My heart broke! It was a Saturday afternoon when I decided to run to the store. I got there about an hour before closing and the first thing I saw was two Caiques sitting on a Bird stand, an African grey on top of a white Cage and a Sun Conure interacting through the bars with another Sun Conure (Yes, I’ve learned my birdies over the years). To the outside eye, this is great, they are getting out of cage time – perfect situation but my eyes are keener and I’m not afraid of interacting with stranger birds. The first thing I did was walk straight to the Caiques, slowly presented my hand and asked for a step up, they leaned away. Okay so they were taught how to step up but at least they didn’t fly from me, not that they could as their wings were clipped.
Next, I went to the baby African Grey, the cage was really small but seeing how he was out of it maybe it’s just a sleeping cage. The baby grey shivered away from me and I thought and someone is going to come in here and pay $1,800CAD for this baby and they will have a hard time because of upbringing. Behind him were two lutino Quakers in the same size cage as the african grey’s. I checked out their conures, parrotlets, linnies and finches but I wasn’t only taking in the fact that all birds were scared of the visitors, I took in their dirty water bowls, the pooped in food bowls that looked like it’s been there all day and some. All of them had seeds in their diet even the quakers (who can suffer from the fatty liver disease) and there were no toys in their cages to keep them occupied.
The biggest pain came when I turned the corner and was surprised with two greys in a small cage together, one was growling on the bottom of the cage and the other was a bit more interactive sitting on the perch. The problem was the cage was covered with flies and I had to keep fanning my hand, wondering where the flies were coming from but I didn’t have to search long. At the bottom of the cage was lots of poop and old fruits and veggies – YUCK! My stomach turned! This store hikes up their prices for their birds but yet their birds are kept in HORRIBLE quality. There is no love for the parrots there. As much as I want people to save the birdies, if you buy from this store you will have a lot of work on your hands regarding health, diet change, socializing and just interacting with your parrot.
One woman bought a pineapple conure from here being told it was super friendly and tamed when she got home she hasn’t been able to handle it… But yet, I offer my services and people don’t want to pay 30 bucks for an hour consultation because they feel they can do it which they can but do you have the eye for realizing the problem, the patience, and the knowledge? While I was there a family came in and was buying all these bird stuff when the salesperson went to get the bird and teach them I wanted to yell, “NO! Please don’t do that to your bird!!!” But I bit my tongue and just said a little prayer. The man that runs the store put on garden gloves, took the family to the conure cage, asked which one and proceeded to tell them to wear gloves on both of their hands and grab and remove the parrot from the cage. Then hold it firmly and force pet it’s head. Where is the EMPOWERMENT!?!? Where is the choice?! Where is the option!?! Not only that but he didn’t mention to not hold it around the chest area or make sure they are holding it lightly because of their diaphragm which you can kill them that way. This poor family is going to end up rehoming this bird…
T & T Aquariums is the only bird selling store I know in my area so I’m sure they are getting lots of business but I’m asking you guys please take in re-homes or even go to rescues but if you really want a baby than go to breeders but please, please avoid supporting these horrible stores – This store needs to stop selling parrots!!!
This is my review on Don’T and Don’T Aquariums.
Parenting Parrots
