FINCHforum

Will you be willing to go buy some right away ? will you wait several weeks? months? or not buy from them again ?

I don't think I would buy from them for a while. I can't really get any more finches for a while anyway (no more room), but I would be a bit wary of buying there when I do get to get more.

Yea I was thinking the same although I dont buy from pet stores anyway.
I think if I did I wouldnt lol

I wouldn't worry about buying from them. I know it's natural to lean towards caution, but the birds have been waiting for several months. If they were sick, especially finches, they would have shown signs by now.

Chances are people will flock (no pun intended) to buy the birds that are there. (Basic economic.) A lot of people have been watching them and I bet if you even waited a week or two there will be new birds for sale within that time. Turn over with finches, at least in CT, is very high at our pet stores.

I was wondering why Petco in my area wasn't selling any finches until April. I looked in two other pet stores and there were all kinds of finches for sale. We recently purchased two in a local shop. They're happy and healthy and in love.

I can't remember the spelling of the disease...but basically they found some birds (not the finches) that had a bird form of chlamyida that is contagious to humans. So they put all birds in quarentine. If you snoop in the Health section of the forum you should be able to find the topic on Petco.

Psittacosis.

It wasn't the pet stores -- the disease was found at the supplier, leading to testing (and precautionary quarantine) in stores. Depending on the supplier each local store uses, they may be fine.

The length of quarantine and additional measures taken will also depend on each state's Dept of Agriculture.

Thank you for the clarification.

Why would the finches be sold to the stores in there was this chance of illness? Was it left to the discretion of each store owner?
My main concern is that a store might not have posted this information and would let the unwary buyer take a chance on infecting their flock.
I want to believe that pet stores are looking out for the welfare of their animals but you never can tell.

I believe the problem wasn't discovered till birds had been shipped to stores, and that is why they have been quarantined. I don't think the finches are a problem, but given our litigious society, the pet stores won't be taking a chance, which is why they quarantined everything. It is a shame, as there are perfectly good finches languishing in quarantine, but today, businesses have to protect themselves from the public, too.

It's fairly rare that finches actually get psittacosis -- it's much more common in tiels and other hookbills.

I know that once alerted of the problem, petsmart's random tests found only 2 birds in GA that tested positive. They quarantined and medicated the lot of them.

The store managers have nothing to do with the decision to sell birds in the larger stores like Petco and Petsmart. Corporate shut us all down the first day, no new birds, all current birds isolated off the floor, special masks to wear, disinfect every square inch. A few days later came the instructions for medication. Everyone who had bought a bird in the last 6 months was notified as soon as possible. Personally I was impressed with the response.

Now, in a small store? That's individual decisions to sell or not sell... but the potential for getting sued for all you're worth is way off the chart. Psittacosis can be transmitted to humans (though rare and very treatable), and all it takes is one lawsuit to ruin your day/week/year/career/life.

Oh sounds like fun!

It really is a good thing that they are covering themselves. I certainly agree with the extreme way that they've dealt with this. Even though finches rarely catch this....I'm not taking chances.

I love how people * and complain(not necessarily this particular case, just in general) about stores not selling a product when it's really for the safety for the people. Oh wait then they * if the product is being sold and its not safe.....hmmmm make sense?

Go Petsmart!!

Oh man... beleive me I was soooo tired of the people coming in "you STILL don't have birds????"....and then the ones standing at the door asking "I know what I want, can you run in and get it so I don't get bird flu?". (Yes, that actually happened. I would have laughed if it had been even the slightest bit funny at the time.)

kittani79 wrote:Oh man... beleive me I was soooo tired of the people coming in "you STILL don't have birds????"....and then the ones standing at the door asking "I know what I want, can you run in and get it so I don't get bird flu?". (Yes, that actually happened. I would have laughed if it had been even the slightest bit funny at the time.)

It's hard dealing with the public, sometimes.

There's a lot of ignorance out there.

It scares me.