# should i buy from a pet store?



## Jazzy (Jun 22, 2010)

I was wondering if i should buy a cockatiel from a pet store Im going to go and visit the pet store in my town just to see how the cockatiels look. Its a family run pet store. I guess i just want to know how your experiences with pet store cockatiels went.


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## cheekyboy (Jul 14, 2009)

All of mine are petshop cockatiels, and I havent had a problem with them. All were hand raised and are sweet and cuddley. They havent had any health problems either.

There are alot of mixed opinions on buying animals from pet stores though. And it does depend on the pet store itself. I wasnt overly impressed with the setup in the pet stores that I got my tiels from. One was better than the other, but at the time I was looking to get new tiels there were no breeders in my area that had any bubs. 

I think the biggest thing you need to make sure at pet stores is the health of the bird, and its tameness (if getting hand raised). Make sure the birds look healthy and have nice smooth feathers, bright eyes and are alert. Check their ability to perch, and have a look to see if they have their wings clipped and if it was done properly.. there shouldnt be any blood, and both wings should be clipped. Alot of places only clip one (like all mine came), but its best if both are. 

Pet stores charge ALOT more for handraised babies. Mine were $110 each. So you want to make sure they really are handraised. See if you can handle the tiels a bit to see if they will allow scratches, or will step up. Sometimes this is tricky though, as petstores can be stressfull for baby tiels. I remember when I got mine, Pickles was the ONLY one who would let me touch him at the store. Both Cheeky and Chip were terrified of me- even though they were both handraised. When i got them home they were fine 

So have a look at the shop and then make an informed decision  I'd check out breeders too, because in general they can give you much more reliable information about the health of your new bird, the temperament etc etc.

Good luck!


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## Ezzie (Jan 19, 2010)

Really make sure you get what you pay for. Pet stores over price everything so make sure that before you fork out the $$$ that you see, handle and interact with the cockatiels.

Even better if you can go to a bird specific store. Birdie was from a bird specific store, and even though he was 150$ he was tame and well looked after.

Make sure that the birds are healthy= No poo on their tails, they should have ALL their nails, Their beaks should be sitting right (no underbite or overbite), their feathers should be free from ANY debree or poo, they should sit right against the body and not be too fluffed up or ruffled.
Eyes should be clean and bright and open.
Nostrils should be clear and not have any distarge.

The cage they are in is also a big indicator of how well the birds are kept.
If the cage is dirty and not cleaned (alot of poo at the bottom, poop in water and food etc) then turn around because the birds may be sick.
The cage should also be big enough for the aount of birds it may hold (the local petstore had 5 cockatiels in a small cage- i was horrified)

Make sure they know the AGE of the birds. This is important because alot of pet stores will sell you a bird who they say is younger when it is really 1-2 years +

Dont always go for the cutest one. Go for the one that comes and interacts with you and isnt afraid of you to touch him through the bars or to handle him outside if the store will allow it.

Go at times when there would be less people. This means the birds wont be so overwhelmed and you might see a behvaiour change.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Ok I will tell you my experiences with both my hand raised girls who came from pet stores.

Tira I paid 120 dollars for, the pet shop was clean the birds were clean and looked healthy they were behind a glass panel so I couldn’t really interact at all with them, so I asked if I could see the Tiels, they were happy to oblige Tira wasn’t friendly she even bit the assistant but I thought that was down to the way the assistant had grabbed the bird although none wanted to step up willingly anyway, I held Tira and she didn’t bite me, not ever having a hand reared bird before I had no idea what I should be looking for and I fell in love with her because she was pretty lol. So I bought her.

When home she didn’t want nothing to do with me, at times I wished I never bought her she was aggressive, hissed and bit me, she did have one of those awful one wing clips, I even phoned the store and said I didn’t think she was hand reared and I had been ripped off, they insisted she was and it was likely because she was a girl and girls just aren’t that into you, and to keep getting her out. The advice they gave by the way is absolute rubbish, and I should have just gone back to basics and given her time, and the sex makes no difference on friendliness, instead I kept getting her out making her more afraid of me, then the most awful thing happened, that one wing clip caused a nasty fall, she tried to leap of me couldn’t fly on one wing spiralled to the ground and hit chest first on the ground she had split her delicate skin on her keel bone, she was bleeding from her chest, I felt awful this poor bird I had been cursing was badly hurt and I thought about taking her to the vet, by this time I had put her back in her cage the bleeding had stopped but she looked awful and I thought she might die of stress, Hubby said taking her to the vets would make her worse the bleeding had stopped and if we stress her out again it could start her bleeding again. Well of course she survived but after that I just left her be and started just opening the cage door feeding her millet from my hand and just not pushing the relationship and within a short time she actually hopped on me and our relationship grew from there. I think she didn’t have such a good up bringing even now although she is tame now, she can have these strange little aggressive streaks that I could be giving her a head scratch and she will suddenly start biting me, never hard enough to draw blood but hard enough its not her just being friendly, then I pull away and she will lower her head again for more scratches, very strange I just put it down to being badly treated or something happened before I bought her that made her so nervous, but I love her to pieces and when she does have these little moments I just think its not her fault.

I will just say a lot of places do only clip one wing, and although I hate it, if you find a nice friendly bird and the wing that is clipped has no blood they are feathers and will grow back, but just be careful and put blankets around the cage and try and remain sitting with the bird and again blankets around you on the floor that way at least it would land on something soft.

Coco, my other hand reared girl paid 95 dollars, I was not planning on buying her at all, I was just getting supplies from local pet store, and has you do I looked around the birds, they had hand reared cockatiels so I went and had a look, they quite often have hand reared birds but a lot never really seemed that friendly so I never thought much more about another one, when I looked at Coco however she came running over and was gently nibbling my finger she was clean and much to my surprise both wings were clipped a sign to me they came from someone who cared, anyway we left and I couldn’t get that bird out of my mind so on the way home talking to hubby about her we did a u turn and went back to the store, this time she didn’t actually come running over she was sat on the perch but I was pretty sure she was friendly, I asked the assistant could I put my hand in I wanted to see if she would step up, she did back away a bit at first but then she stepped up without to much encouragement. Took her home and she such a soft sweet baby never bites hard and makes these little chirping sounds when she is having her head scratched both Coco and Tira share the same cage.

When you look at the birds that’s what you want a friendly bird, when you put your hand in use a flat hand and slowly move towards the bird it might back up a bit but a friendly one should happily hop on you with a little encouragement, don’t worry even badly raised babies will not bite you that hard but they will bite but it certainly wont be hard enough to cause that much pain, plus they will run away first, even a friendly bird may be reluctant to let you head scratch straight away so don’t be put of if the bird isn’t keen to let you scratch it, Coco wouldn’t allow this at first but within a week she would lower her head for me to scratch.

So a bird that will step up is what you are looking for if it will allow more, that is great, and also is the bird interested in you does it look at you like it wants to be friends, lol


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## danii25 (May 8, 2010)

Since you said its local I'd say go for it. Just DO NOT Buy from Petland. I mean I'm not saying that for the issue with the puppy mills. Thats one reason but we got Bennie from there and he has taken a ton of work. It wouldn't really be good if I wasn't home all the time. He was very aggressive towards me. He'd bite me and hiss. Local pet stores are good just stay away from nasty chains like Petland.


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## danii25 (May 8, 2010)

Oh and Jennie...I have to tell you this because of what they said to you. When I called petsmart to argue about the handfeeding they told me thats how the male birds are. I wonder if they just switch their stories. It was pretty irritating. He's a bit better now but he takes a TON Of work.


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## allen (Aug 25, 2007)

this is my personall opinion i would go with a local breeder that hand tames or hand feeds the birds most breedrs are willing to share what the love and don,t like you do get a more tame bird as well


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## chocotiel (May 19, 2010)

Our local family owned pet store gets the birds from local breeders. So we were comfortable that they were hand-raised, and indeed, us being inexperienced with birds, our Choco just loves to be with people and will step right out of her cage onto your hand. The first day she was a bit nervous and stayed in the middle of the cage. But my husband opened the cage and waved some food at her, and by the next day she was ready to come out to play. We can't get her to want to go back to her cage, which causes me to sometimes just have to grab her and put her in when I don't have time to entice her back. She knows when you're walking towards the cage and climbs up your shoulder and behind your back to get away. LOL! But coming out, no problem, because she was hand-fed. She does not like sticks though and has never stepped onto on, she thinks you're putting it there for her to bite it.


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## Danielle (Aug 15, 2008)

I think it's a case-by-case situation. Use your best judgement.

Two of mine come directly from a breeder (the breeder for both), and the other three are from shops. Their personalities vary greatly. Of the five, three were hand-reared (the two from the breeder and one from a shop) and two were aviary birds. One of the hand-reared tiels has never liked me, and one of the aviary birds has become quite tame. However, all of them are healthy, happy birds.

I also have a couple of Conures and Quakers from the same pet shop as one of my tiels (all hand-reared) and they're also wonderful, healthy birds.


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## Jazzy (Jun 22, 2010)

I think I will buy from the pet shop they seem really kind to there animals. There cockatiels were kept in a really large cage that was very clean. All the birds seemed healthy too they got really excited when i came in. They even had different kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables in the cage.


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## jc119007 (Dec 28, 2009)

I bought Curry, then Kikou (after Curry died) from breeders, simply because the price of cockatiels in petstores is out of this world and they are all packed in cages, look miserable and have poop all over the place- if I were to buy from a petstore it would be out of pity than anything else (not a good sign!). Don't even mention wingclips...horrible jobs which look like the wing has been cut right off. An aviary bird here goes for about $50 AUD while a handraised grey is up to $150 in pet shops. You can imagine the price of other colours...I saw a galah in the local pet store last week which was 2k in euros!!

I had to travel for about an hour to go to the breeder's, but it was worth it, each time we spent hours talking while the birds got used to me (Curry climbed all over me as soon as he was let out of the cage lol), there was no pressure at all, and each time I came away knowing that my bird(s) had been well looked after and were bright and healthy.
I paid 40 euros for Curry (a pied) and Kikou 70 euros (a pearl lutino). The only prob I had was that the breeder told me Kikou was a boy when in fact she is a girl...but I've never regretted buying my birds from breeders.


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## m&m672 (Jun 4, 2010)

My closest pet store raises their own cockateils, so I guess they are pet store/breeder. Otherwise, buster was a hand fed teil from a pet store. The pet store didn't raise him, he turned out to be an awesome bird. I think a little common sense going in to a pet store goes a long ways. Use your own judgement when you are looking at the birds.


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## Malorey (Jul 23, 2008)

The petstore I got Mushu from I would have no problems buying from. They actually care for the animals, and they handraise and breed all their Tiels, and good amount of their other animals. Never have too many, as in to say they are milling or constantly breeding the same animals. They are clean, and for a petstore, give the animals a decent amount of things to do. 

Then there was another petstore that was family run that was dirty and the animals were kept in dusty dirty cages, as much as I would want to take in animals there, I probably wouldn't because cases are the animal could be sick or unfriendly. It makes me sad that they were in those conditions, but not supporting could help to even get them to shut down.

I agree with if you're going to a petstore, go with the one that is actually doing what it can for the animals, otherwise don't buy at all and try for a breeder or on sites like craigslist. (Icarus we adopted off Craigslist)


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I've gotten 5 of my 6 from petstores, the 6th was from a breeder but she wasn't hand-raised. She has taken more work than the others, but they came from bird specific stores and the 2nd store raises their own tiels (i've looked into the breeding room and seen the babies). It all depends on the store, but I've never had a problem with the local bird stores around here.


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## Duckie (Feb 13, 2008)

Jazzy said:


> I think I will buy from the pet shop they seem really kind to there animals. There cockatiels were kept in a really large cage that was very clean. All the birds seemed healthy too they got really excited when i came in. They even had different kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables in the cage.


It seems like this pet store really cares for their birds. It is not often you see fresh fruit and veggies served in a pet store.


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