Bird Jungle - Shewsbury NJ - any feedback?

[debbielabella]

I try to stay away from bird stores, because I end up feeling sorry for them and carry the weight of seeing birds in sad conditions, so before I make a 3 and a half our trip to this place, that seems pretty good and has lots of species, does anyone have any feedback on them? I hate to go there and have my husband drag me out because my eyes are tearing up. thanks in advance.

[tracieerin]

I have your same problem and pretty much avoid going to bird stores that sell birds now. If you want a better place to see some birds, go to Bird Paradise in Burlington NJ. You still may get a little down though, I always feel bad for the birds in the consignment room. A good place for supplies toys etc. is Lisa B's place, Platinum Parrot in Waretown NJ.

That said, I can give you a review of Bird Jungle. They are the closest bird shop to me but I avoid going. Here goes (sorry it's long):

-None of their birds are tame or know how to step up. I handled a barely-weaned senegal that gave me one of the worst bites I have ever had. A bird that young that bites that badly does NOT speak well of the handling it has received.

-None of their birds are allowed to fledge, and are clipped so severely that if they fall it's a swift drop to the hard tile floor.

-Their caging is awful. They keep have rows of "cages" that are really little boxes with clear plexiglass fronts and sides. These boxes are mayyyyybe 15"x15". They have nothing to climb on except one little dowel perch. They have one little toy or none at all. The macaws are the exception to this, they are kept on java trees in front of the store.

-They gavage feed the babies which means that they stick a tube down their throats and pump the babies' crops full of food, kind of like filling up a car. The babies don't get to eat & taste the food. I felt so bad for the babies, they were just grabbed and pumped :( I understand a lot of petstores and high-volume breeders do this. It's easy to aspirate and kill a baby with this method, and I'm not sure that the lady doing it was properly trained.

-Since the baby birds have no opportunity to refuse a feeding, they do not wean themselves, which is best for their confidence. Instead, BJ must force wean, which means they just arbitrarily eliminate feedings and expect the baby to start eating on its own when hungry. This severely stresses out the baby. Also, but wait, the baby barely knows what food is because it's been filled like a gas tank, so it has to figure out how to eat, which stresses it out MORE.

I understand that they used to be considered a pretty good store but have gone downhill in recent years. Honestly, my worst experiences in the bird world are from my last visit to that place. I saw a teeny nanday conure in one of the boxes with a baby severe macaw that was using it as a toy (the nanday was up on the seed dish trying to fight off the severe, who was biting at his legs) - told an associate but no one seemed to care. I also hated seeing two baby meyers and a baby red-bellied run away from the feeder but one by one get grabbed, restrained, pumped up, and put back. Then there was the scared pinfeathered baby grey in one of the boxes, who you could tell just wanted a nice corner to hide in but couldn't because 3 sides were clear so he had other birds on the sides and people in the front.

Anyway, don't go, you will be tempted to buy a bird out of pity. If I ever go again I will probably end up calling in a complaint.

[xafsmom]

Actually, it's near impossible to aspirate a baby via gavage feeding if the gavage is placed correctly. However, IMO the only reason a baby should ever be gavage fed is if it's being evacuated for a medical reason or fed that way for a medical reason.

I agree with your other points entirely though!

[RockysMom]

OMG that is horrible! Isn't there something that can be done for those birds? People get puppy mills shut down all the time, or get the local news involved! Our news people are wonderful here :( if you have any kind of a story they will listen, I have seen many on animals and they have been helped and shut places down! That story brings me to tears :(

[debbielabella]

thank you so much I am so tired of buying birds out of pity then kicking myself because I contributed to the problem!! They looked great on their website, I had no idea. They sound more like a birdie mill. Sadly there's not much that can be done because regulations are all around cleanliness and fresh food and water. Thank you for saving me the pain of seeing this in person.

I found this place because I was interested in parrot mountain. Their address is parrotmountain.com, so I think they are using that to get the advertising, I thought at first they were connected to them. I should have known because in one of their videos they said YN amazons were not loud or screamers, I didn't like they way they groomed their scarlet macaw either, very rough. Sorry you had to go through this, but thanks for letting me know.