I went to my local Petsmart today to get my budgie a friend, but didn't come away with one. What are your opinions about getting a bird there? Is it a good idea or are you taking a risk? I was wondering about how they are socialized and raised. Or doesn't it matter with a young budgie. What experiences have you had with the bin o budgies? Thank you. Dayle Could anyone recommend another place to get a budgie in Massacusetts other than a pet store?

you can look in your local paper, you can look for other petstores on the internet, and you can type in breeders in MA and do searches. There are always local breeders you have to search for them who do hand raise their babies and care for them.

 

My opinion on pet stores, there are good and bad. Our PetsMart they are all in a cramped area, without much human interaction and most are at least 4-6 months old. We don't have the other store. I believe what you need to do is do your searching, investigating and shopping around.

 

All budgies need homes, from pet stores, breeders, a rescue center you have to decided which one is right for you.

 

Also petfinders.org is a great place to look too.

 

I got Pretty from a local pet store that had an open aviary and it was big with no more then 15 budgies. He was healthy, about 3 months old, and he was not trained but he was used to being around people because of the open aviary style. Merlin was a member on this site who had rescued the mom with her babies, and lived in IL. My husband had a business trip out there, it was ironic and we purchased an English Budgie from her. He was handled from day one.

 

Both my birds have very different personalities, I account it to yes how they were brought up but also just who they are too. Just like people they have different personalities.

I bought mine from a petshop but theres another shop about an hour away from here thats the same franchise with awful conditions and sick birds in it.

 

I think its more important that you read up on what different indications of sickness are in budgies and if you have a particular preference (young, old, male, female) read up on that too so you can make an informed choice on the individual petshop or breeder.

 

Keep an open mind that there are good petshops out there but I think its no different to buying anything else, do your research before you go so you dont get ripped off.

When I was at petsmart last the birds were bloody, packed together, the cage was disgusting, and most were quite old (not a bad thing depending on what you're looking for).

Celeste did you report this pet store?

 

also remember as there are bad pet stores there are breeders too. Some backyard breeders just breed and breed and take no care of what they are doing to the breeder birds and the babies. There is a fanastic pet store by us which is awesome compared to PetsMart but I have seen much much worse then our PetsMart.

I made the mistake some time ago of buying two pretty budgies at a pet store, where I didn't much care for the conditions of the most of the birds. My heart ruled my head and I bought what I thought were two healthy looking pretty budgies. I also complained about a couple of their injured birds and one deformed bird that was in a cage with overcrowded conditions. I will NEVER buy like this again and NEVER EVER from this pet store. Both birds died with 10 days to 3 weeks while in quarantine in my home. I don't impulse buy budgies from petstores anymore, and I only buy from my favourite and proven breeders IF I buy budgies at all now. I think there are better places and better people to buy budgies from ...............

I got Casper & Jasper from a pet store called Pets Warehouse and Passion from PetSmart, They were each in cages with about 5 maybe 6 other birds, Passion is pretty much hand tamed, I held her on my finger the same day I brought her home. Casper & Jasper are just now letting me hold them. Our PetSmart is very clean, but it is not always the store name itself that is bad, it is the people who work there. Our store had babies in there, when I say babies I mean around probably 3 months old.

Good luck,

Edited June 18, 200619 yr by CherokeesBudgies

There is good and bad in all business operators. The name on the shop, if a big chain of stores, is just a franchise name and the owners are regular people who have taken on a business. It is the way they run their business and the way each individual shop owner chooses to treat their animals that comes into play here. Be guided by the conditions and setups of their animals. This is not to say that a bad breeder hasn't just been in and dumped thier excess or sick birds off to the store owner. Birds that are problems, may be from diseased stock or what have you. There is of course good birds being delivered to these stores too. It's when they put birds from one breeder in with birds from another breeder in crowd conditions that diseases are passed on, as we know. The chances of getting a straight or honest story about the birds history from the store owner is remote and that even has to be based on if he was told anything by the breeder in the first place. He may not really know the birds history or remember the story about each individual bird if there are many. Even a healthy looking bird bought at the time, can have caught a disease from the bird it sits next to. Quarantine is rarely done in petstores when adding newly brought in birds as stock for the shop.