Parrot Supercenter

["Douglas Delgado" <Dougandmona@m...>]

Rex asked:

Douglas Delgado <Dougandmona@m...> [2004-05-04 08:40]:
>and raise the babies in incubators..raise them like chickens...and with a
>bird like a CAG...this WILL effect the temperament of the bird. Even the

Do you know what an incubator is? It's a device designed hatch eggs in.

Are you claiming that if the warm environment needed to hatch eggs is
provided by an incubator rather than a hen, it will affect the bird
adversely?

-rex

Hi Rex:

I'm not claiming anything. The point I was trying to make on the post was 
"Know your breeder". Know where you are getting your bird from and how they 
care for birds at their facility. I'm not blasting incubators....just the 
reality that parrots CAN be raised like chickens....hatched out of 
incubators and raised apart from their parents and all other birds at 
facilities where the emphasis is on quantity rather than quality of 
care.....and these same parrots can get sold into the pet trade for the same 
dollars that a parent-raised baby or a baby that has been handled with care 
will get.

As a breeder, if you pull the eggs from the parents, you don't have to worry 
about much in the way of care for the parent birds. You don't have to 
worry about any issues except....will these parent birds lay fertile eggs. 
Like I said, I know that there are a lot of good breeders out there but 
there are also people who breed birds that should not.....because the care 
they give these birds is nothing short of abusive.....which results in 
weakened immunities and problems for the babies. All baby birds look the 
same but some diseases don't crop up for two years or so....that's when you 
find out you have a problem bird...and by that time you've got a 
considerable emotional investment built up PLUS the disease has popped up so 
many years down the line you don't think to blame the breeding facility any 
more. ...not to mention the personality issues and neurosis that you end up 
dealing with and trying to manage for the life of the bird.

To me, care of breeder birds is an ethical issue but I'm not asking the 
consumer to look at the ethics because I think ethics are personal.....for 
the buyer, just look at the risks you take buying from somebody you do not 
know. I am saying that you should KNOW your breeder...don't buy off the 
internet.

I know good breeders use incubators too...but that's a different issue. 
There are times when babies have to be pulled.....and that is a breeder's 
choice. I question the use of an incubator for production...that's all.

Are you going to argue that the quality of care that a neonate baby bird 
gets is irrelevant to pet potential? That would be an interesting side 
to take on this issue.

Mona in Seattle
Phinneus Fowl (aka Phinney) TAG
Pretty Rita Cockatiel
Babylon (Senegal Poicephalus)
Doug (spousal unit)