Paying for registration?

[Halo1]

so recently I have been looking for another African Gray parrot. It’s been hard…. I am looking but some people are trying to tell me that I have to do a change of ownership to rehome a parrot and they want $300.00 to do this paperwork. I have never been asked this before.. have you?

 

[Scott]

Welcome aboard! I am not familiar with costly rehoming paperwork. Where are you located?

 

[Flboy]

I found two groups. One is US $5, the other is Euro 31.

I'm buying an African/Timneh grey, do I need a CITES certificate?​

If you’re buying an African or Timneh grey parrot you won’t need to apply for a certificate. But you will need to see the pet seller’s certificate or be given the certificate.

If you already own a Grey, and don’t intend on selling it, you don’t need a certificate, and the regulation doesn’t affect you. However, if you ever want to sell your bird, you will need a certificate.

How much does a CITES certificate cost?​

An Article 10 certificate costs £31 (as of October 2018). This is the fee for one certificate for one parrot.

source:

African grey and Timneh grey parrots - CITES Appendix 1 - ExoticDirect

www.exoticdirect.co.uk

 

[Halo1]

Welcome aboard! I am not familiar with costly rehoming paperwork. Where are you located?

I am located in Louisiana.

 

[Kentuckienne]

so recently I have been looking for another African Gray parrot. It’s been hard…. I am looking but some people are trying to tell me that I have to do a change of ownership to rehome a parrot and they want $300.00 to do this paperwork. I have never been asked this before.. have you?

Many rescue organizations ask for a “rehoming fee” before they adopt out birds. This is to weed out folks who are just trying to flip a bird for a quick profit, and also to make sure the person is committed to caring for the bird. Birds are expensive - they need properly sized cages which are usually big and expensive for a gray, they need high quality food, lots of toys to destroy, expensive vet care, and most importantly they need to live with humans who will spend time with them and interact with them. Sometimes people might watch a funny video of a bird and decide on impulse to adopt one. But adopting a parrot isn’t like adopting a cat from a shelter. Parrots live a long time, and any rescue wants to be as sure as they can that the bird is going to a forever home. That’s why there is almost always a fee, and $300 isn’t a very high one.
On the other hand, they could be scammers who don’t even have a bird and are just trying to get your money. Do a “reverse image search” on Google … scammers usually post pics of birds they copied from someone else’s website. Anyone advertising birds or I think any pets on Craigslist is a scammer, because it’s not allowed. FB Marketplace the same thing, beware of anyone advertising a bird. I’m sure there are bird rescues near you that can give you good info for your search.

 

[fiddlejen]

…Anyone advertising birds or I think any pets on Craigslist is a scammer, because it’s not allowed…

I just double checked this because I was sure I’ve seen pets on craigslist before. Craigslist seems to prohibit posting for Sale, but allows listing them for Re-Homing.

NOT to say Craigslist is great to find a bird, just, it’s not Automatically a scam.

That said, I would tend to think OP is probably looking at a scam. But the red flag I would see would be “Registration” fee.

I mean you could check with your local city. But I’ve never heard of towns requiring registration of anything other than dogs or cats, and even so it would be You doing the registering, you paying fee to Your local govt, after you got the pet.

Otherwise if someone Selling you a bird, they should charge you a sales price., Or else a “rehoming” fee. Calling it a Registration fee seems very scammish to me.

 

[Kentuckienne]

You are right, CL does allow “rehoming” of pets and it’s not always a scam or someone trying to get around the no-pet-sales restrictions by calling it a rehoming fee.