Breeder

[asterroc]

Talked to a breeder on the phone again today - same one who called me when I was walking over to rumorofrain's house the other week, but this time I was at home so I could jot down notes. Some of the questions and answers below in case anyone's interested or wants to give me their thoughts on it.


Breeder
Tatiana

Location
Ludlow

When can I visit?
Check the website, http://www.birdbreeders.com/breederavailability.aspx?B=2139
Contact her again late March

How many species do you have? How many breeding pairs do you have?
Sun conure (4 pair), jenday, green-cheeks (including yellow-sided and pineapple mutations, 6 pair)
Colors same personalities.

Do you pull the chicks for hand feeding or coparent?
Handfeed
Can’t visit breeders / aviary due to not wanting to expose them to germs, can visit babies.
Deposit, can spend time with them.
A couple months to wean, 12 weeks to wean, 3 months from hatching, 2 months from pulling
2.5-3 weeks from nest, then handfeed.

How do the parents live when not breeding?
Haven't asked; she will send me photos of the wild-type and two color mutations though, so that should give me an idea of their conditions. Plus she has referred to at least one Sun she has as a pet.

Price?
GCC’s cheapest ~$250 (varies by availability), other mutations cost more, $50/$75, pineapples at $400/450

Do you allow the chicks to fledge?
Muddled: mentioned both clipping, and waiting a couple weeks to learn to fly. She stressed that clipping adults not necessary once the bird knows you, recommends clip babies so don’t hurt themselves while learning.

What is the diet you wean them onto?
Wean onto pellets, veggies, fruits, nuts as a treat for training. Didn't ask what brand of pellets

Health guarantee?
Recommends a vet check w/in 72 hours, checks her bigger birds for polynoma (sp?), sends away to Florida for that and sexing. Sounds like she doesn't vet check her smaller birds. Wasn't clear on a health guarantee.

Any recommended reading?
Emailed her for this info, she was not at home when I called.


Some answers were less than idea, but I don't know that anyone will be perfect, and she's the only candidate for a breeder so far.

Comments

[meig.livejournal.com]

I don't think any breeder is going to fit the "ideal" that is put forth on parrot_lovers :P

My suggestion is to go see her setup and then trust your gut. That's how I found Gremlin. The breeder let me come over, she had the babies there and I interacted with them for about an hour and a half. Gremlin actually chose me :) Her house was clean, she had a decent amount of birds but her pet birds were in very large, clean cages with tons of toys. I could also tell this wasn't a "omg, there's someone coming over we need to clean!!" clean, it was just a general all around cleanliness. Her breeders were in decent cages, a toy or two but not many. They were not people birds, or pets, but they were definitely in good health and feather.

I'm a huge believer in trusting one's gut reaction. It's usually correct. If you go somewhere and you don't feel comfortable, find another breeder.

You've seen these sites? http://www.birdbreeders.com/ http://www.avianbiotech.com/Breeders/default.asp

I like the Avian Biotech site, they have a lot of breeders listed.

Good luck.

[meig.livejournal.com]

Here's another list I just found. I don't know how far some of these are from you.

http://www.boaf.com/breeders_list.shtml


eta: Oh duh. You found Tatiana on birdbreeders.com I saw it and yet didn't see it :)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yep, Google found me birdbreeders.com and boaf.com (none of them there are close). I sent emails to everyone nearby on birdbreeders.com, and only two people replied, the other of whom was actually really far. I haven't yet looked at CT or other nearby states on those lists though, just MA.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I don't think any breeder is going to fit the "ideal" that is put forth on parrot_lovers :P

True, but I also don't expect any bird to fit my "ideal" either - the one they jumped all over me about saying that I had an unrealistic idea and that I was being overly specific so I should keep looking for an adult from a rescue for many years until I found the perfect bird. It's good to have the ideal in mind so you know what to look for, and then pick the best that is actually realistically available and is also acceptable (if the "best" is still not very good, don't go with it, obviously).

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

pineapple mutations sound intriguing. what do they look like? also, you have a broken </b> tag.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Found and fixed the tag right before I read this.

Not sure what pineapple GCCs look like. *googles* ..

Wild-type GCC:


Yellow-sided has ... more yellow on the sides:


Cinnamon the darker colors are instead more tan:


And Pineapple appears to be cinnamon and yellow-sided combined.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but do they taste like pineapple?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I don't get to meet one until the end of the month. I'll see if I can sneak in a clandestine lick then and let you know after.

breeders

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I think that it says something about the company that I keep that I first (for a brief fraction of a second) interpreted "breeders" as a term that homosexuals use to refer to heterosexuals (and sometimes intentionally childless folks use to refer to those with children). :P :)

Re: breeders

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I should've thought of that one. :) Considering the context of ME, it could've been either. I think of myself as "temporarily childfree" and quite often use the term breeder in my head when I hear of people who don't go to as great lengths as I do and then are shocked when - oh my! - they accidentally start popping out babies.

Re: breeders

[(Anonymous)]

...and now you may find it difficult to repress the tendency to swap definitions back and forth in your head while talking about one or the other. (At least if your brain works anything like mine does. :) )

I guess that I don't have a catchall term for your latter category (aside from "parents"); how I think of them depends on how I feel that they'll cope with having (a) kid(s), more than how intentional the conception was.

Re: breeders

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

oops, dammit, that was me. "fake person" indeed!

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

Good on you for being prepared and asking so many questions!

My thoughts:

Are you definitely going with a breeder instead of the Crystal Parrot? They seem to do pretty well by their babies, even if the woman who owns the place is very set in her ways and not always very nice.

HOLY CRAP, that breeder breeds a lot of species! Everything from lovebirds to hyacinth macaws. It's too bad you can't scope out her aviary. She seems to have FAR more species than Crystal Parrot, so I'm not sure you're getting any kind of advantage by going straight to the breeder here.

It's too bad she won't let you meet her breeder birds, but that seems pretty standard. Can you ask for photos of her breeder birds and their cages? I would be somewhat concerned about a bird milling operation with that many species from a "home breeder." Her page says she breeds hybrid macaws, which is a BIG red flag in my book.

I'd also ask about how she weans. Abundance weaning would be a BIG plus in my book.

It's great that she fledges her babies! Most of the good parrot stores I've been to seem to have fledged-then-clipped juveniles, so hopefully it's catching on. If you're interested in leaving your baby flighted, it's worth asking if she'd not clip him/her. I'd hope a good breeder would respect that request.

Likewise, if there's a particular type of food you're planning on feeding, you may want to ask if she'll include that type in the baby's food mix when it's weaned. If she's hesitant, you could offer to pay for the food. It'll save you from potential conversion woes later on.

DEFINITELY get the health guarantee, preferably in writing. Any breeder worth her salt will guarantee her birds' health. Ask for at least a week to get a vet check and determine health, and push for a month if possible. (Think of it as your at-home quarantine period.)

If you're interested in looking at parrot stores (who breed their own babies) as well as breeders, there's a really nice parrot store in Old Saybrook, CT called Featherlust Farm (they breed many of their own species) and one in New Jersey called Bird Paradise. I've never been to the latter, but many people from one of the parrot forums I read really like it.

Good luck in your parrot search!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Crystal Parrot's still on my list. I keep planning to go back there after work on a Friday (I get out too late on other days) or on a day off and ask a billion of these questions, and also see what books they have on GCCs and duskies. If I end up deciding a dusky is my preference, I may *have* to go with them.

She was pretty muddled on fledging, she says she clips, but she also says she lets them learn to fly, so I will need to ask if she meant she clips after the fledge or if she can let my chick fledge, or what.

Good idea to give her the food I want to use.

Old Saybrook is at/near the limit of where I'm willing to drive to at this time, so I'll look them up. I want to be able to visit the chick multiple times, and more than 2 hrs drive will make that quite difficult. There's lots of breeders and stores (and likely rescues) in NYC, so if I exhaust things closer, I'll hit NYC this summer where I can stay w/ my parents while searching.

Do you happen to get any bird magazines? My Dad said that when we got Peeper he searched for breeders in magazines; the internet's mostly replaced that sort of thing, but it doesn't hurt to check if you do get one.

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

Yep, I get Good Bird and Bird Talk, and they both have tons of ads in the back. I'd be happy to lend you one of my recent issues if you'd like to check it for breeders.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yes please! Am I (or my mailbox) on your way to work, or should I stop by sometime to get it?

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

I walk right by your street, so I'll drop one off for you tomorrow or Friday. :)