Furs, fins and feathers!

HYDERABAD: You step into your house after a long day of work, and eagerly waiting to greet you is a bark, a meow or a shriek, automatically erasing the stress off your mind. Pets give you every reason to be happy, peaceful and stress-relieved. As they grow up, they become a part of your family and your life. There has been much craze among people not just to own pets, but also care for them in the best possible way. And talking about pets, exotic pets is the new buzz word among the city’s animal lovers. But, is it really easy to own them in Hyderabad. Yes, it is. Just walk into “Fur n Feathers”, where squeaks, shrieks and whistles of macaws, finches and whydahs are waiting for your visit.What started as a hobby of two friends, Aameer Javeed and SA Sohail, has now become a hot spot for all pet lovers. This store caters  to the needs of animal lovers who have waited all along to own exotic and unusual pets. The store offers pets that are exclusive and of high quality. “These pets have been imported from across the globe, like South America, Australia and Philippines,” says Aamer Javeed. The store presently is home to the scarlet and the blue-gold macaw, African grey parrot, sulpher crusted cockatoo, Mullucan cockatoo, Roselia’s chattering lory and rainbow lory, sun conure, cocktails, budreigars, ornamental poultry, pheasants, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, ornamental snakes, Persian and Siamese Cats, various varieties of fish, different breeds of pups and many other kinds of exotic birds and animals.Talking about the African grey parrot, whose sociability and intelligence make them great pets, Javeed says, “The African grey parrot is the most-intelligent and a fast-learning bird. It is said to have a memory to store a vocabulary of more than 100 words.” Another very prominent member of the store is a three-month-old scarlet macaw, which is said to be the most expensive pet costing about `4 lakh. The store also has a range of pigeons and dove varieties, which include the white and the diamond doves and fantail, runt, priest and the bleeding heart pigeons. “The pigeon was named bleeding heart, because the pigeon has a red patch in the shape of heart on its chest,” Javeed says. Apart from pigeons, there are also Australian finches, long-tail finches and zebra finches.Moving on to the most common forms of pets, the cats and dogs, the store has exotic breeds like Chihuahua, Las Abso, pug, miniature pinchers and Persian cats. The store also offers good quality feed for all sorts of pets from international brands like Royal Canin, Mr Lords and Pedigree, which are customised to meet their nutritional requirements. The outlet also offers, fashionable pet apparel, chic carriers, hamster homes, toys, treats, nature-friendly toiletries and many more accessories including hair-brushes and collars. “As an added feature, we also provide pet training, taming and grooming,” adds Javeed.Mentioning about the legal consequences of owning these pets acquired from different countries, Javeed says, “We strongly discourage trading of wild caught birds and only sell captive bred exotic birds. So, when people walk home, they can be assured that nothing is illegal.”