The pet store bird dilemma

As I'm sure most of you also do, I avoid buying animals from pet stores. Buying them supports their trade, but not buying them means those animals are stuck in a store. I just wanted to vent about it!

At one of my local Petsmarts, there are several beautiful birds in cramped little cages. I can't help but pay them a visit when I stop by the store, especially a young playful little GCC. The poor little guy gets frustrated when he realizes there's a piece of plastic between him and me. He is constantly biting his feet. There's a VERY young baby senegal parrot who cries for attention, and a poor Nanday who looks bored and weary. They have bland bowls of seeds and sparse toys. Sometimes the Nanday and a Jenday would try to preen each other through a tiny opening between their enclosures, but they separated them.

I feel very sad for them and wish I could save them, but I'm not going to buy any of them... I won't support a store that keeps their animals in such sad conditions. But of course, there's always that part of you that can't help but want to save the poor individual from those conditions. When I worked with a dog walking business, we had a client with a beautiful shiba inu that she bought from a pet shop. She knew he came from a puppy mill but she couldn't stand seeing the little puppy shivering in a corner and crying. He lives a happy, long, full life now, at the expense of fueling the puppy mill industry.

What do you do? Save the individual, or save the future individuals? I just wanted to see how you guys deal with this frustration!

I save the individual then I call the corporate office to give them my feed back. Only one of my dogs came from pet shop, he was very sick and it broke my heart in pieces to see him in there. I try not to visit the shops too much cause I usually leave with full of tears looking at them.

It sounds like the petsmart where I live too. It is so sad to see these smart birds in the small cage where they are kept. I was watching a sunnie for almost a year in one of those. If they do not sell they ship them off to another store.

I walked up to the Nanday's cage with a dog toy I was going to buy... he's normally lethargic and quiet but he just went nuts for the toy! It really made me wish I could play with him. I wish I could volunteer there just to give the poor birds playtime and attention. I'm getting attached to the little guys.

petsmart and pet supplies plus, or is it petco, are supplied by sunpet. sunpet is terrible they put hamsters in a plastic bag and killed them in a way i would rather not share its so bad! its stupid chains of pet stores owned by people who have not a clue what their doing that makes me mad. there is a pet store near my house thats privately owned, and takes great care of their animals,the owner even keeps his own pets at the store. i just hate big chain pet stores. we should start some sort of online pettition against them and send it to them! i know its hard to deal with, but mabey you could write a letter to them regarding the conditions of their animals? good luck and your not alone!

Merlin came from petsupplies+. Even though he was only 8 months old, & probably hadnt been there long, he had the problems associated w/pet shop birds. He was afraid of anyone approaching his cage, he is aggressive to children, even to this day. It has taken a long time for him to get over his pet shop stay. When my husband brought him home, he was already talking. Besides the normal hello, he said words that I would not repeat & then laugh histerically. The teenagers @ the pet shop taught him. I visit this pet shop often, they usually have 2 large parrots, they are kept in regular cages. They keep the smaller birds, including conures in the small plastic cages. They do seem to be there a long time. The kids working seem to like the birds, but have no real bird handling training. I hate to see these beautiful animals in these situations, but I cant help myself, I have to visit. I try to offer a few kind words & attention to all there.

Merlinsmom,

That is the best way to go is to let them know the proper way to care for them in a nice manner.

i agree, when people are rude it accomplishes nothing but hurt, but when your nice, people learn something!

I did actually get to a couple of days ago, they had a biting galah, they let me hold him. I showed them a few tricks to stop the nibbling, I gave him a toy instead. When he was bored w/that we tried rocking to keep him off balance. He really responded & let me scratch his head. I noticed a couple of the girls were watching, I hope something sunk in. I have to go later in the week, maybe I'll notice some improvement.

I have a Petco and there is one plastic cage divided into 4 sections. Whenever I go I visit the birds and it breaks my heart because there will be a conure in a section about 14x12x8. Its crazy... I will go over and see them and they run over and try to get to me... They are so smart... Once white bellied caique that I absolutely fell in love with was there and he would go over the the lock on the door and try to open it. It was adorable!

OH MY GOD I JUST FOUND THIS.... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHU9T70YFJU]YouTube - Sun Pet Undercover Investigation[/ame]

i think all petcos are like that. The one near me has 5-6 different conures at any given time. Usually normal GCCs, Jendays, and suns. They keep them behind two plastic doors so there is no way you can interact with them except visually. I take my sun to see them, cause I think its good for him to see others like him, but it always breaks my heart to see them wanting to play but getting angry cause they cant
I want so badly to rescue one of them, I even watched two of them there for 8 months when I was researching to get my companion. Every time I take Xander they actually make noises and scream. He screams too and people all over the store stop to see whats going on. One lady commented on how that was the first time she had ever heard those bird makes a noise! Needless to say on these trips I let them scream cause it shows people what these birds can really do. If they ask me if thats how loud they get I tell them no, thats only his play scream. I like to edjucate people on how these birds can really be, so I answer all their questions honestly. Are they messy? Yea there are very messy. Do they make alot of noise? Yea they can but they can also be very cuddle and quite. Things like this. I think the petco people dont like me much anymore either cause the lady who checks out our stuff isnt nice to me anymore lol

Once upon a time I used to work at a PetSmart. I walked in every morning, and my first task was to count the animals that had passed away. Part of this was opening a freezer to find many dead cockatiels. 90% of them died becuase the evening crew were teenagers and didn't take care when hand feeding them. In my opinion they shouldn't have been hand feeding them in the first place. Management just shrugged it off as normal.

Well, in the short time that I worked there I did my best to provide the parrots and other animals with some sort of happiness. I would go to the local food store and get fresh fruits and veggies and give some to all the animals there. I would let the larger, tame parrots out of their cages, even though I was told not to. I would take toys off the shelves, and give them to the birds, that I was told I could do, IF a toy was broken. So lets just say there were a lot of broken toys while I was there. The saddest part of quitting that job was leaving the blue front that was there. When I would come back in visit he would yell to me as soon as he seen me. Broke my heart. I do know he was sold to a chef, and I hope he is living a happy life.

I saw a video a while back that showed employees taking animals WHO WERE DIEING and sticking them into a freezer, leaving them there to freeze to death! I'm glad you did what you could to help those poor animals! I'm actually glad the petco around here gets their cockatiels from a bird farm that cares very much for their birds. Thats about it tho. The rest come from who knows where!

I agree with the above statements assisting them and offering great advise. Hoping and praying they follow it through.
Browse through the link below, very interesting results. The pet shop have kept their promise, loving and caring for the birds, making sure they are healthy and happy.

Disgusting FOR A PET SHOP

Good luck, we are with you all the way !!!!!

Yuck, I have been through that.
Poor young sun conure, stuck in a small cage a ONE bell toy with STICKY TAPE all over it's wing so it couldn't fly, even though it already had them clipped and was in a cage.
Poor thing picked up the bell toy and tried to give it to me through the bars. Broke my heart
This wasn't my local pet store.

Poor things

I was at my Petsmart yesterday visiting the birds as usual. There's a new Jenday there who's terrified of people and doesn't look healthy.

One of the employees saw me looking at the Nanday, and he brought her out for me to play with her. The poor thing is very poorly socialized. I was in love with the beautiful bird and would have loved nothing more than to see her playing, flying, eating healthy, vocalizing and being curious like a happy parrot should. I also asked if I could handle this super playful little turquoise GCC. He is such a character, but gets to frustrated when he wants to play but there's plastic in the way. When I held him he seemed too overwhelmed about being out of the cage to play.

I know that if I were to buy him, they'd just replace him with another one. But if I don't, either somebody will, or he'll spend his life there. One employee said they'll stay at the store for about a year until they "go to another store" if they're not sold.

I wish I had a rescue bird shelter around here instead! I'd be visiting that all the time!

If you loved this bird so much, why won't you buy it and of course you can report about this store. I think it is great responsibility to open a pet store and they have to provide good conditions for keeping animals. Don't forget to leave your comments on web sites like Pet Stores, you will get a support from customers and let people know about such businesses

There was a young lady on another forum that i'm a member of who didn't like the things she saw at her local Petsmart/Petco and started writing letters and making phone calls.Don't get me wrong ,she's like a rabid pit-bull, but she got things changed. The birds are feed pellets , have toys , and are in nicer cages. You can make a difference.

I got really sad last time I was in a PetSmart. There were 2 finches being sold with beak deformities. I told a couple of the employees that they needed to see a vet, but I haven't been back to see if anything happened.

The conures and cockatiels are in teeny cages with not very many toys, and most of them can't even see another living thing, unless someone comes up to the window.