Parrot Lovers - Your thoughts on this Ebay auction

My first true parrot was a conure. Fiesty as he** and I love her for it.
I wish I had done much more research before getting my pair of moluccans. I have let them breed and I've sold the eggs and I'm definitely not proud of it. I no longer let them breed and keep them separated. My first chick from them does pick but we think it's from being moved out of the house into the bird house. We realize that she may stop picking and she may not but either way we'll love her with or without the picking. Neither of her parents pick though the male is a serious wife beater. They have huge flights and can see each other from just a few feet away but I can't keep them together. It's sad but it's become something that I'm responsible for and I wouldn't feel right by dumping the responsibility into the hands of someone who might be tempted to breed for money. They'll live with me until I'm gone or can no longer care for them.


THIS is what taking responsibility means. Would I send my cockatiels who happen to pick their mates to someone else who may breed a whole new generation of feather pickers? Absolutely not. I feel the same way about all my feathered kids -- "they'll live with me until I'm gone or can no longer care for them." I wish more bird (and other animal guardians) felt the same way. Unless you have extreme circumstances that absolutely WILL NOT enable you to keep your animals in your care, when you take them on, you take on the responsibility for their health and well-being until they are gone. I know there can be some exceptions where the family dynamic just doesn't work for some reason, but too many are too quick to call it quits and shift the animal (and / or the problem) onto someone else, or for the sake of convenience. (Like the total moron I'd love to strangle that had redecorated her home and brought her calico cat in to the shelter because "it no longer fits my decor"...)
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P.S. As for the Zupreem, my birds have been very happy on it. I tried many varieties and textures of the Harrison's, and NONE of my birds would eat it, even when I tried to gradually introduce it. I would rather have them on the Zupreem natural and know they're getting a balance of vitamins and minerals than to have them starve themselves. Also, regardless of what kind of main food your birds eat, they should still have a variety of fruits, veggies, grains, and "interest" or "play" foods for satisfying the foraging and "work for your food" needs.
 
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The rather poor condition of the bird in the photo isn't the most disturbing thing about the auction (as others have pointed out, birds may pluck under any circumstances. Of course, the fact that this person is selling the egg on ebay makes you wonder about those circumstances...). It's always sad, of course, but the scary thing, to me, is that this person is potentially putting a baby parrot into the hands of a beginner. Hand feeding a baby parrot is extremely dicey and not for the inexperienced. There are many babies that die every year from crop burn and aspiration of formula and other issues related to inexperienced hand feeders. Of course, all this assumes that the egg would even hatch, which isn't too likely.

Cockatoos can be extremely difficult birds (especially the large ones) and can be very prone to picking and screaming. I feel for anyone trying to care for them. Anybody interested in learning more about how hard they are to keep should go here: http://www.mytoos.com/
 
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That auction is a disaster in the making. The best we can do is pray that the egg doesn't hatch, or that it is going to someone who KNOWS what they're getting into and is experienced in handling birds of that sort.
 
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I doubt it's a scam, although it could be, because that egg may or may not be fertile. A lot of parrots will lay an infertile egg or two in a clutch before laying fertile one(s). It'd be really easy to just auction one of those off...

But, nah, I'd say it's more like incompetence and carelessness. For starters, they're probably used to seeing the bird like that and don't realize that its condition would horrify others. If it were a real scam, I'd think they'd show a beautiful bird that wasn't really theirs.

What it is, though, is really irresponsible. Most parrot breeders would never dream of letting just anybody try to handfeed a baby. I have to reiterate: it's very, very complicated, or involved, to do. The liklihood that that poor baby will die after being hatched is pretty high (assuming it hatches).

Edited to add: Some breeders let the parents raise the babies for the first two weeks or so, because that allows the babies to build up necessary antibodies, disease resistance, etc. I noticed he's got an egg in the incubator, though...
 
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I didn't know that. It makes perfect sense.



I'm gonna re-read this thread a few times. There are a lot of good responses here.
 

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