petsmart greencheek

[Aquila]

Wow, I didn't know that. Most of the breeders I'm familiar with use close bands. Only time I've seen open bands was as an additional ID for finches or other song birds, further identifying them by gender, family, mutation, or some other trait the breeder could visually see in a flight without having to capture and read/cross-reference the band. Open bands are kind of scary on a parrot of any size, much less safe than a closed band.

So – and I'm ignorant here – PS buys its babies from breeders and then bands them with open bands? The original breeder doesn't band? I'll have to pay attention to the GCCs and cockatiels at my local stores to see what they're wearing.

Sorry for the deviation from the original post. I was just curious about this.

The biggest supplier is located out of Florida if I remember right, that's where PS gets their conures and other birds. The conures are always banded. The same supplier probably services PC as well, but they also band budgies from which I assume is different stock, I know this because we received a banded budgie once that we couldn't "sell" which I ended up adopting.

 

[Dinosrawr]

It makes me sad when I go into pet stores and see the birds they have. Rabbits and other rodents, too. Enough awareness about puppy/cat mills finally stopped pet stores from selling anything other than SPCA cats in their franchise locations here in Canada. I hope eventually the same will be done for the other species of animals.

That being said, you should be able to get a discount. My rabbit was a rehome and $15 because he was "old" and a return, despite the fact that he's been neutered, is so loving, and so easy. My boyfriend used to work at a pet store and he told me that birds who don't sell immediately can eventually drop in price if it's been long enough AND if the person asks. Otherwise they'll try to get every penny they can.

When I went into the Petland the other day, they had a Mealy Amazon baby. The manager didn't even know what species it was, and suggested that it was a YCA. So they have it advertised as an "Amazon parrot". I so badly wanted to just say, "Uh, that's a Mealy, and you shouldn't be selling what you don't know", but that would've gone over poorly and I'm not one for conflict. Hopefully the poor thing goes to an educated and loving home.

 

[MyFlock]

My Jenday and one of my GCCs were discounts at Petco because they sat in the store too long. I believe they were 10% off.

Yes, you should be able to get a discount one would think.

 

[MangoandKiwi]

So, we just came back from the Petco...

They have a adorable Pineapple GCC (named Fawkes) in a habitat with severely rusted metal perches that he was licking! he had a lot of gray fuzz and I saw pinfeathers, is this a hard mold? He had also a broken tail feather and a open black ring. The manager came by to ask if he could help us so I pointed out the rust and he made notes and told us he would order new perches (fingers crossed) His wings seemed awfully short clipped too Next to him sits a sun conure, he is missing an entire toe nail! Both of them were moving so weirdly, almost spastic, is this because of the wing clipping?

I feel so awful now I wish I could have taken them both home with me. Fawkes made little chirps when I went away and the sun conure made sure he had all of our attention too the whole time when we were there, flapping awkwardly his wings ...

I just had to rant a little bit. I will go back to the store to see if they changed the rusty perches and tell them about the open ring dangers.

 

[OOwl]

I was curious about this open-band thing. I had to go to PetCo today to get some supplies so peeked at the ever-present conures. There were a normal, a cinnamon, and what may have been a young pineapple. All three had closed bands. The only one I could read was number 341, which would indicate a volume breeder, I suppose. I didn't ask to see them or anything. While I appreciate that the store keeps them "safe," I also don't see how keeping them in acrylic boxes (these were housed above my head even) like that makes it easy for people to visit with them. Maybe that's why they end up keeping them so long. Their cages were roomy and clean, food and clean water was present, and they had A toy. Hopefully someone will take them home soon and give them a wonderful and rich life.

 

[MonicaMc]

There is the "quill clip", which removes the feather right above the area it comes out of the skin, so there is no "feather" left. Birds can find it frustrating preening a partial feather, so the quill clip prevents that. It also makes for a "clean" clip as opposed to leaving the feather longer. I'm not sure if there are any other benefits to it other than those.

Other styles of clips also have their own pros (and cons).



OOwl, there is a breeder in California that supplies many pet stores with green cheek conures. They use closed bands, and the initials should be BBF for Barney's Bird Farm.






I was also thinking this green cheek might be a return or a drop off that someone no longer wanted.

 

[Gillis]

I have an adorable, loving GCC that ultimately came from a pet store in Dallas what has a black, open BBF band. Though I didn't buy him from the store myself, I was told that's where he came from.

I really hope someone on here is in the area and has the means to purchase the poor fellow. I get so sad when I see birds like this in stores. Unfortunately, I just got a job at PetSmart, so now I'm going to be "one of those." But I hope I can make some small difference in the animal's lives there and help prevent things like this from happening. Thankully we very rarely get birds in besides finches, maybe once or twice a year.