This pet shop keeps birds in a way that isn't good for their health and welfare.
I visited this shop about 3 weeks ago and there is a room where they keep the birds for sale. The room's cold, has a concrete floor and no natural light. Birds need natural full spectrum light in order for their bodies to make vitamin D and enable them to have the correct sleeping patterns. They should at least have full spectrum light bulbs.
The room has parrots in triple-decker cages. The birds in the top and middle cages get artificial light, but the parrots in the lowest cages are living in deep shadow and it's distressing to see how these birds cope with this. The one sole occupant in the lowest cage has no tail feathers left and is continually climbing to reach the upper corners of its cage to try to access some of the light - anyone can see this is an anxious and unhappy bird.
The room also contains box cages full of about 30 - 40 finches. The owners have only been bothered putting up the one perch for this many finches in a single cage. Every centimetre of this perch is used by the finches; when one bird moves they're all forced to move. The rest of the birds have to sit on the ground and would also have to roost on the ground at night. This is bad for their feet - birds need to be able to perch, especially at night when they roost. They're also forced to spend extended periods of time overnight on a floor full of bird droppings, obviously not good for their health. On a closer look at the cage there is a bracket to support a second perch. These people have clearly just been too lazy to bother putting in a second perch for such a high number of these birds.
A friend told me he'd gone in there once and saw a pair of very young budgie chicks just sitting in the corner on the floor. They were clearly too young to have been taken from the nest but here were these people putting them into this cage without even adequate perching and trying to sell them before they were properly ready to leave the nest.
The way the owners keep these birds shows no regard for their welfare and these people are denying these birds' the opportunity to engage in essential natural behaviors like accessing enough light, the ability to perch and the ability to avoid having to sit in bird droppings. Not good at all. read more