Think parrots

[christie]

That actually sounds like a pretty neat show with the different workshops. The ones we have around here are all breeders selling birds and retailers selling toys. The last one I went to was, what I thought, pretty good sized. It was in the "hall" at the state fair grounds, so it was a decent sized building and it was filled. I would love for them to offer "workshops" but they do not. However, there is a HUGE selection of toys, stands, DIY supplies, food, cages and all other types of bird supplies. I was able to purchase several nice pieces for my gcc.

[marie83]

Whereabouts are you Christie? You shows sound similar to the ones here TBH, we used to have a massive weekend event called the national cage and aviary show but they stopped running that some years back. I don't know why. Since then there hasn't been anything that comes close until think parrots. What I did like about it was there was a big empthasis on education in the form of the workshops (think there were 5 different ones in all) and loads of charity stands raising awareness. I think more shows should make more effort to educate. I even saw some stuffed parrots in cages which were two small with a display saying what they actually needed and why. At the same time it didn't lose the fun aspect and I'm sure the retail stands made a killing, you could see how much stock they had sold by the end.

[christie]

I live in Florida, USA. We have these Bird shows about once a quarter in this area. They are fun, and there are a TON people in them, I've learned to get there in the beginning or some of the things I'm looking for could be sold out. I'm hoping they will make some changes to add some classes. It sounds like it would be a lot of fun and interesting.

[laducockatiel]

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!

Well, in the nutrition workshop they basically said not to feed your birds mainly on seeds or pellets but to give plenty of veggies along with a small amount of pellets and they said to pick wild flowers and feed them to your birds, etc. I think the talk on behaviour was by someone called Neil Forbes

[marie83]

I just daren't do wild flowers other than dandilion, im far too scared of getting it wrong and picking something I shouldn't or not washing the bugs off properly and giving them some sort of parasite lol. Neil Forbes was the vet who did the first talk, it was someone else who did the behaviour. I suppose I could google it if I were that desperate to know lol.

[laducockatiel]

I just daren't do wild flowers other than dandilion, im far too scared of getting it wrong and picking something I shouldn't or not washing the bugs off properly and giving them some sort of parasite lol. Neil Forbes was the vet who did the first talk, it was someone else who did the behaviour. I suppose I could google it if I were that desperate to know lol.

Yeah, me too. Lol.

[marie83]

They have put 12 pics up on the think parrots website with more to come. My partner and I are in one but thankfully we are in a massive crowd so I don't think anyone could pick us out, I only found us cuz I know where we were stood and my partners taller than me so I spotted him first.

[laducockatiel]

They have put 12 pics up on the think parrots website with more to come. My partner and I are in one but thankfully we are in a massive crowd so I don't think anyone could pick us out, I only found us cuz I know where we were stood and my partners taller than me so I spotted him first.

I saw the pics, they were quite good, they really gave a good insight to what the show was like.

[Cage Cleaner]

K

[laducockatiel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6gtaz2-QkI

That's my friend's parrot. He has been trained to be outside and she takes him literally everywhere. Anyway, I'm posting this because I don't know how big your birds are, but the S is plenty for a parrot that side. Even two. I'm thinking about getting one for myself. If/When I do, I will get the size S for both my GCC and Sun.

I think anything bigger would be clunky on my back/front. It sure looks awkward in that blog Michael posted.

Awesome, thanks. Yeah, I think that the small should be perfect because the small is perfect for that caique in the video, and my cockatiel is smaller, so it should be perfect for him since he likes to have some room to move around and look out. The only thing that worries me is if it will be suitable for my cockatiels long tail. Does anyone have a pak o bird for their cockatiel and is it roomy?