Greens & Fruits

[spiritbird]

As most of you know I am working at Petco for Purina. On Friday I helped the bird groomer with wing clips and nail clips. They have to cut the wings severely so the birds do not fly at all for safety reasons. They do get out of the cage and sit on her shoulder to do a walk around. They really do treat the birds well. There are 4 IRN's, 2 Tiels, 3 Conures (blue headed, crimson belly, GCC and dusk, one blue Quaker and an Alexandrine. I learned the staff can bring in fresh foods for them. So yesterday I brought in some fresh chop, greens and apple slices. The Parakeets absolutely devoured them in a frenzy! All the birds went right for the fresh foods except for the Tiels . I will be bringing in fresh foods on the two days I work which is Fri. and Sun.

[Honesty]

Thats good that they treat the birds well. Are you enjoying working there?

You will have to take some pics of the birds to show us!

[Debra]

That's great Dianne! I know it did your heart good to see them jump in and eat all you brought.

[spiritbird]

I will ask about taking photos. They are agreeable to most of my requests.

[Minamommy]

Dianne can you give me a simple chop recipe. Mina's behaviorist said she needs veggies and no fruit. Or do you have it on the site somewhere?


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[Feathers First Aviary]

That's so nice of you to take food in for them! I am also very surprised that they have a crimson belly, I have never seen one in a pet store before! I can't help but feel like the store should be responsible for providing nutritious food though, it's nice that they allow employees to bring treats in, I just hope they make it clear what is safe to feed them and what isn't. I know when I worked at petsmart my manager would give me the store credit card so I could go to the store and buy fresh food for the animals, I made sure the birds, reptiles and small animals got veggies and fruit and the goldfish always got zucchini and oranges :) It's bad enough these places pay minimum wage to their employees but now they expect them to supply food for the animals as well? Unless I misread that and they do provide all the necessary food but just allow employees to bring in additional stuff if they want in which case I retract my previous statement :)

[spiritbird]

If anyone brings in food for the birds it must pass through the mail bird keeper who is very experienced with birds. So far, I am the only one who brings in food for the birds. They do have fresh foods purchased for the amphibians to eat. I am not sure if the conure is a true crimson belly or not. Has lots of nice red feathers on the chest and was hand fed. I will take my camera today and see if I can get some photos to show you. I was not asked to bring in any fresh food for the birds, I wanted to. I do not work for Petco.

[Feathers First Aviary]

I knew you didn't work there but since you worked inside the store I figured they just extended some employee perks(like being able to bring food in). I didn't mean to sound as callous about it is as I guess I did. I just meant that I don't think it's right if they are relying on the employees to provide fresh food for the birds that are in their care. I am glad that they double check everything that comes in, I'm sure there are well intentioned folks that don't know that some things are toxic to birds, such as avocado. Crimson bellies don't have bright red bellies until their first molt so it is possible that he is a crimson belly, just a juvenile that still has his baby feathers. Here's a picture of a crimson belly before they get their red adult breast feathers :)

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[spiritbird]

I will be putting up photos of some of the birds today. It was not a criminson belly, he was listed as maroon belly. It was hard to get photos of him as the lights reflected and showed up in the pic in the top cages. And by the way you did not sound callous at all. 1461146214631464

[spiritbird]

Here are more: Sara What is the name of the Crimson belly in the photo?14651466146714681469

[spiritbird]

Cannot seem to get them in one posting. This is the last of them. 14701471

[Feathers First Aviary]

I'm amazed at their variety of birds, an alex, a white bellied caique, maroon belly and even a brown throat. I raised two brown throats in 2012, one even lives five minutes up the road now! They are neat birds but the aratinga screech really gets to me, and they still arent even as loud as a sun.

The little crimson bellies name is Koopa by the way :)

[Debra]

Wow, they have a nice variety of birds there!

[Blancaej]

Great photos Dianne! It's nice to know they take such good care of the birds. It must have been fun to see them it your chop. :)