Meet O’Brien. O’Brien is a yellow budgeriegar with black speckles on his back and a bit of light blue on his little tummy. I bought him at Petland yesterday.
I picked O’Brien out because he seemed to be the least skittish of the birds in the flock. He wasn’t just laid back, it turns out. He was downright lethargic. All he wanted to do yesterday was sleep. He didn’t respond to most stimuli, not even sudden loud noises. He also didn’t chirp, didn’t try to interact with his reflection in a mirror. He also didn’t seem too interested in eating. At least not until I pushed a millet spray right up against his little beak. Then he started chowing down. That’s when I realized that O’Brien was much too young to have been sold as a pet. He hasn’t figured out how to feed himself yet. Today before I left for work, I told Mom to hand feed him.
When I came home today, Mom reported an almost miraculous change. After eating a whole lotta seed from a spoon she held for him, the bird became lively, curious, and friendly. I played with him a bit when I got home, and he is now contentedly perched on the back of the flat-panel screen of mom’s laptop. She also reported chirping, which I haven’t personally heard. This half-ounce bird now has my ten and a half pound cat Conan buffaloed.
I called the store a little bit ago and told the manager that this bird had been lethargic, would only eat if he was hand-fed, and was too young to have been sold. He insisted that they bought their birds from a breeder who didn’t sell them until they were “a certain age”, and that the bird had been eating from a bowl with all the other birds. He said if there was a problem, I could bring him back and exchange him. Fat chance.
I’m just glad I was the one who bought this particular bird. A lot of people who buy budgies don’t have experience with birds and often just put them in a cage with some seed, a cuttle bone and a toy or two. Too many people just wouldn’t have had enough knowledge or experience with birds to realize that this was a baby who might need a few days or a week of hand-feeding before he could find his way to the food dish on his own.
So, a hearty “Fuck you” to Petland, the breeder who sold them the bird, the horse he rode in on, the stallion who sired him, the dam who bore him and the groom who snuck her into the paddock at night to avoid paying the stud fee.
Does he have any black left on his beak? If there is just a little at the tip he is past the weaning stage. If no black at all he is more than old enough to have been sold.
Be sure to offer him vegetables and fruit in addition to the seed. Offer one at a time, everyday, until he stats to recognize them as food. Just stick it in the cage bars and leave it for a couple of hours. Those mini carrots and frozen mixed veggies are big hits with all my birds.
This bird has not yet learned how to feed himself from a dish. He’s finally grokked the millet spray and can eat that on his own, but to get him to eat regular seed he has to be fed with a spoon. I definitely don’t want this bird to exist on a diet of millet.
I know about giving him veggies, BTW. I’ve had birds before. Right now I don’t want to start giving him unfamiliar foods, but I’m thinking after he’s settled in and learned to feed himself, some nice fresh broccoli might be in order. I’ve never had good luck getting birds to eat carrots, maybe if I grated some he’d be able to eat that.
We’re making progress, now that he’s settled in a bit. I can now offer him seed in a spoon, and use that to lead him to a dish of seed, and he will eat from the dish just fine. I’m hoping that within a couple of days, he’ll be finding the dish on his own- he has two seed dishes, one inside his cage and one for his jungle gym so if he gets hungry while he’s playing food will be available. Also, in his seed dish in his cage, this morning we found some empty seed hulls inside and on the floor, so apparently he figured that one out. I offered him some fresh mint leaves, but he wasn’t interested. He’s becoming more active, he ran around on the floor for a little while while Mom and I supervised and Conan the Wonderkitty cowered in terror.
Agreed. Shitty living conditions, jacked up prices, high school students for “Pet Specialists” and that always delightful “You can bring it back if it dies and get another one” guarantee. Hey, ass globules, ever consider that an animal is not a houseplant?
Sounds fairly typical to me. It’s not uncommon for a new bird to take a few days (or even longer) to get used to its new environment, figure out where the food and water is, what the new smells and new sounds are. It has probably never been away from other birds, and all of this, after being carried to a new home in a box or covered (hopefully) cage.
I’m sure there’s more sites with similar info, but that’s probably a good start.
If you truly had to handfeed him, I would agree he was too young, but handfeeding involves the use of some type of bird formula that is usually fed through a needleless syringe.
Well, I’ll fault the person at the store for not telling you it’s fairly typical for a new bird to act frightened, quiet, and even lethargic. He might have even suggested you keep an eye on the stools and asked if the bird was sitting on the bottom of the cage or continually staying puffed up. I however, think you share some of the blame, for not researching your purchase a little better beforehand. Unless the bird is truly ill, and you left that part out, I really don’t see what there is to complain about. Sounds like the employee was polite and did his best to remedy the situation.
Holy crap, the breeder is at fault, too? Are there stress bars/lines on the feathers? Is the bird covered in mites? Does it have an impacted cloaca or crop? What exactly is the breeder supposed to do? Follow you home when you buy the bird?
I’m assuming you’re speaking of most chain pet stores. The independent pet stores tend to be better about taking care of their animals, and getting people who either know what they’re doing, or are taught what to do as part of their training process. I know a few people who work in an independent franchise of a pet store in town, and all of their animals are in good condition. Not only do the people working in each section know what they’re doing and how to care for the animal, but they inform prospective buyers of what 's necessary for the animal they’re thinking of buying. The dogs that are in the store are all certified with papers, and are checked by a vet at least twice, both times being paid for by the store . Once when they come in from the breeder (to make sure that they’re medically sound before a kennel technician works with them), and once as a freebie to the new owner via a local animal hospital. Either way, sick animals are treated, new animals are checked to make sure they’re healthy, and potential pet owners are provided with what they need to make sure that pet is going to be healthy and happy for at least the first few weeks. (They sell starter kits for most of the animals, and it’s mandatory for puppies and kittens.)
As for the prices, pet stores have to make money in order to stay in business. Breeders have to make money in order to stay in business. Pet stores get their animals from breeders, who set the price high enough so that they make some profit off of breeding and selling the animals. Pet stores are going to raise the prices to cover their overhead and make a little profit. What exactly are you looking for price-wise when you say the prices are jacked up, and are you taking into the account that there are costs that have to be calculated into the price of a pet from a reputable breeder and retailer?
Last night I went shopping at a store that rhymes with “… set, go” looking for a few neon tetras. Every single fish tank in that nasty store had no less than 3 dead fish at the bottom. One tank in particular had a whole mess of fish, DEAD FISH, stuck to the intake end of the filter. WTF? So I didn’t get my neon tetras and I don’t really know what the hell I’m supposed to do about the living conditions of those fish. Does anyone really give a shit?
Never buy birds from a pet store. Sorry, but I don’t care how great the staff is, odd are the birds are bred far away and shipped to the store in crates. Buy a dog, cat or fish, but never birds. I mean, unless you know the owners personally and can personally attest that the breeder is within a few miles and drives them to the store in clean, humane conditions. Find a local breeder. Interview them. Then choose which breeder to buy from. The ONE bird I broke down and bought from a pet store (a budgie) cost $29. Then it cost me @ $300 in vet bills. I thought I was so smart and could tell the health of a bird from it’s mannerisms. You can’t. Birds hide when they’re sick and you don’t ever really know (usually) until it’s pretty close to too late. The $50 budgies I bought from a breeder cost me nothing except check-ups. Pet stores, btw, usually cost less for the smaller birds because they usually come massed produced and crate shipped from Florida. Any hand feeding and hand raising is almost canceled out by the harsh and cruel travel conditions.
You can also adopt birds from vets and other shelters who care for birds. That’s how I got my African Grey.
Also, lethargic is NOT a normal characteristic when bringing home a new bird. Skittish, won’t eat, won’t come out, maybe he bites. Lethargic is a sign of sickness. Take the bird to a vet. DO NOT BRING IT BACK TO THE STORE. It will certainly die if it’s sick now and you bring it back. The only thing you can do with pet stores is not buy from them. Buy only from breeders and tell whoever you know that’s considering a bird to do the same. You may feel sorry and want to “rescue” them (like I did once) but all you do is add fuel to the fire. If the market isn’t there for the big chain stores, then maybe they’ll stop carrying them. If the market is there, though, they certainly won’t stop.
Just real quick, while I don’t agree with 99% of what they do, PETA and other such orginizations can be called. They WILL act on the info. I called them about terrible conditions in a local pet store. One bird had an infected foot from being in a cage with no perches and shit all over the bottom. They took the address and promised to do something.
Thanks Llama. So do you know if they ever did anything? I would certainly appreciate a follow up to that sort of complaint. I have a couple of store on My List – places I know I can never buy fish from because I can’t trust that they’ll be healthy – and I’d love something to be done about that.
Not that I want to run around putting people out of business (it would never happen, these are all national chain stores), but this is wrong. I did talk to my mom and she heard about a small, independent fish dealer just south of me so maybe I’ll be able to get my fish there. I’m glad the fish I have now (all from the same chain (most from the same store) mentioned in my last post) are doing okay. I’ve had three die, but I still have 12 left, lucky me… Assholes.
I’m positive that there are pet stores out there like the one you’re describing… I just haven’t seen any, and I’ve seen a lot of pet stores. While Petland is pretty high on my shit list for various offenses, I’ve found that the small independent stores can be just as bad, if not worse.
Example: Bert’s, a local shop that sells mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, a few puppies and kittens, birds, snakes… hrm. I think that’s it. Anyway, the last visit I made revealed the following:
[ul]
[li]so many mice living in one cracked, taped together fish tank that they were stacked three high on top of each other[/li][li] ditto those little dwarf hamsters[/li][li]guinea pigs/rabbits that had dry water bowls [bone dry], no food except pellets and a bed of cedar shavings[/li][li]rabbits in the same cage with the pigs[/li][li]a chinchilla in a too small cage that had feces an inch thick on the floor of it[/li][li]roughly a dozen birds [unsure what type] in one cage[/li][li]a clerk who tried to pick up a guinea pig and dropped it out of fear when it wheeked at her[/li][/ul]
Guinea pigs ran around $40 a pop there, which is complete bullshit, because I know for a fact that he gets his pigs from people who have unexpected litters. Petland [the two Petlands in this area, mind you, I don’t know about all] also accepts “spares” from just about anyone who will give them.
There’s another local store here that’s about as bad, but I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head. Petland is usually a little bit better, but they have so many folks in and out [since the ones here are located in malls] that I imagine they have to be to keep any business.
Silver Fire, PETA can and will twist their arm to do something about those fish. If you don’t like PETA or don’t want to deal with them, just ring the store and harass the shit out of the manager about it – in a polite way! She’ll do something.
In North Carolina, pet stores are regulated by the Department of Agriculture. I don’t get the impression that the DoA does squat, but it can’t hurt to call them.
Why? In NC, for example, there’s a law being proposed that would put tighter restrictions on pet stores. If it goes through, then the DoA will have a file containing previous complaints on a pet store, and that’ll make any enforcement actions they do that much harder to contest.
And anyway, it can’t hurt to call to file a complaint when conditions are shitty.
Note that, at least in NC, while pet stores and farm stores are excluded from oversight by local animal control and cruelty investigators, carnivals and fairs are not. You can report them to animal control if you witness cruelty, or illegalities such as (again, in NC) giving away live animals such as goldfish as prizes.
Oh, and the other thing PETA can do if it’s a national chain is stir some shit up about them. PETA’s vegetarian campaigns can be pretty fucking annoying, but I know from local experience that they’re very helpful in bringing a spotlight and pressure to bear on folks who are mistreating animals on a large scale.
(Warning: go to that site, and you’re one click away from some pretty horrifying pictures of animal cruelty. Don’t click on the “pictures” section if you don’t have a strong stomach).
Actually, I would ask that people try to refrain from buying dogs from pet stores, too (maybe cats, but I don’t think this problem is with cats). Puppy mills
OK, I’m breaking here because of the reaming I got earlier. I have had birds before. I’ve seen skittish, biting, refusing to come out of the cage. I had none of these problems with O’Brien. Once he’d had a couple of good meals, which for the first two days we had him had to be fed to him by hand or in a spoon, the bird was fine. I’m guessing he was a bit malnourished. Even in the cage at the pet store, he was not terribly energetic, which I took for being laid-back.
Well, I didn’t see any ruffled feathers or loose stools, and after being in the apartment for a couple of hours, calmed down enough that he got up and sat on a perch instead of huddling in the bottom of the cage. I’m actually surprised that he’s turning out to be such a good pet, being that he’s a “mass produced” bird and all.
