looking to adopt: a chronicle of craigslist and other misadventures in adoption

[bug_n_flock]

Hello

Don't know if this is the proper place to put this, so if I am wrong, feel free to move it or whatever.

I am looking to adopt birddo #3, and have been for several months now. I have an ad on Craigslist as well as exploring a few other areas looking to adopt. Frequently one or another will look promising, but so far none have panned out. That's OK, I want to be sure of finding the right fit for my flock. But some of the misadventures also are quite comical or even straight up bizzare. So this thread can be a place to unload or vent about adoption troubles and share funny stories of the shenanigans some people get up to. Let's try to keep it lighthearted, though, so many adoption stories gone wrong are tragic.


First up:

I recently ammended my standing craigslist ad to say I would consider pairs of birds. Someone immediately tried to sell me a pair of Puffins. No joke. Freaking Puffins. It's illegal to even have a stuffed Puffin, what the heck would I want a pair of live ones for?! I told them I hoped they were trying to scam me, and to turn the birds over to the authorities if they actually had them.

Never thought I'd catch myself hoping something was a scam. Haha

From phone

 

[Inger]

That actually made me LOL.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jen5200]

Puffins?!? That’s hysterical, and a bit unexpected

 

[bug_n_flock]

The two latest aren't nearly as funny- a 1 year old CAG that turned out to be a scam run by an obscenity filled screaming banshee of an unpleasant person when I called them out for being a scam (insisted on shipping the bird from 1 state over when I offered to pick up in person, also they would not take a picture of the bird with a piece of paper with today's date written on). Also a 2 year old semi feral male senegal that comes with a cage (name a price, roommates want it gone) that hopefully will work out, but at this point I know better than to get excited. Who knows, maybe this thread will have jinxed the funny stories and I'll have found fid #3...

From phone

 

[GaleriaGila]

Very helpful information. Ya just have to be so vigilant!

"Birddo"... lol

 

[texsize]

About a week after the loss of Plumas I started looking at Craigslist for a bird to help fill that empty spot in my heart. I was not seriously expecting to buy another bird, just looking to see what was out there.

I ran across an add for 2 CAG’s for $500.00. Now this was over a year ago and I don’t remember the add exactly but what I remember was they were 1 year old very friendly.

Because the phone # was a 213 are code (local to me) I figured it was worth checking out. We sent text messages back and fourth a few times and eventually talked over the phone. When I said I would have to meet them in person he tells me he “just moved”:55: to New York but would be happy to ship them to me.

After due consideration I made 1 final call. I told him that I would like to believe him but in fact did not, please do not try to contact me again. I put he ph# on block so He could not get through.:23:

As a slight background I tried out Facebook for about 2 weeks. I did not like it for reasons I won’t go into. Once you have a Facebook account you can’t really delete it but I closed it down as much as I could. About a week after I told the scammer I did not want his imaginary birds I got an email from Facebook telling me someone was trying to hack into my account. Because I had shutdown the account it could not go anywhere.
Because you use your real name on Facebook and my phone also sends out my real name he was able to connect the two.

so that's my story for the scammer pages, no harm no foul (pun fully intended)

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Have my own story also..I think I may have already told this,but being old and senile...I ferget! :54:.

In between Smokey passing and Jonesy moving in,I was considering adopting a grey..didn't mater if he/she was a Congo or Timneh.

I did a local search on Craigslist for Greys and found a "guy" the next town over. The add read something like "young one year old male about a year old,tame and is learning to talk..$400 with cage"

I was very interested,but cautious also. I did a search..the same add was posted for different locales in state,PLUS other states.
I did texts..the guy claimed to be in Calli and would ship the bird FREE and he'd be at my doorstep TODAY! It was about 6pm my time.

There is a lot of them out there.


Jim

 

[bug_n_flock]

Senegal did not pan out, person stopped responding. Answered an ad about a hand fed baby budgie, but they turned out to be a breeder (a 50$ *baby* budgie from a breeder who sells babies on craigslist? No frigging thanks! Can you say backyard breeder??). Also answered an ad for a baby parakeet who was "hand tame", but the story kept changing and I got a really bad feeling. Don't think it was a scam, I just feel like the kid who was tryig to rehome them did not consider them a priority. He was trying to get rid of two pairs and the three chicks that, between the two pairs, were the only ones to have survived. He wanted to sell the two adult pairs (sibling birds for all I, or probably he, knows. He got them from a box store at the same time) for 55$ each, the babies for 25$ each (weird) the cage for 200$(before he had sold all birds??) And kept pushing for me to buy more than one bird. Some teenaged kid and I realized when he wouldn't take 20$ so I could pull it from an atm or let me paypal him the 25$, that maybe he wanted those unusual numbers for drugs. :/ maybe not, but I just got a really bad vibe and decided to pass.

From phone

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I am VERY cautious now about Craigslist. Not only because the Grey incident. I have a motorcycle that I am concidering of getting rid of..I haven't rid it in a couple years now ( I have a bigger bike) so I listed it.
Within minutes I got text messages,a guy from California,offering MORE than what I was asking (for my troubles to ship it) but I had to pay the shipper! I told him that was HIS responsibility not mine. The bike is still in my garage

Another one...a woman called from IDAHO wanting the bike.."sent" the money via paypal...again more than what I wanted for it..I had to pay a "friend" of her's in NYC to pick it up then he'd deliver it to her..uh-huh. Of course the cash never got deposited in my paypal account.

BEWARE FOLKS!



Jim

 

[itzjbean]

I found my two on Hoobly.com .... sort of like craigslit but not nearly as many scammers, though there are still scammers out there everywhere.

My two cockatiels and their two cages were a great deal -- something like $130-150 all said and done? Still, it was an 8 hour drive *one way* and as we neared our destination my husband was beginning to have some doubts are we were driving through a more ghetto part of town BUT it ended with me getting my two birds and I've loved them ever since!

Finding birds is tricky....AND looking for homes for bids is also just as tricky. When I advertised their four babies for adoption after they were weaned I got responses from several but most fell through after a day or two or getting my number and setting up a time to meet them, most lost interest, or had no real knowledge of birds at all. UGH! My last baby was going through his first molt by the time he went to his new home. Miss them! But it was definitely a slow process.

 

[bug_n_flock]

It's frustrating. Both of the two cats that I purposefully went and got for myself in my life(mannny feral foundlings though) were craigslist rescues who I had zero issues in finding. Both of them were from the first people I contacted. Kyra was absolutely infested with fleas, sure, but what do you expect from a craigslist 4 month old "free kitten" you pick up in a wal mart parking lot an hour's drive away? Unfortunately I also had to rehome her when fleeing my ex(when I rehomed the first Amazon, Heshe).

Charlie is a dream..... a freaking nightmare! Haha, no but seriously this cat is a handful. By 2(ish, maybe a bit older) you'd think she would have lost *some* of the kitten energy, but no: she literally climbs walls. I have photos. O.O Granted she was from a rescue that had posted on CL, but there were like zero hoops. Emailed for about a week, phone call interview, in person meeting at the foster home for about an hour, and a couple of days later they dropped her off and the rest is history. Fully free, fully vetted. And, small world, she was vetted at my current vet's! The person who did the phone interview is a receptionist there and when we came in with Charlie she was like, wait what I know this cat!

Oop, kind of a tangent sorry. But shows that successful adoptions can totally be done through Craigslist.

 

[Laylatoo]

Amongst all the garbage on Craigslist, there is some beauty. My precious Layla was a craigslist bird as well as my Mali and I am still shocked to have found such wonderful, healthy and socialized birds on Craigslist. I always look on Craigslist and can spot a scam a mile away. I’ve yet to see another rose breasted cockatoo in our area since I purchased Layla so I kind of feel like I won the Craigslist lottery with her. (Side note. Her one year gotcha day is tomorrow!)

 

[Taprock]

The scams on Craigslist are annoying but what breaks my heart is the repeat animals. A few years back we called on a U2. There was a picture and description. I talked to the owner who told me about the bird but added and the bird was already sold. One month later I see a U2 same name, same picture different number so I called. It was the same bird, I know because it had a medical condition that was the same. The lady told me they had had it a month and it had to go because their two year old kept putting her fingers in the cage. They had put a divider in the Bird’s cage so it couldn’t use the whole thing. She had also raised the price a good deal and beyond my price range. I was so upset and angry.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Amongst all the garbage on Craigslist, there is some beauty. My precious Layla was a craigslist bird as well as my Mali and I am still shocked to have found such wonderful, healthy and socialized birds on Craigslist. I always look on Craigslist and can spot a scam a mile away. I’ve yet to see another rose breasted cockatoo in our area since I purchased Layla so I kind of feel like I won the Craigslist lottery with her. (Side note. Her one year gotcha day is tomorrow!)

Let me be the first ( I( hope) to say...Happy Gotcha Day Layla!
She is simply gorgeous!



Jim

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

The scams on Craigslist are annoying but what breaks my heart is the repeat animals. A few years back we called on a U2. There was a picture and description. I talked to the owner who told me about the bird but added and the bird was already sold. One month later I see a U2 same name, same picture different number so I called. It was the same bird, I know because it had a medical condition that was the same. The lady told me they had had it a month and it had to go because their two year old kept putting her fingers in the cage. They had put a divider in the Bird’s cage so it couldn’t use the whole thing. She had also raised the price a good deal and beyond my price range. I was so upset and angry.

A couple "light spankings" and a FIRM "Don't do that again!!" to the two year old might have worked!
That is just not right! One month later,and off yet to another home sighhhh. I recall when I first brought Smokey home,I was still married,and my son was a little over three years old. It was explained to him that the bird is new here and still frightened of us,and was told NOT to aggravate her. He did the finger thing in the cage and Debbie and I warned him countless times. Well he did it again,and I sat there and watched as Smokes took a GOOD nip out of one of his fingers! He wailed like a stuck pig but got ZERO sympathy from his mother or I..that was the last time he did that!



Jim

 

[LordTriggs]

was going to say Amy! They'll learn quick enough not to put their fingers in the cages especially with a larger bird. Of course I can already picture the person who decided to dump that Too. Typical "My child is perfect, oh no we don't believe in discipline"

 

[bug_n_flock]

A lot of society's current problems could be solved and could have been prevented with more "light spankings" and lessons of "well, I *told* you not to do that. You get what you get.". *Eeveryone's* kid is perfect and special and unique, a real future genius, these days. I miss good old "kids" who had mannars and respected people and played hard but still knew the value of a day's work.. and I'm only 26. Nobody actually respects anything or anyone anymore. It's painful to watch. My kids will grow up being told "no" and having critters that they actually are responsible for and are taught how to properly interact with. No wild hooligans with entitlement attitudes will share *my* mitochondrial DNA, no sir! Little buggers will grow up proper.

From phone

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

A lot of society's current problems could be solved and could have been prevented with more "light spankings" and lessons of "well, I *told* you not to do that. You get what you get.". *Eeveryone's* kid is perfect and special and unique, a real future genius, these days. I miss good old "kids" who had mannars and respected people and played hard but still knew the value of a day's work.. and I'm only 26. Nobody actually respects anything or anyone anymore. It's painful to watch. My kids will grow up being told "no" and having critters that they actually are responsible for and are taught how to properly interact with. No wild hooligans with entitlement attitudes will share *my* mitochondrial DNA, no sir! Little buggers will grow up proper.

From phone

Here Here!!! I love your attitude!


Jim

 

[eagle18]

I found Fred on craiglist. Never thought about scammers. You have given me much to think about.

 

[Jferrand526]

I’ve tried so many times on Craigslist to adopt a bird from my city but every single time I call they always end up in Texas or New York. There was one time someone said they had a Blue and Gold Macaw in Los Angeles and that was real! I met the lady and we are good friends now but unfortunately all the events that happened before she put up the ad lead to me not getting the macaw and someone else getting the macaw instead. I said its okay as long as the macaw has a home and is safe then I don’t mind and to make up for it she lets me hang out with her sun conure, 2 electus, yellow fronted amazon, and cockatiel!

Anyways, I always see someone mention craigslist but what about Rescueme.com?! Oh my gosh, that website is fantastic. You can choose the animal you want to look at and if you are in the US you can choose the state you live in and it will show you all the animals located in your state and what city. There is always an email and almost always a phone number avilable for the person that wants their bird or other animal to get adopted! Seriously that website is very trust worthy. I don’t know if it works outside the US though.