Crimson Rosella

[StitchynMe]

After church today we stopped at the pet store for bird food and in the back area stuffed in a small parakeet cage was a Crimson Rosella. Since I've never heard of such a bird before I asked the bird lady some questions regarding this type of bird species to which she knew basically nothing about so I got out my phone and did My own researching.

I learned they don't really make the best of pets and really belong in an aviary. My thoughts are that if I were wealthy I'd purchase it and ship it back to Australia, it's country of origin and set it free! or I'd donate it to the local zoo. Poor beautiful little bird! I feel so sorry for it.

Has anyone heard of anyone having much success with these type of birds as pets?

[spiritbird]

Is the bird a grass keet? Being in the back room of a pet store means it just came in or is sick.
No animal should be in a pet store, only supplies.

[StitchynMe]

The back area is where they keep the birds. I asked the lady what it eats and she didn't know! :( but said they weren't feeding it the proper food! Isn't that just crazy?? Her best guess was conure food. I looked it up at home and one website suggested a diet of cockatiel seed mixed with canary seed, fruits and veggies.

She seemed rather intimidated by my questions since she was pretty clueless and shes supposed to be the bird specialist there! Imagine that!

Well I won't be going back In that place but I doubt if anyone will ever purchase that bird. She said it's been there since Christmas.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

I don't know what the regulations are in the US but here in the UK we have laws against cruelty to animals and birds and if I felt a bird was being badly cared for I would contact our RSPB (Royal society for the protection of birds) who would then visit and advise on the correct welfare and take matters further if there was no compliance.

[StitchynMe]

It had food and water and the cage was clean, small for that type of bird but clean. I wonder if calling the local zoo and informing them that the bird is there, would they might inquire after it?

I read in Australia you need a license to even own this type of bird, I'm actually surprised it's even legal to have over here since so many birds are illegal here because of the ecosystem. We can't have Quakers or parrotlets, Linnie's and few other species of bird listed in the bird section on here.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

Now I think about it, I seem to recall that a prosecution here failed because a judge deemed that giving the wrong sort of food is acceptable whereas giving no food is not. I would have thought that in some cases it could be worse.
The trouble with judges is that although they are very intelligent, they seem to be rather lacking in common sense when applying the Law.