I went back yesterday to buy the bird. I have made several visits to the store, not only to acquaint myself with the bird and see if it would like me, but also to keep an eye on how they treat their birds.
The parrots' toys are NEVER changed.
Employees do not spend time with the parrots. They always claim they are "too busy."
The "handfed" cockatiels are kept in a lower corner cage and are nowhere near as docile as the information next to their name suggests. The hand-fed parrotlet, which had been there for 2 years, was in the upper corner and definitely unsuitable for human interaction. Usually, display birds would, in theory, be put in corner areas because they are not advertised as being tame, while the "hand-fed" ones would be where people are more likely to see and play with them.
The more tame parrots (various kinds of conures) all tend to bite and draw blood. They are either too young to interact properly, or have learned it is the only way to respond, or do so out of frustration because they have been there for a year and nobody spends proper time with them. The one I was intending to buy bites to that level too, but more slowly. It was never taught when biting becomes unacceptable. It is amazing how friendly this store parrot is otherwise, which is a rare trait for a chain store bird. He just needs to know when to stop using his beak so roughly. But other parrots, younger than the one I was interested in, just bite for entertainment and quickly draw blood. Nobody will want those birds.
A few parakeets, canaries and other birds were sleeping, some close to the ground and perched with both feet. To sum it up, they were severely ill. (Maybe it is for the best. If they got ill not due to starvation and the illness was communicable, the pricey parrot would come home and make my Zoe sick too.)
When I asked to hold the parrot for a few minutes, the employee went to get a key but said no keys were available. The employee then told me the number of managers and employees authorized to have such keys. Apparently there was no manager on duty that day (Saturday), and the employees had forgotten about their keys and taken them home the previous day. So the parrots are definitely NOT being held by staff, which only aggravates these parrots and makes them even more hostile toward prospective buyers.
If they want their "stock" to sell, they need to have the merchandise in the quality listed by the price tags, which are universally high too.
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