House of Birds — Local services in Harlem Township

During the warmer seasons there are bugs flying all over the place. They hang out near the bird food and especially near the cages with birds in them. I’ve been there twice before and never will I go back in. They were desperate to push me to buy their custom-mix seed out of these filthy containers near the front store. Seed was way overpriced. I remember the reason I went in the one day was to ask them their opinion on cage size. I have a quaker and was wondering their professional opinion on whether I should size their cage up or not. They said that the minimum size—even a smaller cage—would suffice for my bird. I looked at the cages up front and most of them were about the same size as my bird’s current cage, just on wheels so they were taller. They were also extremely overpriced. Amazon has the same ones for half what they try to sell them for. As for the birds in the shop, I feel horrible for them. They offer a bird-sitting service and they let people bring their birds in to sit cage on the floor near all the others. They sit in walkways where if you aren’t careful you could accidentally bump into one (thankfully I was looking). The one conure they were watching was in a 12” cage with a small food and water dish where the newspaper on the bottom of the cage was disgustingly unclean. It looked like it hadn’t been changed in days. The bird looked terrified being surrounded by all these other new birds making sounds and staring at them. The poor thing was shaking. The birds they have for sale they breed by themselves in the back. Those birds all get throw into one cage together. I saw eight finches in a cage the same size as the conure. The one macaw looked so depressed. The owners told me how he can be aggressive sometimes, especially when he gets his checkups (which is when he gets his wings clipped). Of course he’d be aggressive. You’re stripping him of his freedom. The birds appeared healthy from what I could see, which is surprising given the yellow-water dishes and mountains of excrement at the bottom of each cage. They had a few green quaker parrots together. Their food dish had nothing but seed. No pellets, just seed. That’s horrible for their liver. About their toy section…they have tons of plastic toys, rope toys, and metal toys. All can be incredibly harmful for birds. Birds shouldn’t ingest plastic or string. Metal toys can cut their beaks and feet. Not to mention the few toys they did have that are safe for birds are almost double the price of toys in local pet stores. When I went up to check out, they started asking about my bird. Which is fine, until they’re just trying to get as much money out of you as possible. They have a travelling vet who comes in twice a year or so. They wanted to schedule me to bring my bird in to get a physical. They mentioned that nail clippings and wing clippings were complimentary. That’s when they tried the push clipping my bird’s wings for ten minutes. Trying to scare me with stories about irresponsible bird owners losing their birds. When they finally dropped it, they tried to make their vet seem more reputable. Claiming that he’s seen thousands of birds across the country. That he used to work at Brookfield zoo so I can trust him. They tried to slip me into his schedule even after I refused. At some point during this conversation, they told me about a time that the vet had an assistant that killed a bird during a physical. She pushed a popsicle stick too far into the bird’s mouth and caused it to bleed out. Yet they still claimed he was reputable. No thanks.

This business is so shady and should be shut down. If I could give it zero...

Well got a baby green cheeked conure yesterday. Not from this place but wanted to get our new feathered addition a nice new cage so thought I'd stop in. Very odd vibe immediately. As we walked up to the entrance I noticed through the window it was pretty crowded, (it's a pretty small shop) probably 2 families plus the man at the counter, and no one wearing masks, (myself, my daughter, and husband all were).We noticed the sign on the outside said one customer allowed in at a time, to please wait for the customer to exit before entering. So we waited. Unmasked female opens the door and abruptly says, " He wants to know if you've been here before." I was caught off guard by the question, I hadn't ever been there before and wondered why that would possibly matter if they wanted business 🤔 but simply replied, that, " No we have not." She shuts the door and after a short conversation we are 'allowed' in with everyone else. The man at the counter gave off an extremely unwelcoming vibe, no hello or can I help with anything today but instead I received a, "What do ya want?" I told him I'm looking for a bird cage and pointed to the sort I was looking for and he gave me the highest price that I heard of thus far for the exact cage. $299 tax not included. When I visibly showed my surprise at the price he said, "That's just the way it is." Having done my research, and having owned many birds over the years, I know that's more than double the price for that particular cage and now I'll be doing what I should have done in the first place, ordering one online. 🤷‍♀️ Would have loved to recommend this place but I go by my experience so I...

Where do I even start... I knew this visiting this store would be a regrettable experience the second I walked through the door. As I walk in with my friends, we are "greeted" by a group of individuals just sitting and talking around the entrance of the store. As we walked past them not one said hello, but instead they gave us dirty looks as if we walked into their home uninvited. After looking around the store, this old man behind the counter kept looking at me in a weird way. I whistled a song to a macaw there and this old man has the audacity to say "they're not dogs". I did not realize what he said until my friend told me after we left. They're not dogs? Really? Thanks for the reality check, I thought this was Furry Babies... He also acted as if I did not know the names of any of the birds. Little did he know that knew the name of every bird there (not that there were many breeds). I own two cockatiels, have owned an amazon, and a conure. These people here make you feel unwelcome and act as if you are some degenerate in their space. The birds' cages were also empty with little to no toys. These birds do not look happy, nor healthy. Please do not visit this store; you will be disappointed. Terrible service and bad care for the birds. Take your money elsewhere for...