I'd gone back yesterday to buy the bird. I've made several visits to the store, to not only acquaint myself with the bird, to see if it would like me, but 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 "too busy")
The "handfed" cockatiels are kept in a lower corner cage and are nowhere near as docile as the info next to their name suggests. The hand-fed parrotlet (there for 2 years) was in the upper corner and definitely unsuitable for human interaction. Usually, display birds (in theory) would be put in corner areas because they're not advertised as being tame; the "hand-fed" ones where people would be more likely to see and play with them...
The more tame parrots (various forms of conures) all have tendencies to bite and draw blood. (either too young to interact properly and/or have learned it's the only way to respond, or do so out of frustration because they've been there for a year and nobody spends proper time with them!) Now, the one I was intending on buying bites to that level, but more slowly — it was never taught when biting becomes unacceptable... It's amazing how friendly the store parrot otherwise is; it's a rare trait for a chain store bird. He just needs to know when to stop using his beak so rough. But other parrots, younger than the one I was interested in, just bite for entertainment and they quickly draw blood. Nobody will want those birds.
A few parakeets, canaries, et al, were sleeping; some close to the ground and perched with both feet. TO sum it up, they were severely ill. (maybe it's 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 asking to hold the parrot for a few minutes; the employee went to get a key but said no keys were available and proceeded to tell me the number of managers and employees authorized to have such keys — apparently there was no mgr on duty that day (Saturday), but the employees forgot about their keys and took the keys home with them the previous day. So the parrots are definitely NOT being held by staff; in turn this only aggravates these parrots, and makes them even more hostile toward perspective 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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