Tractor Supply Employee Knowledge About Chicks

[CariLynn]

I didn't read all 25 pages but I called the corporate headquarters to once again complain about the condition of those baby chicks they get in each year. Every time I go in, and I try not to if I can help it when it is around chick and duckling and baby bunny season, the chicks are over heated, lying around, panting, their water is always too clogged with shavings to get a drink, hardly any or no food at all, or their are baby chicks that are dead and/or dying. You tell the staff about it and they say they will get right to it so either they say it and then you watch and wait and it is when THEY are ready to do it or you wonder later if they really did do something about it.

I also really find myself grinding my teeth when children get chicks, the parents ignorant as anything, knowing what kind of life those babies may endure. Do some education parents before getting a live little sentient being for your monsters...sheesh!

 

[lolita117]

2X. Those parents with their monsters don't care. They probably dislike animals. As an animal lover, its hard for me to be around people who hate animals and don't care about their well-being.

I didn't read all 25 pages but I called the corporate headquarters to once again complain about the condition of those baby chicks they get in each year. Every time I go in, and I try not to if I can help it when it is around chick and duckling and baby bunny season, the chicks are over heated, lying around, panting, their water is always too clogged with shavings to get a drink, hardly any or no food at all, or their are baby chicks that are dead and/or dying. You tell the staff about it and they say they will get right to it so either they say it and then you watch and wait and it is when THEY are ready to do it or you wonder later if they really did do something about it.

I also really find myself grinding my teeth when children get chicks, the parents ignorant as anything, knowing what kind of life those babies may endure. Do some education parents before getting a live little sentient being for your monsters...sheesh!

 

[krisendaaves]

that's a funny story. if you weren't concerned about hurting her feelings (which i am, so i probably wouldn't say this either), you might have been tempted to say, 'yes, when i ask you what type of bantams you have, ~type being the pivotal word here~ it pretty much ought to alert you to the possibility that there are types of bantams. i rarely employ sarcasm, however, this is one of those times when it may have proved satisfying. if the tractor supply company (is that what the TSC that i see on here means?) employees had been trained properly, i would have come home knowing the age, gender and breed of my seven new babies that i am so surprisingly in love with. i figure that the people buying chicks in cullman, alabama probably already know all these things about the chicks, so the store didn't require the young man who helped us transfer our choices to a box, to know any of the above. but it would have meant much to me have an informed salesperson who was willing to take five minutes to teach me a few things that would've felt like vast amounts of knowledge to a first time mother (of chicks). i posted on here earlier today about how wonderful they are, and asked again for information on how to sex them. i think they're in between their first and second week. there are not as many photos of chicks on the internet as i thought there would be. i wanted to compare them to mine, learning their breed that way. currently we need a camera. ours broke, and we don't have one on the cell. i want to post photos of them and ask people on here if y'all think they are what we think they are. ha. well, i know this is too long. i write like i talk, and cannot get what i want to say into just a few short sentences.so you may not want to read this. i just saw your post and wanted to comment, and also to tell you that i think your 'oregon rain forest' is very funny and clever. you don't have to write back if you don't have time.

 

[MercedesBender]

I got perturbed after my last visit to TSC, I asked if they were going to be getting rabbits in again this year, and was told: "No, we are not getting rabbits anymore. The company is tired of negligent parents sending in medicals bills to them from children getting bit by the rabbits in the store." I am totally on the side of TSC for that. It irritates me, though, that the prevailing mentality of people is: "Oh, I (or my child) was injured in your store by your product (a.k.a. bunny),and not at all due to my irresponsibility. Therefore, you need to pay for my pain and suffering." Bah.

(My favorite bunny was a present from my husband from a TSC a few years ago....)

 

[Ilovemyduckies]

Haha! I have always known that straight run was NOT girls and that pullets were. And I was 11 when I got my first chicks.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

I listened to an employee today try to convince a lady that the cornish cross will grow up and lay beautiful white eggs.

 

[koakritters]

on my last visit i came home with 4 injured chicks that they weren't going to take care of. I'd been going in the store at least once a week to look for silkies and the one guy i'd talked to almost every time was there at that point. not only did he sneak me out the 4 injured chicks for free but he let me in the back where they had just gotten in their new shipment, and let me search through the probably 200+ chicks they had and I found me 6 little silkies. I'm pretty sure they were the only silkies too...

but no one there knew anything about chicks. Every time I'd ask if they had any silkies in and I would get the same "all we have are straight runs, pullets and bantams"... every single time!!! i heard a few people get told the whole "straight runs mean they are females" and once they had an entire bin of "pullets" which were obviously ALL roosters!!! Didn't have to even look closely at them, you could tell by glancing in... I finally gave up trying to teach them anything they just didn't care. I did educate some customers with kids tough looking for chicks, so hopefully all the ones they brought home are girls and they won't have any upset kids when they have to get rid of roosters....

 

[krisendaaves]

i too saw the conditions that you described~the chicks not being properly cared for. all it requires of an employee is to change their bedding and water, make sure that they have enough food, that the ambient temperature is regulated, and that they purposefully speak to the animals in a soothing voice. there is no way to measure how important our voice is for their development. it is amazing. in the first week (or two, or three...) of anyone's life it is critical to make certain that they have an appropriate environment in which to thrive, and this includes attention from us. i mean, what else are you going to do on your shift? what a novel approach~to focus on interacting with a unique creature, rather than trying not to do the work of cleaning the environment that they must temporarily live in. i have noticed that when you care about the creature, the person, 'cleaning up' takes on new meaning. it's just not that gross anymore. when olive poops on my arm, or if i accidentally put the back of my hand down into poop when i am feeding them from my hand, it doesn't bother me. i am glad that i have experienced this change in the way that i think. it's good for my ocd. ha.
i also want to say this about allowing young children to handle fragile, infant animals. even if you are sitting right with the child, talking with them about gentle handling, showing them how to hold the animal, you must realise that the most careful, conscientious child is only able to follow your directions for approximately sixty seconds, if that long, because their motor skills, as well as attention span are not yet developed to accomodate this careful behaviour. children usually make rapid, unpredictable movements, which, of course, frighten animals, and cause them not to trust us. my best friend who was a kindergarten teacher for twenty years taught me that each child is on their own developmental trajectory, so they all acquire the cognitive ability to concentrate on prolonged gentle handling at different ages. but there's nothing like a parent who is kind to the animals, and interacts properly, compassionately with them, to serve as a mirror for the child. to recognise your child's limitations, and thus properly limit their interaction with babies, is your adult responsibility to the animals. i wish everyone knew this. people who buy an animal for novelty seem not to 'get it'. i fear that you are right in saying that 'they just don't care~and they rear monsters who do not know how to care" (loosely paraphrased). okay, here i go to tuck mine, and myself in for the night.

 

[Habibs Hens]

all due respect here but...

i see alot of piss taking out of TSC and i dont know it to comment as im in UK

the only USA store i know of really is TJX which here is called TKMAXX

but the point i wan tto make is atleast you guys can get chicks

here in UK we cant walk into the petstore and buy chicks infact the last remaining store that sold exotic birds has stopped selling them now and thats was petsmart [now called pets at home]

the only place i found that sells chicks in UK so far sells them at £8 per chick thats aprox $12 each

admittingly i payed $30 each after a friendly discount of 10% from a local small holding for my POL's i did it to start me off so i can hatch my own from now on

so atleast be lucky for you guys that know what your talking about that you can just walk in pickup a load of chicks and get a great rate on em and walk away the same day with them in hand

 

[twentynine]

Same old same old!

TSC this, TSC that.

I did this, TSC employee did that. Am I the only one that gets oh so tired of hearing this?

Simple question:
If TSC is so danged bad, why are these complainers still doing business with TSC?

I find my local TSC is about average when judging employees on knowledge. But what the heck they have what, maybe 100,000 different items in inventory. I bet even the know it all complainers would have a hard time knowing everything about the inventory.