The first ever budgie I had came from a breeder and she was wonderful.

 

She explained so much about what we needed to know and also was willing for us to call her any time with questions. She taught us a great deal about budgies.

 

We had a few more budgies over the years, another from her and a couple given to us from people who didn't want them anymore. We even had a psychobudgie who attacked everything it saw - given to us by its owners who couldn't take it anymore!

 

Then as an adult I missed my budgies and got another one. My husband was going on a business trip and bought me a budgie to keep me company bit he got it from a petshop and they told him it was a baby when it was actually an adult. He had NO CLUE how to tell the age of a budgie so he believed them even though the cere was dark blue and well aged. Oh well...

 

Poor budgie only lived about 6 months - I think it was an old fart before some gullible person came along to buy it.

 

I have visited many pet shops - most of the time they try to sell you an old budgie and tell you it is a baby. I have occasionally bought a baby budgie from a pet shop but I would definitely prefer a breeder. I just wish I had known about this site before my son bought himself a budgie last year because I would have preferred to get a baby from a breeder and I could at least have asked around.

 

He did get a sweet little pet and he loves his budgie very much (he has 2 now thanks to unforseen circumstances and Caren's generousity) but I have tried buying both from breeders and pet shops and I have to say - the skill and experience of a professional and good breeder is streets ahead of the "customer service" you get in a pet shop staffed by partially trained teenagers.

I know how you feel Smudgie, I wish I'd known about this site before I got my bird at the petstore. The people there are great about giving good info, making sure I bought the right things, and helping me pick out a young healthy budgie but everytime I've been there since I've noticed sickly looking birds (and some bloody ones).

 

Another problem is that they aren't equipped to have medium/large sized birds - they aren't healthy looking, their water is filthy, cages WAY too small, and one time I saw an employee snap a towel at one of the bird's cages and the poor thing was just huddling in a corner They've had some of these birds for about 9 months now (they're charging like 2 1/2x what you would pay to get one from a breeder). After seeing that I decided to get my birds from a breeder in the future.

Over the last month I have visited 5 different pet shops, and they have varied so much.

 

There was an excellent one I visited and posted that in the Pet Shop forum, along with another one I reported. Then the rest have been inbetween. I have to say since I started with this forum, the only shop I approved of was the one I posted about and I wrote them a letter on their excellence. I have 1 more big one to check out it is about an hour away so I haven't had the time yet but will be going up there. Have heard good things.

 

As for breeders, I have not checked out yet. But having experience with purchasing dogs and rabbits from a breeder it is all the individual breeder. I was SO young when I got my rabbit, now I think I can't believe I bought him from them. Same with the dog. There are backyard breeders that are no good, there are some that are good.

 

Bottomline you have to do your research, don't buy on just because, buy because you support the shop, the breeder in what they are doing.

 

(easy to say hard to do, I have learned alot from these forums, I go back to the shop where I bought Pretty monthly, and think would I buy here again? They were in the middle of pet shop likeness in my book but not up to excellence of standards)

Different peoples expirances vary.

 

i've had good and bad expirances with both breeders and pet shops, however i have found a really good pet shop.

 

they keep the birds in large groups in avairys. the averys are fairly fullish, but they arn't overcrowded. evey bird i got from that shop has been FANTASTIC - health wise esspecially. the bird are a bit expesive but i think it is well worth it because they are always so healthy. they worm and de-lice/mite (whatever that's called) their birds regularly. the bird look very happy and healty...if anything a LITTLE on the fat side they have never tryed to sell me an adult when i was looking for a baby etc.etc., i've found them to be pretty trustworthy!!!

 

when i went to buy some more birds and decided to hve a look at some breeders, the people i went to tryed to sell me a related baby pair when i was looking for an unrelated adult pair. hmmmmm. a bit suss.

 

however, i know that there are some TERRIBLE pet shops out there and some really good breeders

 

and as for demand in aust, i've been able to find a good home for every one of my birds without ever haveing to put up an ad or whatever..word of mouth works for me

i got mine at a pet shop.

and his claw was damages

Pretty who was from a pet shop just passed away not even 2 years old yet. Could he have been harboring an illness that wasn't detected until not because he got it from other birds? I will never know.

 

Merlin was from a home that rescused his parents & the babies. He is one of the rescused babies. He is doing okay and when this is avian exam with flying colors.

 

You really need to do your research, you need to make sure the facility is clean breeders or pet shop and simply their knowledge and talking to them will help you get a feel for if they care about the birds or if they are just breeding and selling.

Both of mine came from the same pet shop. Private breeders aren't very easy to find in the States. I had looked at several stores before buying. I looked at the big chain pet stores(Petco and Petsmart), but found that the birds looked healthier at the little family-owned pet shop that I bought mine from. They get all of their baby budgies from the same breeder and they always look very healthy. Scooter has never had any problems in the 8 months that I've had him, and my new budgie Bella is also doing great so far. I think if you do your research before buying, you can get some very nice birds from pet shops.

Your right about private breeders I asked a big avian hospital here in Ohio by me and they looked at me cross eyed. Now tell me they have to be somewhere (Laughing out loud) because the petshops get budgies . Oh well but there is the big avian rescue organization by me and they always have budgies. I found them through petfinders.com

I am looking at becming an actual breeder here in NY, but the problem I am having is in finding good breeder pairs to start the process with.

 

I have the same problems as most of the others posting in the US. Having to get their stock from larger pet store chains due to the lack of solid breeders nearby.

 

I try to stop by the two main stores, one Petco and one Petsmart in our area, and also have a small mom and pop shop I check in regularly, to see what types of birds they have coming in. Some times they have great healthy birds and sometimes, not so much. So far tho, at least, the ones they do have seem to be well cared for in the spacing and cleanliness of their environments.

 

Snip

Edited April 15, 200718 yr by Snip

Did you look in the yellow pages for a smaller chain or an all avian pet shop? We have 1 all avian pet shop that sells English "show" type budgies is that what you are looking for? Also looking in the newspaper you can start there too.

 

I agree it is pretty difficult here in the states to start out but it depends are you looking to breed pet type or show type?

 

 

You can click here on the Breeding FAQ section and read some good article here too. http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...tion=show&cat=7