Tips for acquiring adult lovebird(s)

[DebSpace]

Having lost Tux a few weeks ago, I'm now searching for an adult male masked lovie for my female Nip and have a few questions below. I know I need to quarantine a new bird, place them in separate cages side-by-side and very gradually increase interaction between them, but I welcome suggestions/advice for my search. I didn't think it would be this diffifult, but there isn't much happening on the bird scene in Oklahoma other than a few breeders with babies. In addition to searching locally, I am looking on hoobly.com, usfreeads.com, petfinder.com, and lovemypets.com (other recommendations?).

QUESTION 1) How successful is shipping a bird, or is this taboo?:eek:

QUESTION 2) If buying from an out-of-state breeder (via online ads, etc.), how can I determine if they are ethical/experienced/legit?

QUESTION 3) Things to look for when buying from an individual?

QUESTION 4) When an ad states "surgically sexed" male, should I avoid it or is that not really an issue?:confused:

[Christine9]

Well, I don't know if I can answer all of your questions, but I did want to say that I recently had a lovie shipped to me. It was my first experience having a bird shipped to me, and I was very nervous about it, but it went wonderful. He was shipped to me via Delta Pets First (which I HIGHLY recommend- their service was wonderful) and was on a direct flight, so it only took him a total of about four hours from the time he was dropped off at the Florida airport, to the time I picked him up in Boston. The flight didn't stress him out one bit.

As far as finding a good breeder, the first think I did, once I found a potential breeder online, was that I did a little research on her (by googling the aviary name). The comments I did find about her were positive. Of course this might not work with a smaller breeder. She also was more than willing to work with me to find me the right bird, which was a plus. I specifically wanted a male that was handtame. There was one particular bird on her sight that I was interested in originally, but she was honest with me and admitted she hadn't handled him in awhile and he had already gone wild. She did offer to pull and handfeed another male for me, though. To me, this was a sure sign that she was a honest breeder. Heck, she could of lied and shipped me an untame bird if she was not honest. I would recommend her to you, but at this time she only has one adult breeder available (untame), and he is an opaline, so he is very expensive. And he is also not a masked anyway.

As far as surgical sexing is concerned, I don't know. Personally, I don't see why someone would sex their birds that way, rather than DNA testing, but I guess to each his own. I wouldn't say there is anything wrong with it (though maybe someone else knows differently), but it seems a little unecessary to put a tiny bird to sleep like that when their are other options (feather and blood testing) which are very easy to do.

Good luck with your search. :)

[DebSpace]

Thanks, Christine, that was very helpful information! Much appreciated....

[sdgilley]

Hi Deb,
Have you checked with shelters or your local avian vet to see if 1. someone located Tux or 2. they might have an adoptable bird like you want?

Shipping is done, and can be done well. It makes me really nervous, but I have zero experience with it. Linda ships sometimes, and she knows what she's doing.

As far as reputation of any breeder, I imagine you could get & check references. Christine had some good suggestions, too.

Sugically sexing birds freaks me out a little. Since sexing can be done by DNA without the pain & risk, I don't see any reason for it.

My personal experience with breeders (at a bird fair) that were claiming SS-Male, were dealing with larger birds and treated the lovies there poorly. I chose not to buy from them. I liked the poor little male (if it was indeed a male), but he bit the crap out of the breeder and think the breeder would have told me anything to get me to buy the bird.

Good luck!

[linda040899]

Hi Deb,
When I ship birds, I use Continental Airlines Quick Pack (live animal division). I've never had any problems with their service. The thought of my birds getting on a plane and being flown off to someone strange kind of stresses me out occasionally but things have always gone well.

While DNA sexing is easier, many larger parrots are surgically sexed so that the potential buyer knows if there are any reproductive problems that would not show up with just a DNA test. When birds are surgically sexed, the avian vet actually views the reproductive organs and can determine if there are any problems that would cause the bird not to be able to produce offspring. If I were a breeder and I was buying a Hyacinth Macaw for breeding purposes, I would be very unhappy if the one I got could not physically reproduce! There are times when surgically sexing a rare species lovebird is the right thing to do.

Hope this helps.

[DebSpace]

Checking with another local store today, but thus far I'm striking out with shelters, stores & avian vet. I'm not giving up and still searching sites on the net everyday to see if anything new has been posted. Have several people on the lookout for what I'm looking for now, so I know something will turn up eventually. R-E-A-L-L-Y glad to have the input from everyone. Combined knowledge is invaluable!

[ottermom]

Before finding this board I used to look at www.birdsnways.com. They have a large birds for sale page. You'll have to weed through for adult lovebirds, because it's a site for all birds and has quite a lot of babies, but it is a large classified ads section. Good luck!

[Cathy]

I got both of my wonderfully tamed lovebirds from Jeanette at Shadybrooke Aviary in Atlanta. I visited her home where she raises lovebirds and conures. She has a wonderful selection of peachface lovebirds and has just added masked lovebirds. Jeanette has one masked baby left for sale but she recently purchased some adult maskeds. I know that if you contacted her via email, that she would help you.

Jeanette ships birds and I know that she would not if it was unsafe for any of her babies.

This is her site http://www.shdybrk.com/available.shtml

PS I am very sorry to hear about your loss. I know that your other lovie needs to find a companion, too.

[Eliza]

I got both of my wonderfully tamed lovebirds from Jeanette at Shadybrooke Aviary in Atlanta...
Jeanette ships birds and I know that she would not if it was unsafe for any of her babies.

This is her site http://www.shdybrk.com/available.shtml

PS I am very sorry to hear about your loss. I know that your other lovie needs to find a companion, too.

Oh, Jeanette has the most BEAUTIFUL babies. That baby double-dark masked on her site melts my heart...

Deb - Other resources for locating a bird would be www.africanlovebirdsociety.com, www.hoobly.com and even www.craigslist.com.

I, too, am sorry that you lost your beloved Tux. In time the perfect bird will find his or her way to you.

-e-

[Christine9]

I just came across this and I thought you might want to check this bird out. She has it listed as a black-cheeked, but it looks like a black-masked to me. I did doesn't say if its male or female, but it is an adult. Here's the site http://www.flyinggems.com/ I could be wrong, but I think the owner of this aviary is a member here.

Edit: Nevermind, this one is a female. (I just read the info somewhere else on her site.)

[Kathryn]

Deb,
check you private messages. I've sent you the names and locations of several places I really trust in the OKC area. OKIEs Unite!!:lol