Oh, yes ... there is a world of difference between a reputable breeder, and a mill. That is what I was trying to say in my earlier post, sorry if I wasn't clear. A mill breeds only for the money. They have a lot of animals, and breed them every time they can. They can literally breed them to death. Most of these animals live their whole lives in a tiny cage, never know love or kindness. They breed animals who are not healthy, and never should be bred. They sell animals who have genetic defects and illnesses. They are irresponsible, and don't care where they animals end up - in a bad home, at the city pound, in the landfill. Doesn't matter to them ... they've made their money.
There are also good breeders. It sounds like the breeder your friend bought from is one of those. Good breeders care what happens to their animals and breed only healthy animals. Good breeders won't sell to a petstore, because they ARE good breeders. They care about where their babies go, and want to pick good homes for them. Pet stores will sell any animal to the first person that walks in the door with the money, no questions asked. Good breeders can't stand to see that happen to their babies, so they sell them themselves.
By purchasing animals from small, good, reputable breeders, we are allowing those breeders to continue producing a small number of healthy animals. By purchasing animals from a pet store, we are putting money into the pockets of mills, thereby allowing mills to continue. They only way to stop puppy and bird mills is to stop buying from them.
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The one that we go to, however, is nothing like those described. They have 2 huge tanks, I mean really huge...............1/3 my bedroom size, and each has 3-4 rats in it. The small one-two gallon tanks have only 1 or two mice or hamsters in it. The birds are also kept in huge glass thingies (I don't know what they are called) with ventilation, and they have clean food and water whenever I go. Last time I went they all had a bowl with seeds, another with vitamin supplements, another with millet, and another with dried green veggies. They also had cuttlebone and clean water, and there were 2-3 birds in each large glass thing, which is like 6 times the size of my birds' cage. I didn't go to the fish/reptile side, and I only glanced at the kittens that were sleeping in their kitty beds in their crate. I'm glad that our Petco is good, but its so sad to hear about their other stores. I had never heard anything like that before. All of the pet stores in our area sell live animals, and the smaller shops keep their animals in worse conditions. I never go to them because of that. I do go to Petsmart. Is Petsmart better in caring for their animals than Petco? From what I have seen in both stores, the Petco birds look healthier than the Petsmart ones. Do you think I should shop at Petsmart? There is no other place to buy my birds' food and supplies in the area besides Petco and Petsmart, and I like our city's Petco better than the Petsmart, especially after they moved to a larger store a few months ago. Grocery stores here do sell bird food, however, I don't like their food ingredients (not the healthiest options) and they only have one cockatiel options, that I bought once and my birds hated. I see no other option but to shop at Petco or Petsmart in my case.
) Well, in the fish room they had tanks full of dead fish, there had to be over 10 dead fish in every tank. They had a newt tank too, and the newts looked extremely sick, and had white absesses all over their bodies. The live ones had to swim amungst the dead ones, just like the fish. In the reptile room, and was drooling over the snakes, since I like snakes, and I came to a tank with a baby Ball Python. I saw the snake laying on its side, not on its belly, its side. It never moved- IT WAS DEAD TOO!! I called a salesperson over, and I was kinda snippy I'll admit, and told her to take the damn thing off of display! Then I went to the small animal room. In the rabbit tanks, they had huge water bottles- WITH GREEN ALGAE (looked like) FLOATING AND CAKED ON THE INSIDE OF THE BOTTLES!!!!!!! All the bottles looked like the rabbit took one sip, and hated it. I have never seen a more disgusting place in my life! 
when we went there but I'm glad we rescued our birds who were only 2 months old at the time and living a difficult life. Today at age 3, they are the liveliest little things that love to play and sing and eat their veggies. They were very thin when we got them (probably because they couldn't reach their food) but now they are happy and healthy thank God. If I were Peta, I would do something about those stores that deffinitely get their birds from mills and practically torture them until they get a good home. One of my friend's friend bought 2 parakeets from the flea market, and they both died just a week after they got them. 
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