Bird market

[JanEgeland]

Hello everyone, despite my username, which is a meme, my name is Aziz, where I live there’s this market that sells animals, some of which have been illegally brought into the country, and it’s pretty much impossible to shut down this market because there’s very little information on it.

I usually just drive past it but this time I chose to go in, I entered this store who’s account I had seen on Instagram, I saw that they had these Conure’s, cockatiels and quakers in tiny cages and felt really bad for the birds that I almost wanted to get one of them to see what I could do. My question is, if I were to get one of these birds (which I assume were captured, if not their owners didn’t properly care for them) would it be possible to tame it so that it would be the same as a bird that you raised yourself?

I’m no bird expert by any means but I did manage to regain the trust of my African grey that I had given to someone else for a brief period time while I was traveling so they could care for him, when I got him back he wasn’t the same and it took quite a while for him to trust me again, and I’d say our bond is stronger now than it’s ever been.

 

[ChristaNL]

I am going to sound like a terrible human being (and I hate myself for saying this):
do NOT buy a bird there.

Not because you could not tame the bird and have a great friend, but all you would do as well is sponsoring these shops and give them a reason to exist: you give them money (it why they exist in the first place) and so encourage this kind of trade.

It is like people who want to "rescue" birds from bad breeders ... you are doing the opposite! You are encouraging them and keeping them afloat and viable.
So you rescue maybe one bird (which is good, no doubt about that) but also condemn many other, future birds to the same fate: those terrible shops/breeders/circumstances.

So unless you get to save the all birds, burn the place down after that and make very sure these people never can come near animals again ... vote with your money and do not sponsor these people.


If the one thing you can do is not encouraging them and buy your animals somewhere else (and tell other people to do the same / like I do now) then do that! Plze.

 

[JanEgeland]

I understand what you’re saying but this shop in particular actually presents themselves in a normal way as opposed to the others which just cram all of the birds into one cage and leave them there to die, I would never buy an animal from anyone that does that. It’s just that the cages didn’t seem like they were big enough for the bird and it wanted to be free. The guy who worked there actually really cared about them, when I asked him why they kept him in such small cages he said that when most customers buy the bird they get a bigger cage from the same store, it’s more of a marketing thing really. Although most of the stores there are disgusting there are a few good ones that do their best to treat their birds as they should be treated.

 

[ChristaNL]

I must have misread you and thought you wanted to buy a bird at the half-illegal-shop, sorry about that.

About taming birds: there a no guarantees: you can buy a baby and it may still grow up 'wild' or get an adult wild caught and it will -over time- become a tamed one. Usually: get them young is a better gamble, because well, a baby does not know anyhting ... (and look at the inhabitants of the rescue-centres how many people really manage to make a mess out of raising them )
and a bird that knows it is really a bird and not a half-human will not be "tame" the way "we" like it.

Birds in shops are almost always in too small a cage, it is a shop-thing.
Shops that do not advise people get a really appropiate cage are plenty as well

If you decide to go birdshopping: take home the bird that wants you!
Let the bird choose and you will have a great partnership very soon, and very deep.
It's the easiest way.
It is always easier "if it was meant to be".

 

[JanEgeland]

Thanks for your advice, I think I’ll look for more pet stores and I’ll probably go back to the bird market place too, I’ll probably get a cockatiel as I have some experience with them. Actually there was one that collapsed in our back yard because of the heat, (I live in the hottest country in the world), it didn’t seem to have anything on its foot so I assumed it hadn’t flown away from anyone, she was very scared at first but she trusted me because I had basically saved her life, I found out that she actually flew away from someone about a month after because they’d put an ad out about her. I’m not sure if I’ll have the same experience because the owner could’ve already tamed her.

 

[JanEgeland]

Note: she wasn’t very affectionate for the month that I had her, but she wasn’t very aggressive either

 

[ChristaNL]

Go find your 'tiel (or let her/him find you).
Be happy

(and do not forget to post about it? I would love to hear about your journey together.)

 

[JanEgeland]

Hello everyone! Just a quick update, so I decided to go back to the bird market seeing as most of the other stores I visited seemed to be treating the animals worse than the store I went to, I went back to the exact same store and I saw that most of the Birds didn’t like being handled or would screech whenever I went near their cage. That was until I saw this little guy (attached a picture), he’s 2 and a half months old and he’s very affectionate, id never been interested in a GCC mutation and I’ve never thought about owning one but here I am! I was actually going to get a yellow sided green cheek about 2 weeks ago but the owner got too attached to it and said he couldn’t let it go. I’m yet to think of a name, leave some suggestions maybe?

 

[JanEgeland]

Idk if I attached the photo cuz I’m on my phone lol, but here’s the link. https://imgur.com/a/6KXJd6M

 

[Laurasea]

What a beautiful baby! I think you will be very happy with A GCC! So lovey and playful, can be nippy from time to time, but usually easy to train that out if them. Really need to spend a good 3 to four hours a day with them out of the cage they are very affectionate need attention. Congratulations!!