True tales of everyday life in a pet shop
Trichomonosis
Recently, the RSPB has issued new guidance on feeding wild birds due to a rise in trichomonosis, a disease affecting some garden birds. Their recommendation is to move feeders around the garden and clean them at least once a week to improve hygiene. I thought everyone kept their feeders etc clean anyway. Furthermore, it is recommended not to use bird tables, window feeders, or tray feeders at all. I don’t get this one, as a good spray with disinfectant and water should kill 99% of all known germs.
The controversial recommendation, as I see it, is to stop feeding seed and peanuts completely between May 1 and October 31, and only feed small amounts of mealworms, fat balls, or suet. They recommend feeding as normal through the winter months.
What I don’t understand is how, all of a sudden, feeding wild birds is doing them so much harm and spreading a deadly disease among them. Surely, if there is a perceived problem, the RSPB should consult with seed and feeder manufacturers and work with them rather than drop this bombshell on an industry that helps feed our wild birds and gives pleasure to the millions of people who put out food for them.
Some people have also seen this advice and have taken their feeders down, stopped all feeding completely. Again, I don’t understand this, as many garden birds rely on us feeding them to survive, and depriving all garden birds of food could have disastrous consequences, in that a lack of food could lead to starvation, which could have an even greater impact on wild bird numbers than this disease.
This disease, as far as I can tell, mainly affects finches and pigeons, but many other bird species frequent our gardens — are they all affected?
As this disease affects pigeons, does this relate to feral pigeons, doves, and racing pigeons? Is there now a ban on feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square? As for racing pigeons, how do the pigeon fanciers cope? They can feed literally dozens of birds in the same feeder at the same place several times a day. Surely if trichomonosis is so contagious and so deadly, it could wipe out entire lofts.
Yes, maybe I’m being selfish in raising these issues, as selling wild bird seeds, suet, and nuts is quite a chunk of my shop’s turnover, but I also have dozens of customers who gain so much pleasure from feeding the wild birds, many of them not having any pets but see caring for the garden birds as their pets. They are increasingly confused as to what they should do, are they harming the very birds they are feeding or should they carry on, maybe changing the way they feed, or should they totally ignore the RSPB advice and carry on as usual?
Slow trade
I just wish there was less news about the cost of living, fuel prices, and the conflict in Iran. It’s just putting people off those spur-of-the-moment purchases like dog leads, treats and toys. It cost us an extra £20 to fill the car with petrol, so we will only buy a few dog treats today — I’m hearing this every day. The quicker fuel prices come back down, the better.
Cheap toys
We are rather overstocked with some of our dog toys at the moment, so we currently have a £2-a-toy dump bin, which makes £8.99 toys a very good bargain. So you can guess I was a bit miffed when asked if there was a discount for buying three or more.
Roadkill
A customer came in to buy a bag of roadkill. That had me worried for a minute or two, but it was quite obvious when she explained that she was referring to rabbits’ ears, bones, pizzle, pigs’ ears, pigs’ snouts. In fact, anything that resembled the recognisable part of an animal.
Sparkly hamster
A family came in to buy bits and pieces for their new pet hamster. As part of the conversation, I asked what the hamster’s name was. The proud owner replied Sparkle Biscuit.
Cold calling
These telephone cold callers are getting sneaky. They used to hide behind anonymous or withheld numbers and were easy to block. Now they use ordinary phone numbers and continuously change the prefix, so it’s more difficult to block.
