upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

.

Too many people think of them as stock items. If you ship a dozen and only 4 die, they'll have 8 to sell ultimately. Or maybe these are ignorant people who've heard of day-old chicks being crammed into a box and sent through the USPS illegally. Whatever, I'm so relieved to read your post. I skipped it 3X fearing from the title that you wanted some shipped to you.

Paca

Personally, unless I can be sure that the person is an experienced handfeeder and has raised many different kinds of clutches, I don't sell unweaned anyway. I mostly sell local, but I've had the same requests for uweaned babies from as far away as NY! If I'm absolutely positive the person is an experienced handfeeder and they need babies shipped, I'd wait until the babies are almost weaned and fully feathered anyway. I wouldn't ship until the babies are on 2 feedings a day AT MOST. And just make sure they are completely feathered and the flight is the shortest and most direct possible. I'd only ship unweaned babies through Continental as they have counter-to-counter service.

Some states have laws forbidding the sale of unweaned chicks anyway. California outlawed it a few years back, unless the buyer is a "certified handfeeder". However, PIJAC (Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council) got around that by offering an "Avian Specialist Certification" through the mail. You pay like $75 dollars and they send you a study book and a test. You fill out the test (by only looking up the questions asked, I'm sure) and send it back to PIJAC. 4-6 weeks later, you have a nice little certificate printed off someone's computer that lets you buy unweaned babies in California. You don't even have to come anywhere near a bird to get this certification. It's a complete joke.

So there's my little soapbox rant. Don't trust people saying they are "PIJAC Certified Avian Specialists" (and there are a few on this board). And you're always safest selling unweaned babies locally to people you know and can keep track of.

Yes, some breeders do ship unweaned. Someone in California got around the ban by buying an unweaned conure from Florida... however thankfully, they were able to raise the conure into adult-hood with no prior experience in handfeeding!

There is one breeder (forgot whom) who got so tired of people asking for unweaned chicks that she put up an article on her site..... she owns a black palm cockatoo male, a rare lory (who lost his mate), as well as other birds I can't quite remember....