should the breeder know which parents will have friendly babies?

[Sand1]

I asked a breeder who has several color variations of green cheek conure which parents perhaps.. are the most most friendly, or who had friendly babies in the past, as these are the ones I want to put a deposit on. I know from my friend when she got one from this breeder, that she was told "this guy is a handful and will need lots of guidance and training" but it was the only baby the breeder had available at that time. indeed for the last 4 years he's been quite obstinate and bites a LOT (as maybe all green cheeks do, i dont know!). so that's the whole reason i asked the breeder about the friendliest parents/or their past babies. here is what the breeder wrote to me in response to my question.
"I don't think that any of my babies are better than others. They each have their own personality and they are perfect. I think any baby if well socialized and trained makes a great pet. I don't think that the parents have much to do with how good or bad the bird grows up to be."
perhaps the breeder believes this to be true and it may be. what are your thoughts???? I think perhaps I should just find a different breeder, or would all of them answer me this way?? confused because I thought breeders of any animal TRY if they can, to breed for temperament?? no?

 

[gavagai]

I think a lot of people tend to romanticize animals, and "they are each perfect in their own way" is part of that. You're absolutely right that birds can be bred for temperament, but most breeders don't. (Though many breeders accidentally breed for bad temperament, by breeding the birds they can't sell as pets.) It doesn't seem improbable that if the breeder doesn't breed for temperament and doesn't handle the parents, that the breeder doesn't really know which parents have the best temperament, but I don't think all breeders would answer that way. There's a former breeder of parrotlets in San Antonio who included a description of the personality of each bird on her website and priced the nippy and hand-shy birds below the gentle and cuddly ones, which is a practice I wish were more common. (Though it's a lot of work and might encourage inexperienced people to buy the cheapest bird, so I can also see the arguments against doing it.) At the very minimum, I would expect a breeder to have some idea of the personality of the individual chicks if they're hand-feeding them. That said, temperament can change drastically at puberty. If you want to be sure of a sweet-tempered bird, your best bet is to adopt an older bird, whose personality is already set.

 

[Sand1]

What excellent advice, an older bird. Thank you!

 

[SilverSage]

Personally as a breeder I know which parents produce which sort of babies. As an example my first two cockatiel pairs; one produced sweet, loving, snuggly babies and the other produced smart adventurous more hands off babies. Sure both pairs produced NICE babies, but they had different traits.

But keep in mind I'm a really small breeder. Someone who is broaching 5-6 clutches at a time (and that's still considered small) isn't going to be able to know their babies as well as someone who has 1-2 clutches at a time.

Ultimately if you have concerns about temperament, I suggest a bird that is over a year old (even older in larger species). Personality can shift drastically during puberty and with a baby you can't know for sure what they will be like as adults. With an adult bird, it's much more of a "what you see is what you get" situation.


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[Sand1]

Our green cheek died a few weeks ago. Heart wrenching is all i can say. He was five months old & from petsmart when i got him. He had about ten month period when he was around 2.5 years old (hard to remember) when he was vicious & would attack etc. I talked to the vet,cuz i thought he was loosing his MIND. She helped me through it,said it was hormones & eventually he went back to being himself. But i do like the idea of an older bird . I can't even begin to tell you what fun it was to watch him develop his personality over the years. As his mama I would miss that if we ever got another bird. ��