cost of a parrot

Is acceptable for a breeder to use high prices on birds they breed to deter owners they think cannot "afford care" for the parrot?

At this point I have heard quite a few breeders say that if you can't pay for the bird you won't be able to pay for caring for the bird. Some have even stated that they will purposely set costs high on a bird so that the bird is valued.

This statement really frustrates me. I know a lot of people who have birds who are dirt poor... Most if not all are more well kept then the human family. In that same bubble I also know a Lot of rich kids and even rich adults who could and do buy these birds as a trophy. More like look what I have, a lot of those birds end up in the care of my Poor friends when they stop being cute, are loud or start self mutilating due to lack of attention or care. What makes it hard is if any of these poor or even middle class bird owners want a bird from a breeder with no known issues, healthy, and a baby or young they can't... Because they cannot afford to buy one. How is this helping the parrots, the owners or the breeders? If income is what decides a birds fate and a owners options in animals we might and do end up with amazing birds going to unfit homes and troubled unwanted birds going to great people. How is it fair to that beautiful baby bird you are raising to judge a prospective owner by the income they make instead of the devotion they give? Hard to find this acceptable in my eyes.

Here's a pretty good thread on how much folks pay to care for their parrots: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/39338-parrot-cost.html

I must admit, I've never heard of breeders upping their prices in hopes of only attracting buyers who are... 'well off'??? :11:

As far as I know parrot prices do vary to extending degrees throughout the US. If I use a Green Wing Macaw as an example, I've seen them offered (legitimately) for as little as $1,400 upwards to $2,100. There are (still) breeders who sell their chicks for less if they are on X-amount of hand feedings/day, vs those who ask heftier prices but their chicks have been abundant weaned. Mind you, many of the folks who are selling their super young chicks don't ensure that their babies go to experienced hand feeders. It's a shame, really.

I would like to add that the price charged 'rarely' covers the full cost of raising that chick. The majority of Breeders are operated more as a hobby than a business - for the love of their parrots. There are real costs that any Breeder is faced with, the lower the price the more the Breeder maybe cutting corners or is choosing to off-set out of their own pockets. Good Breeders have a 'Right' to assure that their beloved Babies go to 'loving homes.' To a future owner that will put the time, effort, and yes money into the 'long term' loving care of the Baby they raised.

Regarding the Rich and the Poor. I know as many so called 'rich' who care and love their parrots as those who are so called 'poor.' The real truth is that it is expensive to own a parrot! Most people simply adjust their life styles to afford caring for the parrot(s) they love. The less money they have, the more sacrifices they have to make.

Life is not fair! It never will be! Nothing is without cost and effort. Regardless of our parents best hopes and efforts; each person makes their own choices and they are either based on what is 'Right' or what is 'Easy.'

If you truly want to earn the 'right' to own a parrot. Then you need to start making choices that are based on hard work at 150% or more effort each minute, of each day, of each week, of each month, of each year. Soon, you will find that making choices based on what is 'right' can bring you to the ability of being a parrot owner.

To 'win' a parrot's love requires much the same effort.

It's the same old song and dance, supply and demand are what sets the price of parrots. You can set the price as high as you want but if it's too much higher than the next guy, they won't sell.

I am not well off but I would lose my cell phone or go hungry be for I ever let pumpkin go without. Its not about how much money you have it is about priorities. I do think that people should really consider their financial situation vs the cost of high quality food and a decent cage and vet bills. But I don't agree that increasing the cost of babies is going to help ensure a bird gets a happy and loving home.

I agree to an extent. I do think that with bringing ANY sentient being into your care (be it a bird, a dog, a fish ext..) you should have a certain level of stability, including financial. After all, if a living being who had 0 choice in coming home with you is reliant 100% on YOU for their care, it is your responsibility to be able to provide it. The *hope* is that you can realize by yourself that if you can't provide for the human members of the family you have no business bringing home a pet. I do see breeders trying to screen for that, however, where is the line drawn for financial ability? Perhaps someone is low income but completely willing to go without other things to have a bird, and no breeder can know that.

Unfortunately, because many people (rich and poor) view animals as property (rather than sentient beings with emotions and needs), if came down to the cell phone or the bird, the phone would win every time because they don't care about neglecting the bird since its little more than a feathered decoration. On the same token, there are people who have all the money in the world and would STILL neglect their bird because they were too "busy" doing other rich people things they felt to be more important than their bird or only bought the bird to match their new decorating scheme and don't care one iota about it (and that sadly does happen way more often than one would think). I do get where breeders are coming from at least trying to keep a bird out of a situation where proper care isn't financially feasible since it's one of the only things they can do, but I don't necessarily think it's really making a dent in bird neglect/abuse after the sale because the big issue with parrots isn't coming from low income owners (the vast majority of which, myself included, are VERY dedicated to their birds). The problem comes from the general attitude that animals are some kind of inanimate plaything for humans to do with as they please with 0 regard for the animals well being and it's far more difficult to pick out those people because that attitude is present in a lot of people from all socioeconomic situations.

All other things equal, people are rationally irrational in their economic behavior. They tend to value less expensive things less than more expensive things. A thing will be valued more if you paid more dearly for it, that's true for the majority of people on this planet, and that's ultimately what matters, not exceptionalism of a minority of consumers who don't relate price to value.

So, fairness of pricing aside, I'd rather birds continue to be "expensive" pets. I had to save up to buy our first bird. My GF had to sacrifice something of value to afford the 2nd. Birds are not goldfish (not that you shouldn't take care of goldfish!). Are there poorer folk that are "locked" out of ownership by the price? Yes, of course. But it doesn't mean that they can't save up to purchase, like we did. And the birds we bought aren't even on the expensive end of things ("just" conures, not, say, cockatoos or macaws). I would say the opposite of Ann333: "I don't agree that decreasing the cost of babies is going to help ensure a bird gets a happy and loving home".

Just like with human children, yes, ideally, you SHOULD be able to PROVIDE a decent level of care, including housing, food, education, health care, etc. Does it happen that parents raise children without being able to provide those things consistently, and the children end up OK? Sure, but it's not the ideal, and owning a parrot is a CHOICE, one you should enter into with as much preparation as possible. The price is signifying/weaning mechanism to sort out people for whom birds are an interesting, temporary novelty, from those who understand that it's an investment. Not enough people understand this. If the price dropped, you'd end up with a LOT more rehomed, unhappy parrots. GUARANTEED. Look at the common trope of the unwanted goldfish won at a state fair. There's a reason that it's well-worn: it has a basis in reality. Just like with adopting human children, parents should ideally self-screen to determine whether they can adequately take care of another sentient being. If they can't do that (out of blindness or arrogance), then a responsible breeder or petshop keeper could ideally suss that out, and through education dissuade them of their choice, or enlighten them towards being better pet-parents.

One wrinkle - a price that is too high can encourage unfortunate results, such as a illegal importing, deforestation, poaching, etc. Smart entrepreneurs are trying to figure out, say, how to "farm raise" rhinos so that an artificial supply might reduce demand for wild specimens' horns. The analogy is rough, but fits - responsible breeders legally raising chicks stateside are doing the much same thing, and ensuring a healthy supply to meet a legitimate demand. They deserve to be compensated for their effort and cost, like anyone else who does a job, and does it well.

The alternative is worse - a price that is too low ends up commodifying what should be a sizable asset into an incidental expense. That is not a good outcome. The home-countries of a lot of tropical birds are full of examples of poor ownership...why? Because "the forest is full of them". Too much supply, too low a cost of obtaining, and the animals suffer. People are rationally irrational. If they paid more for something (and aren't billionaire psychopaths), they're going to take better care of it, on the whole, regardless of their income.

For me, the biggest surprise wasn't the money at all. Granted, Loki and I found each other thru a rescue instead of a breeder, meaning the initial cost was much less.

For me, it was the time involved that I was surprised by. I was told that a good rule is an hour a day with your bird. I thought, no biggie....but in reality its much more a commitment than that.

First off, an hour a day is a minimum....and this needs to be good quality time. Not 1 hour in the same room, or 1 hour with him out of his cage while you do something else....I give him at least 1 hour totally devoted to him....quality time.

Then you have to add the time spent preparing food. I like to give fresh vegetables every day. I also like to have birdie bread treats, fresh nuts, etc. This takes a lot of time to prepare.

Then you have to add the time spent cleaning. I've really improved this by making Loki's layout very cleaning friendly. I use construction paper under his cage and have modified a playstand that I had so that most of his droppings (food, shredded toys, poop, etc) land in this tray for easy cleaning. Even with this, it takes a lot of time that has to be added to the above items.

So, when someone asks me how much does parrot ownership cost, my first question is how much do you value your time?

I don't want this to come across like I'm unhappy doing any of this, I'm head over heels for Loki and enjoy every minute I can give to him. Rather if I can prepare a potential first time parrot owner like myself then I'm happy.....and if you are reading this and realizing that you can't give this much time that you may want to reconsider getting a parrot.

A bird doesn't have to be from a breeder to be well adjusted etc. I've seen many second hand birds that have great temperaments. I've got 2 myself. Then there's a 3rd who actually is a rescue and he's actually turning into a great bird and pet.

The problem is with pets it's not just the costs you know about, but the costs you don't know about. A perfect example is Zoe. When we got her we also bought a brand new cage. Well, a year later that cage was in pieces. Those are things you don't think about and generally don't budget for. If you're truly poor what are you going to do when a medical emergency comes up or like in my case, you need a new cage asap?

Hidden cost of parrot ownership = Your sanity!

In my case, sanity was questionable at best to begin with... so I honestly didn't miss it much.

I would put myself in the poor category ATM. Working 3 jobs and trying to get comfortable again... But if worst came to worst I would always have the means for my animals.
Now if all of them got sick at once?!?!? Yikes...

My Chiqui was off craigslist and I am her 3rd and final home. She came from bird paradise in nj, was adopted and returned, then adopted by the family I purchased her from. I did not get her cage with her as I purchased a much larger (downright obscene and basically ill used as she doesn't use the bottom half). But she is very well adjusted, super nice, and a lovely pet. My GCC came from a broker/small bird store locally and was hand fed. He's bitey and a pain sometimes. Lol.
My lovebird came from a private breeder and he's not even a little tame.
But they're all worth millions. IMO.

Thank you all for your opinion, that's why I started this thread.

Breeding is expensive. Even animals like cats and dogs that breed easily and have large litters are expensive to care for properly. Granted I'm nowhere close to a bird expert, but I'd expect the expense of caring for birds who produce small clutches once a year (at best) can get pretty high.

When I was looking for a bird I kept seeing ads from a particular breeder in Los Angeles that was selling B&G macaws for $450. Average cost for that type of bird around here seems to be about $1800-$2400. My first thought was "what scam are they running?" followed quickly by "how badly are those birds being treated"?

Birds are expensive to raise. I can easily see the actual cost of a single bird being in the $1000 range by the time all the expenses are taken into account.

I can imagine he cost to raise a baby bird is large.
You probably never truly recoup it.


I know the cost to raise my horses... Yikes. I know it's so much better to buy yearling horses at a sale... I've bought them there for $1000-4000. Let's just say I REFUSE to calculate how much I have in my turning two year old babies.

I recently had a breeder ask me about breeding my female Ekkie. He pushed the idea of extra income in my pocket but he stopped at my angry expression (I need to Botox my face, it responds first). Me? I would worry and frustrate buyers worried about the birds future and care. Once I said that he hushed.

If I bred (don't think I ever will), I'd be a horrible seller, high priced and opinionated, lol.

In simple terms I just hate animals, birds etc being bought and sold.

My Mom actually raised a very valid point - despite my personal love and care for our birds, I basically encouraged the breed-buy petshop cycle by getting the ones I have.

It's a conundrum.

They existed before I bought them, I didn't literally bring them into existence by buying them, but the transactions I created sent positive feedback through the store through the buying chain back to their breeders to "make more".

I was a bit conflicted about it, but have recognized and acknowledged my inherent selfishness and am now fine with it. Would I want everyone who wanted a bird to then go out and buy a bird? I decided, yes, as long as they bought them from responsible breeders in healthy conditions and could give them a good life, then, yes, especially because in part doing so prevents wild birds from being captured for import.

PlumsMum2005, your Deval quote is provides much food for thought. . ."non facias malum ut inde fiat bonum".

Birdman666 said:

Hidden cost of parrot ownership = Your sanity!

In my case, sanity was questionable at best to begin with... so I honestly didn't miss it much.

Click to expand...

My husband would agree with you about sanity LOL Birds are fun, but they are a HUGE commitment, much different than a dog or a cat. Its a different lifestyle and unless you own birds its hard to understand.

I really do understand the cost of raising birds because I raise cockatiels... And even though they are small they take a LOT of my time and a lot of money, to care for the parents, and Handfeeding formula... And if you count electric and water cost going up for the heaters and uv light and such... Geez I don't even want to think about it. But I don't do it for the money... I have and will charge a lot less then I ask if the prospective owner is what I consider "ideal" meaning if I like and trust a person I will take my 150$ Bird down to 20.. But that is just me I guess lmao... And I don't really make anything anyway lol