Pet business thriving at Souq Al Wakrah

DOHA: Along a number of other activities the residents have created to spend their leisure days during long summer vacations, buying domestic pets especially by children is also thriving in the town.

People visit Souq Al Wakrah not only to enjoy traditional Arabic cuisine and beach but also to buy pets. With over a dozen of pet shops selling different kinds of exotic birds and other small animals, Souq Al Wakra provides the residents with a second option to buy domestic pets apart from another pets market located at Souq Al Waqif.

Though shop keepers face some challenges due to scorching heat of summer and have to make extra safety arrangements for birds and animals, the vacations have not dampened their routine business.

“Birds are the most common domestic pets which are mostly sold during summer season whereas rabbits and canary birds are sold during winter season as they can not survive the hot summers of Doha,” said Abu Qasim, a pets seller at the market.

He said that at his shop different domestic pets including squirrels, hamsters, tortoise, cats and rabbits were available in addition to multiple kinds of birds “but most of the people demand African grey parrot called ‘casco’ due to its talking ability. “During summers people buy fewer birds because most of them cannot survive the heat as well as a large number of residents travel out of country,” he added.

Prices of different birds vary from QR40 to QR7,000 per head. Some shopkeepers say that prices of domestic pets have increased in the last few years while other claim that they are almost uniform.

Joe, a Filipino customer at Souq Al Wakrah, told The Peninsula that she loves pets and she would visit pet shops weekly to buy feed and other accessories for her pets. She said that pets prices were on a constant rise.

Another shopkeeper, Rassel Mahmood, said that Pakistani fisher parrot, Indian parrot, Nepali parrot and Zebra finch (bird) had more demand in the market. “But kids mostly like to buy hamster.”

“In summers, we take extra care for the pets especially birds as some birds may catch eye infections and dysentery,” he added:

Some people visit Souq Al Wakra just to hear the chirping of birds. “Some of the birds especially a few species of parrots can even speak a few words after training which fascinates the visitors and also encourages them to buy those talking birds,” a shopkeeper noted.

One of the shopkeepers said that with the onset of summer, the turnout of customers at his shop had slightly decreased. “But I hope from the next month as summer vacations are set to end and many expatriates will return to Qatar, the sales will rise again,” he observed.

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