lovebird-specific disease?

[maya_exquisite]

I'm having a conversation with a friend on Facebook and a question between us arose so I'm going to pose it here.

We were basically talking about budgies, Petco, birds Petco sells, etc. In Hawaii, the Petco stores don't sell lovebirds whatsoever. They sell Poi's (usually Red-Bellied or Senegals, but only on occasion), Suns, Jendays, GCCs and it's mutations, cockatiels, and budgies. No lovebirds. It's weird. Then I remembered talking to the person that supplies Petco with the Poi's and conures. I had asked him why they didn't breed lovebirds and he said he doesn't want to risk his farm with disease (and apparently his farm is randomly disease-tested by Petco). Not his exact wording, but he basically said that lovebirds can carry disease that don't really affect them, but would affect other species.

Now, this guy has been in Aviculture for 40+ years so I did soak up whatever info I could get from talking to him about parrots... but I had never heard of disease that don't really affect lovebirds but do affect other parrots. Is there such a thing?

And to this day I still wonder why Petco doesn't carry lovebirds? I guess I should just ASK one day!

[linda040899]

There is no specific disease that just lovebirds have but lovebirds can be carriers of more disease than other parrots. The biggies are Polyomavirus and PBFD. Lovebirds are at least not lifetime carriers of Polyomavirus as Budgies are but you have to be very careful when you get new lovebirds to add to your existing ones. Know your source and test your birds. You never know when might bring home one that's carrying PBFD invisibly.

Actually, the main reason that Petco probably doesn't carry lovebirds is because they require attention to remain tame. When customers go looking for pet birds, tame and handleable are both big plusses!!

[maya_exquisite]

It's weird 'cause Petco, at least here, barely works to try to keep their birds tame. The budgies aren't tame at all - and I don't think there are any budgie breeders here that actually tame their birds. The farm I referred to prior has said they've had to buy back birds at times because the employees don't handle them enough and they're not tame anymore. Heck, one time they were selling a $600 Crimson-Bellied conure. I had never seen one in real life until then. It's the most expensive bird they've had in their store so you'd think they'd work extra hard to keep it tame... NOPE. I asked to see the bird and the guy was trying to get the bird to come out and he was like, "Oh, yeah... we don't really handle this one." What?! If I had a $600 bird in my store I'd be handling it all the time.

Ah, lovebirds can be carriers of more diseases... I see.

[StormyMom]

I think im with Linda when she says theyre harder to keep tame. Petsmart doesnt sell them by me either. Its mostly parkakeets (that look pretty darn wild to me...) and they might have one or 2 conures. Riley (black capped conure) was originally a petsmart bird. My friend paid 600 for her...i love that girl..but i would NOT have paid that much. CRAZY. MAYBE 300..jeez. But she was a mess. My friend went thru **** taming her.

I think no matter HOW much the bird is handled, you have to figure see thru glass, constant ppl walking by, kids poking at them..banging the glass...its hard for them to really remain tame with no security.

I know a few "bird" stores by me. Once in a while theyll have lovebirds at one. The other one ALWAYS has about 30...but they look terrible. I cant explain it. Ive been wanting a blue black masked for a while and cant find any except there, but im just soooo afraid they have some kind of disease or something so i refuse to buy it.

And Maya, you have a facebook??? ADD ME lol. www.facebook.com/jadeybug

[maya_exquisite]

It's weird 'cause pretty much all the other pet stores sell lovebirds, but not Petco (we don't have Petsmart here - YET).

I would love a Masked Violet. They are VERY hard to come by here in Hawaii. I've only seem a handful of them at one pet store years ago and they sold at roughly $400 each very quickly. Haven't seen any since.

[StormyMom]

masked violet? *runs to google*

[StormyMom]

oooo very pretty. They almost look like the blues!

[linda040899]

Violet Mask is a beautiful mutation....a purple bird with a black hood! The first one that was imported into the US from Europe (about 12 yrs ago) was a female and carried a price tag of $2,600.00! Price has come down considerably but they can still be expensive.

[CompassionAk]

Wow,the Masked Violets are gorgeous!

[Z28Taxman]

Why did I google violet masked? Now I want one of them too.

Even found one for sale for $125...

Good thing it's in Minnesota.