My Daughter Getting Ripped Off?

[Garret 0]

My (9) year old daughter took her very first baby budgies into a 'reputable' store a few days ago and received around $9 for each of them, however, she didn't mention that she had been handling them since they were 3 weeks old and were hand-raised because the store said they needed to be 8-10 weeks old before they would take them, however, we visited the store the next day only to find them for sale on the hand-raised perch for nearly 10 times that. I think she has been taken for a ride. They said because she didn't 'tell' them they were hand-raised, they had to figure it out themselves and 'tame' them themselves. I don't get it - how can the shop do that in just 1 day? This is our first time at selling babies - did we do something wrong? They normally pay between $20-30 for hand-raised babies. She's feeling ripped off understandably....

[**KAZ** 0]

A hard lesson to learn. Noone should be dealing with a nine year old child anyway without her parents with her. Yes, she may have been ripped off. But maybe next time you go with her and negotiate the deal. You can gain a lot by going in there now and speaking very loudly about their opportunistic practices with a naive nine yr old..........and the louder and more angry you are the more they will want to resolve the issue before other customers hear it.

[Lib 0]

My (9) year old daughter took her very first baby budgies into a 'reputable' store a few days ago and received around $9 for each of them, however, she didn't mention that she had been handling them since they were 3 weeks old and were hand-raised because the store said they needed to be 8-10 weeks old before they would take them, however, we visited the store the next day only to find them for sale on the hand-raised perch for nearly 10 times that. I think she has been taken for a ride. They said because she didn't 'tell' them they were hand-raised, they had to figure it out themselves and 'tame' them themselves. I don't get it - how can the shop do that in just 1 day? This is our first time at selling babies - did we do something wrong? They normally pay between $20-30 for hand-raised babies. She's feeling ripped off understandably....

 

The poor kid, it is so annoying when things like that happen. It's already her enough for them when it comes time to selling as it is so easy to get attached to them but that's a double wammy. Do you have any produce stores in you local area or even a public notice board?

What i would do next time is take some photo's of the birds on your daughters hand (you don't have to have her face showing in the picture just her hand) and print off a sign with your phone number on little tare off stips on the bottom and sell them directly to the public and that way she gets 100% of the sale price. I do that myself and i charge $35 per bird and people are happy to pay that, you can charge wahetever you like but keep it just under the pet shop price. here in the Southern Highlands the pet shops pay $10 for non tamed and $25 for a tamed bird and then sell cage birds for $35 and sell tamed birds for $65.

Find out what the going rate is and give them some competition.

 

Good luck,

Lib

[Garret 0]

Thanks Lib - that's a great idea. And yes of course we did go with her but because we were told that they needed to be 8 weeks old, I didn't question it till we saw the price tag the next day - unfortunately the supervisor wasn't there so we were left wondering with a part-time sales assistant who looked at us blankly when quizzed. Meanwhile, she is researching bird room set-ups with a long-term view of breeding (I think she's becoming a budgie addict! LOL). and is talking of setting up a website wanting to sell them directly. She's a Homeschooler so has the time to invest.Oh and yes, we had to convince her that 5 babies was too many to keep.... thankfully she realised this despite the emotional attachment.

Thanks Lib - that's a great idea. And yes of course we did go with her but because we were told that they needed to be 8 weeks old, I didn't question it till we saw the price tag the next day - unfortunately the supervisor wasn't there so we were left wondering with a part-time sales assistant who looked at us blankly when quizzed. Meanwhile, she is researching bird room set-ups with a long-term view of breeding (I think she's becoming a budgie addict! LOL). and is talking of setting up a website wanting to sell them directly. She's a Homeschooler so has the time to invest.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Garret

[JimmyBanks 0]

Its fantastic to see young kids getting into breeding budgies with the support of their parents. There will be sad times and there will be happy times, just keep on encouraging her to continue on. Nothing wrong with selling them herself to get a little bit of the money back that she has spent on feeding them, Lets face it she's going to get more money selling them herself then if she sells to a pet shop.

[Lib 0]

Thanks Lib - that's a great idea. And yes of course we did go with her but because we were told that they needed to be 8 weeks old, I didn't question it till we saw the price tag the next day - unfortunately the supervisor wasn't there so we were left wondering with a part-time sales assistant who looked at us blankly when quizzed. Meanwhile, she is researching bird room set-ups with a long-term view of breeding (I think she's becoming a budgie addict! LOL). and is talking of setting up a website wanting to sell them directly. She's a Homeschooler so has the time to invest.Oh and yes, we had to convince her that 5 babies was too many to keep.... thankfully she realised this despite the emotional attachment.

Thanks Lib - that's a great idea. And yes of course we did go with her but because we were told that they needed to be 8 weeks old, I didn't question it till we saw the price tag the next day - unfortunately the supervisor wasn't there so we were left wondering with a part-time sales assistant who looked at us blankly when quizzed. Meanwhile, she is researching bird room set-ups with a long-term view of breeding (I think she's becoming a budgie addict! LOL). and is talking of setting up a website wanting to sell them directly. She's a Homeschooler so has the time to invest.

Good on her, my kids are homeschooled as well and they love helping me with the budgies, I use it as part of their science KLA. Creating her own web site will be yet another learning opportunity.

Feel free to send me a PM if you would like to talk about anything else.

 

Lib

[Houman 0]

yeh petshops are dodgy and yeh there are hundreds of free website creators if you google it.

Edited April 12, 2010 by KAZ

[GenericBlue 0]

can i ask if the petshop said they needed to be 8 to 10

witch is common request to make sure birds are cracking seed byselfs

how old were the babys ???

[nubbly5 0]

Hey Garret!

 

So good to hear of kids with spunk these days but sorry to hear that she (and you too) had to learn a hard lesson. Pet shops are there for one thing - to make money for the pet shop owner!

 

Although she is not talking show budgie breeding, it might pay to find a local budgerigar or avicultural club and attend so that both her and yourselves can meet like minded people as well as find a source for information and help.

 

You never know, she might want to join the wide world of exhibition budgie nuts - it's a rewarding hobby!

[Garret 0]

Yeah they did say 8 10 weeks but they also said as long as they were eating seed and not off the parents. The ones we sold were 8 weeks. Thanks for all this wonderful info - am feeling more confident about it all. :rofl: My daughter has already spent the day making her Homepage as we've just had more babies hatch in the last few days - she gets so excited.

 

can i ask if the petshop said they needed to be 8 to 10

witch is common request to make sure birds are cracking seed byselfs

how old were the babys ???

Edited April 12, 2010 by Garret

[LittleBudgie2005 0]

Congrats on the new babies too... :rofl:

[Squeak_Crumble 0]

I have had the same thing happen to me. $4 for a hand-reared baby. I have been trying to work out a good way to sell. Because I hand-rear my bubs and sell them to make money for my show birds, I can't afford $4 for a clutch of three that I wake up at 6am in the morning to feed. Try maybe making an advert in the paper, or selling at another shop.

[**KAZ** 0]

Always advertise privately in the free trade papers.

BUT do not take purchasers through to your birds or aviary...always have the birds for sale in a seperate cage where they cannot see your setup. It protects you from later and possible theft of birds.

Edited April 13, 2010 by KAZ

[Garret 0]

I have had the same thing happen to me. $4 for a hand-reared baby. I have been trying to work out a good way to sell. Because I hand-rear my bubs and sell them to make money for my show birds, I can't afford $4 for a clutch of three that I wake up at 6am in the morning to feed. Try maybe making an advert in the paper, or selling at another shop.

 

I sympathise!

 

And yeah, thanks Kaz, I was wondering about having customers here and what they might see in that regard.

Edited April 15, 2010 by birdluv

[Houman 0]

It protects you from later and possible theft of birds.

 

[**KAZ** 0]

Very common that people see what you have and set out to get birds for free while, coming back when noone is home.

[GenericBlue 0]

why i have cameras

[nubbly5 0]

Why I have a BIG HUNGRY german shepherd! Plus several whippets (but they like inviting people in to steal things :rofl:).

[LittleBudgie2005 0]

Nubbly your dogs are beautiful... Everyone gave me a very warm welcome last time I was there... But than mummy and daddy where there too to make sure the kids were on their best behaviour... hee hee

[robyn 0]

Very common that people see what you have and set out to get birds for free while, coming back when noone is home.

 

Yes, been there done that, years ago in another town. Turned out to be teens I'd been selling birds to for $1.00 to get them started they took hens off eggs and all. Gave up after that until last 2 years.

[michael-pimms 0]

Don't want every body to think that all pet shops are evil. We have a lovely one where all they really care about is the animals, not the profit.

Edited December 29, 2010 by michael-pimms