General Wonderings

[dawnkyung]

Oh my, another post by me...

A couple things...

I trust the breeder that i got Swaps from, but i was reading that closed bands generally mean that a bird was born in captivity, and open bands generally can mean that a bird is wild-caught. Swaps has an open band, but i was told by my breeder that he was hand fed, and born on July 24th of this year. I know there's no way to tell for sure...but when i asked her about the differences between the closed and open bands, she said that when they are young if their closed bands get "bitten off" they put on an open band instead.

So i guess what i'm saying is, how do i know that Swaps is as old as the breeder told me he is, and that he was bred in captivity and hand fed? I mean, don't get me wrong, he seemed used to being handled and all, I guess i'm just paranoid. the vet told me too that Swaps seems like a young bird but that there isn't really a physical way to tell. Am i nuts? I think I'm nuts. lol.

I edited to add another thing...

I was Swaps to be socialized well. When should my roomate start handling him? Swaps is getting better about the nipping, but i don't want him to regress and my roomate wouldn't know what to do. Is it best to get Swaps to a point where he is not nipping anymore before my roomate handles him, or will that be too late for him to be more social with other people? did that even make sense? lol.

[Doyle'sMommy]

I don't know about the band thing. But I am not sure if the nipping will ever completely stop, especially if he is like Doyle and uses his beak for everything including stepping up (like a third foot I guess you could say). I would say that whenever you get comfortable with Swaps then start letting you roomate handle him. It would probably help if you handed him to you roomate so that Swaps knows that his Mommy trusts this person and so should he. I let Doyle be handled by all of our friends but give them fair warning first that he uses his beak not to be mean but to help himself and that he could poop on them (lol). I don't want anyone to freak out holding him and scare him.

[Valo's Moirana]

i don't know about the band thing, but i'm sure you'll find people on here who can give you a definite answer. my response would be a question, and along the lines of "who cares?!" seems like swaps is sweet and you can handle him well... wild birds need a lot more time to be handled, so my guess would be that the baby was handfed. watch out for signs of sexual maturity - those show up at about 2yrs and older... if swaps doesn't show any, he's certainly younger.
wrt to the roommate - i'd let swaps be handled by the roommate right away... the more people are around, the more socialized the birdie becomes. and i'd start rather sooner than later - if your roommate is willing to take the risk of getting bitten

[dawnkyung]

Oh, i love him no matter what! Just curious if my breeder lied to me about where Swaps came from-and if it was really possible that a closed band had been "bitten off" like she had said. I've just read everywhere that an open band means a wild bird!

It doesn't matter though, even if she had told me he was born from a chicken in the rainforest i would have taken him. It was love at first sight!

Once again, thanks for all the advice. I'm going to talk to the roomate tonight about handling Swapers.

[Monica]

Closed bands are put on birds when they are 3-6 weeks of age, I believe... Open bands are put on after that period since the bone in the feet wouldn't be as flexible....

If Swaps WAS wild caught, then he'd be at least 16 years old, if not older... so I think that's a pretty good guarantee that Swaps is young! On top of that, the band should have some info on it, such as year of birth, state, and breeder initials, maybe even bird id and the initials or logo of an organization.

[Valo's Moirana]

thanks, monica - i was waiting for you you are a bottomless source of knowledge for those things.
thanks... i found that interesting too

[Monica]

Well, I'm only glad to help out any time I can! If I don't know the answer, I either let someone else answer or I try to find the info needed!

[dawnkyung]

Monica, you are like a endless pool of knowledge, seriously!

To bump this topic and add to it...


Swaps's band number is TCP Fl 046. TCP i am assuming stands for "Tresure Corner Parrots" which is the breeders name...FL should be "Florida"...the only thing i am curious about is the 046. Doesn't seem indicative of anything to me. Anyone else think it means anything?

Oh, and the open band..i mean, its safe right? It won't get caught on anything?

[Doyle'sMommy]

Maybe it means the 46th bird?

[dawnkyung]

Hmm, i didn't think about that, but it sounds like a possibility...

What about the fact that its an open band? Should i ask my vet to take it off sometime, do you think? I mean, is it safe?