Fabulously Feathered Silkies?

[Misterpigeon124]

Anyone have an experience with this breeder? All of my chicks came to me sick, I want to know if anyone else has experienced problems. I've had a 50% mortality rate, see my profile for details

 

[country]

Beware buying anything from this breeder. I have had probably 20 people contact me that had bought birds from her that died. They call me because she uses my name, saying her birds came from my lines. They did, but she bought all pet quality chicks, started breeding & is selling chicks as show quality that have disqualifying faults. Plus, check out her reviews from Welp. She sells roosters to people by telling them they're hens & won't honor a guarantee. Don't sell anything to her either. She bought several chicks from me, called on her way home & told me 2 died, & I told her I would refund or replace them & she said she definitely wanted 2 replacements & would come back the next day. I didn't really believe her about the chicks so I asked her to bring me the 2 chicks in a plastic bag which she agreed to. She immediately went to her bank & tried to stop payment on her whole check for $130! I have an email from her that sounds like she is totally insane! Stay away from this person. There isn't enough space here to even try to tell you everything.

 

[Kittyntwinstarz]

Anyone have an experience with this breeder? All of my chicks came to me sick, I want to know if anyone else has experienced problems. I've had a 50% mortality rate, see my profile for details

Hey there. So I just came across your post and I had the same experience. I see all of these happy chicken posts and I am sad to say I don’t have one. My husband decided to get me chicks. We knew nothing about them, total newbies. He called many places but only found one breeder selling them locally, at fabulous feathered silkies. Upon arrival there were only older chickens available and a couple chicks. She agreed to take us to her temp location where the chicks were. First thing I noticed were several dead chicks. I figured this was normal with so many in her flock. I said I wanted pure silkie and she helped me pick a few out. (I would later discover 3 were cochins, not silkies)

Within 24hrs the silkie died. I asked for a refund or a replacement. Two days later 2 became sick. A month later she finally set up a time for me to come for my replacement bird. This was at a 3rd location. She would not allow me to see the chicks. I told her what I wanted but each one she picked up seemed to have something wrong with it and several were throwing up. I saw a few through the crack of the door that I liked, but she wanted to keep keep them, even though she had several. I finally just took what she gave me and left.

The entire ride home my husband gagged by the smell of this little chick. It was horrid and smelt just like odor emitting from the room they were in. I get home and see I have a white silkie that was covered in feces. I bathe and quarantine the chick, but within a few days it dies. I had already been to the vet for the other 2 sick ones and received a diagnosis of Mycoplasma gallisepticum. I now had another dead bird. The vet recommended I take the remaining birds to UC Davis to have them euthanized and a necropsy performed.

Prior to making this decision I contacted Dawne hoping to give her the birds back and get a refund but she refused. She later had the nerve to say she had agreed to take the birds. Once the report came back it was clear the disease originated from her flock. Again I asked for my money but she demanded the report in exchange for a refund. I agreed and in good faith emailed her the report. She did not keep her end of the deal.

The report was extremely sad to read, but it was clear that all of the birds suffered from the horrible illnesses, with the newest one being in the worst condition and having additional ailments. Dawne has now dismissed the necropsy report and has accused me of trying to destroy her business. I am disgusted by the unethical behavior this woman has displayed, the lack of accountability, as well as the lack of compassion for the emotional toll this has taken on my family.

I am not the first to encounter an experience like this. I have since come across over 25 people who have dealt with the exact same issues. This is not a reputable, responsible breeder, this is a chicken mill. Please save yourselves the pain and buy elsewhere.

 

[Aunt Angus]

You know what? I'm going to leave this thread. As someone who has recently purchased Silkies from the Central Valley area, I appreciate the warning about sick birds, and I appreciate seeing the problems with cockerels, and I also appreciate hearing both sides. I chose to purchase my babies elsewhere, and I am very happy I did. My Silkies are happy and healthy, and I wasn't overcharged or promised pullets and given cockerels. They are actually Silkies and not Cochins or crosses or what have you. I have learned a lot about how to search out a reputable breeder, and I will always do public searches for criminal and civil records before giving my business to a private entity - especially when it comes to animals who are more like family members than just backyard accessories. I think just desserts are being served if bad breeders are losing business. I will continue to flag CL ads as needed. I will tell friends and family how to vet breeders so they can decide for themselves.

 

[Kittyntwinstarz]

So my post was at the peak of all this madness and is 100% accurate. I find it ridiculous that she wants to come out of the woodworks now and attempt to clear her name. I have debated this with Dawne for far to long and I have no interest in continuing to play on the merry go round with her. If anyone would like to know MY story and what I went through then please feel free to message me directly. I have proof of EVERYTHING that I have encountered. Also, for clarification, Dawne has directly messaged people demanding they take down their poor reviews or else.. I challenged the or else and not a damn thing came of it because she knows that I will NOT be bullied like so many others have. My guess, she has her friends and family post positive reviews!

 

[casportpony]

Testing
https://cahfs.vetmed.ucdavis.edu
https://www.zoologix.com/avian/Datasheets/PoultryRespiratoryPanel.htm

 

[Aunt Angus]

So are you the Dawne in question, @Fuzzyheadgirls ? Care to explain yourself? A lot of folx on this site have some horror stories about doing business with you...

 

[country]

Ordered to quit by who?
How is she still selling?

She was ordered by Lathrop Animal Control to stop selling until her birds are all tested but they're short handed & can't stake out her place so she continues to sell. She's having a sale on her hens today & tomorrow so beware everyone.

 

[country]

Just to clear the record here, Dawne makes it sound like I have a gang of people that go around posting about her, & I assure you, that is not the case. After she tried to scam me, she also went around & tried to scam several other well known breeders & that was when we decided to pass her name around privately to warn other breeders. The whole thing would have dropped there except then she started stalking me & stealing pictures of my birds, using them on Craig's List & claiming they were her birds. Even when I posted proof they were my birds, she still claimed I was lying, but of course that's what she always does. Even after that I let it go until a couple of years ago when I started getting calls from people that had bought sick birds from her. They called me because Dawne was telling them the birds were from my lines & when she wouldn't help them they turned to me. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do at that point but it has snowballed from there. Her victims have posted screen shots, medical reports, etc. as proof positive but she just continues to deny, deny, deny. As for this thread, I didn't even know about it until I was notified by one of the people Dawne scammed that there was another victim posting on this site so I decided to come on here & comment. The rest of the people on here posting problems with Dawne weren't new members & I didn't "recruit" any of them to come on & post. As for Dawne saying that people should contact her with their problems - actually, from all the posts I've read, people do try & contact her but she either doesn't return calls, or she starts bullying them & makes them think that they did something wrong. A couple of people said she went totally psycho on them & they were afraid to report her. For a couple that she couldn't bully, she replaced their chicks & those just died too so they gave up. Her only defense, time after time, is that everyone is lying about her & that SHE is the victim. And since she brought up the scam GoFundMe - yes, it was a complete fraud. She was evicted & all her belongings had been moved the day before the fire so she lost nothing! Yet she came onto several FB chicken sites & told everyone that she had lost everything, including over 300 chickens! Several people sent money but once she was found out, she was booted by admins from most of the FB chicken sites & the fund was closed down. A friend of the landlord was the one investigating the whole thing & he is the one who contacted me when he saw my first post about her scamming me. He gave me a lot of info about some of her past scams & told me she's been doing this for awhile.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Just to clear the record here, Dawne makes it sound like I have a gang of people that go around posting about her, & I assure you, that is not the case. After she tried to scam me, she also went around & tried to scam several other well known breeders & that was when we decided to pass her name around privately to warn other breeders. The whole thing would have dropped there except then she started stalking me & stealing pictures of my birds, using them on Craig's List & claiming they were her birds. Even when I posted proof they were my birds, she still claimed I was lying, but of course that's what she always does. Even after that I let it go until a couple of years ago when I started getting calls from people that had bought sick birds from her. They called me because Dawne was telling them the birds were from my lines & when she wouldn't help them they turned to me. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do at that point but it has snowballed from there. Her victims have posted screen shots, medical reports, etc. as proof positive but she just continues to deny, deny, deny. As for this thread, I didn't even know about it until I was notified by one of the people Dawne scammed that there was another victim posting on this site so I decided to come on here & comment. The rest of the people on here posting problems with Dawne weren't new members & I didn't "recruit" any of them to come on & post. As for Dawne saying that people should contact her with their problems - actually, from all the posts I've read, people do try & contact her but she either doesn't return calls, or she starts bullying them & makes them think that they did something wrong. A couple of people said she went totally psycho on them & they were afraid to report her. For a couple that she couldn't bully, she replaced their chicks & those just died too so they gave up. Her only defense, time after time, is that everyone is lying about her & that SHE is the victim. And since she brought up the scam GoFundMe - yes, it was a complete fraud. She was evicted & all her belongings had been moved the day before the fire so she lost nothing! Yet she came onto several FB chicken sites & told everyone that she had lost everything, including over 300 chickens! Several people sent money but once she was found out, she was booted by admins from most of the FB chicken sites & the fund was closed down. A friend of the landlord was the one investigating the whole thing & he is the one who contacted me when he saw my first post about her scamming me. He gave me a lot of info about some of her past scams & told me she's been doing this for awhile.

Oh, I believe you. I was just "entertaining" the possibility of fake accounts to see what evidence she had. I don't know you or any of the other posters, and I think she assumes we are in cahoots, somehow. I don't have a Facebook account or anything, either. I don't belong to any other social-type sites other than BYC. I'm always open-minded about these things, and look for evidence. I'm going to do more research...