Bird fair fun!

[jriley]

I had to tell everyone about the fun time I had today at the Jacksonville (FL) Avicultural Society's bird fair today! It was packed, so that made it difficult to navigate, but there were lots of goodies. We ended up getting a neat ironwood play stand on wheels for Molly, so that she can hang out in the family room without moving her gigantic cage in there. She was nervous about it at first, but seems to be starting to like it. We also got her one of those Treasure Chest toys. So far, I've just left the wooden toys inside, but figure later I'll try putting Nutriberries or other treats inside when she's a little more coordinated. I found the cutest toy I've seen yet: it's a wooden bucket suspended by chains and it's filled with wooden chew toys wrapped like candy. I was really amazed when I hung it and she immediately went over and started digging through it. She didn't chew up any of the toys, just examined each one and threw it on the floor of her cage, but she definitely enjoyed doing so. It definitely looks like she will have fun when she learns to unwrap them. I also got some interesting food to try out: it has dried green peas and fruits and pellets and hot peppers. Looks like a healthy snack food. Not sure what brand it is, but two different dealers had it (looked like they bagged it themselves from a larger bulk bag). I also saw some food called Tropimax or something like that-it looked yummy-has anyone tried it? The only dealer that had it, only had it in big 20+ pound bags.

The only downer, as usual at a bird fair, was seeing all the birds that didn't look so hot. There was one guy who had tons of birds with him and had a real sweet Timneh Gray baby. All of his birds had exactly the same food in their cages (canary to cockatoo), a primarily sunflower mix, and all looked somewhat unhealthy. I hate where you feel like you'd love to take one home and get it away from the person but you know you can't expose your babies at home to whatever those birds might be carrying.

Anyway, it was a fun trip. Especially since the location just happened to be a few blocks from the Cheesecake Factory! I haven't been there in ages, so I took my daughters there for a late lunch afterward. I told them that was my way of guaranteeing I didn't buy any birds: If I bought a bird, we couldn't go to a restaurant after the fair LOL. It worked great!

Julie

[shortncrazy2]

sounds like it was a good day. just have to pray for those birds.

[winkiebird]

Originally Posted by jriley

All of his birds had exactly the same food in their cages (canary to cockatoo), a primarily sunflower mix, and all looked somewhat unhealthy.

I saw this myself at the CICBC fair back on April 29. I asked 1 of the breeders about that; he said that the birds are under a lot of stress & when they're under stress they need a higher fat food. At his home they were fed a healthy diet. So at least in that case the owner had a good reason for giving them that type of food. I kinda feel that MOST LIKELY that was the reason for the heavily sunflower seed diet in the cages.
(This may not be true everywhere.) Also, were the birds looking healthy otherwise?

[Ginich]

Glad to hear that the Jacksonville show was a success! My children drove in to visit me for the weekend but next year, I think BIRDIEBREAD will do the Jax show and I will visit my bro who lives in Jacksonville!

[lethalfire]

It's so nice to hear about everyone's Bird Fair experinces. I went to my local one May 5th and it was the first time for me and also a major disappointment, it was tiny. Maybe a total of 10 vendors, and nothing new that I haven't seen already as far as toys and stuff.

Glad you had fun and got some cool toys.

[Machelle]

sounds like you had a great time! I just found out that ours is June 23 & 24. I haven't been to one yest so I'm really looking forward to it!!!

[Michelle8822]

I went to one back in April here and we have another one in June. I am going to go to the one in June and buy another big cage and some more toys. I bought a big cage in April and only paid $250.00 for it. After that I say a cage that was only 1/3 of the size that I bought for $400.00 at the pet store. I also found that toys are a whole lot cheaper there then anywhere else I have found them. Other then the ones I make at home :-)

[jriley]

I was really amazed at the first one I went to, last March here in Green Cove Springs. The prices on everything were so much better than the usual retail. I was kicking myself because I had bought a cage on eBay that cost about $400 including shipping and the same cage was about half that price at the bird fair. They also have a good variety of foods, which none of our local pet stores do. The only bad part about bird fairs is that I have very little willpower and have to force myself not to bring anyone home with me :)

There's another one coming up next month in Orlando that I think I'm going to go to. I'm thinking that may have an even bigger turnout since it's so central to everywhere in FL. I sure hope it's a bigger building than the one we just went to! I hate crowds!

Julie