A Member Shares Her Tragedies
by
Real Macaw Member, Terri Jones
It is always hard to lose a bird - even if you have only had the bird for a few days. A further dilemma is how to avoid such heartache. Before I moved back to New Jersey from Florida, I purchased a parrotlet. I loved this new addition to my family (we also have a Grey) and decided to find her a mate. These birds are relatively easy to find in Florida, as are so many birds; one can look in the local papers, find a breeder, check out the aviary and pick out a new bird.
Parrotlets are not easily found in this area. In Bird Talk, the closest breeder is in New York - 3 hours from our home - but who cares when you are going to get a new member of your family? So, after numerous phone conversations, off we went to pick up Creepers. The breeder seemed a caring, responsible person and we looked all around his aviary, which was very clean. Creepers came home with us, along with instructions, seed and a birth certificate, and was installed in our bedroom for his quarantine.
Throughout the next day, which happened to be a holiday, I stopped by often to say "Hi." Needless to say, I was very upset when I checked on Creepers right before I went to bed and found him on the cage bottom. There had been no indication anything was wrong a mere hour before! I immediately took him out of the cage and put him under a heat lamp, remembering Rule #1: keep the bird warm. It was not long before he was up and about again and in about 3 hours he was perching and appeared fine. So, I put the light on his cage and went to bed. To my horror, Creepers did not survive the night.
I called the breeder, whose response was, "How do I know what you did to the bird after you took him from here? I can give you another for half price, but won't refund the money without a necropsy." Well, I had put the bird in the freezer, never thinking the breeder would not refund or replace the bird after only one day, so a necropsy was not possible (I had just learned this at my first REAL MACAW meeting, which was the vet panel). I didn't know what to do. After considerable discussion with my husband and several friends, who all felt I should not have any further dealings with this breeder, I went against all advice and bought a second bird. This time, however, I did things differently. I scheduled a vet appointment for the same day I picked him up, which was not possible with the first bird because of the holiday. This exam showed an abnormal amount of bacteria. The vet wrote the bird was sick and recommended a course of Baytril. I called the breeder, who agreed to pay for the treatment if I sent documentation from the vet saying the bacteria came from his aviary (which the vet could not do, not having examined the aviary, only my bird). This all happened over the weekend and I made arrangements to pick up the antibiotics on Monday. Lo and behold, the bird died Sunday night without any warning sign or symptom. After having had a friendly, happy and energetic bird for five days, I was devastated to find him on the bottom of the cage when I awoke.
What to do? I called the breeder, who indicated, but did not promise to refund my money. I sent him all the documentation he requested and waited. New York does not have any laws to protect bird purchases, so I had to rely on the breeder's integrity. But how to avoid this in the future? I thought I did all the right things. The aviary was clean. The breeder was advertised in a national magazine (which I realize does not provide an endorsement, but I felt it implied he was a reputable breeder). I did not have the bird sent, but went to pick it up myself. I have two other healthy birds, one of which is a parrotlet, and I was raised in a family that bred parakeets. I had the bird vet checked.
The breeder just told me he will not refund any of my money, because he said he thinks I killed the second bird so he would refund the money from the first. I guess there is no answer - only, buyer beware. And be sure to always quarantine, because you never know.
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