Microchip

[Rue]

I heard negatives about birds and microchips...like Hyper D did...

Not to mention, there's different kinds of scanners required for different chips and not all vets will have access to all scanners, and you have to pay a company to keep your information current. If you move a lot it becomes expensive.

I prefer the bands. At least for now. Later on, the chips might be the better option, but not yet...

Plus...how much does id matter? If the bird gets out...yes, you can prove it's your bird if necessary. But if the bird is found by someone else, if the finder wants to keep it, they won't be looking for an owner. And if the bird is stolen, it's useless unless you happen to find your stolen bird with the thieves and they 'let' you bring in the authorities. And if you buy an older bird, how many of us would think to have it scanned first to see if it was stolen? Frankly, it never even occurred to me to think of that when I got Ever and Nickel.

[Mr.Darcy]

Well for me I am thinking more about if the bird were to get out by accident, then if he made it to someone's home and was rescued, not eaten by a bird of prey or the average house cat! then perhaps they might take him to a vet who could read the chip. I have not given much thought to the bird being stolen.....Just haven't.I have read a bit on microchips and my understanding is the earlier versions may have had some problems with implantation. They are said to be safe now. That said, I do worry about plucking, why give the bird any reason to pluck. But the breeder using the open band seems a bit problematic too with the possiblilty of it getting caught on who knows what.....ugh I don't know. It seems foolproof to have both the chip and the band.......I think I am leaning to only the band because why stress/hurt the bird needlessly.

No further ahead....
Marlies

[Michael]

I found myself in exactly that same dilemma which is why I ended up just going with the open band. Of course good parrot keeping and common sense should alleviate any fly offs and that band/chip is only meant to serve as a backup in case the bird is ever found.

Considering I take my bird outside so much, I want it to have a clearly visible band so it is obvious that it is a pet. I don't want to get harassed by a cop or some animal liberation fanatic and not be able to demonstrate that it is a domestically raised captive bird.

Once again if the bird ever gets out and is sitting on someone's front lawn, odds are they have no idea if that is some funky wild bird or a pet. The visible leg band helps confirm to them it's a pet and improves the likelihood of them taking some sort of action to help return the bird rather than a chipped one. Who would even think to check the chip? I think people are also a bit more likely to just keep the bird if it's not banded (never even realizing that it is in fact chipped).