Stacey, The Blue & Gold Macaw
Stacey, B&G Macaw Bought Unweaned from a breeder at 3 mo's of age. The baby was gavage fed, on the first day and very first feeding by the new owner Stacey was Severely Crop burned. Everything was totally burned away from her throat to her gizzard. The "Hole" was where her crop once was. The Stitches ran from the hole to her shoulder, all the way up to under her chin and around her neck. The Tiny Feed Tube was threaded down her neck going directly to her gizzard. She had to be fed water thin formula every hour around the clock. She could not drink or take food by mouth, there was NO place for it to go.
Taylor was a 14 week old Grey sold by a pet store to a man who had never handfed a baby bird. At 15 weeks, he had a burn hole in his crop and chest. At 18 weeks he was dead. He died in the arms of the man who bought him, snuggled under his chin and finally free of pain.
- Whose baby bird was this?
- Who took this precious Grey, fat and fuzzy, from the nest and sold him into death?
- Did the breeder give a thought to the future of this baby when he handed him over to a broker or to the customer?
- Did he care?
How many babies were in the shipping crate?
Where are they? Are they alive?.......or dead like this little one sold into the hands of
a buyer who had never handfed a baby bird? Taylor will have lots of company from other
baby birds sold into death.
All of these sellers of unweaned babies transfer the risks - the health problems and the
deaths - to the customer.
The only way this can be stopped is for the buying public to refuse to buy an unweaned
baby bird and to refuse to patronize breeders who sell them.
Selling Unweaned Babies by Howard Voren from Breeder Q & A, Bird Breeder Magazine, ©January 1996
We have been involved in
breeding parrots for the pet trade for many years. We have always sold our babies to those
who are skilled in handfeeding, and this has never caused the babies any suffering. We
have heard that you do the same. Over the last few years, there seems to have been a major
increase in those who say that the sale of unweaned babies is an unacceptable practice.
What are your thoughts on this?
I have always been concerned about any potential blanket "policies" that could
result in a negative influence on aviculture. One that needs to be addressed at this time
is the desire of a well meaning influential few to ban the sale of unweaned birds. In a
very short time, this movement has gained alarming momentum. This is very understandable
because it plays on the emotions of many bird lovers. The sight of only one baby that is
starving to death due to crop stasis because it was put into the wrong hands can cause any
bird lover to think, "There should be a law against this." Fortunately, horrible
situations like this represent a very small minority of bird sales nationwide.
It is my experience that most top professional breeders in the United States sell the vast
majority of their production unweaned. They sell to pet shops that are extremely skilled
in handrearing techniques. Those professional breeders who do sell unweaned babies to the
public require that the buyer prove their handfeeding skills before the baby is released
to them. Reputable pet shops that sell unweaned birds to the public do so only after the
buyer has been given extensive instructions and hands on training in handfeeding. These
babies stay in the shop until the buyers have demonstrated their proficiency. These shops
also require that the buyers return on a weekly basis to have their birds weighed and
examined.
Professional breeders and those who conduct themselves in a professional manner are not
the ones who cause these problems. Yet, it would be the professional breeders, as well as
all of the best bird shops in the U.S., that would suffer the most if such a blanket
policy, regulation or legislation were ever adopted.
There is also the problem of those people who are misinformed about the best time to
transfer a baby from the farm to the pet shop. The majority of full-time professionals,
whether they are bird shop owners or breeders, have learned that parrots ship better,
adjust to change better and become better socialized when transferred to a pet shop
situation before they are weaned. They are at an age where they would normally be sitting
in a dark tree hollow with several clutch mates. Being confined to a semi-dark shipping
crate with a few "buddies" is a circumstance that seems completely natural to
them. They are also at a stage of psychological development where their main overriding
desire is to be fed on a regular basis. Within a few hours of being uncrated, they are
usually thinking about being fed. With the very reliable, higher priced,
counter-to-counter airline service, the babies usually never miss a feeding.
On the other hand, birds that are recently weaned or close to weaning react in an
extremely negative way when transferred to such dramatically different surroundings. Many
of them will "back flip" and go into screaming fits when approached. If they are
not transferred to a pet shop situation during the dependent handfeeding stage of
development, they have a difficult time making the psychological transition. Transferring
birds to pet shops at the "just weaned" stage can cause many to become biters
and pluckers. Some "revert" and refuse to eat or be handfed. At that point, they
must be restrained and force fed with a feeding tube. This is an extremely negative
experience for both shop owner and bird.
If they are not transferred until they are well past the "just weaned" stage,
most will not allow strangers to handle them. The more dependent a baby is on being
handfed, the more likely it is to be friendly with any set of hands. Because of this, some
of the most successful bird shops in the county believe that if they can't get the babies
young enough, they would rather not have them. (This is true of most of the pet species,
the one major exception being cockatoos.) They have made these judgments after many years
of seeing firsthand, which babies end up being well adjusted companions and which do not.
They also realize that to a potential customer, a fully weaned bird looks no different
than an older bird. Seeing the babies being handfed in the pet shops is the only way many
customers are assured that they are really buying babies. Even if they wait for them to be
weaned in the shops, they can begin to bond and play with them while they are in their
most impressionable stage. If pet shops were permitted to purchase only weaned birds, it
would all but put them out of the bird business. Only budgies, cockatiels and lovebirds
would remain in inventory.
I believe that those who are responsible for the majority of suffering due to the sale of
unweaned birds are breeders who sell their "out of the nest" or "still
handfeeding" babies to anyone who shows up with the money and claims that they know
how to handfeed. Most of the remaining abuses come from pet shops that do not usually
handle "large" birds but special order them on request for customers. I would
guess that these shops, as well, are assured by their customers that they know how to
handfeed. When I was just starting out, I used to sell an occasional bird to a private
party. Of course, whenever I asked the question, "Have you ever handfed?" the
answer was always the same: "Of course!" All too often, further interrogation
revealed that they had owned a bird at one time and used to feed it peanuts "by
hand" through the bars of the cage.
The sale of unweaned birds to those who are skilled in the handfeeding process is an
acceptable and proper practice. The seller, however, should be responsible for
establishing that the customer has the skills that are necessary. Therefore, I believe
there are many valid commercial and professional reasons not to discourage the sale of
unweaned birds to skilled individuals.
Howard Voren is the founder and director of the Voren Research Institute for
Psittacultural Science. Voren is also the owner and operator of Voren's Aviaries Inc. in
Florida, and has been a full-time professional aviculturist for more than 20 years.
Any client of Pretty Birds that wishes to purchase an unweaned baby bird will have to spend many hours of training, practice and extensive education before they ever get custody of their new feathered family member. We at Pretty Birds believe, simply because we care, if the time and energy is spent to teach the client everything they need to know to properly care and raise our unweaned birds, then our birds will live long healthy lives. This practice works for us since our inception in 1992.
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