It PAYS to know what you're looking at...

Aljan Farms · Post by **Aljan Farms** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:15 pm

I love it when PETsMART hires people that don't know a thing about animals!

They had two star finches mixed in with their finch community, mostly Zebras, Societies, Spice, Nuns, Orange-Cheeks, and even 2 overpriced Gouldians, a few Whydahs and European Goldfinches (the latter two, of course, were not being too nice to the others). I told them I wanted the "Zebra finches with the WHITE dots" and left the store with two female stars (which I have been unsuccessful in locating until today) for $30 total!!!

Muhuhahahaha!!!

Yay, cute little bargain finches!

~ Amanda

Post by **Hilary** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:43 pm

Way to go! I wonder if I can pull the same stunt? "I want the BLUE zebra!" (Two different stores near me have cordon bleu hens). Hmmmm - probably not.......

Hilary

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:56 am

hi all
they have not got a clue in those shops.i did the same on a pair of grey society finches which turned out to be grey singers

ken

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:59 am

Yeah I got my budgie for free cause the checkout girl at Petco didn't charge me. She had be fill out the return card and all, rang up about $30 of supplies and I walked out with a "Freebird". LOL

I hope your stars live a long and happy life!

tina · Post by **tina** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:32 am

nothing like that ever happens to me.

tammieb · Post by **tammieb** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 2:02 pm

We should probably feel bad for taking advantage of these uneducated people.

NOT!

Aljan Farms · Post by **Aljan Farms** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:33 pm

I admit it: I used to do this all the time with fish, too. Now the fish I keep are very rare (Malawi Mbuna & Utaka, and Tanganyikans), and I usually buy either wild-caught or F1 only (I'm a fish snob, I guess!), but back in the day when I was doing Central or South American fish, which are abundant, well... let's just say I always got the best discounts in town!!!

HAHAHAHA!

~ Amanda

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:40 am

i used to keep tropicals

ChocoboDragon · Post by **ChocoboDragon** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:51 pm

Haha! Both funny and disturbing. I haven't had that happen to me, but when I bought two Gouldian finches they accidently didn't charge me for one of them and I didn't notice until a lot later..

Sometimes in pet shops I purposefully ask questions about the birds when I already know the answer and sometimes they give me the exact opposite answer that will harm the bird!

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:33 pm

hi chocobo
as i have already said they haven`t got a clue what they are doing..in the one i go in the perches are only fit for parrots..but they have zebs and allsorts of small finches hanging on the wire because there is no way they can perch on broom handles

ken

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:09 pm

It is not uncommon to get a dilute (SF yellow) male gould for the price of a normal male at bird fairs/shows because many people (sometimes even the vendors) don't know the difference.

cooltom28 · Post by **cooltom28** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:33 am

kenny you got anymore of those grey societies mate?

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:47 pm

hi tom
they are long gone,it was when petsmart was on the quay and they had just opened i wish i had them now though

ken

ChocoboDragon · Post by **ChocoboDragon** » Mon May 14, 2007 1:43 am

The other day I went into the pet shop to look at the birds. I saw two society finches preening each other so I went up to the employee:

"How much are the society finches?"
"The what?"

So I showed her the birds I was talking about.

"Oh, those are MANNIKIN finches. They are $30 a pair". (Aussie currency)

That left me confused because I was so sure they were society finches (even though I haven't owned any before), and I've asked this employee questions before and can tell she doesn't know a lot about keeping birds.

So I Googled society finch and mannikin finch pictures, and yep, they are definantly societies in the store. And they are overpriced because for some reason they are labeled as mannikins.. :\

Crystal · Post by **Crystal** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:14 am

Society finches are often lumped in a group of birds called mannikins...sort of the same way gouldians are lumped into the group called grassfinches.