How to decode a band

I am trying to get an age on my amazon. He has a band and it has JLJ 22 on it. I found this site but the letter J is not identified on it. Any suggestions on how to decode this?

Decoding The Leg Band

Usually the state is represented on the band, that is the sum total of my leg band decoding skills.

What I will say is have your vet cut it off. I've heard too many band got caught on-insert random item here-and bird died, lost a limb, etc.

I've located the company that made the band but I've never heard nothing back from them as they told me they will contact me once they found out but it's been over 2 years and I haven't heard a single thing.

I do agree with goalerjones as I'm not a fan of leg bands as I've had a bird lost her foot because of the leg band. I had to amputate her foot off because of it....

goalerjones said:

Usually the state is represented on the band, that is the sum total of my leg band decoding skills.

What I will say is have your vet cut it off. I've heard too many band got caught on-insert random item here-and bird died, lost a limb, etc.

Click to expand...

My avian vet hates leg bands on pet birds. He insists on cutting them off because of the potential dangers. He feels so strongly about this, that if someone wanted the band left on, I'm sure they'd practically have to argue, and he'd be bugging them about it every time the bird came in.

Most are breeder's initials or aviary name, state, individual bird's ID number, year of hatch. Not all bands have the same amount of info. from what I've seen.

Now you guys have me super paranoid about my birds leg bands.

I thought it was legally required. Should I be looking into having them removed?

Thanks for the replies. I didn't even think about the band causing a hazard but agree because there is a pretty sizable gap between his leg and his band. I've added this to my list for the vet. At this point I have narrowed his age down to 10-20 years based on family info. What I've learned is he was acquired by my cousin's daughter in law after she married and that was around the year 2000. When the marriage ended, they gave Buddy to my cousin (the mother in law) and he's been with her since. I guess I might not be able to get an exact age and I'm good with that. The challenge with getting info is both of Buddy's "parrots" have passed but he's doing great with us. He's happy and that's important.

Assuming you have a closed band or "ring",,, that was put there by a breeder when the bird was about ten days old. That's the only time that type of band can be used. The band has on it what ever the breeder wanted on his band. My bands have zero to do whit anything only i keep a record of what bird that band is on and when i put it there. I buy bands is lots of ten and may not use all of them in that size in one year or even two. be cause i register my bands with the AFA (American Federation of Aviculture) if you contacted them they would tell you i was the breeder but little else, they won't give out my contact info but will give me yours.It's then up to me to contact you. If your band had AFA on it then that is the case. Of course there's several companys that manufacture leg bands. If you contact these companies they can tell you if they made the band, but are under no obligation to tell you who they made them for. When you contact these companies don't forget they're doing you a favour. And so is the breeder if they contact you back. L&M in California is a good company to try. Their customers are the folks they make the bands for and the Co is going to protect their client. I've researched many band #s ,but yours is not one i recognize.