Unexperienced Buying Parrots

[Tarsun]

I was at my local pet store today, buying some food and new toys for my bird. There was a sweet Congo African Grey parrot in a cage. There were some people gazing at it and poking their fingers through the cage bars, I'm surprised the bird hasn't took out their fingers yet because of irritation. A man and his son were standing in front of the bird, and talking. The kid looked like a spoil brat, like those kids who get tired of their stuff after 10 minutes and go for another one. Anyways the kid goes' Dad, I want that (CAG)' and the dad says " Will you be able to look after him?' and the kid goes " Yeah, parrots are cool they can talk and all that" and I was standing across the store listening to them and then all of a sudden the dad just goes up to the cashier and asks him few questions and buys the CAG! I swear he bought the bird which was $850, I couldn't describe my reaction to that. How could he even buy that parrot, knowing barely nothing about it. He bought it for his kid's 13th birthday. Honestly, pet store owners who sell parrots to people like that man and his son should be shot. That CAG is going to suffer because obviously those people don't know nothing about birds. My only question is why would anyone sell a parrot like a CAG to people who are unexperienced. That was a really shocking thing that happened to me today, seeing that bird go home with people who have no knowlege on CAGs. It would be a whole different story if that man had some experience with birds in the past but he seemed like he didn't. It's sad really

[Azure Hanyo]

That poor bird.

[Erithacus]

It happened everywhere. Profit comes first. Birds are just a commodity to the greedy owners.

[Kim S]

Lets hope daddy will start looking some stuff up and become really interested in parrot behavior and such.

It happens.

[MandyG]

I really hope it doesn't have a horrible life.

[JadeW]

I can understand falling in love with an animal and deciding to buy... But you walk away so it's no longer an impulse and research the hell out of whatever it is you think you want! That's how I got my bird.

Sigh... I know profit comes first in a pet store, but I hope they at least made that family sign a contract to return the bird if they can't reliably care for it.

[Giantmoa]

this is especially saddening to hear concerning a bird as sensitive as I hear african greys are... I remember trying to talk my biological father out of getting a pair of cockatiels. I don't know why I was so responsible at the age of eight (or maybe younger?) but he went ahead and got them anyways. They did not lead a very happy life (small cage, unsocialized, all seed diet) and I stopped visits with him shorly afterwards due to other reasons =/ I hope that man was more informed/responsible than he appeared and the cag doesn't suffer as a result of an impulse buy

[HyperD]

This is what happens when people have more money than sense


You would think if you are spending that amount of money, especially on a little kid, that you would do all the research possible...

[TheNzJessie]

i went to the bird barn to buy some more lorikeet food and some more toys and they always have some really intresting birds before but i have never seen a african grey in a pet store for sale (we had one at the one i worked at but it belonged to the stores owner) african grays are hard to come by in new zealand

this sweet gentle bird was hand raised looking for a new home i spent a good hour talking to her and petting her, she was in much need of some attention, very quite just sitting them so i went over just just talked to her and when she offered for me to pet her i did. anyone want to know the price tag?
$12,000, i wouldn't be able to take her even if she was free but im sure the zoo i work at could giver her the life she deserve to bad its a nonprofit that survives on donations. i really dont want her to end up being shoved into a cage. her nature was just beautiful for a bird i just hope she doesn't sell her self to a impulse buyer

its so sad she just had the ...help me....look on her face

[Erithacus]

A friend of mine bought a wild CAG (meant for breeding) sometime this year thinking that he could be a good talker without doing any research on the parrot. His live-in girlfriend quarreled with him most of the time bcoz the CAG screamed whenever his gf went near the bird. Finally he had to move the CAG to his work place (selling used cars) hoping the bird could get tamed with more people around him. But then he didn't have the time to care for the parrot and sold it to his colleague. In about a month or 2 the bird died. Sad ending.