Cape Parrot

[TheNzJessie]

$1800 if the prices havn't changed in a couple of weeks

[Michael]

i just saw a Cape for sale on another board. "very sweet DNA sexed female, beginning to talk"
$1200. is that a reasonable price?
just wondering, never really heard of Capes much till you got yours.
have no idea what they sell for......

You must ask yourself what's the catch as babies normally go for $1800. Sounds to me from the description like it's someone trying to rehome a 1-3 year old Cape Parrot and make a buck while their at it (or at least salvage most of what they spent). Whenever looking at a potential rehome, you must ask yourself what is wrong with the bird that it is being rehomed? Or what is wrong with the person for rehoming such a wonderful bird!?

[Marnie]

here is the whole ad:

"Beautiful, sweet Cape Parrot available for sale. DNA sexed FEMALE. One year old. She is super sweet; beautiful orange head. Tame and beginning to talk. Loves to play with her toys; hanging upside down is a favorite past time. Quite the entertainer! Super companion!! Due to Financial Hardship and with much sadness, I must sell, to GOOD HOME ONLY. Located 15 minutes from Indianapolis, Indiana. Sacrifice for $1200.00 Cage does NOT come with her; decorator furniture quality cage for sale seperately."

i was surprised with your response that there must be "something wrong with the bird"

anyways, its sounds like a nice bird to me. i hope she finds a great new forever home.
they seem to be wonderful birds from what i have learned from you Michael.

[Athena&beepbeep'smom]

well I agree and disagree with Michael here. On one hand yes, a rehome is usually for a reason and I have personally learned the hard way that what is a sweet loving parrot in an ad is a viscious biter in person. On the other hand sometimes all that's "wrong with the bird" is that you have to clean up after it and socialize with it, and tame it, and cook for it, and spend gobs of money for it and also since hitting puberty cute little baby birdy has been ascerting herself more than I like. In other words whatever's wrong with the bird might be that the owner never realized exactly how much this would entail and the difficulties and hardships they're encountering are exactly what all of us have come to expect as reasonable.

[Michael]

here is the whole ad:

i was surprised with your response that there must be "something wrong with the bird"

anyways, its sounds like a nice bird to me. i hope she finds a great new forever home.
they seem to be wonderful birds from what i have learned from you Michael.

Thanks for posting the full ad. I think it says it all. The people are having financial trouble so they want to cash in the bird and recover what they can from it. They're not including the cage but offering it at a premium which is even more fishy. What use do they have for a cage without a bird? Unless they are trying to get more money by selling everything separately. What kind of care could they have been providing the bird for the last year if they are so rigorously trying to sell it and get a quick buck? What kind of owner could they have been all this time if they can sell a parrot and its supplies as a commodity? You get the same feeling from looking at craigs list type offers.

The only kind of ad that I can think of as being trustworthy is when someone has troubles but isn't "selling" the bird. They are just looking for the best home possible and not trying to get any money out of the deal.

Quite likely this one is a nice bird and if you are looking to get one on sale, this would be the chance but don't think of this as a benevolent rescue of a poor helpless bird. You'd just be supporting some rotten owners trying to liquidate their pets.

In other words whatever's wrong with the bird might be that the owner never realized exactly how much this would entail and the difficulties and hardships they're encountering are exactly what all of us have come to expect as reasonable.

That's why I said "Whenever looking at a potential rehome, you must ask yourself what is wrong with the bird that it is being rehomed? Or what is wrong with the person for rehoming such a wonderful bird!?"

[Brittanyv326]

The only kind of ad that I can think of as being trustworthy is when someone has troubles but isn't "selling" the bird. They are just looking for the best home possible and not trying to get any money out of the deal.

Advertising a free or very cheap bird would attract all of the wrong people. I agree that $1,200 is probably a little high, under $1,000 would suffice; however you have to think about what kind of people would respond to your ad if you said "free cape parrot". People would likely lie through their teeth to you about how much they love birds and how they will give a forever home, then turn around and sell it for the money since you didn't. It is almost necessary to charge a chunk of money. Often there's the whole idea that "if someone can't afford to pay the adoption fee, then they can't afford vet visits and food." Even if I don't believe that, I do believe that the adoption fee weeds out the potentially impulsive buyers and leaves the committed buyers who will be more likely to take care of the bird better and for longer and won't hesitate to spend money on it whether or not they can "afford" it. Sorry to bring this even more off topic, I just thought your opinion was maybe a little biased or not thought out. You can't judge this lady by the ad, you don't know that she doesn't care about the bird's well being. It may not be for profit, but for the well being of the parrot.

I almost feel like testing what I've said by advertising a bird for free, then near average prices with the same description and type of bird just to see what types of responses I get (obviously not with real intentions to actually sell/give out a bird).

[Natacha]

The only kind of ad that I can think of as being trustworthy is when someone has troubles but isn't "selling" the bird. They are just looking for the best home possible and not trying to get any money out of the deal.

Advertising a free or very cheap bird would attract all of the wrong people. I agree that $1,200 is probably a little high, under $1,000 would suffice; however you have to think about what kind of people would respond to your ad if you said "free cape parrot". People would likely lie through their teeth to you about how much they love birds and how they will give a forever home, then turn around and sell it for the money since you didn't. It is almost necessary to charge a chunk of money. Often there's the whole idea that "if someone can't afford to pay the adoption fee, then they can't afford vet visits and food." Even if I don't believe that, I do believe that the adoption fee weeds out the potentially impulsive buyers and leaves the committed buyers who will be more likely to take care of the bird better and for longer and won't hesitate to spend money on it whether or not they can "afford" it. Sorry to bring this even more off topic, I just thought your opinion was maybe a little biased or not thought out. You can't judge this lady by the ad, you don't know that she doesn't care about the bird's well being. It may not be for profit, but for the well being of the parrot.

I almost feel like testing what I've said by advertising a bird for free, then near average prices with the same description and type of bird just to see what types of responses I get (obviously not with real intentions to actually sell/give out a bird).

I guess I'll help get it even more off topic.
I agree with what Brittany has said.

I have seen so many birds end up for free or cheaply in the wrong hands. These people WILL tell you EVERYTHING you want to hear - they know the game. And then these birds get resold and trust me, these people aren't in it to find good homes.

If I ever found myself in a situation where I needed to rehome my birds, I would ask a price - to weed out people like that. But I will probably end up giving them if I find the right person - but that I won't say until the end. And I'll have them sign a contract that they are not to be resold and given back to me if that person can no longer look over them.

The bird world is full of people looking for opportunities - not necessarily always in a good way.

[pchela]

I agree with Brittany and Natacha. There are people who specifically watch the want ads and Craigslist for cheap birds that they can resell for a lot more money. They also watch for found birds and try to pass themselves off as the owners. A couple who found a Grey that I was helping the owners look for told me they had 4 people come by and blatantly lie about the bird and one guy offered them $500 no questions asked for the bird after he couldn't prove the bird was his.

An excellent idea is to ask a decent price for the bird and if you find a good home, ask them to instead put that money into a fund at a vets office for the bird. I've also heard of people asking that the money go to a bird sanctuary.

[Michael]

Perhaps the said person in the ad is doing just this? How could we ever know? They could have been given the parrot by someone to take care of and now selling to make a profit. I don't like this whole "used birds" business...

[Janis Bottomley]

Hello. My name is Jan. I am new to the forum. I have a bronze-winged pionus and recently, I just purchased a 2 1/2 yr old male grey-headed cape parrot. I would like to respond to Marnie regarding the female Cape she had for sale in June. These birds are so rare in the wild as well as in captivity, that I would like to try to breed them, to at least, increase the population in the United States.