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Not your typical sucky pet store

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Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Michael » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:03 am



You may have seen my post about a sucky pet store, so I wanted to share a video Kathleen and I recently made at our favorite bird store (where we got Duke and Kili). Visitors are welcome to socialize and handle the birds.

The only major downside to this kind of environment is that a lot of birds have messed up feathers. You'll see a Senegal Parrot with no tail feathers. It seems that the parrots chew each others feathers if they stay at the store too long. Kili and Duke both had messy feathers coming from there but luckily they had most of them intact.
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby miajag » Sat Jan 02, 2010 12:21 pm

Wow, that place looks awesome. I'm partial to Quakers but they looked the most adorable to me. The GCC and tailless Senegal were really cute too. Are the birds just out in terrariums for the day for people to look at/handle, and go back to cages at night, or are they always in the terrariums?
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Lullabye » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:05 pm

Holy cow! Wish they had pet stores like that here! What an awesome opportunity for the birds to socialize and interact with people. But I did feel sorry for the Amazon in the corner by the trash can, lol! Poor thing couldn't climb back up and he looked a little lost. Nice video, thanks for sharing!
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Michael » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:50 pm

I haven't seen enough cages for all those birds so I'm pretty sure they sleep out where they are. They have more parrots out front, usually the ones that are still being hand fed or socialized.

It's definitely a win/win for the store and the customers. The visitors get to experience lots of birds, the store wins cause the visitors do the work of socializing the bids. The customers get a well socialized bird and the store gets people to fall in love with a bird they interacted and perhaps buy on impulse.
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby andychen » Sun Jan 03, 2010 8:54 pm

Your videos are great!
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Natacha » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:16 pm

Personally, although I would love to go in such a pet store, I don't think it only has positives.
For one, all those different types of birds in one room with no actual barriers between them..size difference would be an issue for me. Lots of big birds that can come in contact with pretty small birds and accidents happen quickly, whether intentional or not.
Second, I wouldn't want just anyone trying to handle any parrot without any type of stricter supervision. From what I've seen, there didn't seem to be too many employees hanging around.
Although it might be only temporary, those cages did seem small for some birds. Granted, lots of other pet stores don't house parrots in appropriate size cages, I would think that more reputable stores would at least try to do so. One of the pet store chains that use to exist here and that sold big parrots did house the parrots in recommended size cages. It might not make a difference for a short period of time, but if people see this, uneducated people (regarding birds that is), they might think that these size cages are appropriate and who can blame them?

Michael wrote:It's definitely a win/win for the store and the customers. The visitors get to experience lots of birds, the store wins cause the visitors do the work of socializing the bids. The customers get a well socialized bird and the store gets people to fall in love with a bird they interacted and perhaps buy on impulse.


Win/win for the store and visitors maybe.
I don't think this always a win situation for the birds.
Impulse buys aren't always positives for the birds. Say what you will, some do well, some will not.
At least when a new owner is forced to do a little researching before buying, the bird will probably stand a better chance of not being rehomed for issues that were not foreshadowed.
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Michael » Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:40 pm

I think it's ok for baby birds to be in smaller cages because they are young and still exploring. Also, this way when you bring it home and put it in a normal sized cage it's a big upgrade for the bird. Would be worse the other way around if the bird was used to living in a huge cage and downgrade at the owner's house.
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Natacha » Mon Jan 04, 2010 8:46 pm

Michael wrote:I think it's ok for baby birds to be in smaller cages because they are young and still exploring. Also, this way when you bring it home and put it in a normal sized cage it's a big upgrade for the bird. Would be worse the other way around if the bird was used to living in a huge cage and downgrade at the owner's house.


I did say that for a short period of time, it could be ok.
However, I do think that there is probably a number of people that go in and see this and think those cages are a proper size (which they aren't).

I think it's more likely that someone will keep the same size cage than go out of their way to go smaller.
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby sift » Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:35 pm

My first thought about that video was that the noise level was astonishing. Our birds (i.e. the birds at my store) don't make nearly that amount of noise. Of course, the store is much bigger and there aren't as many birds... Possibly a factor. :)

My second thought was that I didn't think it was very safe. I have a friend whose cockatoo, for no apparent reason, ripped off her lovebird's beak/face. I would be interested to know how many accidents happen there.

I think it's awesome that people get to interact with the birds but I have to say that I think it would do well to be a little more structured. At our store, the large birds (macaws, grays, cockatoos, Amazons, etc.) are housed individually in large cages and the smaller birds (conures, quakers, lovebirds, budgies, cockatiels) are housed in large open pens that people can reach into. I feel a lot safer that way, knowing that the birds aren't being harassed by people they don't want to interact with, the people are safe from the larger birds beak (unless they stick their fingers in the cages), and the smaller birds are safe from the larger birds (accidents OR intentional attacks).
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Re: Not your typical sucky pet store

Postby Michael » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:06 pm

Bear in mind the birds are very young and have no alternate experiences. This is their world. This is all they are used to. They are all birds so they don't have any predator/prey stuff going on. Yes I do see them squabble from time to time but I've never seen a major fight. The birds know how to keep out of each other's feathers. I'm also impressed to see them mix species in the tanks from time to time. It's not uncommon to see a Black Capped Parrot with a Sun Parakeet and an Alexandrian Parakeet all in one tank.

Of course it would be imprudent to do such a thing with older birds but considering that these birds are brought up this way, I don't think it's too much of a problem. I think it makes them more hardy and ready for the harshness of the real world as well.
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