Recently when someone emailed mom and asked her if they could visit our birds, this is how she replied....

Our nursery and breeder areas are closed to the general public for health and security reasons. We are not a zoo, a retail store or a showroom. By restricting access to our babies, they are protected from diseases that could be introduced by a well-meaning visitor who has been around other birds. You must remember that birds hide their sicknesses very well and that many may be asymptomatic carriers. We love our pets, breeders and babies and if someone entered our flock with an avian virus on their shoes or clothing, it could destroy our birds and the hearts of our family.

I cannot allow people to tour our birds based on a few reasons. The first reason being that birds are susceptible to viral diseases that can be present on the shoes, bodies and clothing of visitors. Babies especially are vulnerable. If you are interested in learning more, read on the Internet on sites about what is called Model Aviculture Program,

 http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww11eiii.htm

You will see that there are biosecurity guidelines for maintaining a healthy flock.  We try to follow those guidelines. We love our birds, breeder pairs and pets, and do not want to expose them to any possible contaminants. Here are more articles on why a "closed aviary" is so critical for me to maintain. http://www.birds2grow.com/art-closedav.html   and another,

http://www.modelaviculture.org/closedaviaryconcept.htm

 

Many breeders take their birds and babies to bird marts. I will not even do this due to these same reasons. Nor will I buy a bird from a mart. The article at this site  http://www.pamperedpeeps.com/birdmarts.htm is by Old World Aviaries and it was enough to convince me to not take birds to marts.

 

The other piece of this is that parrots are still exotic creatures. Their wildness is what holds much of the attraction for us. BUT, that wildness is also evident during breeding. Breeding pairs can regard strangers as intruders and as a result, they kill and destroy eggs and babies. Wolves exhibit the same behavior when a predator gets near their den.

Finally, there are security considerations for my family, home and flock when allowing visitors that I do not know.

I understand that I may lose some sales due to being so strict, but this is not about sales for us, but about our love for birds and making sure that we are able to maintain and reproduce healthy birds. I could not guarantee them as I do if I were not so protective. We also always have more buyers than birds, but that may be a result of our extreme socialization of our babies and due to our reputation. Check out our guarantee and policies:

 

I always feel kind of bad when I reply to someone like this, but I would feel a zillion times worse, if I lost some of our dear flock to my carelessness when I know better.

 

One thing I do do is send pictures during your baby's time at our home and update fairly regularly. Our buyers look forward to their updated pictures and stories and almost all print them out for baby books or to hang on their walls prior to baby coming home.

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