by Pajarita » Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:10 am
Hi, Ako, welcome to the forum and thank you for doing your research before you acquire the bird!
I would love it if you would consider adoption instead of buying a baby... Several reasons:
1) unless you are a stay-at-home or a work-from-home person, getting a baby is not recommended because, just like any other baby, it cannot be left alone for hours and hours. It is extremely stressful for them (parrots evolved to live all their lives surrounded by their family) and not really healthy as although breeders always tell you the babies are weaned, they never are -and that is a fact and not my opinion- so you need to be home to feed it during the day.
2) unless you have plenty of experience and knowledge, it's risky. Studies show that baby birds that suffer stress (and this is either physical or emotional) when very young grow up and remain high-strung for the rest of their lives.
3) a baby bird is a lottery. You never know how it's going to grow up because you simply do not know the conditions the bird was bred under (all breeders tell you they LOVE birds, an obviously lie as you do not sell something you love to whoever has the money to pay, but, to them, they are merchandise) - what they show you and tell you is never the truth, they are sales people...
But, when you adopt an adult, what you see is what you get in terms of personality. Plus, it survived infancy (most pet parrots die before they are 2 years old) and you are dealing with a bird with a matured immune system.
4) it is simply NOT true that only baby birds bond with their humans. This is the same fallacy we had to deal with for many years in dog and cat adoption - people have come to realize this is not true for them but, for some reason and unfortunately, they continue to believe the lie when it comes to parrots.
I do not know of any breeders so I cannot help you. I only rescue/rehome/adopt. I love animals and the huge overpopulation problem with have with pet parrots is something that worries and saddens me so I always recommend adopting instead of shopping. But I also do it because I do believe from the bottom of my heart that, for somebody with little experience, the chances of success increase when they take in an adult. All my birds came from somebody else and, although not all of them have chosen me as 'their' human (there is one that prefers my husband to me, one that is a parent-raised bird that never imprinted to humans and was not treated right by the breeder, two that 'reverted' to wild ways due to severe abuse and negligence), they all trust me.
But, if you have your heart set on buying a baby and have the experience and time to hand-feed and wean correctly (and this is not as easy as it sounds, either), please do not choose a breeder that ships because those are always the worst ones (they are almost always the ones that breed large scale and never have the time or enough people to handfeed and raise a baby correctly). Choose a medium size... somebody who has just a couple or so pairs, who stays at home and has been doing it for many years. Don't choose the little ones that breed their pets, either, they don't usually have the knowledge, experience or expertise to do a good job with the babies.
One more word of advice, if I may: don't get stuck on one specific species or genus of parrots. They all have different personalities and although the species have characteristics, they are VERY general and, in truth, with them is more a matter of who clicks with whom than the actual species or genus. I have four pois: a male/female Senegal pair and a male/female Redbelly pair (I also had Meyers but never a Brownhead) and can tell you without the shadow of a doubt that all four of them are completely different in temperament and personality.
What I would urge you to do before you make up your mind is to visit a couple of rescues. You don't have to adopt from them but it will give you an idea of what different species look/sound/behave like and... who knows?! You might find an amazon, a GCC, a quaker, a sun conure or whatever that falls in love at first sight with you or your husband and who will end up being the love of your or your husband's life (because, mind you, even if you get a baby bird, it will not 'belong' to you and your husband, it will be one or the other because all parrots are one-person pets once they reach sexual maturity).