![]() Her independence is wonderful – more than I can tell you. Training and time have given her confidence in increments, but I can see the difference between her and our hand-raised parrotlet and senegal parrot in her every behaviour. Add to the fact that upon purchase, the bird is abruptly separated from its cage-mates – the only familiar things to it – and packed off to a new home, new cage, new diet, new humans poking their fingers in wanting a tame pet.Īll this sets them up for problems later in life. Loud noises, constant light, poor nutrition, strange faces looming suddenly in front of them, probably (but not always) less than ideal caging situations, and sometimes poor cleanliness. There are all kinds of stressful stimuli in a pet shop that can harm a bird’s health and mental stability. Their first impressions are very negative as they are less than gently handled in the time between transfers from aviary, shop, and a new home. They are often not hand-tamed, and have little to no experience with humans. Such pets are either relinquished to rescues, re-sold, or left in terrible conditions.įinally, and most importantly, parrots who come from pet shops of the ‘bad’ variety have hosts of individual issues. ![]() Failure to meet these results in behavioural problems that manifest from the bird’s suffering. We’re talking about extremely intelligent, sensitive animals with specific and demanding care requirements. Pet shop owners are also typically less inclined to educate potential buyers about the truths of ownership, as their main goal is to make money and keep their shop going. ![]() Trust me, you don’t want to go through that with your bird. He and Pip came to us in pretty rough condition – and although he received vet treatment at the beginning, we lost him. Our sweet Charlie was one of these birds. Why did the breeders give these particular birds up? Because they’re weak, probably sick, and not good breeding stock. ![]() This is because – even if they don’t come from a factory situation – they come from breeders. I’m not against pet shops, but I have slowly formed the opinion that they should not be allowed to sell birds or parrots – for a multitude of reasons.įirst, pet shop birds are more likely to carry diseases. Our cockatiel, Mishka, is a pet shop parrot, our first and only. ![]() But it must not be – because people still buy and sell birds. And yes, that sounds so obvious when I write it. Trust me when I say that a bird’s background makes all the difference in how it reacts to things. Pip, although clever in her canary way, simply does not compare to a parrot when it comes to matters of intelligence. What I’m talking about mostly applies to parrots, too. I suppose I mean their adaptability, their confidence, their ability to find happiness in a given situation. I don’t even mean the things they do and don’t like, preferences, because although that ties into it, that’s not it, either. Congo African Grey playing on the aviary roof of his home at the Island Parrot Sanctuary. I don’t mean their personalities – neurotic but lovable cockatiel Mishka who sings the first six notes of Jingle Bells on repeat cheerful (hungry) Pip who will eat anything ferocious parrotlet Ptak with his love of chewing fingers but surprisingly gentle moments cuddly, sweet Mavi with his defensive side and affinity for car alarms poor umbrella cockatoo Bobo, who has a dark history. There is a marked difference between each of our birds. Not all pet shops are bad, nor are they ‘evil.’ But I feel that even in the best of conditions, a pet shop is not the right place for a parrot. ![]()
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