I will never get an animal from the petstore ever again.
Last year I got two baby parakeets from a petstore where I know people that work there. They showed me the back rooms where they kept medicine and explained how they were so great to the animals and they told me all of this great information. Even though they knew alot about birds, they obviously didn't follow any of it.
Dharma, the female that I got, died a day shy of the 6 month mark of me buying them (what I call their birthday because petshops do not know). I lavished attention on Dane, the male parakeet, and we get along great. However, he started picking his feathers out, and deforming his face by scratching it. I noticed that he had scratched his neck so much in one night, that he has made it bleed. I made an appoitment for that evening, and I got him and his cage ready to go. About one hour before we were supposed to leave, he fell to the bottom of the cage, obviously in horrible pain. I (sobbing of course) held my baby bird while he struggled to breathe and I pet him, knowing that it was probably his last minutes with me. After about 10 minutes, I noticed that he was looking around and trying to get up. After talking and praying, we decided that he was moving more, so we bundled him up, and my dad and sister and I went to the vet. We were told that he obviously had mites, but he was so malnurished, that even though I was doing everything right for over a year (of what the store and the petbooks told me...they didn't mention how to get a bird to eat fruits, which Dane wouldn't do...they didn't mention the pellets that are healthier than seeds...nothing!), the horrible feeding and conditions at the store had made him set up to get sick later with the diet that they "advised" me to feed him. She told me that he wouldn't make it, but if i wanted her to inject him with stuff, she wouldn't refuse me, just the stress of it all alone would kill him. Well, I just wanted to be with him at home, and she said that that was the best thing.
After much prayer on the issue, we went home and I sat beside him, comforting him. After over an hour, my older sister noticed that he was really perking up, looking around, just acting better. We kind of watched, and then, all of a sudden, my little bird that was too sick to sit up and hold his wings together, was flying across the room! We put him in his cage so he couldn't hurt himself, and I watched him all night. At 8am, I called the vet and told the tech that he was alive, and doing great compared to the night before. We took him in at 9:30. She couldn't believe the turn around, and said he was well enough to give treatment. I even got to pick him up at 4pm!
I was lucky enough, that with the power of prayer, my bird escaped the fate of so many of these animals at the pet store. All that i thought i "knew" was wrong, the petstore was way off. Please, do not depend on the info that they give you. He even got the mites from the petstore, and they can hide for a long time, and don't do anything. I will never listen, or buy any pets from the pet store ever again. Dane is home now, even playing on swing, but he has to get medicine twice a day, a slow process of changing his diet, and back to the vet a lot for a while. I know that he's a bird, and not a guinea pig, but if they were so lacking about a bird, I'm sure that they know just as little about guinea pigs...
just thought that i should let people know. Even if nothing bad has happened to your pets, why risk it?
Last year I got two baby parakeets from a petstore where I know people that work there. They showed me the back rooms where they kept medicine and explained how they were so great to the animals and they told me all of this great information. Even though they knew alot about birds, they obviously didn't follow any of it.
Dharma, the female that I got, died a day shy of the 6 month mark of me buying them (what I call their birthday because petshops do not know). I lavished attention on Dane, the male parakeet, and we get along great. However, he started picking his feathers out, and deforming his face by scratching it. I noticed that he had scratched his neck so much in one night, that he has made it bleed. I made an appoitment for that evening, and I got him and his cage ready to go. About one hour before we were supposed to leave, he fell to the bottom of the cage, obviously in horrible pain. I (sobbing of course) held my baby bird while he struggled to breathe and I pet him, knowing that it was probably his last minutes with me. After about 10 minutes, I noticed that he was looking around and trying to get up. After talking and praying, we decided that he was moving more, so we bundled him up, and my dad and sister and I went to the vet. We were told that he obviously had mites, but he was so malnurished, that even though I was doing everything right for over a year (of what the store and the petbooks told me...they didn't mention how to get a bird to eat fruits, which Dane wouldn't do...they didn't mention the pellets that are healthier than seeds...nothing!), the horrible feeding and conditions at the store had made him set up to get sick later with the diet that they "advised" me to feed him. She told me that he wouldn't make it, but if i wanted her to inject him with stuff, she wouldn't refuse me, just the stress of it all alone would kill him. Well, I just wanted to be with him at home, and she said that that was the best thing.
After much prayer on the issue, we went home and I sat beside him, comforting him. After over an hour, my older sister noticed that he was really perking up, looking around, just acting better. We kind of watched, and then, all of a sudden, my little bird that was too sick to sit up and hold his wings together, was flying across the room! We put him in his cage so he couldn't hurt himself, and I watched him all night. At 8am, I called the vet and told the tech that he was alive, and doing great compared to the night before. We took him in at 9:30. She couldn't believe the turn around, and said he was well enough to give treatment. I even got to pick him up at 4pm!
I was lucky enough, that with the power of prayer, my bird escaped the fate of so many of these animals at the pet store. All that i thought i "knew" was wrong, the petstore was way off. Please, do not depend on the info that they give you. He even got the mites from the petstore, and they can hide for a long time, and don't do anything. I will never listen, or buy any pets from the pet store ever again. Dane is home now, even playing on swing, but he has to get medicine twice a day, a slow process of changing his diet, and back to the vet a lot for a while. I know that he's a bird, and not a guinea pig, but if they were so lacking about a bird, I'm sure that they know just as little about guinea pigs...
just thought that i should let people know. Even if nothing bad has happened to your pets, why risk it?