Cute budgie question

Sweety's mom said:

I got mine from a big box pet store. I definitely would have preferred getting from an ethical breeder, but I had no way of knowing which were and which weren't last summer when I got him. There were some breeders on craigslist but even their pictures seemed sketchy so I just didn't know how to find a good one. I don't know anyone with a parakeet so had no one to ask.

When I finally decided to go to the box store I realized, you know what? These guys also may have come from a bad breeder and who knows what bad things the store may have done to him....so I kind of looked at him like a rescue. He is already alive and needs a good life and regardless that the big store will get my money, this little guy still needs a good home. At least at the store I could see his environment that he had been in and was reasonably assured that he probably wasn't sick (or their whole flock would be sick). Got him home, definitely not sick just very skittish (at first).

Of course I only have the 1 bird so it is different if buying a possibly sick pet store bird and bringing him/her into your home with another bird. Mine was a baby and had no signs of problems with his feathers, etc. and no other birds already at my place, so it was a safe risk I think.

If I were to get a second bird, I would go back to craiglist and look into the ones that are being rehomed. There is always someone who got the bird and didn't realize how much time they actually require and then they re-home them. And if there weren't any available like that on one particular day, just wait a few days or a week and one always turns up.

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I'm fortunate that the pets store I got my previous budgie, Vern (RIP sweet boy) and LoVey from, are a privately owned store with people who have been there for years. When I got LoVey, they grilled me up one side and down the other. They even put a post on Facebook defending their policy of making sure the pets go to appropriate homes. When I go in there to buy more toys for my girl 😉, I always show them pictures and they seem genuinely pleased to see how well she's cared for. I would probably put them, in regard to their ethics, more in the category of ethical breeder as opposed to a clasic "pet store" I live in a city that's rampant with drug use and I could easily see some of those people jamming their bugie into a tiny cage that it would never have time out of. I could also picture some of them putting beer in the water dish for a sick form of amusement. I think my Vern might have been relinquished due to health problems. He took many trips to the vet where they sent me home with meds to administer. I can't imagine some of the residents in my city doing that, so I feel like I not only prolonged his life, but gave him one filled with love. He passed snuggled in my neck rather than being found on the floor of his cage. The big box pet stores seem to be staffed with people who are only doing it for the paycheck, and have no interest in learning about proper care. Not to mention, I highly doubt they adhear to proper quarantine when a new flock of birds come in. I've watched videos of how they transport birds to the big box stores and they are truly sickening. So like you I kind of feel like I rescued my babies from what might have been a dismal life. But if that pet store ever closed, I would definitely look for rescues and shelters!