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I don't buy any supplies for birds at a walk-in store. I don't know what diseases are on someone's clothing or hands from their birds - and now potentially on toys for MY birds. I actually interview the stores where I get my toys and supplies. I'm terrible lol, but if disease gets into my aviary, it can decimate it.
Psittacosis is a difficult disease to test for. You can get a test to see if your bird has it now - and is currently shedding the organism, and you can get a test to see if the bird has ever HAD it. The second test is prohibitively expensive and most bird stores don't bother doing more than test for bacterial cultures and stains.
The problem with psittacosis is that if the bird is not shedding the organism, it's darn hard to test for because it can pop up a false negative quite often. So, your bird could easily be tested for psittacosis - come out clean, and it's merely not shedding it and actually does have it. The other problem is visitation style bird stores. Anyone with psittacosis infected birds can play with their bird, go to a shop, touch birds there, transfer fecal material from poorly washed hands or dander and potentially infect the store bird. It's very difficult to guarantee your store bought birds are, in fact, healthy because of the open door/touch me policy.
I don't malign all pet stores - some are terrible, some are good. As a person above me stated; it has to do with the staff. I do know that a lot of animal rights groups aren't really fair either. They exploit things quite well to achieve their goals. So, really, tongue in cheek, take what everyone/thing says with a grain of salt. Not everything you hear is truth and the internet isn't gospel.
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