Big chain pet stores vs. small ones

[pchela]

I'm glad to hear that there are some good Petcos out there! It gives me hope.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

We had no intention of buying a bird from Petsmart. We don't really think it is a good idea for these general stores to sell birds, any more than they do dogs and cats. We planned to buy from a breeder, probably through our local, excellent, bird-oriented small pet store. Instead, we got Scooter from PetSmart. Because he'd been marooned there for nine months and we figured he needed rescuing. In fact, he's turned out to be a WONDERFUL bird. Even the vet I took him to for a well-bird visit said they must have been doing something right for him to be so healthy, happy, social and well-behaved. Not only that, but a couple of the staff members there still ask after him and want me to bring him in for a visit. So, I think your mileage may vary. But it is true that with these stores, they are selling a commodity, they aren't carefully placing the bird in a home, and we have no idea who the breeder actually was (we kind of wish we did, because someone did a good job raising our guy). I don't know if parrot mills are as much a problem as kitten and puppy mills. Are they?

I'm not a fan of "big box" stores in general because it bothers me that so many parts of the country look just like each other with the same stores, same restaurants and no local color. OTOH, while big chains are rarely brilliant, they usually at least offer a minimum standard that tops the worst of the small businesses. With Scooter and the kitties, I buy some stuff at specialty pet stores (Scooter's food comes from the bird-oriented shop I mentioned) and some at the Petsmart that is walking distance from our house. I see no problem with buying bird toys and so forth, they have a rather good selection, the only complaint is that they contribute to the vast homogenization of America, but that has little to do with birds, specifically.

FWIW, I think it was Petco, not Petsmart, that was forced to stop carrying big birds for a while. At least they were the chain store around here that suddenly dropped their bigger birds. But none of these stores sell dogs and cats, they offer space for rescues to offer adoptions, and perhaps it would be best if they did the same with big birds.

[pchela]

Well the one I'm thinking of was Petsmart. http://www.physorg.com/news118847292.html

It may have happened at Petco as well for all I know. I wouldn't be surprised.

There may not be as many bird mills as there are puppy and kitten mills but they are around sadly. http://www.projectperry.com/birdmills.html That was just the first link that came up when I googled it. Anytime any animal is being mistreated and turned into a baby machine it is a problem. That's why I can't support buying birds from chain stores unless I know that they are getting their birds from good breeders (as must have been the case with your GCC)

[notscaredtodance]

I've found it's not only the chain of stores, but the manager for each individual store. Some stores have managers that care most about sales and corperate's report. Some managers really do care about the animals. And the staff. I work at a petstore that is a large chain, but not petsmart or petco. I'm not saying I'm an expert on every animal we carry, but whenever I realize I'm unsure about something, I research it, and any time we start carrying a new animal I research it. My store right now is carrying 2 parrotletts, 10 parakeets, a sun conure, a senegal parrot, a male canary, and 4 cockatiels. They're all well taken care of, in cages that are cleaned and wiped down with "healthy habitat" twice a week, along with the cage lining being cleaned. They get spray water baths once a week, eat a seed/pellet mix diet (unfortunately they get fresh fruits and veggies rather sparingly) We recieve our birds from a "private breeder" but this could be a bird mill technically. When I first heard of bird mills I thought of warehouses that cranked out animals like crazy, but a woman in a house who overbreeds animals is technically considered a bird mill.

Honestly, I don't believe any reputable breeder would ever sell their birds to pet stores, so I consider the breeder we get our birds from to be a bird mill.

Basically what I'm saying is, every store is different, and there's no doubt pet stores are a worse environment for birds than a breeder, but some stores are definitely better than others, but never ideal.

[phutch]

The one thing alot of people don't understand is that in the box stores, when they bring a shipment of birds into the general population if one of those birds is sick, they have just infected "what may have been healthy birds". Not only that if you already have birds at home you can pick up whatever they are shedding and take that home to your birds. In the event your birds get sick you may not have thought to tell the vet that you visited one of these petstores.

There has been one store in particular in the papers over the past couple of years that had to pull all of their birds due to some nasty illnesses.

I do volunteer at an avian rescue in my hometown. Any birds they take in have to be quarantined for at least 30 days and vet checked before they come into the program. People interested in adopting, which is a good thing, are required to take two classes and spend time with the birds and interact with them.

Unfortunately when you go into the box stores and general pet stores their goal is too make money
they don't have the knowledge to pass on to a new bird owner that the bird could outlive them,they need vet visits and that they may not like all people in the family. Nothing irritates me more than a person going in for the status symbol and when that wears off, these birds are forgotten about or become pluckers or screamers.

If someone is interested in having a parrot, google avian rescues in your hometown and check them out. I will agree you could run into a bad one. See how the birds are kept, check out their food,pellets,fresh veggies and fruit the substrate in the cage should be paper not would shavings or cat litter or corn cob, this stuff can create a new beast to deal with.

If it feels bad you'll know it. I'll get off my soapbox now.

[lzver]

I'm not sure I have an opinion either way. I've been in Petsmart stores here in Ontario that sell smaller parrots (conures, quakers, etc) and they seem to be well cared for. They always have fresh fruit/veggies in their cage along with a pellet food and several toys.

On the other hand, I was in a small local pet store a few weeks ago to see what kind of bird supplies they had and I was appalled by the conditions not just their birds lived in, but all the animals they sold. They had the birds in a back room in very small dirty cages. When the girl that worked there asked me if I needed help finding something, I simply told her I thought she needed to spend her time helping the poor animals trapped there and walked out. I will never go back into that store again, but will always think about the poor animals in there whenever I pass by the store.

We got both our birds from PJ Pets - 2 different stores. I wouldn't call then a big chain store like Petsmart, but they are a chain with stores with locations throughout Canada. They sell various sized parrots from Macaws, African Greys, Cockatoos down to Senegals, Red Bellied, and even smaller. Both people we dealt with at PJ's were very knowegeable about birds really seemed to care about them.

Lucy was 9 months old when we got her. She had been at the store for 6-months and the guy in the store said lots of people thought she was a sweet bird and generated interest, but she wasn't colorful enough. I went home and did some research on Red-bellied's and went back a few days later to buy her. She was and still is to this date a very sweet little bird and its sad that she stayed in the store for 6 months simply because she wasn't colorful enough. Let me tell you, her colorful personality makes up for the fact that she doesn't have bright colored feathers.

Jessie was only 2-months old when we first say him and he was still in their bird nursery because he was still being weaned. We bought him on the spot, but we were not able to bring him home until he was eating on his own and maintaining his weight. I was able to visit him whenever I wanted and was able to establish a good bond with him before we brought him home.

I wouldn't think twice about buying another bird from PJ Pets. Both birds were in great health when we took them to the vet to get checked out when we got them and we haven't had any health issues with them and they are now 4 and 5 years old. The only downfall I guess, is that we paid a bit more for both Lucy and Jessie than we would have through a breeder.

Laura

[Suzzique]

While I have nothing agenst recues some go to and extream and adopting a bird from them is extreamly hard. Before we got Alex we had thought about going to the rescue insted of getting a baby. I discovered that you have to take 3 classes from them, become members, have your home inspected and then you may still get turned down to adopt. On top of all that the classes you have to take are not always given. It could take 6 months or more to even get all the classes taken. We were looking at almost a year and even then no gareentee that we could adopt. While I understand that they want to make sure that the birds are going to a good home why make it almost imposible for people? They are going to do what we did and go find a breeder or go to one of the bird stores in town and buy one. Or even go on craigslist and get a rehome that way. That's how I got Martini.

[FWC]

My local store is part of a canadian chain ,and our store if above par compaired to the others in the city. Infact my macaw ,Zypher, came from this store.

First Zypher was hadrasied ,and then he got sent to one of the slummy mall stores. He then proceded to pluck his feathers and develope trust issues.

THen he got sent to my local store ,with is a small ,individual store. Zypher enjoyed daily baths and lots of love . Soon his almost bald head regrew all its feathers ,the started to trust people again ,and finally his true nature came out.

Also one other thing...he was in a 3x3x4 cage at the mall store ,but got moved to a huge 5x5x6 cage at our store.

A month after he came in ,I bought him. We had formed a close bond via my daily vists ,and he now enjoys a life of love ,snuggles and treats.

[Titanius]

In my area we have a Petland Discount nearby. I went there recently window shopping for a cage. And out of curiosity I went past the many aquariums to the aviary. There was a cockatoo in it's own 1 perch glass enclosure. Then next to that were 5 young Sun Conures ($500 each according to the staff) in their own similar enclosure. And finally next to that was the room filled with cages. I felt so bad when I saw some of these birds.

A few weeks ago if I had went into that store I might have thought some of these puffed up lethargic parrots were cute. Now learning what I have most of them were probably sick. I looked up to the lovebirds and their feathers were ... a faded dusty color. I felt so bad for them. It made me feel sorta good that I was thinking about getting a hand-fed lovebird from a small-time local breeder.