Why does PetSMART have DUMBcustomers??

[LewisLegion]

I own two friendly 'tiels, and two mean ones. In their defense, both of the mean ones went through some serious trauma and I do believe suffer some kind of post traumatic stress. My female literally has nightmares and panic attacks, it's sad. Both are serious pluckers, while the friendly boys are not.

Just wanted to note, there is no species of fish that 'grows to fit the tank'. This is an urban legend and one that people LOVE to pass around as gospel. A fish, just like most any other creature on the planet (save a couple of reptiles and possibly some invertebrates), has a genetically predisposed size they grow to and then stop. Otherwise can you imagine the same species of fish in its natural lake, river, or ocean?

People love to say this about goldfish as justification for sticking them in small bowls, or for larger fish to justify sticking them in cramped aquariums. Truth is, the fish will grow until its environment forces it to become stunted and deformed, which drastically reduces it's lifespan.

It's kind of like sticking a german shepard puppy in a cocker-spaniel sized carrier and keeping it there permanantly under the belief the dog will only grow as large as its kennel.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Our neighbor has had several of the talking birds over the years, several varieties. She likes to keep them on her screened-in porch. And we have a dog named Sandy. Sandy has free run of our back yard to do his business. While out there, he likes to bark at squirrels and others annoyances. Sometimes our response to his barking is to yell "Shut up Sandy!"

One day, another neighbor was outside and heard "Arf, arf. Shut up Sandy! Arf, arf. Shut up Sandy." However it didn't seem to be coming from our back yard. It was one of the neighbor's birds repeating what had been frequently heard from our back yard.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

We used to have an Oscar. They can apparently grow to fit the tank (or so I've been told) but the thing that still makes me wonder why on earth my mother bought one is that they eat, among other things, live worms. My poor maternal grandmother was babysitting us at this time, as both mom and dad worked outside the house, so Grandma got to be the lucky one to feed the fish ... I think it left her permanently traumatized.

That they do. We had an Oscar for several years who grew to be a bit larger than a dinner plate (he lived in a 55 gallon long tank.) He was gorgeous and under the lights, he looked like he had golden streaks on his body (his streaks were actually orange, which were more noticeable whenever we'd take him out of the tank to clean it.) Spoiled he was, too . . . if you walked through the dining room to the kitchen (his tank was right there at the doorway going into our kitchen) and didn't acknowledge him, he'd start ramming the side of the tank repeatedly until you did.

How to clean a large tank? The way we did ours was run the garden hose thru the dining room window and into the tank to siphon out the water. The fish was another challenge: he quickly outgrew the largest net we had and we had to use our largest colander (the one Mom uses whenever she's making a BIG batch of tater salad) to scoop him out of the tank with (after a several minute chase - Oscar hated to be pulled out of the tank, which was once a month roughly) and drop him into a freshly filled 5 gallon bucket.

He was Hell to get out of the tank and Hell to get out of the bucket, too. He'd pitch a fit when we'd try to get him out of the bucket to put him back into his freshly cleaned and filled tank. But once he finished sulking in the corner for a couple of minutes, he'd be fine again.

Unfortunately, he got sick and I had went to the pet store for medicine (and also to take in a water sample to help determine what was going on and what meds we needed for the water.) By the end of the next day, right after I'd gotten home and was trying to adjust the PH level on the tank, he suddenly started floating.

Mom came in soon after and both me and my brother were crying in the dining room in front of Oscar's tank. My brother asked Mom to "do the mouth thing."

No, Mom didn't try Mouth-to-Mouth on the fish. But we did manage to get him out of the tank, onto a dinner plate and covered him with a towel and put him in the fridge. That weekend, he went to a taxidermist who stuffed and mounted him on a beautiful piece of driftwood and he's still with us - only he hangs out now in the living room.

I'm planning to get more fish, but I'll get something that'll work in a smaller tank, around a 10 gallon or so.

[fireheart]

A friendly cockatiel? I've almost forgotten what those are like, lol.

My boyfriend's sister has 2 cockatiels that sit in a huge cage in the backyard. Turns out they're both male (I thought one was female, but they both have yellow heads).

One particular morning when I was getting ready to leave, I go to uncover the birds for them and discover one of them on top of the other making quite suggestive motions.....

[dalesys]

... making quite suggestive motions.....

Friday, I've been on this island in this cage for a long time without the companionship of ... ah ... women. And I was wondering, if I gave you enough coconuts sunflower seeds...

[/Fugs]

[Jetfire]

My boyfriend's sister has 2 cockatiels that sit in a huge cage in the backyard. Turns out they're both male (I thought one was female, but they both have yellow heads).

One particular morning when I was getting ready to leave, I go to uncover the birds for them and discover one of them on top of the other making quite suggestive motions.....

I guess you must have missed the beak warmer hanging on the handle of the cage.

[thatcrazyredhead]

One day, another neighbor was outside and heard "Arf, arf. Shut up Sandy! Arf, arf. Shut up Sandy." However it didn't seem to be coming from our back yard. It was one of the neighbor's birds repeating what had been frequently heard from our back yard.

The people in the original post sound like candidates for the P.M.I.T.O. tag we used to put on some of the files when I used to work as a verterinary slave. It stands for "Pet more inteligent than owner."