New York has a mark-up? Here, Senegals in pet stores run from anywhere between $700 and $900 CA.
That's a mark-up. Breeders normally sell them between $450 and $600 (on average, it's $500).
Anyways what I paid for mine:
Piper was "free". She had a splayed leg and the breeder did not feel comfortable selling her since she did have a disability (which does NOT stop her from doing anything...she is one of the fastest running lovebirds I have ever seen) so she gave her away. By the way, it was Piper who chose me, not the other way around
Shade I did not pay for either since she was a graduation gift from my parents. I was going to get any
Poicephalus once I graduated, whatever came my way first from a breeder I found was ok, but my mom decided to beat me to it and when she found Shade's clutch being sold, she told me about it and voila...the fact that poor baby Shade and her brother Nemo had issues with their legs and that if I took Shade they were throwing Nemo in for "free" (not so free when you consider the vet expenses we had for him) kinda suckered me in (as well as my mom). Not what I had in mind for a "reputable breeder" and they were being sold at a month old but since Piper's breeder had volunteered to finish weaning them, we took them. I mean, I'm not sure what would have happened to them, I doubt anyone would have really gone through the trouble we went through (sooo many vet visits). And if I had only taken Shade (who did have a broken leg, but I didn't know what it was at the time), I don't even want to imagine what would have happened to poor Nemo (both his legs went backwards and he couldn't really move)..the guy was certainly NOT going to bring him to the vet. I think my parents paid $250 for the both of them, which was "cheap" but if you consider the vet bills to get them better, they definitively came out more expensive. Oh and we did not know about them being injured until we got there...
Joey I paid $550 for him. He was two almost three and this also included his cage (which retails for A LOT new), his travel cage, all his toys (and there were a lot of them), his food, his cage cover (which looked custom made), and the containers his food was in (one being an actual Tupperware container).
Petey and Zuri were free from the rescue. They didn't come with cages (which I had before getting each bird actually) but the people who run that rescue will often charge people for a cage if the bird needs one (aka don't have one) and they do make sure the birds will have a proper sized and quality cage.