Think parrots

[marie83]

woohoo not long now. So excited. Been trying to get a hotel in woking though so we can go down sat instead of setting off at silly oclock sun then long drive back when were tired but they are charging a fortune and I want my money for birdie things lol. Looks like driving on the day it is....

Anyone else from the forum decided to go? think it's £7 entry on the day.

[laducockatiel]

Im pretty lucky, only 1 and a half hour drive from my house, so ill just leave early sunday morning.

[marie83]

Well i'm hoping to be there just before opening. If its anything like the cage and aviary show was there will be queues even with advanced wristbands. We are looking at setting off about half 6 unless we can find a cheaper hotel nearby, if not early night for me on Saturday, My bf isn't insured to drive anymore, he thinks he can just sleep in the car on the way down. I told him he can think again lol, he has to stay awake to give me directions cuz I hate hate hate driving in places I don't know, especially when it's busy.

[terri]

Well i'm hoping to be there just before opening. If its anything like the cage and aviary show was there will be queues even with advanced wristbands. We are looking at setting off about half 6 unless we can find a cheaper hotel nearby, if not early night for me on Saturday, My bf isn't insured to drive anymore, he thinks he can just sleep in the car on the way down. I told him he can think again lol, he has to stay awake to give me directions cuz I hate hate hate driving in places I don't know, especially when it's busy.

Wow this sounds like a pretty big thing for you guys !! Please tell us all about it

[laducockatiel]

Well i'm hoping to be there just before opening. If its anything like the cage and aviary show was there will be queues even with advanced wristbands. We are looking at setting off about half 6 unless we can find a cheaper hotel nearby, if not early night for me on Saturday, My bf isn't insured to drive anymore, he thinks he can just sleep in the car on the way down. I told him he can think again lol, he has to stay awake to give me directions cuz I hate hate hate driving in places I don't know, especially when it's busy.

Wow this sounds like a pretty big thing for you guys !! Please tell us all about it

Will do hopefully. It's a big thing, cos where I live, there's not many parrot shows or anything and this one seems like it will be awesome.

[marie83]

Definitely a big thing. The only shows round near where I am are crummy little ones which are more like a sales than a show.
I'm expecting big things with it being run by parrots magazine, just hope I'm not expecting too much! lol. I'm really excited now, less excited about the long long drive though but I may have found some cheaper accommodation about 7 miles away, so hopefully we can drive down today instead, just need to clear it with my other half.
Just set up a photobucket account so if I bother taking any piccies I'll get them up if I can.

[laducockatiel]

Definitely a big thing. The only shows round near where I am are crummy little ones which are more like a sales than a show.
I'm expecting big things with it being run by parrots magazine, just hope I'm not expecting too much! lol. I'm really excited now, less excited about the long long drive though but I may have found some cheaper accommodation about 7 miles away, so hopefully we can drive down today instead, just need to clear it with my other half.
Just set up a photobucket account so if I bother taking any piccies I'll get them up if I can.

Yeah, couldn't have said it better myself. I'm hoping to get there early cos I didn't get a chance to get workshop tickets from the site, but they said that there will be some that they will be giving away at the entrance.

[marie83]

Definitely a big thing. The only shows round near where I am are crummy little ones which are more like a sales than a show.
I'm expecting big things with it being run by parrots magazine, just hope I'm not expecting too much! lol. I'm really excited now, less excited about the long long drive though but I may have found some cheaper accommodation about 7 miles away, so hopefully we can drive down today instead, just need to clear it with my other half.
Just set up a photobucket account so if I bother taking any piccies I'll get them up if I can.

Yeah, couldn't have said it better myself. I'm hoping to get there early cos I didn't get a chance to get workshop tickets from the site, but they said that there will be some that they will be giving away at the entrance.

Excellent news, I missed the deadline to book advanced tickets too, kept thinking oh its ok, got ages yet, I'll do it tomorrow..... Going in the morning now so hope the traffic is good so I can get my hands on a pair

[laducockatiel]

I just got back from the Think Parrots show and I have to say, it was awesome

I didn't have a workshop ticket to go to the diet and nutrition workshop run by rosemary low, and when I got there they didn't have any tickets for that workshop, but at the reception, they said that if there was some people that didn't turn up, I could get in to the workshop. You don't ask, you don't get . The workshop was really great and informative, since it was run by rosemary low, who has kept parrots for over 50 years and has worked for the loro parque parrot foundation and now, writes articles about parrot nutrition for northern parrots and parrot magazine.

After the workshop, I went around to see what they we selling and they had great parrot toys and food (etc) for fairly cheap prices. I also went to this DIY parrot toy stand run by the world parrot trust and you get to choose any parts and as many as you want and all you have to do is donate two quid to the world parrot foundation. It was great and right now, my tiel, Ladu, is enjoying the toys I made. I also bought some Harrison's pellets (since I was running out), a rope swing, a pack of birds buiscuits and a leather/wood toy. He is loving the toys.

So overall, it was a really great Parrot show and I will, hopefully, definitely be going next year!

[marie83]

Glad you had a good time Ladu! Did you manage to pull any useful info out of the nutrition talks? I wish I had fitted that one in too lol.

My take on the event: Very long post as I learned a couple of things that I think is important which other people may be interested in.

I got there 45 mins early in the end and was second in line for entry which I hoped would enable me to get tickets for the workshops. I did want to go to all of them but figured with the timings I wouldn't get anything else done if I did so I picked the veterniary one and the behaviour one. They only had tickets for the vets one left and they ushered us straight downstairs for it. The talk was good but I didn't learn much from it, it explained the dangers of wing clipping and showed a bird who's wing had been ''fixed'' by steralising old feathers from other birds and carefully glueing them to the remaining feather. It explained why seed based diets are bad etc. A couple of things I did not know got talked about. One being that alot of birds that are imprinted on people will vomit into their crops but not fully regurgitate the food. This means the birds stomach acids are sitting in the crop and over time causes so much discomfort it can cause plucking around the area. Apparently this is a leading cause of plucking round the next. Secondly Neil Forbes said that females (none breeders such as pets) that are fed a high energy diet such as seed are getting ready to breed but don't actually produce eggs are harmed internally as their bones begin to solidify instead of being hollow. Can't remember all the ins and outs but that was the general idea.
After a short question and answer session, making the nutrition lecture 15+ minutes late, we went into the main hall to have a look round.

The show itself was smaller scale than I expected but very brightly lit, unlike the shows at Stafford and Newark. There were many trade stands and also alot of bird charity stands which pleased me, I wasn't aware of most of them. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't any discounted toys unlike at some other shows, although northern parrots did have a small discounted table for damaged or unpackaged stock. I managed to pick up a couple of perches cheapish and a multipack of woven tubes for £1 cuz the price had dropped off and he didn't know what it was, I found out after it should have been £5 lol. Also managed to pick up some stainless food bowls for a bargain as they retail at £5 in our local petshop and I managed to get 3 for that price. I maybe went a bit overboard with the toys given we are already overrun with them. Came back with a ladder, foraging toy, a swing and a soft wodden chew toy.

What I actually wanted was a new cage but there wasn't many of those around, about 5 different models, all by kings cages, then one each of their travel cages on display which made me grateful I didn't pick the small size when I ordered mine. I picked it up and the bottom fell straight out
At the end of the day the cages were all discounted but still not in my budget as I had spent a fair bit on food for us, perches, toys and disinfectant by that point..

We then watched a flighted parrot display, featuring a blue and gold macaw, an amazon and 3 patagonian conures which was good. I have a couple of pics which aren't much good if I'm honest.

The talk on behaviour was by someone, who's name I forget, from the world parrot trust. It was good but anyone with experience or has done basic research should already know what got said tbh, the talk would have been useful to someone in the reseach stages though. I managed to get in even though it was fully booked due to people not turning up.

I was rather disappointed that there were not many parrots there, I was hoping to see a few of the popular smaller species like the sennies and quakers to help me make up my mind as I've never met a sennie in real life.


All in all a good show but I don't think I will be going again if there is another next year unless they change the location. I just can't justify 7 hours travelling when there are other shows nearer to home that do offer good quality discounted equipment and toys. Definitely worth going to if your more local though!