Sunday, August 4, 2013

Mexican Parrotlets, Green Rump Parrotlets, Touring Your Facility, More Than One Pet Parrotlet

Hello, I am extremely interested in acquiring two parrotlets. I have previously owned a yellow napped Amazon, two sulfur crested cockatoos, and many cockatiels over the years. Now all I want are two wee parrotlets. I'm interested in both the Mexican and the Green Rump. I would like to have two so that they can be companions when I am away...though I am retired and at home a goodly amount of the time. My curiosity has to do with the advisability of housing two together. Might it be better to have two females, as I did with my cockatoos (they got along famously), or would it be better to have a mated pair? Two males just seem understandably out of the question...LOL...I have an entire room that would be their room, where they would have no fear of intruding cats or dogs. My cats are ancient and the dogs live outside. I very much miss having birds; they were such a joy in my life. I shall be in Aptos the 5th and 6th of August for some medical care and would love to come to your facility, if it is acceptable to you? I'd love to take two away with me, preferably ones that still require some hand feeding so that they would bond with me, as so many of my previous avian friends did. Might I inquire how much they cost, and have you equipment there for purchase? Or should I prepare, in advance, with purchases made up here (Santa Rosa)? Either way is acceptable to me. Do, please, advise... Its better to reach me at karenhaskamp@gmail.com, as this sonic address is just too jammed with extraneous emails!!! And, I can be reached at 707-888-6064 I'm really quite excited at the prospect of bringing two babies home, but old enough to be separated from their parents! Oh, I'll need your proper address, if it's OK for me to come visit... Thank you for your time, and I do look forward to meeting you. Karen Dear Karen: Thank you for your emails. Sorry for the delay in responding. Mexican parrotlets always were extremely rare and because of that I never sold them as pets but only worked with zoos and members of the International Parrotlet Society’s cooperative breeding program in order to preserve them. Unfortunately, Mexican parrotlets were always the most difficult parrotlets to work with so even before color mutation Pacifics were introduced in the mid—1990’s, they were always rare. Now they are all but non-existent in the United States anymore and are considered ‘genetically extinct’ in this country. Unfortunately, the same fate, people dumping all of their species of parrotlets except for color mutation Pacifics, has resulted in the demise of once common species such as Green Rumps and Spectacles; even wild-type (normal) Pacifics are almost impossible to find these days. I do know two breeders of Green Rumps that I can recommend but both are on the East Coast and you would have to have them shipped. That is no issue for the birds as the airlines take excellent care of them and in 30 years I’ve never had a bird arrive with a feather out of place let alone injured or killed. I never recommend that people purchase two parrotlets to keep each other company. Parrotlets are very aggressive and territorial birds and even if you get two birds at the same time and they grow up together, in all likelihood, one will become dominant over the other and become aggressive it. “Share’ is not a word in the parrotlet vocabulary and they look at the other bird as a rival and a competitor not a companion or friend. Usually the dominant bird will not allow the other bird to eat, perch or play and can injure or sometimes kill the other bird. If you would like two parrotlets as companions for yourself, that’s fine. Just make sure each bird has their own cage and is supervised when it is out with the other bird. Otherwise, pet parrotlets do best as single birds in one household. So long as they have a large cage, lots of toys and daily interaction with their owners, they are just fine. They are not like cockatoos or other birds that need the socialization of others of their kind. They are aggressive, territorial and will defend their cage, home, even person with an intensity that is difficult to comprehend unless you’ve seen it. In 35 years, I have never sold an unweaned bird. Not even to experienced hand-feeders of parrotlets. Parrotlets do not bond with their hand-feeder but bond with the person or birds that they are placed with after weaning. Also, it is very stressful and an unnecessary health risk to the bird to place it with another hand-feeder as even if you use the same formula and keep it in the correct temperature, they often suffer from stress by simply being placed in a new environment before they are physiologically ready. I also do not let people into my breeding aviary. This is to protect my birds from stress and disease. I have worked with USDA to establish biological protocols to protect people’s birds by following the closed-aviary concept and no one goes into my breeding aviary but me. Also, these are breeding birds and it would stress them greatly to have strangers coming into their secured place looking at them so I never allow people into my aviary. Finally, I want to say that I am currently not breeding parrotlets as I have severe arthritis in my thumb from hand-feeding thousands of baby parrotlets over the decades and need surgery on it. I do not know if I will be breeding again but if I do, I will have a waiting list. In the meantime, I would be happy to recommend some breeders to you from out of state if you would like. They are extremely reputable as I only recommend people I would do business with. Best of luck with your procedures and I hope this helped! Sincerely yours, Sandee L. Molenda, C.A.S. The Parrotlet Ranch, Owner, www.parrotletranch.com A Chattering Bird Builds No Nest. Camaroonian Phrase

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