internal (coccidia comes to mind) and external (mites), infections (fungal -like ringworm- and bacterial -e coli, pink eye), etc... there are many health problems that all animals (us, included) suffer from and that can be passed from one species to another.