being a wildlife carer

[angelicvampyre]

chickie the galahs what are you doing with the two left? I know a lady that wants one after her fathers passed away from old age on her however she does not want to support backyard breeders so we are trying to source a rescue for her. Just wondering might not be an option but then again might try the wildlife carers over here and see if any have a spare galah looking for a new home....

[chickie]

Angelicvampyre, we have a beautiful new home for them with someone on a 4 acre block, well away from any neighbours. They won't be inside birds but will be very well cared for and that's all we can expect. We volunteer at a wildlife centre and last week there were 4 galahs, 3 which were tame and obviously lost pets. The centre tries for 6 weeks to find the owners and if no joy they will look to adopt them out. We are in Perth WA so if you think we can help your friend let me know. If you're not in WA maybe a rescue centre close to you may be the go.

[davewa]

Can I ask a dumb question, what exactly is PBFD, and Megzy is this place a big blue building in a semi industrial area, I was there yesterday and worried for some of the birds there!

[megzly]

Dave yep youve got the right place, the big blue building in the industrial area. Unfortunately they are a big provider of sick birds with pbfd.

PBFD is a viral infection that affects many psittacine species all over the world. It can somewhat be likened to the human AIDS virus as it generally results in a slow prolonged deterioration of tha parrots health and more often that not it does result in death - not from the disease itself but from secondary infection as the immune system is weakend.

The feather condition is affected and feather loss occurs. Often the feathers are malformed, look ratty and a sheath remains around them when they drop out - sometimes the feathers curl and show discolouration. The beak also grows faster and is more brittle and sometimes if allowed to overgrow too much it will split or break, it has the appearance of being shiny and not normal and flaky like a healthy birds beak.

In perth it seems our lorikeets are the main ones that are affected in the wild. Although i have seen a corella in the early stages. The shop mentioned above is renowned for selling birds with PBFD quite often and even displaying them in the shop right next to other birds where it can easily be spead. There are a few vets that are making sure owners get their money back after they have bought a bird with obvious signs of PBFD from this shop as they tell people they do not sell birds with the disease.

Its a horrible disease and unfortunatley it has no vaccine that has been proven effective and there is no cure. Some birds have the ability to shed the disease but will remain carriers and spread it and some birs live with the disease for a good number of years if special care is provided.

There are a couple of members on here who have had first hand experience with the disease and should be able to offer more info

[davewa]

Thats terrible, I wish there was something that could be done to help those poors birds that are still there, is it out of the RSPCA's ability to act on such mistreatment?

[megzly]

I dont think they are able to do anything about it Dave, Im sure they would have had a fair few complaints as i know ive complained about the shop when ive been there early on opening time and there has been numerous dead birds in the aviaries. Last time i went there i was served by a lady with a dead turq in a plastic bag.

Obviously the place conforms to the RSPCA standards which in some cases i dont think are very high. The birds are fed and watered and have shelter from the elements and are safe from predators and im pretty sure thats all they need to do according to the RSPCA. Its very sad to see the birds treated that way and when people buy birds from there they end up treating their new birds in a very similar way because they think it is ok for them to do that.

It seems they are slowly going out of business. They cant seem to sell birds (some have been there for 5+ years now) and they have next to no staff. Last time i went for a look it seemed the place was really operating on the profits of boarding birds and not actual sales of birds. When a pet store is selling corellas for $25 and budgies for $30 each its pretty obvious they cant seem to move some birds.

As horrible as it sounds id love to see them go out of business and someone new take over the shop and build the reputation back up. They actually used to be a fairly good store.

[kebz]

We purchased our ekkie from the place megzly mentions and i think he is one of the lucky ones to not have PBFD... We didnt know at the time what horrible reputation these people had and were obviously too distracted with our beautiful ekkie to notice what horrible state the other birds were being kept in.

We actually went to this place yesterday, and you can definately tell they have less birds for sale and they dont seem to be doing so well.

People who board their birds there left notes for their bird to be fed on pellets and fresh fruit, and in this poor sun conures cage he only had seed and old gross slimey water. Almost all the cages had feral water and only seed for them to munch on.

There was a sun conure who had his foot stuck between the cage and the door and we tried to help him but didnt want to open the cage or anything and i got a guy to help and he didnt seem to care the bird was stuck or check it was ok but released his food from the door.


There were several birds who looked like they were plucked, but could possibly be beak and feather...

I really hope these people get shut down, i dont know how they are still around with their poor conditions.

[davewa]

Well I'm glad your ekkie is ok, shame obout the others. Unfortunately I owe too much on my business as it is otherwise I would sell it and buy them out and run it properly. The other one on Nicholson road closed down a couple of years ago but that was because his wife passed away and he did not want to run it as it remided him of her! His birds were in good nick but the rest of the place was a bit run down but I never saw a sick bird there, he was pricey at the time but if they were healthy like Megzy's its worth it.
Perhaps the days of large bird shops has passed and it is better left to the smaller ones cos they can devote more time to the stock they have?