Wild Caught?

[cody123]

I am confused on what this is? Is it taking baby birds out of the nest or catching wild full grown birds?

[wildirish]

Wild caught refers to birds (young or older) who were taken from the wild and imported to wherever. It is still done even now, though importing is not done as it was, I think with a special permit some importing is still done.

[cody123]

that is horrible being a wild animal then just put in a cage what would you think?

[Tinker]

I guess at some stage it happened to all our birdies ancestors :(

[ROYJOY]

yes, but now its time to just adopt or buy birds bred in captivity. more and more species are apearing on endangered lists, or becoming extinct, partly due to deforretization, but mostly, the captured bird trade. out of hundreds captured, very few make it to a home. if we buy these birds, we are encoraging this practice. if we refuse to buy them, these "trappers" will be forced to find other work.

the way most birds are caught, is by chopping down a tree with a nest in it, that way they get young birds that need hand feeding, so they are able to sell hand fed tame birds for more money, if the bird survives the fall. the big problem with this is, that tree is gone and a sutible nesting site is gone forever. not just a hole in a tree is good enough. it has to be deep, dry, and safe enough against preditation, or the pair will pass it up for a more sutible location, and they are becoming hard to find, still another reason for population decline.

[prettybird3]

My Blue Front was wild caught, still has the quarantine band on his leg. I bought him when he was 12, and have had him for the past 11 years. The lady I bought him from told me she raised him from an egg. I didn`t know any better when I bought him. But that wouldn`t have stopped me from buying him because he needed a better home than where he was.

Oh yeah, and recently I took him to the vet for a beak and nail trim and my vet thinks he is a she.

[huntress]

Now wait a minute. If your buying a bird that was wild caught here in the states and its an obviously olde bird you not encouraging anything. There are many Older birds still around that were wild caught. Now , buying a young bird that was wild caught born after what was it 1986?? I think, then it was illegally imported. Then it wrong.

[ROYJOY]

thats what i ment. always give a bird a home. its not their fault. but if your looking for a bird, and you have a choice between a rescue, a breeder bird, and a wild caught baby, always go for the rescue, then the breeder chick and never a wild caught baby. i thought i was clear enough on that.

[huntress]

Originally Posted by ROYJOY

thats what i ment. always give a bird a home. its not their fault. but if your looking for a bird, and you have a choice between a rescue, a breeder bird, and a wild caught baby, always go for the rescue, then the breeder chick and never a wild caught baby. i thought i was clear enough on that.

All Clear! agreed apon. I feel sad for wild caught anythings

[Tinker]

I didn't mean to imply by my post that it was still ok. In NZ we have these great wild parrots called Keas, and in the old days when NZ was first being settled by the europeans, alot of the early settlers would capture them and put them in cages in their wooden houses. They would not live very long after capture because of their poor environment. The population of Keas is now very small in NZ because of both that, and the fact that farmers were allowed to shoot them for years as they preyed on sheep. It's a very sad fact, as they are highly intelligent, and it is thought they may be more intelligent than african greys, although not many studies have been carried out as they are not often kept as pets. They are most often seen around Homer Tunnel destroying peoples cars and high up in the mountains around the ski resorts where they scavenge food off tourists. They are often put in public averies as well around NZ. I'm glad that people have held back from making pets out of them though, and the vast majority are still in their natural environment.

Heres about them on Wiki: Kea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia