Today was my first visit to a BirdMart, held at the Civic Center in Glendale, Arizona. I am now home, and more depressed than happy. I was looking forward to a wonderful day, full of healthy happy birds, and what I saw was sad, to say the least.
First, on the POSITIVE side, there were some very nice cages, toys and play gyms available, at pretty reasonable prices. I was just so disheartened by some other things I saw, that I couldn't even get enthusiastic enough to buy a single thing.
One woman was selling a parrot with a missing eye. She blithely said "A little kid poked his eye out with a pencil, because he didn't like the bird." I almost burst into tears right there in public. I was really upset!!
Another woman had some CAGs sitting on TOP of a 2 cage, and the 2 was repeatedly biting their toes. The CAGs were so mournful!!! When I mentioned it, she gave me "the look" and then just turned away, leaving those poor CAGs with nowhere to go to escape that vicious beak! My son (age 32 and built like a linebacker), muttered "heartless b****" at her, and led me away from that area.
Another couple had a huge zon, in a cage so small that it's tail feathers had been cut more than two thirds off, to make it fit inside. And, NO, it wasn't breakage! You could see the straight across hack of the scissors.
I was looking at some of the gorgeous ringnecks another couple had, when a customer standing beside me pointed out to her husband that they were infested with mites. The seller clearly heard the comment and ignored it, so she knew they were and brought them in there anyway. Talk about irresponsible!
By that time I didn't even want to see the rest of the birds there. When we got home, I threw our clothes all in the hottest water possible with some antibacterial soap, sprayed our shoes, and we both took a hot shower with MORE antibacterial soap, before we would even go into the room with my birds.
Back on the positive side, after scrubbing up we went to play with our fids. Amy (one of my sun conures) did her "snuggle into mommy's neck and take a nap" and Bacall and Bogie (my other two conures) showed love with kisses and offers of food (yuck on the food offers, but hey... love is love! LOL!). Dusty (my TAG) sang his own little Dusty song and shouted "I LOOOOOOVE YOU!" at me. I admit, that helps a lot in dealing with a stressful day. But.... that is the LAST time I visit a BirdMart!!!