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Mail Order Parrot

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Mail Order Parrot

Postby Michael » Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:11 pm

What do you folks think about getting a parrot shipped from a remote breeder? Anyone dealt with this system? How is it on the birds? What do I need to know about this?
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Michael
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby tacotaco » Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:21 pm

I am really happy to see this question being asked! I pretty much live on Hoobly and I know they do a lot of shipping on there (as well as many breeders who say they will not.) The whole shipping thing gives me a bad feeling but I have never experienced it or heard anything about it, so I look forward to seeing answers as well.
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby triplebbirds » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:41 pm

I know a lot of breeders do ship. Most dont have bad experiences with it so in turn you could say that the coustomer doesnt ususally have a bad experience with it. I do not ship. This is only for a convience reason, at this point. The nearest airport is in Columbus. That is 1 1/2 hours away. We currently have 2 vehicals. 1 is a 15 passenger van. and the other is a gas hog pick up. But get as much info as possible. Current photos, videos if available, references. Whatever would make you feel comfortable with the situation.
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby Natacha » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:05 pm

Personally, I wouldn't.

I want to be able to see the facilities if possible. I want to see in what environment they are being brought up. I want to actually meet the breeder in person...and I want to be able to connect with a baby before having it shipped (granted all babies tend to be nice, but you can tell pretty quickly if there is a connection or not, I knew within seconds with Piper and minutes with Shade).

As it's no big secret, I am looking for a female Red-bellied. Breeders aren't too common around here. I found one, through a friend, in Guelph. Guelph is a 6 hour drive from where I live (and to think there used to be a breeder half an hour away but she stopped breeding when she got cancer). I met the breeder at the Canadian Parrot Conference I attended last November. We've been emailing since. She might have a clutch in the spring (she gave the nest to her birds and it looks promising) and I will try to at least go twice; once to interact and see how the babies are and a second time to pick it up (if there happens to be a female amongst them of course).

It's far, but I would rather go in person.
I know some people who have had birds shipped and have been lied about their condition.
It really goes on how much you can trust the person on the other end ...
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby Michael » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:19 pm

Well let's put it this way... There are probably no more than 10-20 breeders in the entire country that breed the kind of parrot I'm looking into. Then there is not a single one in my area (which I would have obviously preferred). The closest one happens to be the sucky breeder and that is simply not an option. Furthermore I require that the parrot must be flighted and never clipped which probably rules out another half of the breeders on my list. Then add to that the fact that many of the listed breeders for that species don't have them and/or don't expect to have them in the foreseeable future. Out of these 10-20 breeders I've come in contact with 2 that are quite reputable and considered experts in this species and I have read countless mentions of them throughout the internet and heard their names mentioned from other breeders.

While I have no way of being absolutely certain this is the best breeder, I do have a good feeling about them. A lot more than can be said for countless other breeders I've encountered while considering other species (like asking one if they breed poicephalus parrots and they were trying to correct me and tell me that I meant eclectus). I have to say that these two breeders I'm considering are probably more reliable than most stores or local breeders I could otherwise consider. So I understand that the quality of the breeder is a risk I am taking upon myself but that's why I'm looking at some of the best. I'm figuring that if I'm resorting to getting the bird shipped anyway, it may as well be from the best. Since my local search has utterly failed, I've started broadening to a nationwide search instead.

I doubt these remote breeders could be ANY WORSE than the sucky breeders I've been coming across who are closer. So with that said, I'm really much more interested in the shipping process, safety, trauma, etc. Has anyone had their baby shipped to them? How does all that work?
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby pchela » Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:25 pm

From what I understand, the baby is put in a small carrier about the size for a small cat in the case of a Cape parrot. The idea is that the carrier is a small space and it is fairly dark inside so the bird is thought to suffer minimal stress. They are taken to the airport by the breeder and shipped with the other animals on the flight. The problem for me would not be the breeder... it would be the airline employees. Once the bird is out of the breeders hands, there is really no way to know how the bird is being handled. I would rather spend the extra money on an airline ticket for myself to go pick up the parrot. Some airlines will allow you to bring them in the passenger area as long as the carrier can fit under the seat. I understand that would be costly though. I've heard of many cased where people have had birds shipped to them with no ill effects.
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby MandyG » Tue Dec 22, 2009 2:59 pm

My Amazon was shipped to me from a province away. I was a little wary about not seeing the bird before hand and about possible scams but I did a lot of research and found a breeder on a reputable breeder website and talked to a lot of references and spoke to the breeder a lot before hand. When the babies were DNA sexed the breeder sent me an e-mail listing the results from the vet. They also sent me pictures weekly, sometimes daily, of the baby birds (there were two of them in the clutch). Every breeder is different, but I really enjoyed my experience with this one, they had no problem talking to me about every question I had and they were very willing to work with me.

As for the shipping process there's not much to tell. They asked me which airport I would like him shipped to and the dates that worked for me. I paid for the deposit before hand and paid the balance including the flight once the flight reservation was made. They didn't charge me for the carrier, which some breeders that I talked to do. Some wanted an addition $100 plus the flight just for the tiny little carrier! They sent me the flight #, Airline, time, and the number I would need to claim him. I called the airline to confirm the information and that they had paid for the flight. He was sent in a small hard plastic animal carrier (cat sized) with a bit of food and water, a perch, and a towel on the bottom and built around the sides a bit to protect him during the flight. I'm not sure how he was handled on their end but I watched him be unloaded from cargo and the employees were very gentle handling him. When we signed for him and picked him up he didn't seem scared or shaken up at all, he was just very curious and trying to look out the door of the carrier to see what was going on. He did eat a bit during the flight, there was some celery and apple slices that had been mostly eaten on the bottom of the carrier. When we took him out of the carrier for a few minutes in the car (it was going to be another 3 hour drive home so I wanted to give him a chance to stretch and look around and give him more water) he wasn't very scared at all, in a couple of minutes he came out of the carrier and stepped up onto my hand. He seemed a little nervous (understandably!) but not scared as if he had been traumatized. He had no problem going back into his carrier for the rest of the drive. We let him into his cage when we got home and left him alone for the day, he didn't do much for the first while but within a little while when we checked on him he was exploring his cage and his toys. It was a good experience in my opinion. Also there was a package attached to the cage with the DNA certificate, hatch certificate, and a lot of information about parrots.

I'm not sure if that helps at all, but that was my experience. He's my first bird so I can't compare my experience with bringing a bird home that wasn't flown. You might be able to ask your breeder if their other customers have commented on their shipping experience with certain airlines. Once you talk to your breeder about which airlines they use you might be able to find reviews on how that airline transports animals. If people have had a bad experience, you'll usually be able to find something about it online!
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby triplebbirds » Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:12 pm

Now what airline did he fly through? It sounds like you had a fairly good experience with his flight.
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Re: Mail Order Parrot

Postby MandyG » Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:15 pm

They used Air Canada. I was really happy about the experience over all.

:amazon:
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