Are all breeders evil?

[Kentuckienne]

Well, I am in. It seems that boycotts and petitions have been effective - I could start an online petition asking for pet stores to ethically source birds. What are the major stores? I only know Petco and Feeder's Supply in this area. I see Petco supports Petfinder in some way, if you adopt a dog or cat they will give you some free food. Sage, would you like to take a crack at writing the petition? You are most knowledgeable. Otherwise I'll work something up and share it here. Once we have a petition and a link, we can share it with sites like Petfinder, get a Facebook group, and so on. Any ideas, anyone? I would rather do something than nothing.

 

[LeaKP]

I wonder, just adding to the discussion, if those stores sourcing birds (and all pets for that matter) shouldn't have some kind of standard they keep up, some kind of training in keeping the birds healthy as possible while in store. Sourcing ethically is step one but if the store is not committed to caring for them properly before sale...

Just a thought.

 

[SilverSage]

A lot of them do have those standards, including petco and petsmart. But that training is extremely basic. In most you see the birds being fed a seed and pellet mix with millet spray. You also see a lot of snuggle huts. They have the training that helps keep birds in good enough physical health to be sold, but very little training on mental and emotional needs.


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[chris-md]

Wait what? Cuddling a breeder? That's even possible?

 

[SilverSage]

I can't tell if you are serious or sarcastic? There are a few exceptions but in most cases there is no reason not to have tame breeder birds. Ultimately I would like my entire breeding flock to be tame but that takes a lot of time to accomplish.


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[chris-md]

Totally serious, and admittedly ignorant. It's my perception/understanding that breeder birds are not at all tame, with maybe the rare exception

 

[SilverSage]

It is pretty rare, but that's usually because the human doesn't care, and because birds are cheaper when they are t tame. There is also a benefit to having breeder birds who have been parent raised but parent raised doesn't have to mean wild. In fact, parent raised birds are usually healthier, smarter, more confident, etc and actually MAKE BETTER PETS than hand raised which is why I personally prefer co-parenting. That is, allowing the parents to raise the babies and I just play with them a lot . It's my goal to have my breeding flock made up of co-parented birds raised in my aviary. I don't have it yet but my cockatiels, GCCs, my sisters lovebirds, and half our Ringnecks are tame.


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[SilverSage]

The bird in question, Honi, helping my sister with her homework last night. I actually raised Honi myself


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[trish5909]

Thank you for a brilliant and insightful response. People have no idea how much effort and money goes into breeding animals humanely and responsibly. They are also our pets and companions & are far more likely to receive better vet care, food, stimulation and attention than many pets who are left alone all day while their families are at work/school.

 

[SilverSage]

Totally serious, and admittedly ignorant. It's my perception/understanding that breeder birds are not at all tame, with maybe the rare exception

Here is a pic of Honi and her babies hanging out with my sister along with some of our other adult cockatiels. The father isn't tame yet, and he had to be removed from the cage because he plucked the heads of all his babies. But they are feathering in again it's my goal to have this scene be a reality for every one of my breeders.


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[SilverSage]

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[Kentuckienne]

So evil already. The CUTEST evil ever!

 

[gavagai]

With regards to the discussion of bird mills, I wanted to share Howard Voren's article in defense of "production breeding." Back when I was relatively new to birds, Voren had some of the most detailed and reliable information to be found anywhere on the net. He defends production breeding based on his practices, and I'm not convinced I share his faith that other production breeders follow similar practices, particularly not with the smaller, cheaper, easier to breed species.

Voren breeds a lot of rarer birds, and he's clearly interested in preserving as many species in aviculture with as much diversity as he can; if a species is rare he won't sell it as a pet at all until it's well-established. He clearly loves and cares about all of his birds and is very interested in bird health and behavior. I'm not aware of any other production breeder who writes articles like Voren, in fact I'm not even aware of any small-scale breeder who does. I get the impression that he's basically a guy who really likes parrots and who decided to shift to selling to pet shops because it let him interact with more birds and fewer people. However he does raise a good point: how would people who don't really care about birds get into production breeding anyways? I'm not saying that doesn't happen; I'm just trying to figure out how someone who isn't fond of birds decides "I'm going to embark on breeding parrots as a career."

I'm particularly not convinced by Voren's claims that PetCo sets the facilities standards do for the birds; it sounds to me like their concerns are about contagion in their flock more than the overall well being of the birds. However I went to a PetCo once, was appalled by the conditions of the birds in that one store's bird room, and vowed never to return, so that may be coloring my views a bit.

 

[SilverSage]

Actually Howard Voren is no longer alive.

His contribution to aviculture is staggering. The sheer volume of knowledge and practices that he brought is overwhelming. I personally don't believe that his practices produced the best results mentally and emotionally in parrots, but his research into parrot husbandry is unparalleled. I think he is a perfect example of how we can learn from experts and add our own knowledge to it. He is also an excellent example of someone who shared freely his knowledge for the good of aviculture rather than hoarding it for an edge against the competition.


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