Bunnies, chicks and ducklings represent springtime – and local stores selling them have specific advice before you buy.
Ducks and chicks can be found at Tractor Supply Co. in Grove City.Agway in Grove City will soon have baby birds for its Chick Days, but had about a dozen baby rabbits in before Easter, added Lynn Jones.
However, “We sold all the bunnies,” she said. Jones has worked in the pet department for over seven years, she noted.
When spring chicks come in, the store orders 15 at a time “but we can order more,” she said – as well as guinea fowl, turkeys and ducks.
The store normally has some rabbits in stock, as well as other animals like guinea pigs, hamsters, rats and reptiles. It also offers pet supplies and food.
Agway employees are versed on different animals and try to educate customers about them, Jones said. “I can’t tell people about fish … but there’s always someone who knows a lot about something we sell.”
The employees also “try really hard to match people up with the pets if we can,” she said. “But we are a business. We can’t just say, ‘no,’ but we try to steer another way sometimes.”
TSC sells rabbit food and supplies but stopped selling live rabbits a few years ago, said Brandon Puttbrese, spokesman at its Nashville headquarters.
Its main focus is livestock based. From now until April 30, customers can find live chicks and ducklings at the store during TSC’s Chick Days – although supplies for raising birds can be found year-round, he noted.
“Tractor Supply is adamant about not selling ducks and chicks to children for Easter,” Puttbrese said.
Customers must buy two ducks or six chicks at a time “so people are committed to raising a flock. That is key,” he said. “Our commitment is that chicks are not sold as pets but raised for eggs or other reasons.”
Hobby farmers having backyard chickens for their eggs has become increasingly popular since the early 2000s, Puttbrese noted.
“Ducks also produce eggs. Their egg yolks have a different taste than a chick egg,” he added. “They are also very popular meat.”
TSC’s birds are bought from hatcheries. TSC may work with 4H, FFA or pet adoptions to handle birds not purchased, “But, normally we don’t have a problem with that,” Puttbrese said.
Agway has taken pets from individuals in need “on an individual basis,” Jones said, which is decided by management.
“None of us like spur-of-the-moment decisions and pets do that,” she said. However, “This time of year, sometimes people get on spur of the moment kicks,” Jones said, and make emotional purchases.
Both she and Puttbrese say that people should educate themselves before buying an animal.
“We encourage people to find out more information, so they don’t have a bad experience,” Jones said. “As much as people love their pets, rabbits think like a rabbit and dogs think like a dog. Their bodies are different.”
For instance, a domestic rabbit shouldn’t be put in extreme heat or cold, although a wild rabbit is more adapted to outside living, she stated.
A house rabbit may get diarrhea from too many greens, whereas a wild rabbit is used to eating them, she said. It’s also not good to feed a domestic rabbit anything outside that has been sprayed with pesticides, like apple branches.
When selling an animal to customers, “We go over the paperwork with them,” Jones said.
Many rabbit advocates say domestic rabbits should live indoors. But TSC discourages new bird owners from having the animal inside, Puttbrese said. “Some people do that,” he added, but it’s best to have an outside living area “a good distance away from the door.”
Some initial needs for baby birds include heat to grow, he said. And fresh water is “critical,” Puttbrese said, adding that ducks don’t need to live near a pond to survive. TSC has information about raising birds year round at its stores and on its website, tractorsupply.com, he noted.
Spring is a fun time of the year. “If you go into a store at Chick Days, there’s always people standing around the booth. It’s exciting to hearing the chicks peeping,” Puttbrese said. “Chickens are a lot of fun to raise.”
Having supplies and birds in stock at feed stores during springtime “is a very old and rural tradition,” Puttbrese noted. “TSC is the modern version of that.”
A healthy bird is ready to produce three to four eggs a week at about 24 weeks of age, he added. “It’s the No. 1 reason people get backyard chickens. They have fresh eggs right out of the backyard.”
Jones likes when Agway makes a good match between animals and humans. “It’s nice when we see people coming back with pictures or bringing them back for nail clippings,” she said. “It’s nice when there’s a kid it especially works out for.”
