Unfortunately, that's how many pet shops are. They see budgies as disposable birds since, in all likelihood, they spent less than $3 on each of them. We pay $5 for each of our budgies (at cost, not retail :lol
and they are hand-fed and banded and we wean them out ourselves. The shop I got Mizu at, forever ago, was like that. I almost came home with 2 birds - there was a beautiful pastel blue budgie with a broken leg in with all the rest in this huge god-awful plexiglass bin. The food and water dishes were so high he couldn't eat or drink and the others were all picking on him. There were maybe 20 budgies in this 2ftx2ft bin. I complained and they put him in some tiny little cage and claimed 'they would take care of it.' I never saw the little guy again and they played dumb about it 'what budgie? there was never a budgie like that!' Needless to say, I stopped shopping there.
I know it's heartbreaking to see, but you can't risk your flock if these guys have something seriously wrong. And it may sound like a jaded view (comes from working in the pet industry for years) buying those birds just supports the shop and they'll just bring in 3 more sick budgies from the same supplier :frown: It's a lose/lose situation for everyone, unfortunately. All we can do is help raise awareness on the proper care of birds and spread the word on their budgies. If you see the budgies sick and still in improper housing in the next few days you can always call Animal Care and Control as well. They legally HAVE to investigate every complaint that is made so, it may take some time, but they'll be out there as soon as they can. If they have sick budgies on display, I'm sure there's other things too that will get them in trouble and it might serve as a wake-up call for the shop's owners :thumbsup:
